Call to Adopt

This is a great piece on CNN from Steven Curtis Chapman, the Christian musician whose youngest daughter from China died a few months ago, about the call to adopt orphans. It's great and truly from his heart. In response to this, a friend of mine posts:

Diana and I were actively discussing adoption before our recent pregnancy and we still intend to adopt in the near future. But as we’ve explored the options, a glaring impediment to adoption has become very real: prohibitive costs created by bureaucratic inefficiencies, non-profiteers and (especially overseas) political corruption. Just last week in Denver, a newly adoptive father told me it cost him and his wife nearly $15,000 to complete the adoption process for a US-born child. As the process dragged on, the more it felt like he was “buying” a son. I’ve heard horror stories of international adoptions that require bribes from beginning to end, to secure a child that would otherwise be relegated to a garbage dump, labor camp, the streets, an understaffed institution, or worse.

Read more here.

I've never actually thought of adoption as a response to a social injustice, but I can see that more clearly now. I've had several friends who have adopted - each of them has been blessed in so many ways. While the process can be grueling and expensive, I think the benefits are priceless. I think it's an honorable response to heartbreaking hopelessness so many orphaned children face daily.