(This post stems from a conversation with my friend and colleague, Jason Jeong.)
In 2009, the stat surfaced that 143,000,000 orphans existed in our world.
At first, I was appalled. I was moved. After awhile, I became numb. Why? That number is so overwhelming and incomprehensible. I don’t know what to do. Oh, where to begin?
Think with me:
- Our national debt is over $12 trillion
- The 2010 national budget is over $3 trillion
- A human lives an average of 39 million minutes
- There have been about 46 million abortions since 1973
- Research says a baby is born every 3 seconds
I cannot even begin to understand what the above numbers mean. Numbers like these often desensitize us from reality. If our minds and hearts cannot get around a number, we typically remain disengaged and uncommitted.
Enough.
Attach yourself to this…
Every orphan has a name
Every orphan has a face
Every orphan has a story
I am committed to humanizing the orphan. They are not just a large number that seems impossible to understand.
I want you to read the name
I want you to see the face
I want you to hear the story
Get it? Got it? Good! The movement begins. Join the tribe.
Stop the orphan epidemic!
Related posts:
i think about 6 months ago. i know you are excited about receiving that referral. the reality of the journey increases when a picture and information is given to you.
We should be set to get a referral in about a month or so. We plan to travel in June but all this stuff with Ugandan adoptions is most likely going to back us up a bit.
How long ago did your friend adopt from there?
where are you guys at in the process? i have a friend that adopted 2 from uganda. thanks for sharing the post from your agency. may we tell their story!
You are dead on with this.
My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Uganda right now. Our agency (which is incredible) posted this the other day about a sweet little guy in Ghana.
http://lifelineadoption.blogspot.com/2010/02/note-from-director-when-statistics.html