Imagine being a child or teenager, covered in bruises from your most recent beating, hungry, cold, and all your belongings in a grocery store bag. You are tired. Your parent was just taken away in a police car and you are scared. But you don't get to go home to a safe family who will at least give you a clean bed to sleep in...instead you will spend the next few nights sleeping on a cot in the office of child protective services...until they finally find you space in a homeless shelter.
I have been trying to focus on the positive aspects of adoption and lay off my ranting and raving about all the problems with how few people actually adopt and foster. But tonight I am just angry...angry to tears and discouraged by the fact that for every 10 Christians in Arizona (or maybe more like every 100, or 1000) there is only 1 child who needs a home, but still Christians are not answering the call. Actually, if 1 out of every 5 churches in Phoenix took in ONE child, this problem would be solved. There is ONE single church in Phoenix that has more members in the congregation then there are children who need a family tonight. Yet, tonight, the churches of Phoenix are failing to care for their orphans. If we cannot meet the needs of the few thousand "orphans" in Arizona, how are we going to begin to address the much more complex and desperate situation of the world-wide orphan crisis?
The Arizona Republic today posted an article about the CPS squeeze and talked about the strain on the foster care system. Less foster families + more children= huge problems. They ran out of foster homes, group homes, homeless shelters, and now children are sleeping in the child protective services offices.
When I worked in the domestic violence shelter, I had a first hand experience of seeing CPS workers come to evaluate children who had marks/signs of abuse and the caseworker often dismissing clear signs of danger and abuse because it wasn't bad compared to other cases. What is going to happen now that a CPS caseworker knows that if she opens a case on a family of 6 children, she will have an impossible time getting them a home? They will be less likely to open cases, quicker to overlook signs of danger or abuse, and children will be hurt as a result.
Who is going to care for the orphan of Phoenix? Could it be possible that God is calling SO FEW people to foster care/adoption that there is the abundance of children in need...or could it be that some of God's church is disobeying?
Ahhh, now you have me in tears, too. Thank you for speaking up. We are praying anew that God would tell us how He would have us involved. We are also praying that more would have the courage to step up and fill the need. The fears are very real, but so is His provision!
ReplyDeleteWow. That is a powerful post. My husband and I have been considering foster care but are worried about the impact it will have on our very young children. Do you have resources you'd suggest or ways to start looking into working in foster care for the beginner? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat is SUCH a great question! I felt it required a whole new blog post. Let me know if this is what you were meaning by resources or if you are looking for somehting more: http://thankful4adoption.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-does-beginner-start-if-they-are.html
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