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Dear Birthmother,
I’ve never seen you.
I don’t know you.
I will probably never even know your name.
But this week, as I celebrated Mother’s Day — a day set aside to honor those of us whose arms are full and whose lives are fuller with moments and messes from children who grew in bellies and those who grew above them in hearts — my heart just couldn’t stop thinking about YOU.
Superman’s first mother.
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His file says it happened in the local hospital’s garden.
A place of life.
A place of growth.
A place of new beginnings.
Ironically, a place of hope.
That’s where Superhero 4’s biological mother, a woman who I believe loved him and cherished him but who, for one reason or another, didn't feel as if she could provide for him or care for him, carefully dressed him in a blue cotton coat and blue pants and wrapped him in a rosy quilt.
The kind doting mothers use to swaddle.
The kind loving caretakers use to protect their babies from the cold.
And then, there in the garden, in a beautiful place where she was sure he would be found, gave him his last kiss.
Gazed one last time upon his face.
And then, likely because of his medical needs, her access to medical care or the number of children already in her family, risked five years of prison time and abandoned him, praying his finder would lead him to a better life.
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I'll just be totally honest.
When we made the decision to adopt again, our first instinct was to run to what we knew.
Superman has a set of medical needs that, although they require daily care and weekly therapy, after 14 casts and multiple surgeries, are now familiar to us.
Comfortable.
A now-normal part of our everyday life.
And so when we first began praying about where God would use us as we moved forward with Chinese child adoption, our first instinct was to run to the children with the same needs as Superman.
Because managing two children with the same set of needs and surgeries and required therapies seemed like a smart and logical thing to do.
But after falling in love with Joy and J.J., it wasn't what GOD called us to do.
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There are 132 million orphans in the world — children, by UNICEF's definition, who have lost one or both parents.
13 million of these have lost both parents.
And this number — it doesn't even take into account the hundreds of thousands of children who have been abandoned, including the more than 600,000 abandoned REPORTED children who now dwell in Chinese orphanages. (Organizations inside China report that number of children closer to 1 million.)
Because those children, though they LIVE like orphans, technically have living parents who abandoned them and thus, don't meet the criteria to be counted as "orphans".
That number — it’s shocking. It’s appalling. It’s daunting.
Because no person can TRULY picture the faces of that many innocent, deserving superheroes lying in orphanage beds and foster homes and places far less comfortable, convenient or full of care.
Some starving.
Some dying.
All hoping that someone will see their plight.
All praying that SOMEONE will change their grim-ending story.
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For the last 30 days, as we’ve celebrated National Adoption Awareness Month with the Facebook series “Celebrating Superheroes-in-Waiting,” we’ve highlighted the 132 million orphans around the world and what it takes to change their story.
Maybe God has pricked your heart or opened your eyes, and maybe, just maybe, He’s calling not just “those” families but YOURS to be His hands and feet.
To LOVE those who may have never experienced unconditional love.
To EMBRACE those who may have never been truly held.
To be a VOICE for those whose sounds on the global stage are often silent.
It doesn’t take perfect people to make perfect parents for precious superheroes-in-waiting; it takes imperfect people relying on the strength of a PERFECT GOD to form the perfect families for perfect-in-His-eyes children.
All it takes is open hands and open hearts to change the orphan story.
God provides the rest.
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