Thrown away & Broken

There's safety in complacency, but God is calling us out of our
comfort zone into a life of complete surrender to the cross. To live
dangerously is not to live recklessly but righteously. And it is
because of God's radical grace for us that we can risk living a life of
radical obedience for Him." ~ Steve Camp

This is a hard post to write, but one I have felt led to do for a while. It's the recent experience of two CWA families currently in China that have convinced me I need to do this.

Katie is a special needs child. She was on a waiting child list, and she had a Chinese diagnosis of "delayed mental development". We are not sure what that means here in the US, but let me tell you what it means in China. It means she was called "stupid". It means that the other kids in the orphanage were told she was "stupid" and told not to play with her. It means that no one in the chinese system cared about what happened to her. She was a 'throw away" child. We don't know the extend of any development damage Katie has - but what we can tell you is she is not a "throw away".

My friends Lisa and Jamie are in China now picking up their children - both friends of Katie's from the orphanage. Yesterday, they skipped the tourist activities, and instead visited an orphanage about an hour outside of Beijing that cares for special needs kids - Shepherds Field. It is an amazing place. It is Jesus personified. It is real people, reaching out for real children with very real needs and very little (actually no) hope. Reading their blog posts (here and here) shook me up. Here are people who are living the Word. Who are walking the walk and following Jesus. They are living righteously and radically and obediently.

I am tired of people telling Doug & I what a great thing we are doing for Katie (and Becky). I am tired of hearing Christians telling me "I'm just not called to adopt" because quite frankly, that's like me saying "I don't have the gift of evangelism so I don't have to spread the Good News of the gospel and tell people about Jesus." Adoption isn't for everyone, but orphan care and concern is something we are all called to do - because adoption is the best reflection of God's heart we can have here on earth - and here's why.Be prepared to be challenged and called out of your comfort zone.