As of August 1st

 Any regular subscribers to my blog will no longer receive e-mails when a new blogpost is posted; please do check back on Tuesdays and Fridays as I am trying to get back into the regular schedule of blogs.  It has been a long year for everyone, and attempting to get back to normal is a definite goal!  I will probably be doing Friday book reviews : )

Silver lining of waiting for adoption

 I was talking with a social worker the other day.  Many people do not realize that many adoption agencies have so many people waiting to adopt, they aren't allowing new prospective families.  There are also many families who are willing and enthusiastic to adopt babies with special needs, whether that means drug exposure or chromosomal abnormalities.

An average "wait time" in our area for a baby to adopt is over two years.  While there are many kids in the foster system, some jurisdictions do not allow foster parents to bring kids to church with them and for families that already have kids, it could expose those kids to situations and language that it would be best to protect them from.  So we are in a current situation where
many kids need foster families and many potential families want to adopt.

International adoptions have pretty much been shut down due to COVID restrictions, but international adoptions have been declining because some countries are not allowing adoption outside of the country and many places are setting up systems to keep babies within their country of birth.

Waiting can be hard on many families.  Waiting for anything is hard for most people.  But waiting to see if someone will pick your family to adopt their child has huge, life-changing ramifications.  Knowing that people are looking at a photo album of your family and choosing a family based off of that can be difficult.  Do our photos look ok?  What can sometimes feel like rejection is hard.  As I talked with the social worker though, we discussed the silver lining is the following:  observing and talking with people who are waiting to adopt is a testimony to how precious all life is.  We need to continue to provide testimony to the preciousness of all life.  Any parent who thinks that a baby with a medical issue or parents who have financial issues should know, it shouldn't be a secret within our little communities, but secular knowledge that there is a potential home for every baby.