Treasured Pearls: 12

It's hard to believe that twelve years ago yesterday, a B-I-G bundle of joy entered our lives. JA joined us at 4:45pm on 9/18/98. Today, he is the older brother to 3 and soon to be 4.

He is a sensitive, sweet child.

He has a heart for God.

He is very creative.

He was instrumental in us pursuing the adoption of DJ.

He LOVES his little sisters.

And tolerates his little brother :-)

He is a very good writer.

And wants to be a video game designer one day.

He plays drums.

And baseball.

but prefers playing Wii.

He has curly hair that he insists on covering up with a hat.

and we love him beyond measure.

Oh, yeah. I mentioned he was our BIG bundle of joy -

he weighed in at 11 lbs 9 oz

and 22" long

Yep, he is still big, he is now 5'2" (same as me).

I don't want to even think about how tall he will be AFTER his growth spurt.

Orphan Statistics

Inter-country adoption has decreased 59 percent from its high in 2004, due primarily to restrictions by sending countries.
81.5 million Americans have considered adoption. If just 1 in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child would have a permanent family.
Every year more than 23,000 children age out of foster care, leaving them without families of their own.
The average waiting child is 7.5 years old.
Last year, nearly 9,000 children were adopted internationally
Of the estimated 238,280 children who exited foster care during 2013, the median amount of time spent in care was 21.8 months.
In 2013, California and Texas were the two U.S. states with the most children in public foster care waiting for adoption.
As of 2013, an estimated 17.7 million children worldwide had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.
The births of nearly 230 million children under age 5 worldwide (about one in three) have never been recorded, depriving them of their right to a name and nationality
http://showhope.org/9-stats-about-the-orphan-crisis/

Sunday, September 19, 2010

12

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