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My friend shared her childhood dream with all of us. When she was a teenager, she would dream of people leaving babies on her doorstep. Quite often, when she awoke in the morning she would run to the front door and open it to check. Of course, no one ever left a baby on her doorstep; she didn’t live in a convent or an orphanage. Now she has six children between the ages of 20 and eight, two through the miracle of adoption. Recently, her sixteen-year-old daughter shared a dream with her. Mom, we need to go to an orphanage and take care of children. Of course, that is what reminded my friend of her childhood dreams.
Ironically, the teenage daughter sharing this dream with her mother nearly wasn’t born. You see, my friend had tried to get pregnant for years before she finally did. Because she was a little older now with her third child, her doctor ordered an amniocentesis. The results indicated that her daughter would have Down syndrome and therefore be mentally retarded. He suggested she abort, her faith prevented her from doing that.
When their daughter was about six or seven their family began thinking about adoption. It may have had something to do with all of the foster children I continually paraded in front of them. At first they thought they would adopt a special needs foster child. Then they realized how great the need was for families for African American infants.
Here in Michigan some private agencies had these infants in private foster homes without identified families. They completed their home study process and a three-month-old baby boy who had been exposed to alcohol was waiting for a family. They had their first adopted child.
Less than a year later, they heard about a two-month-old baby girl waiting for a family. They didn’t see how they could afford another private adoption. Tina, the mom, grieved not adopting this little girl. A month later, a check arrived in the mail for the amount of the adoption. They little girl was still waiting for her forever family, so now they had another daughter.
Several years ago, Tina and her oldest daughter went on a short-term missionary trip to Kenya with. For two weeks they lived in a orphanage and cared for children there. When they were walking to the airport to leave Kenya, women begged them to take their infants to America. They were crying on the plane because they knew that many of those infants would perish, yet it was illegal to bring them home.
Food was scarce and many of the children were without parents. Small children, under five, could be found digging through dumpsters, licking pieces of paper, for any nourishment. A trip to the hospital was a death sentence, unless you knew someone who would bring you food and water everyday.
There are 150,000 orphans, under the age of five, caring for themselves and younger siblings in Kenya.
Can You Influence Who Older Adopted Children Will Become?
Love Thursday – She Survived to Parent Orphans
The photo was actually taken in Kenya at the orphanage.
Written permission from Paul and Tina Meek on November 14, 2007.
