Just a Thought

There have been many, horrible natural disasters over the last few years - earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, mud slides. They bring destruction and chaos and death and sadness. And they headline the news for a while, with counts of the thousands of lives lost or missing. It is all awful. But as I sat recently and listened to "2,000 confirmed dead and 8,000 still missing" a thought went through my head, "But what about the orphans?" Now, PLEASE HEAR ME, I am not in any way trying to make light of the pain and loss of recent disasters. But what about orphans. There are an estimated 4.3 million - that's right MILLION - orphans in Ethiopia. 4.3 million children will wake up in Ethiopia tomorrow without parents to love and protect and take care of them. 4.3 million is a really big number to get your head around - it's almost 2 million more than the entire population of Chicago; a little over 500,000 more than the population of Los Angeles; in fact, almost half the states in the United States have a smaller population than 4.3 million. And that's just the orphans in Ethiopia. Why are we not speaking about that ALL THE TIME!? But I know there are two less orphans in Ethiopia who I am blessed to call my sons. And I know there are hundreds of others who are not orphans because others in our agency have adopted them and continue to adopt them. And I know there is less because of the other agencies working in Ethiopia, working in Africa, working around the world, tirelessly, faithfully. So I had that thought and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. But I had to share it.