Hunger

Benjamin loves to eat and he loves food.  When he first came to us, he gobbled down his food and asked to be excused.  Now he has learned our way of sitting and visiting and eating as we talk.  He soaks in the family time.  He hangs out at the dinner table.  The amount of food that it takes to fill him up at any one meal is at least double what I saw him served at meals in his orphanage, if not triple.  He has told me several times, "Benjamin hungry in Pishanna.  Benjamin full in America."  It hurts my heart to think of him going hungry but reminds me of a quote from Mother Teresa, "Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."  Watching first hand how Benjamin is blossoming just by being loved, wanted, in a family, is proof how we all so need to be wanted and loved as human beings.  I think if Benjamin could express it, he would say the same thing.  It was a great hunger within him.  He is slowly filling himself on our love and he is thriving.

God did not create us to be alone.  He did not intend for children to not have a family.  There are so many other children who need homes, who need families.  When I look back through our pictures of our time at the orphanage, the kids' faces tear at my heart.  So many of them long for a family.  When I hear of the 3 day old baby girl who is HIV exposed here in the U.S. and needs a foster family, it hurts me deeply.  Imagine how our God feels.  I can only imagine He is so disappointed in us that there are still kids out there without parents.  We as a church are rising up but we need to do more.  One of the verses our kids are memorizing is, "Defend the poor and fatherless..."  Psalm 82:3.  To hear a former orphan say that is heart wrenching.

The vast majority of kids who age out of their orphanage in Ukraine will die, be in jail, or turn to prostitution within a couple of years.....which means before they even turn 20.  And the numbers are almost the same for kids who age out of the U.S. foster care system without a family.  It simply is not acceptable.

I am in remission from cancer right now, but the statistics give me a 65 - 70% of recurrence in a major organ or organs within the next 3 years.  Then the stats just get scarier.  Even so, I have a better chance of being alive when this sweet boy's 20th birthday rolls around than he does.  That is just so hard for me to accept.

And this precious boy...

And this sweet angel....

The pictures could go on and on of children who need someone to care.  These happen to be kids I have held and hugged and shared my gum and chapstick and lotion with (and anything else I happened to have), so they have imprinted on my heart.  But there are kids all over, in Ukraine, in Africa, and yes, even here in the U.S.  They need us to feed their hunger for love, their hunger to be known, their hunger to be wanted.

If not us, then who?  Throughout scripture, we see that God cares about the hungry, the poor, the fatherless, and the widow.  Over and over again.  We are also commanded to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1).  It is important and it matters.  And it has eternal value.  What could be more important?