Prayer Points:

Pray for the people involved: 

• Pray for the ATU unit (Adoption Transition Unit) staff at OKDHS that are advocating for adoptive families when reunification is not possible. 

• Pray for private placement agencies that are advocating for private adoptions. These adoptions often remain “open” maintaining connections with biological families. 

• Pray for children and youth waiting to be adopted. Every adoption has both a hope for the future but loss associated with the past. 

Pray for the places involved:

• Pray for the online and in-person events and activities that are advocating for available children that need to be adopted. Pray for the tension between advocating well for children but maintaining their privacy. 

• Pray for communities where waiting children are living. They are often the very places where others meet and grow to love these children. Ideally, families that know and love adoptive children are often the best families to become their forever families. 

Activity:

Journal your thoughts.

1. Read Ephesians 1:5 (NLT): “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it game him great pleasure.” Thank God for this opportunity in Jesus Christ.

2. What is the difference between a spiritual adoption vs an earthly adoption?

3. Is there any benefits of comparing the two? Any dangers?

4. Name some biblical characters that you can think of that were adopted.

5. Glance over the Oklahoma Heart Gallery and proclaim the hope of some of these biblical stories over the children waiting for adoption in the Oklahoma Child Welfare System.

Get Involved:

• Become an advocate for children in the Oklahoma Foster Care system needing adoption. Because these children are needing adoptive homes, there are easier ways to assists in finding adoptive families for these children. Look at the Oklahoma Heart Gathering site or local news station’s waiting child videos. 

• Volunteer at a local pregnancy center promoting adoption or parenting of children instead of abortion.

• Partner with one of the local private adoption agencies in the State of Oklahoma.

• Look for ways to support especially newly adoptive families and also families that have adopted children with special needs. Trauma and loss associated with events in the womb and well before adoption can lead to lifelong challenges. Adopted youth and families need our grace and continued support.

Sophia’s Story (Continued):

Because Sophia’s mom is working towards reunification, Sophia and her brothers are not available for adoption. Sophia’s mom is their mother, and Sophia and her brothers’ foster parents are just that… parents. In great foster care scenarios something beautiful can happen… more people know, love, and are looking out for the amazing kiddos in the Oklahoma foster care system. Everyone needs support even Sophia’s mom. Sophia’s story, like many stories, is still being written, but you can make a difference by taking a next step in being involved because we believe everyone can do something to end the child welfare crisis in Oklahoma. We all can believe that one day we will see families waiting on children instead of children waiting on families.

Watch Jordan’s Story – In the first 12 hours after this story aired, OKDHS received 5,000 web inquiries from people all over the country, Casey White, Communications Administrator at Oklahoma’s DHS, told TODAY. There are typically less than 500 children needing adoption at any time in Oklahoma. What if Oklahoma’s 6,200 churches advocated for the children waiting for adoption in their community. What if every community sought to see that there was no waiting children in their community.

Watch Marissa’s Story – Marissa and her adoptive parents met a local youth shelter. Their gradual friendship grew into a forever family!