Perspective

Life is all about perspective.  When I was home doing fundraising for a week, I couldn't wait for it to rain.  It's rained for all of 10 minutes in the last 8 months here in Monterrey.  Probably every other person in Cincinnati was thinking they'd love some sun and a little heat since it's been raining non stop this spring.  Perspective.  Today in our training series about caring for abused/neglected children we talked about the grief and loss that a parent goes through dropping their child off in a children's home.  So often we forget about their perspective.  What we see is a hurting, broken child who doesn't understand why their parent just abandoned them.  That is where we usually pour our energy and our heart and we forget about the other half.  Part of gaining that perspective was talking about the stereotypes we have towards these parents.  As you can see, the list is pretty negative.  We only got a few positive traits, and that was after asking for something positive.  For us to really understand orphan issues, we have to understand and have compassion towards the mother or father who drops their child off.  Their situations are unique, and they all have different reasons for dropping their kids off in a children's home.  To lump them all together as "bad" people who don't care about their kids will do us all a disservice.  Today I gained more perspective on them.  I felt sad for those moms today, they spent Mother's Day without their children.  Imagine the pain and grief of a day focused around being a Mom when you yourself can't do the "mom" things.  Pray for the moms of our kids, that in their grief they would find hope in Christ.  And pray for the children's home and teen home parents who stand in as moms, that they would remain strong and not grow tired of loving and serving these children who so desperately want someone to care about them.