The Global Family Cont'd

"If we are merely perplexed by global economic issues, we may be tempted to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and take comfort in ignorance. However, we who have adopted children from the countries that appear on the product labels don't have the luxury of ignorance. "Made in..." is a reminder of our children's heritage, of the women who gave them birth, of the life they might be leading if they had grown up in their birth countries. If, instead of feeling guilty, we feel responsible toward the people who make the items we buy, how do we then act responsibly? Becoming knowledgeable about them and the conditions f their lives, rather than generalizing from our own standards, is a beginning. The more we know, the less likely we are to see the workers either as "cheap labor" or as anonymous victims of uncontrollable economic forces. They acquire human dignity as people trying to improve their working conditions, to gain more comfort and security, and to provide a better life for their children. We are invited to make common cause with them in working toward greater equity...? "Are Those Kids Yours", by Cheri Register

So, I've concluded over the past few months that adoption, as I so naively understood it when I started the process 2.5 years ago, goes well beyond going out for Chinese every once in a while and celebrating the Chinese New Year. I feel very strongly that our family was "chosen" for this purpose, to create a family through adoption. I now realize that our purpose is much greater than when we first chartered this new territory. We are now part of the global family, with a greater responsibility to humanity.

"This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails." Isaiah 58: 6-7,9-11

Where do we begin?

• Supporting organizations that are at the forefront of advocating for change. Some of our favorites are Heifer, Love Without Boundaries, Half the Sky, A Child's Right, and Christian Children's Fund. These are just a few and don't tap the surface of organizations out there who are making efforts to improve social justice.
• Purchasing responsibly. Buying fair trade products, hand-made products, and from companies that are socially responsible.
• Advocating for children's rights abroad and at home.
• Educating ourselves about the realities of world economics.
• Remembering that each life has a purpose.
• Practicing the simple truth of "loving your neighbor".

These are ideas just off the top of my head. There are so many others. May we be challenged to think and act toward the greater good of our Global Family.

The Global Family

I quite like what Cheri Register says in the last chapter of her book "Are Those Kids Yours?". She beautifully articulates the sense of "global responsibility" that I've been experiencing lately.

"Adoption can make a meaningful difference for us parents, if we take time to ponder the questions, "Why did this happen to me? What does it mean for my life?" The more our children's lives have been changed, the more potential they have for changing ours. Rather than let parental love settle into a proprietary fondness for our own children, we can let the wonder we feel at watching them grow nourish a broader, loving concern for children who are not our own, children who still face the risks from which our children have been spared. I believe very firmly that being entrusted with the love and care of children born to someone else in another part of the world carries an obligation of stewardship. In becoming an internationally adoptive family, we claim a place in the global family. Membership in the global family, like membership in our immediate families, obligates us to share in family responsibilities. There are many ways to approach this new role...First, we can make our voices heard in the continuing public discussion of adoption, whether we share our views on the propriety of transracial and intercountry adoption, or respond to media coverage of adoption, which often stereotypes adoptive families as either heroic or troubled. Second, we can work to improve the welfare of children world-wide, with special attention to family security. Third, we can seek and promote greater awareness of the global socioeconomic causes for family dissolution and abandonment of children, and help find just and equitable solution.

...In the long run, we ought to be changing those [inequitable socioeconomic] circumstances. Adoption is paradoxical through and through, a mix of grievous losses and joyous gains, tragic separation and firm belonging. We who live with the paradox day by day can manage yet another one: To be advocates for international adoption while simultaneously working to make it unnecessary. ...We can perhaps foster the change by choosing to adopt only in socially responsible and ethically sound ways that underscore the need for other solutions.

...Only when we become advocates for all children will the future of each child be justly assured."