Adoption Talk, What Does it Matter?

Eli is 16 months old and I realized that I haven't really written about his adoption in a while.  After the whirlwind of raising money, getting matched with a birth mom and surviving the 48 hours after birth (that is the waiting time in Texas until birth mothers can officially sign papers) I kinda just wanted to talk about something else.

But 16 months have come and gone and I now find myself yearning once again to put fingers to keyboard and tap out words on adoption.  Words that become paragraphs that become stories.  Adoption Stories.

There has been so much talk lately about adoption.  There have been calls to the Christian Community to adopt more and statistics that show that if just  8% of the Christ Following Families in the world would just choose to care for ONE more child there would be no orphans.

Then there is the camp of voices that cry out for justice and shed light on the fraudulent actives that unfortunately come with the territory of adoption.  And don't get me wrong, we need the truth to be outed.  But sometimes the information over load leaves one feeling hopelessly lost with no where to turn.

There are mothers giving up their children in 3rd world countries not because they do not want their children but because they can't feed them.  They bring them to Orphanages knowing that their children will receive daily meals and a place to lay their head.

This can't possibly be the way to solve the orphan crisis.  A child taken from one family due to poverty and given to another family with "means" to then be counted as a blessing from God?

Then there is a whole new breed of adoption talkers bloggers.  And at the risk of offending many I have to admit that all the talk over the "politically correct" words to use concerning domestic adoption more often than not makes me want to shove a spoon in my eyeball.  The talking blogging world is  inundated with self-appointed experts and the adoption blogging community is no different. (heck, I am part of that community and I am guilty of thinking I know best) But I just wonder sometimes if all this talking really has a point.

Sometimes I want to scream write "You make it too complicated!"  and I want to tell all these adoptive parents that despite their best efforts to control every situation (ie. picking apart every aspect and facet of adoption) that life is life and we live in a fallen world.  Despite your best efforts, your adopted child may still feel abandoned and angry.  Or she may feel loved and secure and it may or may not have anything to do with you.  So just relax a bit.

And all this analyzing and talking over how to say it or how to describe adoption, does it matter?

In the end, I realize that no one of us is wrong and no one of us is right.  We all need each other and we all need to share our "expertise" or voice on the subject.  In the end, what matters most is whether or not you and I participate in this world wide conversation about adoption.

Being an adopted child and an adoptive mother and a Christ follower (with a call to love Orphans) doesn't make me an expert but it does mean that I am in the trenches of this thing whether I like it or not!

And now that I am done rambling I realize I may have just partook in my own bit of over analyzing.  Just a few thoughts that have been mulling in my heart lately and writing them down seems to help clear the cob webs. I started this post as an update on Eli's adoption, clearly that will have to wait.

What's your take on adoption and orphan care?  Do you lean towards one camp or another?  How has God called you to live out HIS passion for adoption?