adoption pangs

i have an angry, worried, sad little heart tonight (be forewarned, this could get ugly).

last night, i stumbled upon a news story, run by cbs, that accuses our adoption agency, christian world adoption, of "recruiting" families to give up their children for adoption. in some cases, cwa has been accused of paying families for their children (which falls under the definition of child trafficking). unfortunately, this is not the first time cwa has been at the center of such allegations. a few months ago, an australian news outlet ran a similar story.

obviously, we are very concerned about these allegations, though we are not jumping to any conclusions. cbs would like you to believe there is clear evidence to support the allegations against cwa. however, cbs ran a very misleading, one-sided story (read on). i guess one could say there's a lot for us to be worried about right now: all the money we've invested, whether we can trust that our children won't have been taken from their parents unethically, etc. if i told you i wasn't worried about all that, i'd be lying.

but can i tell you something else?

i'm not just worried about my kids. and our adoption.

there are 6 million orphans in ethiopia.

6 million.

you see, as much as i'm worried about our adoption, i'm infinitely more worried and upset about all the children in ethiopia who need families. those children's futures are affected by cbs' irresponsible reporting. i can only imagine the number of people who saw this news story and were affirmed in whatever negative opinions they hold about adoption. and i can only imagine all the people who vowed never to adopt after seeing this story. i've heard a lot of BS excuses about why people don't consider adoption: "it's too expensive" or "i can't wait that long for a baby" or "the process is too complicated." and now, with the odds already stacked against them, those 6 million children have to contend with the fallout from this news story.

i think i just get outraged when the focus of adoption is on anything but the children. sure, we need to hold agencies accountable. but to run a news story like cbs did is to compromise the credibility of adoption and thus to endanger the chances of these children ever finding forever families. honestly, i think there's a good chance this news story and these allegations are just the enemy attempting to triumph over good. don't get me wrong, i'm not naive. these are serious allegations that should be investigated, not just "spiritualized." but, in my opinion, adoption is one of the big guns in the cosmic battle between good and evil we are in right now. adoption is a picture of the gospel in every way possible, and i'm sure the enemy is not happy when people adopt. if evil had its way, children would continue to live a loveless, hopeless existence. i'm grieved to say that evil has its way more often than not. and right now i want to tell the enemy that he didn't even need a stupid news story to convince people not to adopt. people make that decision everyday by looking at their checkbooks and dreaming about the stuff they want...and basically not taking into consideration the precious life of a child.

if, by chance, anybody who reads this blog saw the news story, i want to quickly address 2 glaring mistakes cbs made:

1. claiming cwa lied about the ages of children.

anybody who has responsibly researched adoption knows that NO agency can guarantee a child's age. in ethiopia, birth records are not kept because they do not value birthdays and age the same way we do. thus, an agency can only estimate the age of a child.

2. claiming cwa charges $15000 per adopted child

um, this makes everybody who adopts sound like child traffickers. i do not like people who talk about adoption like a business deal. i'm not buying my children. it is true, most adoptions cost $15000 to $25000 (excluding travel costs). however, at least half of those costs are paid directly to the country, not the agency. we only paid cwa a flat agency fee of $5000 which covers the cost of caring for our children while they are in cwa's orphanage, and the costs of processing our documents and paying their staff. cwa's fees are comparable to every other agency i researched. people should know that the high cost of adoption allows for every necessary protection to be taken to avoid child trafficking.

please pray with us as we seek peace and a resolution to this chaos. we are planning to wait this out with cwa, namely because we do not have enough money to switch agencies. please also pray that people would continue to heed God's call to adoption and that people would continue to know God's heart for the orphan. maybe God is asking you to consider adoption from the perspective of a child who needs a family instead of from the perspective of everything that freaks you out about adoption. let us not let evil triumph.