How do you save 147 million orphans?

ONE AT A TIME!

Jon and I have spent alot of time on the Reece's Rainbow website looking at all the children who desperately need families to come get them. Hundreds of photos. Thousands. Page after page after page. Jon finally stopped me one night and with tears in his eyes said, "There are just so many." Indeed. I have often wondered if we are really making a difference by adopting just one of the MILLIONS of orphans. One. Out of 147 million. 147,000,000. Seems like a grain of sand compared to the ocean bed. I never thought Leanna would be our only adoption, and I don't think Vera will be the last one either. But even with that...2 children? Out of MILLIONS?!

Since finding Vera, I have many, many new friends in blog-world. One of them posted this a few weeks ago and it made me cry. You may have read it before. I hadn't.

Once upon a time there was a wise man

who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.

He had a habit of walking on the

beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.

As he looked down the beach, he saw a

human figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think of someone

who would dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a

young man and the young man wasn't

dancing, but instead he was reaching

down to the shore, picking up something

and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out,

"Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused, looked up and replied,

"Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked,

why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"The sun is up and the tide is going out.

And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

"But, young man, don't you realize that there are

miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it.

You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely.

Then bent down, picked up another starfish

and threw it into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said -

"It made a difference for that one."

And we will make a difference for this one