My friend, Amy, sent this email to me today with a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr:
"The day our lives begin to end is the day we remain silent about things that matter."
With Amy's permission, I share what she wrote:
"It sure is easier to remain silent, isn't it? It sure is easier to live in our comfortable homes and think that the most important issue of the day is where we want to go out to eat that night or whether we can get our kids to soccer practice on time. It sure is easy to not think outside our own little space. Does it matter that millions of children around the world live every single day without a mother or father to care for them? Does it matter that so many orphaned children with medical needs don't have access to the health care that could improve their lives? Does it matter that many are unable to go to public school? Or that they go to bed each night feeling that their special need might define them for the rest of their lives? I think those who love children would say it matters greatly.
Let's not keep silent about the things that matter..... all these precious children who need love. I hope everyone whose life has been touched by the miracle of adoption chooses to be vocal and encourages those around them to consider building a family in this wonderful way. Those of us who track the waiting children lists often watch child after child have their adoption files returned without being chosen. I looked up the opposite of "chosen" online, and the word that I saw made me cringe. Did you know the opposite of chosen is "rejected?" What an awful word that is.
It is a sad reality that thousands of children around the world each year are abandoned. We all wish that wasn't the case. But for many... there is still hope. The staff in their orphanages who care for them prepare their files and send them forward with the hope of a new family. But for some, particularly the boys....no one ever comes forward. The time goes by and their files are returned without being chosen. The hope of a family is gone.
Right now on so many great agency lists....there are children who are waiting and who have not been chosen. It is hard to believe that with millions of potential parents in the United States, that there isn't a family for every child who shows up on an adoption list. We know adoption is expensive. We know it is most definitely a leap of faith. But all of us at LWB believe completely that every child born deserves to know what it really means to be loved. And when there is a will to become a parent, there is almost always a way....whether it is through domestic adoption or international.
Let's not keep silent about the fact that so many orphaned children are waiting for homes. There are so many waiting right now for a family to choose them for their own.
Help spread the news that so many kids are waiting for homes. You never know....the person you tell might have been praying that very day for a way to become a parent. The majority of people around us have absolutely no idea that so many children wait. Let's not be silent....because every child on this earth truly does matter."
