Why Africa?

O.K. so I am a bit nervous about this post. Every single child without a loving home deserves that and is important, valuable and a child of God. Thankfully God calls different people to adopt from different places and that is truly the answer to the question Why Africa for us.

I had for a long time thought that if we ever adopted that we would adopt domestically. It was only after God showed me something else and lead me somewhere else through conversations with people, books that I would read, and dreams that I would have. Yes we have a need in America but here are a few statistics. There are 73.2 million children in the U.S. 70% of them live with 2 parents and 94% of them live with at least one parent. 10.7% are in the foster care system and have a need for a forever family.

A little bit about Africa..... there are 48.3 million ORPHANS ....not children but children without either parent or relative to care for them. There are 5 million in Ethiopia alone. 1 in 6 will die before their fifth birthday and 1 in 10 will die before turning one.


Every 15 SECONDS, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa
Every DAY 5,760 more children become orphans
Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans (in Africa alone)
143,000,0002 Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home
Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…
Every YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT of the system
Every DAY 38,493 children AGE OUT
Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home
In Ukraine and Russia 10% -15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.
60% of the girls are lured into prostitution. 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.
Many of these children accept job offers that ultimately result in their being sold as slaves. Millions of girls
are sex slaves today, simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans.

The need for help is tremendous and the call is urgent. I have not been to Africa myself but I can only imagine the pain of seeing children on the street with no one to care for them. They do not have foster homes, government aid programs or people waiting to adopt them. Our family adopting one child seems pretty small in terms of the numbers stated above but it is one life and from the beginning I have seen it as a small pebble in a large pool of water.........the ripple effect.....that is I hope that our adopting can help or persuade or support hundreds of more adoptions.

We had decided to adopt months before I looked up all of these statistics....so I mean it from my heart when I say that God answered "Africa" for us and now we are trying to obey. Yes there are children here who need help but our call is in Africa and if the above statistics can help to raise orphan awareness in Africa then that is why I have posted them.