Hope for the Helpless

I recently was reading the annual report from the agency that made it possible for us to bring Lucy home (Families Thru International Adoption).  There are no other words to describe the current state of international adoption than discouraging, bleak….and sad.  Not only is overall international adoption down 15% from 2009, the trend is expected to get worse, and key legislation that was hoped to pass this year did not.  Since Lucy has come home, China has only moved through 2 months of applications.   

Anyone familiar with the adoption world knows about The Hague Treaty, a law that passed mid-way through our process; its intention was to help decrease child trafficking as well as provide more oversight and streamlining of adoption regulations.  The unintended consequence of this bureaucratic monstrosity is that many children remain orphaned and abandoned around the world, with less and less hope of them finding their forever families. Speculation is that the intent is to marginalize if not eliminate international adoption all together.  For the life of me, I can’t make sense of all of this.  How is it that we as a country, and a world, cannot find a way to take care of these children?

After reading these updates, I spent some time thinking about all the people out there waiting for their child to come home, all those children who simply want to be loved and united with a family, and those who have had to give up on their hopes of adopting internationally.  My heart aches for them. Mostly, I contemplated the blessing of Lucy.  How is it that we got through all of this in just the nick of time?  How is it that we were fortunate, and so many others have not been?  When answers escape me, as so many do right now, I know I simply must defer to God and have faith in His infinite wisdom.  I will choose to hold on to hope and prayer, believing that it will render goodness amidst all this discouragement. 

Lucy received a few more hugs than usual today.  And God received a lot of prayers of thanks, for He has given us the greatest blessing of our lives.