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Sara Luepschen
Instructor Mat Wenzel
ENC 2135
18 July 2017
Show Hope
Adoption is an opportunity to give life to a child that is without a permanent home and lacking a source of unconditional love. It is an expansion of the family and of the heart. In 2015, there were 140 million children in the world that were considered orphans, left parentless or with parents that were unable or unwilling to care for them (“Orphans”). The number since then has only grown and will continue to grow unless there is an increase in the number of capable families that are willing to accept a child into their home.
I have had the chance to personally experience how wondrous adoption is, by following the adoption journey of the Altman family. My brother in law, Matthew Altman, has a little sister, Jaelynn, who was adopted from China. The adoption of Chinese children by American parents is popular because there is a massive number of children put up for adoption at a young age in that country. The Chinese “government has been ‘calling on’ each couple of the dominant Han ethnicity to have only one child” (Gann 75). Furthermore, there is an exceptionally high amount of girls up for adoption because the Chinese culture values having sons more than daughters. This means that there will be more adoptions of girls than boys from China. It also doubles as a call for Americans to care for the left behind children of that country, which could be why so many families here feel the desire to adopt internationally.
In 2011, Matthew’s older sister, Katie, met Jaelynn while working in one of China’s rare, private, special needs orphanages during a mission trip. This orphanage is unique as it is run by the organization Show Hope, which was created by the famous Christian singer Stephen Curtis Chapman. Their goal is to make it financially possible for any family willing to adopt to do so, while providing assistance to the families afterward if the child needs therapy or any further support. In addition, they do all that they can to care for the orphans while they are still living in a Show Hope orphanage (Altman). Non-profits like this one are well-known for their meaningful work. Johnson says, “[T]ies to international adoption have been deeply entrenched through central and local ties to international adoption agencies and to international nonprofit charitable foundations, some of which are organized and funded by foreign adoptive parents, who have become widely involved in funding various orphanage and foster care programs.” This author has done his research on adoption, which led to his conclusion that programs like Show Hope are crucial to help cover the expenses of adoption.
This organization cares for the orphans with great compassion, but even they know there is nothing that compares to the love a family can give a child. The article “Adoption: The Best Form of Protection” says, “…parents are—by far— the best form of protection we can give children who need it. An institution won’t agonize over when to step in and when to give a child a little bit more hope, nurturing, or encouragement. Institutions cannot love like parents can.” This statement is pointing out that only a family can give a child that perfect, unconditional love. Institutions, like orphanages and agencies, will never fully be able to give a kid the life he or she wants and deserves. This is why Show Hope strives so diligently to get these orphans adopted.
The singer and songwriter, Stephen Curtis Chapman, provides many influential songs, videos, and books that double as texts that support the vision of Show Hope. He has written several songs that are related to caring for orphans. One of the most meaningful and personal is called “When Love Takes You In”. The lyrics go:
I know you've heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn't seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream
Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
And somewhere while you're sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
When love takes you in it takes you in for good. (Chapman)
The words that Chapman sings work to promote the message of Show Hope. They allow the audience to hear the mindset and perspective of a child without a family and place to call home. The lyrics also encourage families to make a home for orphans. The pathos in this song is strong and surely effective. “When Love Takes You In” almost sounds like it could be a theme song for this organization because it describes everything that they are working to do—care for orphans while working to find a permanent family for them.
The 2 minute video that plays when you visit the Show Hope page is titled “What if every child had a family?” (Show Hope). One little question with one big impact. There are clips of children running in a field, flying a kite, and in the arms of their parents. The video starts off on a more depressing note, with statistics on how many orphans there are in the world. As it progresses we start to notice that the story is more of joy. It is on the hope that they have for families to come forward to adopt. The children share how Show Hope has helped them, personally, get adopted. They tell their audience how we can do something to make a difference, from donating to volunteering for a 3 week mission trip in Beijing. A soft tune is playing in the background. As their message becomes more energized, the beat of the song picks up as well.
Show Hope states that their mission is “…dedicated to restoring hope to millions of children living as orphans by breaking down barriers between waiting children and loving families. As we work to restore hope, we strive to meet these needs by supporting Care Centers in China that provide loving, attentive care for children with acute medical and special needs. More than 2,300 children have received care at these Care Centers” (Show Hope, “Our Work”). It is obvious that this non-profit works for the benefit of the fatherless and motherless children of the world. They want to make international adoption more accessible to American families. Unfortunately, laws and regulations can make adoption more tedious than it needs to be. Show Hope is working to make the adoption process more smooth so that there will be an increase in the number of families that apply to adopt yearly. Show Hope wants to bring parents and children together creating a “forever family” as they call it.
The Altman family began the adoption process knowing there would be challenges, especially financial ones as international adoptions can be pricey. In their case, the adoption costed approximately $26,000. The number felt daunting to them, but they were trusting in God to provide for them (Altman). It is much more expensive to adopt outside of the United States due to transportation and having to work with agencies from other countries. Professor Efrat and colleagues state, “Beyond the fees the adoption agency charges, prospective parents usually incur travel, lodging, and transportation expenses as well as legal and administrative costs. In addition to these costs, the lengthy and uncertain process exacts an emotional cost” (617). This means that there is so much more to the cost of adoption than that black and white number obtained from an adoption agency. The costs can be extensive and the families are usually not aware of the full cost until the surprise charges pop out at them.
Fortunately, in the Altman’s situation, many individuals, organizations, and churches contributed to make the adoption possible. The Altman’s hosted several fundraisers, such as spaghetti dinners, and saved every penny they possibly could. Their extended family held yard sales and sold t-shirts. There are also government statutes in place that assists as “a federal adoption tax credit knocks $5,000 off your tax bill for each child you adopt ($6,000 for a ‘special needs’ or ‘hard-to-place’ child)” (Gallagher). This is a major incentive to families that want to adopt but are wary of the financial burden. It even encourages the adoption of special needs children, who have more trouble being adopted than other kids.
Show Hope provided the Altman’s with the most impactful financial relief. They gifted the family with a large grant that helped significantly. Because of this groups contribution to the adoption cost, the Altman family was able to bring Jaelynn home without incurring thousands of dollars of debt, as many families must do to adopt (Altman, interview).
The adoption community is large and ever-growing as approximately “…135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year” (“Fact Sheet”). That number only includes the United States adoptions and there are even more internationally. These families that have chosen to adopt certainly share a unique bond. Matthew tells me that once they went through the adoption process, they felt connected to this special group. They feel there is encouragement and knowledge found within these people that have been on a similar journey to them. Show Hope has given the Altman’s the ability to meet with others that have children adopted from China. Even Jaelynn was given the opportunity to reconnect with children that she knew from the orphanage she lived in. In the my interview with Matthew he said, “There is not a doubt in any of our hearts that Jaeylnn is a part of our family. We just had to wait a little bit longer to meet her” (Altman). Adoption can be a stressful experience, but in the end it is a gift like no other and is rewarding beyond belief.
I would like to express my gratitude to my brother-in-law Matthew Altman for sharing his knowledge on the subject of adoption with me. The story he shared with me about his family’s adoption journey was a major source of inspiration for my research paper.
Works Cited
"Adoption: The Best Form of Protection." Vital speeches of the day 79.5 (2013): 148-51. Print.
Altman, Matthew. Personal Interview. 10 July 2017.
Steven Curtis Chapman. “When Love Takes You In.” Declaration, Sparrow Records, 2003.
Efrat, Asif, et al. "Babies Across Borders: The Political Economy of International Child Adoption." International Studies Quarterly 59.3 (2015): 615-28. Print.
"Fact Sheet." PBS. January 17, 2010. Web. July 15, 2017
<http://www.pbs.org/pov/offandrunning/fact-sheet/>.
Gallagher, Stephanie. "The Many Roads to Adoption." Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine 52.4 (1998): 50. Print.
Gann, Fang. "A Special US-China Relationship: American Adoptions of Chinese Children." Washington Journal of Modern China 9.1 (2008): 73-95. Print.
"Orphans." Unicef. June 16, 2017. Web. July 15, 2017
<https://www-unicef-org.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/media/media_45279.html>.
"Our Work." Show Hope. Web. July 15, 2017 <https://showhope.org/our-work/>.
Annotated Bibliography
"Adoption: The Best Form of Protection." Vital speeches of the day 79.5 (2013): 148-51. Print.
This source tells the story of several families in the adoption community. As the title suggests, it discusses how adoption is the best form of protection and that a home is always much better than an orphanage. There may be bias in this speech because the author works closely with adoptions. She may be unable to see the big picture because she is so close to the orphans and adopting families. I feel this source will provide assistance when I need a personal take on certain things related to adoption.
Altman, Matthew. Personal Interview. 10 July 2017.
My interview with Matthew Altman was incredibly informative. He is the source that I gained inspiration from. His sister was adopted via the organization Show Hope. Now, I have a very good story and example of adoption that I can share in my paper. If I have any further questions about Show Hope I can direct them to Matthew because I know he would be able to answer them all. His family had to work closely with Show Hope to make the adoption possible so he is clearly qualified to answer questions. I do not think there would be much bias at all with this source. Also, if he had a bad experience with this organization he would have no reason to not share it with me as it would not effect him in any way since the adoption is finalized.
Steven Curtis Chapman. When Love Takes You In. Sparrow Records, 2003.
This song was written by the founder of the organization I am researching. The way the song is written is as if it is addressed to an orphan. The lyrics describe how the child and family must feel. It touches on the feeling of loneliness and despair that the child has when he or she has lost faith that they will have a family. The song then goes onto the feeling of joy that the family and child feel when they are able to be together at last. The lyrics draw tears to my eyes. I want to use them in my research paper for the pathos effect. They are very impactful and I know it will be an effective tool to influence my reader.
Efrat, Asif, et al. "Babies Across Borders: The Political Economy of International Child Adoption." International Studies Quarterly 59.3 (2015): 615-28. Print.
This source analyzes the economic factors related to adoption. This document is very fact based. There is little to no bias in it. It mostly discusses the cost of adoption to families. The source will be useful to me so that I can mention in my paper about how much adoptive parents spend during the adoption process. The majority of this source is the analysis of numbers related to adoption.
"Fact Sheet." PBS. January 17, 2010. Web. July 15, 2017
<http://www.pbs.org/pov/offandrunning/fact-sheet/>.
This source is very factual. The research was done for a documentary that the Public Broadcasting Service was in the process of filming. It is possible that there could be bias one way or another in this source depending upon what the message of the documentary was. They may be wanting to influence their audience in a certain way. From what I can see, though, it simply gives statistics in relation to adoption. It shows statistics for both foreign and domestic adoptions. It even describes the demographics of adoptive parents. It talks about what it is like when there are two parents of the same gender. It would provide information on what states allowed gay couples to adopt. In addition, it also gives details on how homosexual adoptive parents tend to be more educated than heterosexual adoptive parents.
Gallagher, Stephanie. "The Many Roads to Adoption." Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine 52.4 (1998): 50. Print.
This is another more factual source that would have less bias in it This piece touches briefly on many different kinds of adoption. It talks about international adoption, domestic adoption, adoption of older children, and the adoption of children with special needs. I could not detect bias in it. It seemed to simply be stating the facts, and leaving out opinion. I intend to specifically use a direct quote from the section on the adoption of special needs children, as the subject of my interview with Matthew was a special needs girl.
Gann, Fang. "A Special US-China Relationship: American Adoptions of Chinese Children." Washington Journal of Modern China 9.1 (2008): 73-95. Print.
This source will be useful for when I need to talk about why the organization Show Hope is necessary in China. It discusses the One Child Policy which is the cause of so many young girls up for adoption in China. It has many statistics on orphan girls, which will be very helpful for me to prove my point.
Johnson, Kay. "Politics of International and Domestic Adoption in China." Law & Society Review 36.2 (2002): 379. Print.
This source has done research on adoption and seems to be very reliable. It discussed different practices in adoption and the “as if by birth” concept. It also talks about population control. There is not bias in it.
"Orphans." Unicef. June 16, 2017. Web. July 15, 2017
<https://www-unicef-org.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/media/media_45279.html>.
This was a very short source and gave me less information than the others. It provides me with statistics on the growing number of orphans. I do not see how there could be absolutely any bias in this source because it seems to be purely factual. I will use it to tell my audience how many orphans there are in the world.
"Our Work." Show Hope. Web. July 15, 2017 <https://showhope.org/our-work/>.
This is the official website for the organization that I am researching. It will provide me with information about their goals. I plan on using their mission statement in my research paper. I can also use it to find specific examples of their adoption stories to make use of in my paper. This source will be my place to find information specifically on Show Hope. I am assuming there will be bias in this source as they will think highly of themselves.