Adoption Facts

This past week has been very exciting for a couple friends of mine. One received her travel approval and will pick up her new daughter in China in 3 weeks. Another friend just made the wonderful decision toward an adoption. As for us..we still are waiting on the Lord's perfect timing.

Yesterday I ran across a pamphlet from Shaohannah's Hope...an adoption assistance fund set up by Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman. From this pamphlet came these facts:

1. More than 1/3 of Americans have considered adoption, but only 2% actually adopt.

2. There are over 143 million orphans and fatherless children in the world today who have lost one or both parents.

3. Over 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

4. Children are too often abandoned due to poverty, population control policies, disabilities and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls.

5. Orphans are more vulnerable and at risk of becoming victims of violence, exploitation, trafficking and other abuses.

And here's the one that stunned me:

6. If only 7% of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in their distress, there would effectively be no more orphans.

Finally, a statistic from UNAIDS/WHO, July 2008:

7. Only 31% of those in developing countries that live with HIV/AIDS receive the medicine they need to live.

1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?