143 million orphans

Here is a post from another adoptive family blog that I frequent and I think this has been circulating for a while now, but I thought it was very interesting!

There are 143 million orphans in the world, according to UNICEF.
There are 2 billion people who consider themselves Christians in the world, according to government censuses.
All of these Christians are adopted, according to the Bible:
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:14-17

However, less than half of the 143 million orphans are adoptable because of insufficient paperwork (birth and death records, for example), religious laws forbidding adoption to Christian families (Muslim orphans), poor relations between the US and the orphan's government, or lack of a transparent adoption system in place to guarantee ethical adoption (Cambodia). Therefore, if only 7% of Christians chose to adopt ONE child, all 143 million of the world's orphans would have a permanent safe home! And since this is unrealistic because of the above listed reasons, if only THREE-yes- 3% of the world's Christians adopted ONE child, all adoptable orphans would have a permanent safe home and a forever family. WHAT?! That's all it would take?!

Disclaimer: I firmly believe that not everyone is called to adopt-Christian or not. But I also firmly believe that, at the very least, 3% of 2 billion Christians have been given this calling, especially since scripture defines the mark of pure Christianity as caring for orphans (see below)! It's simply a matter of obeying the call and returning the enormous gift of adoption that God has given us to a child who needs a home.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27.