The Face of Need

I’ve passed by homeless people and ignored them. I have. So have you. I’ve heard of needs in the world and did nothing. I’ve seen commercials on TV about hurting and starving children and I’ve turned the channel.

It’s easy to ignore what you don’t personally experience.

Until now, shamefully, I rarely thought of orphans. I did nothing to care for them, not really. Sending money to an organization is a start (and a good start, mind you) but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

It wasn’t until we had an orphaned girl in our home this summer that my perspective changed. She was a girl, a teenager, not just an image on a screen or picture in an ad. She was real. She had feelings and emotions and needs. And when I looked at her I saw everything she had in common with my own teenage daughters.

And everything she didn’t.

When my daughters are scared they come to us, Mom and Dad. When someone has wounded their feelings they talk to us. When they have questions about life or the future we discuss it. When their angry or hurt or dealing with more than they can handle, they cry on our shoulders. We hug them. We talk to them. We kiss them on their cheeks. We provide for them.

This girl, this teenage girl, received none of that. And hasn’t for the last ten years. At least not from someone who loves her unconditionally. Not from Mom and Dad.

I saw the way our girls relate to us, the way they assume our love, our loyalty, our provision. And why wouldn’t they?

This girl had none of that. No Mom to teach her to be a mom herself. No Dad to show her what to look for in her future husband. No Mom to hug her when she hurts, no Dad to listen while she jabbers excitedly about the new friend she made. No parents to give her a home to live in, to love in, to experience life in.

She was alone.

She was real. Her needs were real. That great big black void in her heart was real.

Look, the reality is this. There is a great orphan problem in our world. Millions of kids are growing up with no parents. One person can’t solve the problem. One person can’t eliminate the need. But one person can be a parent to one child.

This weekend Jen and I are going to launch our private Facebook page called B121 (be one, to one). Will you please consider joining us in this effort to not only bring our daughter home but to raise awareness of the great need that’s out there and how one person can change the life of one child?