Why Adopt a Girl?
/We have been asked on a number of occasions about why we wanted to adopt a little girl (NOTE: we are open to adopting 1 girl and 1 boy). Africa has a saying that we resonate with:
If you educate a man, you simply educate an individual,
but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.
In Rich Stearns', President of World Vision (world's largest NGO), opinion, "the single most significant thing that can be done to cure extreme poverty is this: protect, educate, and nurture girls and woman and provide them with equal rights and opportunities - educationally, economically, and socially."
In our world today, being female isn't what God intended gender partnership to look like.
Sadly, in our world today, being female often means being sentenced to a life of poverty, abuse, exploitation, and deprivation.
Compared to her male counterpart, a girl growing up in the developing world is more lifely to die before her fifth birthday and less likely to go to school, since girls are often forced to work rather than attend school...She is less apt to receive adequate food, health care, and economic opportunities... [R. Stearns]
Here are some other heartbreaking realities:
- 500,000 women die every year from complications in childbirth [= 1 women/minute].
- Female babies are killed in some countries just because they aren't boys.
- Women own less than 1% of the world's property, but work 2/3 of all the world's labor hours. They earn just 10% of the world's wages.
- Girls in developing countries are often forced to quit school when they get their periods.
- 2/3 of the world's illiterate population are women.
In the words of Annie, "It's a knock life". So, if Brian & I can be a part of protecting 1 or 2 girls' future, we choose girls. And we believe and trust that our daughter(s) will be a part of the global change for women's rights!
