Why Adoption for Us?

Since sharing the news that we are adopting, we have received a wide array of feedback.  We have been asked every question imaginable, and most questions seem to be centered on “why” we have chosen to adopt.  We realize that this is a natural question.  Therefore, in an effort to provide clarity, we want to write about what has brought us to this point.

Quite frankly, adoption has been something that we have discussed since we first began considering the idea of raising children.  The sheer number of children in the world that need to be adopted is something that has always deeply impacted us.  Here are a few shocking statistics about the number of orphans worldwide:

According to the World Orphans website, there are approximately 163,000,000 orphans in the world today (http://www.worldorphans.org/index.php, 2011).  In comparison, the US population consists of 312,679,148; and, the worldwide population is just shy of 7 billion people as we write this blog (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html, 2011).  This translates to 1 orphan in every 43 people. 

The truth is there are many children that need a safe and loving home.  While we are far from perfect, we feel like God has blessed us with the ability to provide such a home for a child that desperately needs one.

In an effort to understand more about adoption, we decided to meet with a family member that deals closely with adoptions in the Memphis area.  We learned that a strong need exists in our area for transracial adoptions.  Specifically, there are an abundant number of African-American orphaned children.  Hearing about this need within our local community certainly motivated us even more.

As far as we know, we can have our own biological children.  However, we have intentionally chosen to postpone trying, because we are passionate about responding to the need for adoption within our local community.  Through these aforementioned circumstances and others over the past few years, it has become clear to us that God has been leading us in this direction.  Perhaps one day in the future, we will desire to have our own biological children.  However, we are convinced that adoption is right for us at this point.