No, a sacrifice is something so much deeper. Let’s look at the ultimate sacrifice: In 1 John 4:10 is says
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (NIV)
giving up your life for another…that is sacrifice. I have been thinking about our baby girl’s biological mom, and what she must have had to go through. No, I don’t know who our baby is yet, but GOD knows…He just hasn’t revealed her face to us yet. But, I do know she is from China. And, almost every baby who is abandoned is left because the birth mom had NO OTHER CHOICE. We are so fortunate to live in America….SO FORTUNATE. See, if we have a baby who is born with a special need…we are “right away” given encouragement, support and education to help us better parent that child. We are also living in a country with amazing health care benefits…compared to a country with NO health care benefits.
Not in China, when a child is born with a special need, many parents are left with NO way to care for that child financially. Also, there are MANY old superstitions in China that hold on tightly to the newer generation’s ways of thinking. These beliefs are rooted in fear that if your child is born with a disability or visible problem (ie:cleft lip, or clubbed foot) then your family will be cursed if that child is kept in the family. Most likely, if you are the mom who chooses to keep that dear little baby because you can’t imagine life without him or her, then you are shunned, kicked out of your home and left to live on the cold streets with no food, shelter, or support. This is often what happens. It is very sad. A mom, in desperation to save her baby’s life, has no other choice but to leave the baby. The sweet baby, whom she probably loves more than life itself, is left in a public area where they will be surely found and taken to an orphanage. See, I imagine that most of these moms are having to literally and tearfully with wails of sadness, rip their sweet baby from their chest in a despairing decision, a desperate choice to assure that their baby is fed, warm, sheltered, and hopefully cared for. They give up the right to ever be called mommy, to cuddle with, to nurture, to kiss their little one and to see that child grow up. They have to give up their child to save it’s life. THAT IS SACRIFICE.
Tonight, as we get prepared to have our “Individual” social worker interviews tomorrow, I am so excited for one more step to be accomplished to get us to our daughter. But, the reality of it all….as I learn more of how these children end up in these institutions (specifically in China), I am carrying a heavy heart for those Chinese birth moms that carry the weight of such a HUGE selfless choice to “save their child.” They are the true “sacrificers.”
***note: if you would like to read an AMAZING book about the plight of the orphan in China, and you would like a real and raw look at a specific orphanage in China where one woman’s great humanitarian efforts to bring positive change brought hope and help to many children. Then, check out this book: Silent Tears: A Journey Of Hope In A Chinese Orphanage by : Kay Bratt.
It is a fast read, but very heart gripping…and it will also give you a better understanding of why our family’s hearts are being so strongly and intensly pulled to China orphans. It’s one of the best book I have ever read.