Contact: Vickie Bryan, 662-342-9401, vickiepattersonbryan@lycos.com 

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- Recent news stories highlight the worldwide orphan crisis featuring celebrity adoptions.  What is the Church doing to ease the plight of the 143 million orphans of the world?  Orphan ministries perform good works but what about individual members of the body of Christ?  Do we think about these fatherless children in the world?  In the United States alone 20,000 children age out of the foster care system each year, while over 118,000 children wait for a family. These children need Christians to give them families and teach them to become adult servants for our Lord.

I am a Christian mom of five children through both domestic (foster care) and international adoption. After twelve long years of barrenness my husband and I turned to adoption to build a family. What took us so long to consider the needs of these children? My desire focused on my needs for a child, not on a child's need for a parent.  In retrospect, we wished we had become instruments in God's hands much sooner.

My challenge to the Church is to consider the deprivation of orphans worldwide. Ask yourself, "What can I do to make a difference in one of these children's lives?"  Prayerfully consider adoption. If a reader finds themselves barren after a period of fertility treatments, please consider adoption sooner, than later.  Orphans are depending on our answering the call.

Our story is chronicled in The Heart of Adoption, a book available on amazon.com (1-60034-710-X). The Heart of Adoption encourages readers as they walk with God through the adoption process to parenthood. Help support adoption by purchasing The Heart of Adoption for yourself and another to give to someone considering adoption.  Adoption may not always be easy, but it is eternally rewarding.