14,418 teenagers needing a family

I hope that some of you went over to Doctor David's blog yesterday and considered their thoughts on older child adoption. I love my boys so much. I am so thankful God gave them to me. They take up so much of my time and so many of my thoughts. And yet, always in the back of my mind, are thoughts of the children still in Ukraine. So many of them that I know personally. As Doctor David writes:

Cindie and I came specifically to adopt kids that were aging out, the ones that were not going to have another chance, it was going to be us, or no one else. Our new daughters, Nastya and Anya sat in this orphanage year, after year, after year, and no one has come for them, no one. No one. Why do people like us have to be coming for them now, finally, at the very last moment? And, I wonder, why does any orphan in this world, have to sit so long in an orphanage, alone, without a family, when there are so many Christians in this world? That sounds so very harsh, not Christian-like at all. I’ve been feeling harsh lately.

I got an email today regarding some information put out by the SDA, the governmental agency in charge of adotpions in Ukraine. According to the SDA, there are 14,418 children aged 12-17, in Ukraine right now available for adoption. 14,418. Fourteen thousand four hundred and eighteen. Let that number sink in for a moment. 14,418 teenagers no one wants. 14,418 boys and girls for whom the Lord our God promises to execute justice. (Deut. 10:17-78) 14,418 cries heard daily by our God. (Ex.22-23). 14,418 chances for us, as Christians, to worship our God. (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV) This number has overwhelmed me today and it does not even take into consideration the remaining 6,068 children under the age of 12. I have thought to myself, what if I could put a ticker of some sort here on my blog and everytime an older child was adopted, we could see that number go down......14,417; 14,416; 14,415. But that would not work; for every time a child were adopted, certainly another one would be abandoned. The need, the crisis, is so very great.

I have no solution. I can issue no loud call to arms. There are already many organizations out there trying to help; many families already heeding the call and going to adopt. And yet, today, as I sit here, there are 14,418 teenagers in Ukraine who need a family. 14,418.