147 Million

James 1:27 calls Christians into service for the most vulnerable among us, the orphans and the widows.  We are all called in different ways.  We may be asked to give our money, our time, or our lives, to fulfill our duty in this calling.

147 million...  That is the estimated number of orphans that we as Christians are charged to care for.  

147 million.

We cannot just pass over that number and toss it out with all of the other numbers that bombard us every day.

Can you imagine your own children growing up without the love and care of a family and most importantly without knowing the love of God?  There are 147 million children out there who live that very existence.  

What if you woke up every morning in one of many rooms full of children with caretakers that felt it was wrong to show love and form attachments to you and your peers...  What if you were not given the blessing of an education because you were not worthy of the small amount of money it would take to provide you with one...  What if you knew that at 14 years old you would be sent out the door to find a way to care for yourself with no family to turn to...  

But by the grace of God.

That could have been any of us.  We do not choose the situations that we are born into.  We all deserve to love and to be loved and to know the love of God.

By the grace of God, I was adopted by the best parents and given a wonderful childhood full of love and experience.  My parents made sure that I was in church regularly from a very young age and they are both living examples of God's love.  

I've always known that I would adopt a child someday.  I can remember being very young and thinking that I was so special to be able to adopt my Cabbage Patch doll, Mary Rose Jesse.  Anyone that knew me as a child should remember Mary Rose Jesse and our matching dresses.  She went to church with me.  She went to Disney World with me.  She was even laying beside me with an oxygen mask on when I woke up from surgery when I was only 4 years old.  

I'm not sure when God placed China on my heart.  I know I couldn't have been more than 12 or 13 years old.  I loved learning about the Chinese people, culture, and history in school.  I did a project on China in one of my middle school history classes and wrote a beautiful poem about the construction of the great wall.  My parents took me to Beijing as my high school graduation present and I fell even more in love.  I vowed that I wouldn't let too many years pass before I returned and I knew at that time that I wanted to someday bring a little girl back home with me.

<3 Angela