International Adoption

So with all my focus on domestic adoption I thought today I should focus on international adoption.  This is a great need as well.  In third world countries when children are orphaned there is often no one local who can adopt them.  The numbers of orphans around the world are staggering.  In Asia and Africa children are orphaned every day due to AIDS and poverty.  And then there are always the eastern European countries with children who are left in their cribs all day at the orphanage because there isn't enough staff to care for all of them.

The orphan care can seem so overwhelming so insurmountable.  My encouragement is this, you help one at a time and you recruit others to help as well.  We shouldn't be doing this alone.  1/3 of Americans have considered adoption but no more then 2% have actually followed through.  What if just 10% of us followed through and adopted. Can you imagine? I don't think it would be a crisis anymore!

"We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once YOU DO everything changes." David Platt

For information on international adoption here is a link to a couple organizations that can help.

www.lifesongfororphans.org

http://www.bethany.org/

ANd here is a link to someones story of an airport party that made me cry
http://beskfamily.blogspot.com/2012/11/airport-parties.html

what if?

   So yesterday I was meeting with the head of recruitment from our county (Santa Cruz).  We share our very fun and unique name Anastasia.  I really love spending time with her and coming up with ways to get more families to love on these awesome children.  While we were chatting I had a vision for these teens in foster care and i thought I would share it with you.

   We were talking about how intimidating it is to think about taking in a teenager.  We both agreed that when we started this process we were intimidated but once you get to know them they aren't all that bad.  In fact some of them are really fun to hang out with.  So onto my dream.  What if we had so many homes willing to take in teens that we could literally match them according to their interests.  Like if you were to take our house for example, they may place a young man that loved to surf.  Or a young lady that loves to dance.  For children who have been through so much and have such a hard time trusting it would mean the world to walk into a home where you could relate on some level to your foster parent(s).

   Instead of teens being hard to place my dream is that we  would have so many homes we could do some awesome matchmaking :)

I don't know what to do?

    I have been writing a lot about becoming a foster and adoptive parent and i know you can't just do that in a day.  So today I am focusing on how you can help these sweet children today!

    So the best idea i have heard yet is Journey bags. Take a minute to picture this, a child is removed from their home and often times have nothing.  There have been stories of children showing up in a diaper with a bottle at their foster home.  I can't even imagine how scared and alone these children must feel.  Can you imagine if when they were picked up by the social worker she had a brand new backpack full of new clothes, maybe a couple of books, a cuddly stuffed animal, and some healthy snacks? What a difference that backpack could make!

     My friend Erin did this at her church.  Everyone signed up to get a backpack and fill it for children who could use it on their journey.  They filled up backpacks for children of ages.

You can't tell from this picture but there is a mountain of back packs!  What if today you considered getting a group of people together to create journey bags to show these children they aren't just a case file they are a loved child and they matter.  No special training required for this!  My challenge in creating these bags is remember to fill them with things you would give your children.  New clothes show these children they matter just as much as any child.  :)

I asked today what one of the greatest needs was and it is underwear for children ages 0-18.  In other words everyone needs some new undies.  

If you would like to organize a journey bag drive please send me an e-mail at familystone0507@gmail.com.  I will give you some check lists and instructions for creating the awesome bags to love these awesome children!

Heart Change

        My "it will hurt" post received a lot of hits and feed back, so today I thought I would expand on that.  You see I have to tell you where our hearts began when we started this process.  
         So in the beginning we said we would love to give a home to a child that lives in our city/state.  We felt called to love a child from the US that needed a home.  We thought we will take a "safe" child.  So we searched out options with the county and with Hand in Hand, a local foundation.  We met with Hand in Hand and then we went to the county orientation night.  We went back and forth for awhile and decided to start the classes with the county even though we still felt a bit undecided.  As classes began, the LORD began to move on our hearts.  What surprised us was how much our hearts broke for the parents of these children in the system.  The parents were in dire need of help and love too.  We also started to come to the place of realizing that the children that had grown inside of me did not belong to us.  
         We experienced a few things that showed us in a real way that we were not in control of how long our children would be with us.  One was what happen to Dustin's college pastor.   The pastor's daughter was diagnosed twice with a rare form of cancer.  This is when we made the big change.  We decided to tell the county we would take any child whether they would stay for a week, a month, or forever.  This was a big deal for us and lots of people looked at us like we were crazy.  I mean it wasn't just our hearts but the girls as well.  We knew that the LORD was the one who led us here with words of truth, so we pushed forward. Just before we finished paperwork and said we were ready to take placement I attended a friends birth.  Her little girl was born into the LORDs arms and I learned once again that this would not be done by my strength but by the LORDS.  I realized that not one of my child's days was promised to me.  What was promised was the strength to love them and the blessing that loving them would bring.  Three months later we got our first call and this crazy journey began.  We learned that we would love children before we even met them.  We learned that we would love them more than we ever thought possible.  And we learned that our children's love for them would not change when they were told these kids could go back to their parents and have to leave our family.

You can do this, but not because you have the strength to do it but because the LORD will be your strength.

Music is often a way the LORD speaks to me and I think this song speaks volumes about life, but also specifically the bumpy road of foster care and adoption.  

"one day you will set all things right. When my world is shaking, heaven stands.  When my heart is breaking, I never leave your hands."

Day 3: Foster Youth, the crisis

The Crisis

   The worst crisis in the foster care system is what happens to the teenagers when they are on their own. Today I want to focus on  a ministry that is very close to my heart, ReGenesis Rising.  ReGenesis Rising is an organization that meets these youth as they "age out" of the foster-care system.  They give these youth a home, a mentor and so much more.

   I could sing their praises all day long but the truth is they are just being obedient to the LORD.  I know many involved personally and can attest to their upstanding character and their desire to seek the LORD in all they do.  

  A few months back I posted some staggering statistics about children who age out of the foster-care system.  Here they are again so you can see how devastating this crisis is.

• On any given day more than 500,000 youth are in some form of foster care across the United States. Nearly 80,000 live in California.
• Nationally, each year an estimated 20,000 of these youth emancipate or “age out” of the foster care system, and are discharged into the world, whether or not they are prepared to transition to adulthood. 65% of them do so without a place to live and many don’t have the skills necessary to live on their own.
• Over 70% of all state penitentiary inmates have spent time in the foster care system.
• Over 40% of foster youth are moved 3 or more times and 11% are moved 5 times or more. It takes approximately 4-6 months for a child to recover academically after changing schools.
• Former foster youth experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at a rate two times the level of U.S. war vets.
• 51% of the youth are unemployed within 2-4 years of emancipation.
• 67% of females who emancipated form the child welfare system had at least one baby within 5 years of leaving care.
• Without housing, youth are less likely to complete their education, find employment, and gain access to health care, all of which jeopardize their ability to make a successful transition to adulthood.

Today I am asking that you pray about how you can be involved in the solution.  Could you take in a foster youth so that they don't age out of the system?  Could you mentor a teen?  Could you help to start a ReGenesis where you live?

So that you aren't left without hope watch this video about hope rising at ReGenesis in Orange County.

http://vimeo.com/41011641

To learn more about this organization you can visit their website http://regenesisrising.org/

It will hurt

   Many times people say " I can't do fost/adopt because, what if the child leaves?  It will break my heart and it will be so hard."  Well you're right it will hurt.  But I am here to tell you that's a good thing and you are the kind of parent who should be a foster parent.  It will hurt because you will love them with your whole heart which is exactly what they need.
   When we thought our little one might leave I fell apart; I was full of tears.  And no one had said he was leaving for sure, there was just a chance.  As a Christian I know those are the times I have to remember that none of my children are "mine".  They are the LORDS.  Would I wish I had not had one of my girls if I found out they were dying?  No I would wish I had loved them more.  I would be thankful for the time I had with them.  Would it hurt?  Of course it would but I would still be blessed by them.  Take a minute to shift  your thoughts from "my broken heart if they go," to "what this child needs is someone to love them with their whole heart."

If you think you would be heartbroken if/when a foster child left your home you are the perfect person for the job :)

National adoption month

November is national adoption month, so this month I am going to dedicate to blogging about adoption.  My goal is to blog once a day.  My hope is that your eyes and heart will be opened to the orphans of this county, state, country and world.

Today I would like to shed some light on some statistics.  There was a recent youtube video titled 8 adoption facts that will surprise you.  I will list the facts below and a link to the video.  When reading the questions ask yourself how can I make a difference.

8 Adoption Facts that will Surprise you:

• There are more orphans in sub-Saharan Africa than children in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Canada, and Sweden combined.
• For every child born in the US two are orphaned in Asia
• There are more orphans in the world than there are people in the UK and France combined.
• 250,000 children are adopted each year, 14 million age out of the system. That's 14 million children that didn't get adopted.
• There are more orphans in India than in the combined populations of the top 15 cities in the U.S.
• Approximately 30,00 children "age out" of the American foster care system each year
• More then 1/3 of Americans have considered adopting, but no more that 2% have actually adopted. Have you considered adoption?  Maybe it's time to make that 2% higher?
• If 1 family in every 3 US churches adopted a child, we would adopt every child in need of a family in the US!  I am guessing that more than 1 family in every 3 churches is being called to adopt since the LORD is very clear that orphans are close to his heart.

Please take the time to pray and ask the LORD how he is calling to to defend the fatherless.