There are many countries and adoption programs that are closed to our family due to our income, age, family size and ethnicity. It is probably good that they are closed, as I have been accused of a tendency toward ‘adoption addiction’ -- and it just makes it easier to find the specific paths that God has laid out before our family when the options are not so wide.
As a general rule, we don’t allow a program's being ‘closed’ to signify the end of our care and concern for the orphans involved. It just doesn’t look the same as an adoption -- it’s like having a window that we can offer help through rather than a doorway to physically enter in. But what does that look like? For us it’s all about being open and intentional. We seek out and encourage families who are able to adopt in those countries, we support orphanages with donations, and we work on their behalf here in the United States. I have visited facilities out of the U.S. and helped with maintenance, child care and tangible gifts, and we are always watching for and praying over families who are prepared to adopt specific children that we never would be allowed to call our own. And most of all we TALK about the needs so that other families may be led to get involved also.
This month I get to add another way we are involved -- I have the amazing opportunity to travel with a friend and help bring home her soon-to-be daughter from Korea -- a country whose door has always been closed to us due to our financial resources. Even though that door has never been an option to me as an adoptive mom, the window is wide open to aunties, and I am reaching through!
Praise God for giving us windows as well as doors that we might reach out into the world and proclaim the good news of Adoption.
Thanks for the reminder Dorothy that we need to help and support others in any way we can! Have a wonderful trip!