The Orphan Train

Recently I was watching one of my favourite video series (a wonderful Christmas present) by Jannete Oke. You may have heard of the books, Love Comes Softly. I was on the movie Love’s Unending Legacy in which the main character ends up adopting two children, a common theme in all the videos. I have mentioned this before, but I just can’t get away from how much I enjoy the concept of an orphan train and how often I wonder if we would see more adoptions if we did them today.
With an orphan train, the Children’s Aid Society’s would basically send a group of orphans on a train across the country in search of homes. In the movie, they brought the group of orphans into the local church, where many of the members watched and stood up as they felt themselves as a match to each child. At the ending, there was only one child left, a teenage girl. The only church member who remained in the pews was a widowed mother who already had a child, with very little to offer, and who was not there to adopt. She was simply there as an onlooker. However, and this is where the concept intrigues me, when the mother saw the young girl remain, with no one to care for her, and the prospect of being sent back to an orphanage hanging over her head, the mother jumped up and offered her family and her home to this desperate orphan. It wasn’t a choice made to build a family. It wasn’t a choice based on which country she liked most, or which birth mother’s profile she liked. It was instead, what I think adoption should be, a Christian stepping forward to simply care for an orphan. She saw a need and stepped up to fill it. That is what it is all about, isn’t it?
So often these days’ children waiting for adoption are forgotten about. They spend their days in far away orphanages or foster homes where people think they are ok. The situation isn’t starring people in the faces the way the orphan train was. I am not saying I think people should make the choice of adoption based out of guilt or desperation, but why aren’t we choosing the path of adoption, right now, today? What is holding us back? Are they our reasons, or God’s reasons? The clip in the movie just reminded me how the care of orphans was entrusted to us Christians, not the world, yet unfortunately that is exactly who is managing this huge pandemic. We have failed, and I think if a change in perception happens, on why we adopt, and what God calls us to do, then perhaps we can see a shift back to Christians caring for our forgotten children and steps taken towards the 147 million orphans actually finding their forever families! I know sometimes my posts might come across as harsh, but does anyone else ever feel this way? Just in pure desperation of wanting to find homes for all these children? My heart breaks when I think of all the children out there desperately yearning for a family. If you would like to see the great advocating works of another adoptive mom, actively seeking homes for the many children waiting, I encourage you to check out www.nogreaterjoymom.com. Her posts are great and she routinely posts stories on children in desperate need of a family. A great blog!