Today, as we pray for foster children and orphans, I’m also praying for a teen boy whose world just fell apart—a precious young man who unexpectedly became a key player in a family tragedy that is shaking the world.
The young man, son of adoption advocate, and award-winning Christian singer/songwriter, Steven Curtis Chapman, ran into his youngest sister, five-year-old Maria, when driving his car in the family’s driveway. Maria later died.
Little Maria Sue was adopted from China, as were two of her sisters, also adopted by the Chapmans. The Chapmans' heart for adoption is depicted by the work of their nonprofit organization, Shaohannah's Hope, which serves to help Christian families to adopt by offering financial aid.
Read the entire story in the Nashville Tennessean.
Or read it on FOXNews.com."
See this moving video of Steven with two of his adopted daughter-—including little Maria-here.
url - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-eXJM4vVmQ
Ironic that this tragedy took place the same exact week that has been dedicated to praying to foster children? (See www.FamilyLife.com.) No, not ironic. Perhaps God will use this tragedy to make our prayers more powerful, to wake up the sleeping giant—the church—to grab hold of her responsibilities and reach out to orphans. Perhaps God will use this to raise up families to adopt and foster.
Yes, this tragedy will shake the world. But let’s pray that it will also wake it up. Let’s pray the world will be stirred so that the tears of a young man crying over the loss of his sister—tears mingled with sorrow, confusion, perhaps senseless all-too-human guilt—are not in vain. And let’s pray for this boy also.
May God use this calamity to open our eyes to those in need, to the beauty of adoption, and may He probe our hearts constantly so that we all do our part in helping the fatherless.
Janey L. DeMeo, MA © May 2008
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