That’s a question we’ve all been pondering. 
I came across this ad on the MPR site today (specifically the Newscut blog) and I couldn’t help but click. I mean, c’mon. All that’s missing is a cartoon bear ready to snack on those yummy kids.
Sadly the site the ad linked to wasn’t as compelling. It was for the Gunflint Trail Association’s canoe trips. A similarly styled graphic on the site linked to a PDF with details on upcoming workshops for family canoe trips.
Sadly, no immediate answer to the pressing question of whether or not my children will be eaten by bears.
Props for some engaging advertising. But the lack of follow through is kind of lame. If you’re going to take an edgy approach like this, you have to go all out.
I came across this reflection on the stigma surrounding adoption. It’s pretty heart-breaking. The writer, an adoptee herself and an adoptive mother, talks to kids about adoption a lot.
Here’s what 10-year-old “Sam” said when she asked him what he thought it meant to be adopted:
“Well, being adopted is when the kids that nobody wants are put into an orphanage and then if the kid is really good, someone rich will pick them and buy them to have in their family.”
Ouch.
She writes about five themes that continually come up about adopted children:
- Adopted children are unwanted.
- Adopted children can become more desirable when they exhibit good behavior, i.e. being the perfect child.
- Adopted children are thought of as a commodity; they are a good that is exchanged in a transaction typically received by someone considered rich or well-to-do.
- Adopted children are disposable; their permanence in their adoptive family is always conditional.
- Adopted children deserve pity, because they are the kids who no one wants.
That’s even more heart-breaking. Help me in overcoming, shattering and in any way possible breaking these myths about adopted children. Kids (and all of us) need to hear the truth.
Continue reading We’re All Adopted: Overcoming the Stigma →
This story from a woman who spent time at an orphanage for HIV positive children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is amazing:
Once they started getting the ARVs that were needed and at a fair price, children stopped dying. And so money that they used to save to pay for children’s coffins is now being used for growth and development, empowering the organization to grow and help so many more people.
It reminds me of the stories of Ethiopian orphans in There Is No Me Without You.
Talk about getting a double spoonful of crap in life: orphaned and HIV positive. While these tragedies may not be able to be rectified, they can be redeemed. That’s what the church is supposed to be about (not just teachin’ and singin’).
A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.