November 27, 2008

November is National Adoption Month, and the “Cry of the Orphan” campaign is raising awareness about the 130 million orphans around the world by providing families with resources and tools that will help them to take the appropriate steps in their own journeys.

According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, more than one-third of Americans have considered adoption, but only about two percent of Americans have actually adopted. Cry of the Orphan helps connect families with the world’s orphans in a variety of different ways, including domestic or international adoption, foster care, prayer for and mentoring of the children, as well as, support for the adoptive and foster parents.

This year marks the third annual, unified Cry of the Orphan campaign, which is sponsored by Hope for Orphans (a ministry of FamilyLife), Shaohannah’s Hope (founded by award-winning musician Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth Chapman) and Focus on the Family. Together, these ministry organizations are communicating that everyone has a role to play in caring for God’s children. With this initiative, organizations, churches and individuals from across the globe are joining forces to help make a difference. Those who don’t feel called to adopt can rally in other ways, such as making a financial contribution, or starting a prayer group at a local church.

“This is a God sized crisis and considering we had like-mindedness, we believed that our voice can be louder together than individually on behalf of the orphan,” said Scott Hasenbalg, executive director of Shaohannah's Hope, Inc.

Paul Pennington, who is the executive director of Hope for Orphans, a board member of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and one of the leaders of the Cry of the Orphan campaign, said there are two primary reasons why people adopt. Either they want to have a family, or because they want to give a child a family. 

Pennington, and his wife, Robin have one biological child and five adopted children. “My wife Robin and I have been married for 30 years. When we were early in our marriage and young, we had one biological child, Elizabeth. After she was born, my wife had already lost one of her fallopian tubes, and ultimately, she lost the other, so we experienced infertility,” said Pennington. “We first adopted began because we just wanted to have a family. Later in our journey, we adopted our third child from Korea. This time, it was more out of motivation to give a child a family.”

Pennington said there is a need for the Biblical understanding of adoption.

He realized this need for himself after a visit to a Korean orphanage made a tremendous impact on his life. There was a three-year old little girl on the tour, who kept pulling on his leg. She kept saying the same word every few minutes. Toward the end of the tour, he asked the translator what the girl was saying, and with tears coming down her face, the translator told him the girl was saying  “daddy” in Korean.

“That is when the lights came on for me, that as the most affluent Christians who have ever lived on this planet in North America, we think we understand that there are orphans in the world, that there is a big need. But I don’t think we really internalize and comprehend the reality of what that means for these children. And we certainly don’t very often recognize that these children are a picture of our relationship with Jesus.”

Hasenbalg agreed, “Really the story of Christ is the story of adoption. In John 14:18 it says ‘I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you.’ Our adoption into Heaven was made complete thanks to the price Jesus paid on Calvary so adoption is not Plan B, it is Plan A.”

A key part of the Cry of the Orphan effort is online at CryoftheOrphan.org, which has tapped into the extensive resources of FamilyLife, Focus on the Family, Shaohannah’s Hope, and the other organizations involved in the Christian Alliance for Orphans.

CryoftheOrphan.org includes an easy-to-use tool that provides visitors with a personalized list of ways they can get involved to help orphans around the world. An updated directory of organizations involved, a Google Earth exploration tool, and facts and stories that offer inspiration and instruction on responding to the orphan crisis are also included on the site.

Projected to reach more than 25 million people within the faith-based community and beyond with its combined efforts, Cry of the Orphan is also reaching out with other endeavors, including a media blitz and radio broadcasts, including weeklong radio broadcasts that focused on the orphan crisis.

On November 17-21, popular radio hosts Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Dennis Rainey of FamilyLife Today devoted their daily broadcasts and combined their organizations’ resources to show people how they can play an important role in responding to the world’s 130 million orphans.

One specific way Shaohannah’s Hope is aiding families is by providing them with financial support through grants. Hasenbalg said grant amounts are typically awarded between $2,500 and $7,000 with an average grant amount being about $3,500. To date, Shaohannah’s Hope has assisted over 1,800 qualified Christian families from over 30 countries where adoption is legal, moral and ethical, with well over $6,000,000 being awarded.

Additionally, one of the biggest challenges for the organization is that 50 to 60 percent of qualified families seeking assistance are turned down because of the lack of funding.

Linette and Scott Montgomery of Springfield, Missouri, and their adopted daughter Hannah, 4, recently were awarded a grant from Shaohannah’s Hope. Chapman awarded the family with a $4,500 grant at his Fayetteville, Arkansas concert in March 2008. The family is in the process of finalizing a second, special needs adoption, and they plan to bring home a sister for Hannah from China in the summer to early fall of 2009.

“We went to China in 2005, we knew there was a need, but we didn’t know how great the need was. It made us realize that we can’t do it all ourselves, but together we can make a difference, ” said Linette Montgomery.

In considering a special-needs child this time around, Montgomery said there are “needs” that are very manageable.

“It might be something that requires a one-time surgery or therapy, and then the children go on to lead perfectly healthy lives,” said Montgomery. “I think special-needs adoption is on the rise, because people are more aware of the special-needs kids, and that so many of the needs are manageable. We do have excellent medical care in this country.”

Being a one-income family, she said the grant from Shaohannah’s Hope is a tremendous blessing. “It will pay much of our travel expenses, honestly, which we wouldn’t have otherwise,” Montgomery said. “We were very fortunate because we got to go up on stage with our daughter at the end of the concert, and Steven presented the grant to us that evening,” said Montgomery.

Another adoptive parent, Misty Peterson, also received a $4,000 grant from Shaohannah’s Hope, in addition to several other grants. She and her husband Tron live in Webb City, Missouri with their two Asian daughters and three biological sons. Misty continually advocates adoption, and she just returned home from a 10 day orphan care trip in Langfang China, where she visited a Christian orphanage that assists children with medical treatment (www.chinaorphans.org).

Like Pennington, the Peterson’s first wanted to adopt because they were dealing with infertility. Three years after they adopted their first child, Sarah, they continued to grow their family by having three biological sons.

“Then, in 2006, and having the experience of dealing with infertility, adoption and childbirth, we became very much involved with advocating adoption,” said Misty Peterson. “We felt like God was leading us to adopt again, before we even knew that Sarah, now 12, was praying for a sister that looked like her. We started praying specifically for baby ‘Selah,’ which means to pause or to worship. We also knew that God put it on our hearts to adopt a special needs child.”

 In August 2006, Selah was born in South Korea. She had a heart murmur, was born with one kidney and, according to her blood work she had a genetic disorder, Di George Syndrome, and was missing a gene. Her medical records now no longer show she is missing a gene.

Busy with five children, Peterson said she has created a Web site, www.iwillkissyoufortwo.com to help educate and inform others about adoption.

“When we couldn’t have children, God led us down a road that was exactly His heart and his plan for us,” said Misty Peterson.

 In closing, Hasenbalg said, “The holidays provide a unique opportunity for all of us to realize how blessed we are and it’s a time recognize what we can give out of compassion for the least of these. Especially at Christmas, because we celebrate the birth of our savior who paid the ultimate price, death on a Cross, so we may have eternal life and be adopted into the family of God.”