Defending the Cause of the Fatherless

Through a friend, I recently found a challenge posted on Tom Davis’ (author of “Fields of the Fatherless” and many other books) blog, in response to the movie Orphan. Mr. Davis encouraged his readers to counter this movie’s message by filling the internet with positive stories about orphan care and adoption, so that when people search for information about the film, they will also come across the truth. Specifically, he challenged people to finish the following sentence: "Warner Bros. new horror movie Orphan proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. Let me tell you about how an orphan changed my life..."

This is my story:

I recently was visiting a hundred or so special-needs orphans in Asia, and while many of them touched my heart, I was particularly affected by one young woman I met, the same age as my friend and me. At age five, she was severely burned in a home kitchen fire, a tragedy that left her scarred and disfigured. Ultimately, it left her orphaned as well, as her family could not care for her special needs. So, there she was. A young girl who had lived through an excruciating fire only to be abandoned and left on her own in the midst of her great physical and emotional pain. Eventually, she came into the care of this particular “children’s village” I visited, where she was welcomed in by other orphans and staff members and showered with love and affection. They provided many of the surgeries she needed and showed her the love of Chr*st in a very real and life-changing way. When my path crossed hers for the first time last month, I was in awe of the amazing person she has become. Despite missing several fingers on her hands, she can take care of the large majority of her personal needs, eat with chopsticks, and knit like nobody’s business. She greets people with the brightest, most cheerful smile I’ve ever seen and gives the best hugs in the whole wide world. Her face absolutely radiates with the delight of the L*rd and she spreads such joy to everyone she meets. The more I got to know her, the less and less I even noticed her scars. She is a beautiful treasure, inside and out. To those who are tempted to cast aside special needs children and orphans like her, all I can say is that you are missing out on a tremendous blessing. My heart has been gladdened through this new friend, my soul has been challenged by her amazing example of steadfast joy in our S*vior’s great work on our behalf, and my life has been changed because G*d so wondrously allowed our paths to cross. This young woman has been a profound encouragement and an immense blessing to me and I can’t even think what I would have missed out on if I had not met her!