Those of you who know me well, know that I don’t cry often.  My entire MOPS table with tears streaming down their faces broke into laughter over me… the lone wolf of 10 with no tears after a particularly moving session.  I was moved and convicted just as they were, but those emotions don’t always connect with my tear ducts. Usually only anger or that ever present beast of perfectionism cause me tears. Occasionally tears of repentance fall.  But stories (mostly) don’t make me cry.

Not yesterday.

Shaun Groves had my children asking me “What’s wrong, mama? Why you cry?”  I hug them a little tighter.  I can’t imagine choosing between giving them up and watching them not be fed because I couldn’t provide.

And it was this post that had me doubled over in tears.  These words about orphan prevention from a father who has adopted and loved an orphan for 2 years.  And today they break me again.

As much as I love my son I wish Compassion had been in his neighborhood when he was eighteen months old, when his seizures started. Malnutrition so ravaged his little mind that his mother kissed him goodbye one morning, wrapped him in a blanket and – because of love – gave him the life she couldn’t afford to provide.

If Compassion had been there, sure, I would have missed out on being his dad, but he would be tucked into bed tonight by a mother who has his face. And she would smile his smile when he laughs.

Sponsoring a child saves families. It’s orphan prevention. It’s giving boys and girls best.

I have a heart for orphans and, if the Lord wills, one day there will be one living in our house and laughing and crying and creating a whole new sort of Aldrich chaos.  And we will be grateful to the Lord who placed that child in our care and I will be heartbroken for that desperate mama who chose to give her baby up for the sort of life that she was not able to provide.

But I have never thought of the work that we do with Delsys as orphan prevention.  These letters we write, that $38 saved each month from saying no to two little girls begging to go out to eat every night, it keeps Delsys in a family.  In a home, with people who love her, look like her, and would give her up to give a chance to live her dreams. That is holy work.

Do you have a heart for orphans?  Please sponsor a child and be a part of the orphan prevention movement at Compassion.