Orphans Deserve Better

I know this post is late, but I know that people still don't know about this movie. So, I am going to post it here too!

There is a movie that was released last week that is called Orphan. It is about a 9 year-old girl that is adopted into a family. After the transition into her new family she begins to terrorize everyone she knows, including her new family. The preview alone is enough to make anyone that has considered adoption, but is "riding the fence" run in the other direction. I realize that people that are considering adoption won't actually go see this movie, because it is a horror film. What gets me is that trailer and preview. So many people have seen it.

Someone asked me last week why it was so upsetting since it was fictional and a horror film and not reality. This is why...most people that talk to me about adoption and fostering have fears about how the transition will go. Usually the conversation moves to the age of the children they would be open to and a fear of what trauma they might have experienced. Then it moves to the thought that we don't want to expose our children to something harmful. This is why Orphan is so upsetting. It is focusing on something that actually could happen, but is not common. It is stereotyping children that need a family as one that is to be afraid of. It pushes all of us to fear and not to seeking what Christ is asking us to do in caring for the fatherless.

Please help us by signing this petition and asking Warner Bros. to donate some of their profits from the movie to help orphans around the world.

A local news station called our agency last week and said they were doing a story to counter the release of this movie. They interviewed the director of the agency and our family. Please let me preface this by telling you that this was done last minute and evidently I didn't have time to remove the gum from my mouth! So embarrassing! Anyway, at least they gave the adoption community an opportunity to speak up about this film! Just wish I could have been a better spokesperson...SORRY! I am linking the story below because I can't figure out how to link it to this post!

Truly inspiring!

***This entire post has been hijacked from Heather's blog***



SBC Messengers Enthusiastically Support Moore's Resolution on Adoption


Jeff Robinson June 26, 2009


Messengers at the 2009 annual meeting of The Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution proposed by Russell D. Moore promoting adoption and orphan care.


The resolution encouraged every Southern Baptist family to pray about whether God wants them to adopt or provide foster care for a child or children. It also called on Southern Baptist and other evangelical churches to devote a Sunday each year to emphasize "our adoption in Christ and our common burden for the orphans of the world."


Moore, who serves as senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, knows well of which he proposed; Moore and his wife Maria adopted two of their sons from a Russian orphanage a few years ago.
Moore hopes the resolution will provoke deep thinking that leads to action among Southern Baptists regarding the Gospel significance of adoption and orphan care; all who are saved by God’s grace were once orphans who were adopted into the Kingdom of Christ.


The number of adoptions among evangelicals has steadily increased in recent years, yet the need is profound: in the United States alone, more than 500,000 children were in foster care system in 2005, the last year for which federal statistics were available. About 115,000 were waiting for adoption.


“Something is a foot among Christian families and churches of virtually every kind,” Moore said.



“God is calling the people of Christ to see the face of Jesus in the faces of orphans in North America and around the world. Southern Baptists have affirmed our belief in the authority of Scripture, and the Bible tells us pure religion is defined by care for the fatherless.


“We’ve been defined by our commitment to evangelism, and there is no greater field is 'white unto harvest’ right now as children in orphanages, group homes, and the foster care system, children who don’t know a parent’s love and who don’t know the name of Jesus. When Satan wars against children, we should be the ones who have compassion on them, even as Jesus did and does.


Moore authored a deeply personal and compellingly theological book on adoption that was published in May by Crossway books, “Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families &Churches.” In it, Moore argues that the church should view the adoption of orphans as a crucial part of its mission precisely because God has adopted helpless sinners to be His sons.


“The resolution by itself isn’t going to spark an orphan care movement among Southern Baptists,” he said.“Neither is my book, and neither are a thousand manifestoes. Only the Holy Spirit can do that as local churches start to embrace a vision for orphan care.


“The resolution though was meant to prompt some questions. If one messenger in the Convention hall is moved to simply pray, ‘Lord, how would you have me minister to orphans?’ then the resolution is a success, in my view. If one pastor is prompted to ponder how he could preach on adoption, or lead a foster care ministry among his folks, then the work is starting.


During the introduction of the resolution, Moore appeared on stage with Timothy and Benjamin, the sons he and his wife adopted seven years ago. More than 8,000 messengers met the resolution and its unanimous passage with lengthy, enthusiastic applause.


“I was overwhelmed with emotion on the platform to see my sons, two little ex-orphans, looking out on a sea of yellow ballots as thousands of Southern Baptists affirmed that we want to be the people who love fatherless children,” he said.


“I realized that, in an alternative story, my boys would still be in an orphanage, not knowing even the name of Christ Jesus. But here they are, at the Southern Baptist Convention, calling by their very presence the world’s largest Protestant denomination to recognize there are hundreds of thousands of children as helpless and alone as they once were.


“My prayer is that twenty years from now there are thousands of Southern Baptist pastors, missionaries, and church leaders who started their lives as orphans, now preaching the gospel of God their Father.”

Caring for the fatherless

First, I want to thank you for all of you that have been following us and praying for the children that I mentioned a couple of posts back.

Sadly, I have not heard from anyone willing to open their home to these kids. Please continue to pray that God speaks clearly to the family He has already chosen for this sibling group.

I mentioned in the last post about Adopt(ed) and I have enjoyed reading through some of their posts. One thing that Charissa mentioned that I thought was such a wonderful point for domestic adoption was this...

"Just because we do not have orphanages in the United States does not mean we don't have orphans."

So many times we think that our system is better than so many other countries because we don't have orphanages. As Christians, we need to care for these children.

So, here is what I am asking. The teacher (Michelle) that brought this sibling group to my attention has given me more information. The children are girl (5), boy (7) and girl (9). They were taken from their foster home and put into a safe home and they lost everything they called their own. They don't have any of their clothes, none of their toys...nothing to call their own or remind them of what they once called home.

Michelle is wanting to know if anyone would be willing to help remind them of God's love and plan for their life. She is wanting to put together some goodies for them just to make them smile and remind them they are loved.

I would love to collect things if you want to help out. The youngest girl wears a 4T and loves to dress up and also play pirate. So cute! The boy wears a 6-7 and loves anything Spiderman and Batman. The oldest girl loves to draw and be creative and wears a size 7-8. I will take anything and even will take money and I will buy the items if that's easier for you.

I feel like this is the least that we can do to love on these children in such a difficult time for them. They are old enough to understand so much of what's going on and they feel the stress and anxiety of being moved out of their foster home.

My PO Box is 5692 Edmond OK 73083 (Molly Shockley). Please only send money through the PO box as it is a small box. If you are going to collect items, please comment and we can find a way that I can come and get them. Michelle (the oldest girl's teacher) is wanting to give them the goodies in about a week!

Thanks for helping in any way that you can!

Adopt(ed)

I recently found a blog that shares our passion for adoption and asked if I could share this post. Please read as this is very powerful. I am proud to say that these mama's are from Oklahoma too!

Here it is:

"Recently I was made aware of a situation where two siblings locally were removed from their home for child abuse. A group of over 3,000 people were presented with this situation and asked whether anyone in the room could take these children in. I was thankful to find out a couple stepped forward........ but saddened and a little perplexed to find out that only one couple, out of a group of over 3,000 christian people.....stepped forward.

I wish I could remember where I read this so I could quote it accurately as well as give them proper credit, but somewhere recently I read a statement that said something like this: "In a city where there are Christians, there should be no unwanted children."


Ouch.


Which makes me wonder why this is so. WHY, if there are 450,000 churches in the U.S.A., WHY are there 129,000 children in the U.S. waiting for families?


My pastor, Alex Himaya, did a sermon series explaining WHY God has such a heart for adoption. I encourage every believer to hear it (Click here to hear). Out of that sermon came an orphan ministry that John and I are so thankful to be a part of. I am working on a new blog,
adopt-ed.blogspot.com where I hope to share stories related to orphans and vulnerable children, connect adoptive families, highlight events, share some of the outreaches of our church adoption ministry, etc. I do hope you'll come visit it, set your google reader, and be a part of the Adopt(Ed) ministry at The Church at Battle Creek.

May is Foster Care Month

I keep hearing this statistic on the radio and I can't shake it.

There are over 10,000 children in foster care in Oklahoma alone.

I can't seem to get that thought out of my head that these are the "orphans" that God meant for us to look after.

Please pray for these children that they may find their forever family and will no longer have to question God's purpose for their life.

(Remember to turn off the music on the blog to hear the sound on the video)



Although they didn't mention the two adoptions we love to talk about, Jesus and Moses, I think it's a wonderful video to make us all think!