Hope for Orphans

In this issue:

	National Foster Care Prayer Vigil Next Month The second annual National Foster Care Prayer Vigil will be held in conjunction with National Foster Care Month, from May 17 to 24, 2009. Cosponsored by Focus on the Family, Hope for Orphans, and Shaohannah’s Hope, the National Foster Care Prayer Vigil gives an opportunity for believers to gather throughout the nation and pray for the children, families, and workers involved in the foster care system, as well as for the church’s response to the need. For more information on the 2009 National Foster Care Prayer Vigil, or to learn how you can hold or join a vigil in your area, please click here.

	*Churches Nationwide Hosting If You Were Mine®* DVD Adoption Workshops** The prayer of the Hope for Orphans team, when producing the If You Were Mine DVD Adoption Workshop, was that churches across the nation would be able to use it to host their own workshops and reach far more people than we ever could by holding live events ourselves. We have been so blessed to watch God answer those prayers. Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, hosted a conference on January 31 of this year, and 290 people attended, with exhibitors traveling from as far as North Carolina. One of the attendees said, “[We] did not really know what to expect [we] are blown away by this conference! Thank you for giving this opportunity to us right here in East Texas!” If you would like to learn more about hosting an If You Were Mine DVD Adoption Workshop in your church, order a copy of the DVD Workshop, or just hear about workshops in other churches around the country, please click here.

	Conference Call Gives Churches Networking Opportunities In January, Hope for Orphans began hosting conference calls in which local church orphans ministry leaders can come together, learn from one another, and hear from a guest on a particular topic. In March, we held three calls: the first related to foster care ministries; the second to adoption-related ministries; and the third to orphan care. The calls have been well received, and we hope all of you will be able to participate in future calls. As one participant put it, Today’s call inspires me to try harder to do more. I also got some great information to share with the rest of our team.” If you are interested in learning more about participating in the conference calls, please email us by clicking here.

	Post-Adoption Expectations by Robin Pennington In June of 1984, my husband Paul, our three-year-old biological daughter, Elizabeth, and I found ourselves in nothing short of a miraculous chain of events. Within hours of completing our adoption application, we were on our way to an adoption agency in San Antonio for the placement of what would be our first adoption. In my eagerness to have another baby (and in my immaturity and lack of life experience), I can look back and see that I had some very unrealistic expectations for this new baby and myself. In my mind it seemed logical that the moment we brought our new daughter, Kit, into our home, it would be “just like” bringing home a biological child—minus the pain and nine months of hormones! I mean, after all, we were adopting a baby who was only four days old. But to my surprise, there were challenges to come that I had not anticipated or honestly contemplated. In the consumeristic culture we live in, almost everything in our life tells us to focus on me, my, and mine. This first adoption for me was no exception. I had thought of how I would love her unconditionally, care for her holding nothing back, and how she would love us, how she would be “just like” the biological child we were unable to conceive, and she would grow to be “just like us.” Wow, am I thankful to God that He had another plan! His plan was to give us a precious little girl—one that He had designed for His purposes, not ours. In the months to come, I will be sharing a little of what God has shown me through my children’s adoptions. I pray that He will minister to you as you begin or continue your own adoption journeys.

	Organizational Spotlight - 4Kids of South Florida When God gives someone a vision, He equips him or her to see that vision come to life. Such was the case with Irene, who saw the crisis of foster care in South Florida and decided she wasn’t going to stop until the church did something about it. Her tenacity and God’s grace in opening the right doors led to the formation of 4KIDS of South Florida (based at Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale). “Ten years ago, our foster care system was a disaster,” says 4KIDS executive director, Tom Lukasik. “Almost daily, the headlines were taken up with stories of children being abused and re-abused by the system that was set up to help them.” So often, church and state have been wary of one another and have resisted working together. 4KIDS has demonstrated that it can be done well and that children will benefit as a result. “Today, as the church and the community work together,” continues Tom, “our system is doing much better in protecting our most vulnerable citizens, the children in the foster care system. In fact, 4KIDS has provided shelter for over 8,000 kids in the last ten years.” From the moment children are brought into the Broward County Child Welfare system, staff and volunteers at 4KIDS minister to them through such avenues as SafePlace, which is a temporary shelter where the kids stay until a more permanent home can be identified, foster homes, group homes for kids and older teens, and more. Foster parents receive their required training through the program, and many of the foster parents of 4KIDS have become adoptive parents who 4KIDS supports as well. There is also a program for emancipating youth, called The Spirit of Success Institute. One of the young men in that program summed up 4Kids this way, “They say 4KIDS helps people physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. Some call that a program. I call that a family.” Other churches have jumped on board with the formation of Churches United for Foster Care, which involves more than 100 organizations working together to address the needs of the foster care system. For more information about 4KIDS of South Florida, please click here.

	Update on China Adoptions Most people adopting children from China have experienced a delay in the wait times to adopt. According to Gongzhan Wu, Asian program manager for the Gladney Center for Adoption, it is a matter of supply and demand. He acknowledged that three years ago, the shortest wait time for a referral was six months, whereas now the average wait time is three years. The main reason for this is that there are simply not as many children available for adoption in China as there were in years past. This is due to the improved economic conditions in China over the past years, which has resulted in decreased instances of child abandonment and increased frequency in domestic adoptions. Conversely, given the current economic downturn in China and elsewhere, Wu added that many are predicting that prospective adoptive parents can expect shorter wait times to adopt from China in the future.

April 2009 Enewsletter