Why I want to adopt

I came across this great video today about a boy's orphanage in west Detroit. It's heart-warming to hear about their experiences there and to see their determination to control their behavior and anger and to always persevere with their goals. While it still breaks my heart to see them in a flawed system, as just a small number of the 18,000 youth in orphanages in Michigan, I can't help but think that, according to edmundriceinternational.org, 700 kids sleep on the streets of Buenos Aires every night, and thousands roam the city every day begging for coins, often for an adult they are working for or so their parents can buy paco (the cheapest version of cocaine).

Today I was walking alongside a waterfront in Puerto Madero after leaving the library at la Universidad Católica de Argentina and saw two children walking alongside each other, each less than 3 feet tall, without shoes and clearly without bathing for a long time. What was so striking about these two young boys was that they moved about and interacted with each other as if they were 17-year-old boys. I'm not sure how else to describe it other than they had the mannerisms of people twice their age and twice their height. It was hard to miss the juxtaposition of these two street kids walking over a beautiful cobblestone path alongside flashy restaurants and happy couples and friends posing for pictures along this charming waterfront.

Minutes later, as I sat down along the curb to contemplate whether or not I should buy an ice cream from the shop meters away, a man approached me and asked me politely, yet meekly for a piece of my time, with a slightly frightened look as if I might snap at him. He started explaining to me about this magazine he was selling for 3 pesos, or about $0.80, that exists to use the proceeds to give opportunities to street kids so that they don't have to beg for money. Although I'm still not sure what he meant by that, I bought a magazine anyways (there were pretty photos). After awhile he felt comfortable enough to sit down beside me and even introduce himself. I'd definitely say he's one of the nicer people I've met in the city.

Well I didn't end up buying the ice cream, but that's irrelevant and had more to do with the fact that I just didn't want to spend the money (but really, US$4 for a small???) Anyways, I've been thinking about adoption ever since high school when I learned about Compassion International (compassion.com) that let's you sponsor a child for a certain donation each month to provide them with education, food, and other basic necessities. This world has everything we could need to sustain each human body in it, but resources are so badly distributed and hoarded by a small percentage of the world. Right now I feel so full from dinner that it's kind of uncomfortable (french fries and fried fish....Marieta and I just had a discussion about how I don't want her to buy fried food anymore and she was really surprised and said, "But I thought you'd like it since you're American"). I feel guilty. The guilt of the "haves." I think I'm gonna start bringing extra food with me to give out. I'm not quite sure why it took me 2 months to get to this point, but if I'm so unsure against giving out money for fear of supporting someone's drug habit, a healthy food is a great alternative.

Noting the above statement, I realize that I tend to end my more pensive blog posts with some sort of tangible way to apply what I've learned. So for me, I'll say that this week I'll buy more fruit at the fruitería in the mornings to give out as I go along during my day. And I will be praying about adoption. How will you respond?