HourChallenge

I received a flyer this weekend in our church mailbox informing us that November is National Adoption Month. The flyer read: “Millions of children wait in hope that, someday, they will know the love of a family. Please adopt!”

The flyer took me back a little bit. As many of you know we are about 18 months into our adoption to China. My first thought was, wow, what a great thing to be promoting adoption. And, wow, right here in our church mail box…cool. But then, as I thought about it some more, I became unsettled a bit.

You know, I never want my daughter to feel that we adopted her out of charity – just because there was “a need”. I don’t want her to feel that she was part of some plan on our part to be good citizens or that we did so simply out of obedience to Christ. It’s true that adoption is an amazing thing – especially when children are brought into loving homes. It provides so many possibilities including: faith, hope, community, and opportunities far beyond what is probable otherwise. The families we know who are adopting are doing so because they want to, not because they feel obligated in any way. We have NEVER felt obligated to adopt. We simply have a sense that this child will bring immeasurable joy to our lives.

The concern is that advertisements like these make it seem like people need to be guilted into adoption. Guilt may be a good motivator to consider adoption as a possibility, but I suspect that those who adopt will ultimately do so out of very different motivations.

Hey, so, on a more positive note I checked around and found some neat things about National Adoption Month including this letter from President George Bush:

National Adoption Month, 2007
A Proclamation By the President of the United States of America

During National Adoption Month, we recognize the adoptive and foster families who have shared their homes and hearts with children in need, and we encourage more Americans to consider adopting young people of all ages.

Families who adopt show the generous spirit of our Nation. Every child desires a permanent home, and when parents adopt a child to love as their own, lives are forever changed. For parents, the decision to adopt a child is among life’s greatest and happiest turning points. On November 17, families across the country will celebrate National Adoption Day by finalizing their adoptions, and each one of these homes will be richer for the addition of new family members.

My Administration is committed to promoting adoption of children of all ages. We are working to bring together more children with loving, adoptive parents through the Collaboration to AdoptUsKids at adoptuskids.org and by providing States with financial assistance through the Adoption Incentives Program. The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program helps improve care and services to children and families and ensure more young people in America have a caring, secure, and permanent home. Together, these efforts are building a brighter future for our youth.

During National Adoption Month, we honor adoptive and foster parents as they raise children of conviction and character. By accepting the gift of these children, parents are helping shape lives and contributing to the strength of our great Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2007 as National Adoption Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities to honor adoptive families and to participate in efforts to find permanent homes for waiting children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH