4 pages...75 per page

If you're like me, and I know I am (hee hee - thanks for that quote David O.)  you spend evenings "browsing" orphan sites, videos, and photolistings.  I know, it could be an illness.  I tell my husband I am doing some online gambling just to put his mind at ease.  (hee hee again, I don't really lie to my hubby, but we do joke about it.) 

My "orphan obsession" doesn't come with a save-them-all mentality or a morbid curiosity.  I like to see the individual face of someone who is ready - ready to see the love of God in a forever family and to remember that that face, that little (or sometimes big) person is extra special to the Creator of everything!  That face that I can so quickly glance over means absolutely EVERYTHING to the God I worship!  When I think about that and think about the magnitude of my Heavenly Father, I have cause to pause.  Today, I searched on one of my favorite sites:  Adoption.com photolistings.  And I defined the search with the oldest child's age being 11.  I looked through 4 pages of 75 kids per page before I got out of the 11!!! year olds!!!  Do the math!  That is at least 300 kids who are 11 - not 12, not 10 or 9...  You get the idea...these are also kids in the US.  NOT the world.  To think that each child, Monique, La'shawn, Kaitlyn, and Timothy are on those pages and not to mention Juan and Anna.  Each one means everything to God and God means everything to me!

I am not advocating that we all go out and adopt an 11 year old from the foster care system.  Ha!  That would be a bit of a disaster.  But, I am advocating that we take a minute and look through the photolistings and every time we read a name, see a face, or have a pausing moment that stands out...we should stop and pray.  Pray for that child first!  Pray that they are experiencing the love of a family and the Heavenly Father where they are right now.  Then look again.  See them as a person who could be your neighbor's child, your friends child, or your relative.  How much more concern do we give to those we know.  (Not that it is great that it is true, but it is true none-the-less.)  As we look at that face or get caught by that special name, remember how much God cares for that child and allow our hearts to be softened.  Allow yourself to fall in love with that child and if you see that child's picture disappear, rejoice that they are with a family! 

Take time with me, please, just to remember that the statistics show the "issue" but each number is a person.  Remember what being a person means and how a statistic can't show that.  Each number is someone who is hungry for eggs today or can't find their shoe.  Each number is someone who is extra tired because they had more homework than time.  Each number is a little boy or girl who cries themselves to sleep because they are frustrated and confused by being moved yet again.  Each number is someone like...you?  Maybe, but definitely someone like Him!  We are ALL created in HIS image!