Why it's worth it

Today we had our septic tank pumped.  Not an especially newsworthy event normally, but when you're adopting, everthing you do pretty much relates to adoption.  Our homestudy requires a letter from our county that our septic tank is in working order and our county requires that everyone have their septic tank pumped every five years.  So there goes another $500.  Yesterday I spent over $100 to mail documents to Nora's country.  Just two weeks into this adoption and we've already spent a pretty tidy sum.  And it doesn't matter!  I tend to stress about money normally, but when it comes to saving Nora's life, no amount is too much! 

Here's where a lot of adoption critics chime in.  They say that the process is full of corruption and point to the astronomical cost as proof.  They are not entirely wrong. But they are not entirely right either.   There is, no doubt, corruption in the adoption world.  There are people who steal children and sell them.  There are lawyers who are raking it in.  But there are also really decent people making a living wage because they care about the children. Adoption may not be perfect, but I am not sorry I have been a part of it.  The alternative would be that my children, my precious children, would still be sitting in an orphanage, never knowing how special they are, never hearing the gospel, never knowing the love of a family.  And that's where adoption critics break down for me.  Do we leave children to rot just because the system isn't perfect?  How ridiculous!  Yes, we should work to improve the system and prevent tragedies like stolen children (and that makes my heart weep).  But the children crying out for love should not have to wait while we make things perfect.

Adoption critics also believe that since poverty contributes to children being abandoned, we should work to end poverty so that parents can keep their children.  Amen!  No parent should have to give up their child because they can't afford to raise them.  If these people will start programs in these countries to end poverty, I will be the first to sign up!  But once again, don't forget the children that have already been abandoned.  It is too late to start programs for them!  They need families now.  And I'm just not convinced that ending poverty is going to make every parent of a special needs child want to keep that child.  There will be a need for Christians to step up and take care of these children until Jesus comes back no matter how many fabulous programs are implemented.

So, here we are with a system that's expensive and sometimes flawed.  But that's not Nora's fault. She didn't ask to be born.  She didn't ask to have special needs.  She didn't ask for her parents to abandon her.  But she has born all the consequences.  God willing, she will not bear them alone much longer.  And if it takes pumping my septic tank and living at the Fed Ex office and ultimately traveling half way around the world, so be it.