Why are you adopting?
Short version: The Bible says to care for orphans + we want a bigger family = adoption! Long version: The Bible says to care for orphans, widows, and the poor, but it doesn't say HOW. Everyone who believes in God is called to care for these people. NOT everyone is called to personally bring an orphan into their home permanently. I would love it if our adoption journey spurred you to pray about how YOU can care for these children need help so desperately. Maybe you want (or God wants you) to foster children who need homes in the US. Maybe you want to pick a foster or adoptive family and support them with meals, babysitting, or encouragement. Maybe you want to PRAY fervently for us, or another family on this journey. PLEASE hear me say that prayer is the most impactful way you can help us! Money and babysitting are great, don't get me wrong, but our God is so much bigger than those things, so we need Him to be the center of this process! Maybe you want to become a social worker, or support social workers, or support parents who are working toward reunification with their children in the foster care system. Why international and not foster care? Short answer: There are children every where, in every town, in every country that need homes. Different people are called to different paths. Long answer: While we have done our best to support our various friends who have been foster parents, we feel God tugging our heart towards international adoption. Robert lived in Asia from age 1-18, so he feels much more Asian on the "inside" than he looks on the outside! He has personal experience being a different race than almost everyone around him for his entire childhood. (But not his family. We are not pretending his experience is the same as an adopted child, but at least a distant cousin.) I will let him share more later on his experience as a Third Culture Kid. What country? Short answer: Taiwan! Long answer: We actually researched many countries in SE Asia that had a big influence on Robert's childhood culture. We are not eligible to adopt from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand for various reasons. (Location, religion, current family makeup) We ARE eligible to adopt from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the Philippines. China has a big influence on Malaysian culture (where Robert lived from 1998-2005) and Robert took 2 years of Mandarin in high school! So, we chose to apply with the China Program at Holt (our international agency). Within that program, we had to choose between China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The program director encouraged us that our desire to adopt 2 siblings would meet a huge need in Taiwan. Taiwanese culture is very Chinese, Japanese, and SE Asian, so Robert instantly fell in love! We are very excited to focus on Taiwan and hopefully bring home TWO siblings to add to our family! Boy or Girl? Short answer: Either one! Both! Long answer: Since we are applying to adopt 2 siblings from Taiwan (surprise!) we are open to either gender! The wait for a child is much longer if you go into adoption wanting 1 healthy girl. We are open to 1-2 children of either gender! How much does it cost? Short answer: $40,000 ...ish Long answer: WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE!?!?! Not gonna lie, this is the hard part right at the beginning. This is one of the biggest reasons why people don't adopt internationally! That's about what it costs to have a baby at the hospital and stay for 2 nights before insurance kicks in. But why should it cost money to give a child a home??? This is hard for us too. Part of the reason is because in the past (and still today in some countries) people would kidnap children by lying to impoverished parents and saying they were taking their child to give them medical care, education, food, everything. These parents would gratefully, albeit hesitantly, let their child be taken away in hopes that their needs would be met. They never saw their children again. At worst, these despicable swindlers knowingly put these children up for adoption to get money from foreigners looking to care for orphans. At BEST, children slipped through the cracks, or were found lost in a public place, and due diligence was never done to find if the child had parents waiting for him or her. While there are a lot of other steps that cost money in the adoption process, this is the big "WHY" that makes it worth it for me. I'm willing to pay for a LOT of governmental red tape in the USA and in Taiwan if it cuts down on child trafficking. Can I help? Short answer: HECK YES! Long answer: We are going to need a lot of help!!
Whew. I'm tired of writing. Are you tired of reading?? If you read all of this I'm VERY impressed. It's really ok if you skimmed the bold answers! Thank you thank you thank you for coming along this journey with us! Rebecca
0 Comments
|
AuthorAll posts are written by Robert or Rebecca. Maybe you can guess who's who based on the number of emojis and exclamation points!!! CategoriesArchives
February 2023
|