Browsing...for children?

Being that we just moved to New Jersey, I was online looking for volunteer opportunities in our area. Somehow I ended up on the Department of Child and Family Services website.

While we're not in a position to adopt at the moment (Chris is in school full-time, I'm working full-time, we're living with my grandmother and there's not much extra space) we are excited about adopting in the future. So...just for kicks I decided to click around some of the adoption links on the website.

It was devastating and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. There they were, posted online like items to be shopped for. Pictures, names, birthdays and "a brief description".

Almost all of the children were older teenagers, almost all of them had extreme challenges, and many of them had severe physical disabilities and/or medical conditions. And almost all of the descriptions said something along the lines of, "...what he really wants is to find his forever family where he will be loved and cared for."

Aside from the fact that pictures, names and birthdays on the internet seems like a security issue...it is heartbreaking and I have no idea what to do. Will we ever be in a position to adopt an older child with severe medical conditions?

I don't know what to do, I don't know what to suggest, and it makes me so, so sad...

But I do know this. Along with the children on the NJ DCS website, there are countless opportunities for all of us to care for people around us who are hurting.

At World Orphans we are working on a resource to help families and their young children care and advocate for the orphaned and abandoned in their community and around the world.

So I hope to soon be able to point you to a specific resource. But in the meantime it starts with just looking around, asking the Lord to give us eyes to see those who are hurting. The children in foster care, the elderly person who lives alone, the kid at school who no one talks to, the lady at church who always sits by herself.

Matthew 25:40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Lord please, help us hold our schedules and agendas loosely so we can be available to show your love to those around us...please.