{#36} Children are children no matter how small international

If you venture down the path of international adoption, someone will inevitably ask “Why go overseas when there are so many needy children here?”

Here are some common answers (we’ve only ever used the first one):

1. God called us to fill in the blank with the country from where you are adopting.
2. It’s a personal decision.
3. We are afraid of the birthmother trying to track us down if we adopt domestically.
4. We can adopt a younger child if we go overseas.

If you really think about it, the question is pretty ridiculous.  It assumes that the the children living in the United States are of higher value than the ones living beyond our borders.  Sure, there are plenty of children waiting for families in our foster system.  About 120,000.  I absolutely advocate for those kids.  In fact, if 1 out of every 3 churches in the U.S. would support a family to provide for one child, that problem would be solved.  However, it is not okay to forget about the tens of millions of other children who need the support of a family until all U.S. kids are adopted.  They certainly do not need to (nor should not) be adopted into U.S. families, but enumerating ways to serve international orphans is an entirely different post.

Bottom lines: A child is a child no matter where he resides and be obedient to do what God calls in orphan care and otherwise.

I wonder if the people who ask that question buy things made in China when they could buy the same thing made domestically.