Adoption Awareness Month: Orphan Care and Family Support

James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

November is National Adoption Month, which aims to bring awareness to vulnerable children that are abandoned, neglected, or orphaned. In today’s episode, Kristy shares how Samaritan’s Purse is supporting orphans, coming alongside adoptive families and sharing God’s love with the next generation. She also invites her husband, Edward Graham, to help share their own adoptive story.

First, Kristy hears from Penny Fairo, the Executive Director of the Samaritan’s Purse Greta Home and Academy. Constructed after the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the Greta Home provides a Christian environment for orphans and vulnerable children. Its vision is to train young men and women to become leaders in their community.

The Greta Home offers a residential living program for children 7 to 14 years old.

“They live in the main campus in family groups,” Penny shares. “Each group has mama and papa caretakers that care for them in that family-like setting because God designed family. [We] want children to be in families.”

One of the main goals of the Greta Home is family reunification—ensuring the children are living in a safe and loving home. Because of this ministry, 30 children have been reunified with their families.

Kristy then speaks with Marg Baker, the Director of Mercy Ministries. Samaritan’s Purse supports their orphanage program in Thailand and Cambodia as they care for children who would otherwise be living in poverty on the street. The baby’s homes raise them from infancy to age 19 in a safe, secure, and loving environment.

“To see the faces of these young children that have been used and abused – you can’t help but be heartbroken,” Marg tells Kristy. “We didn’t have children psychologists or twelve-step programs, or all those things the western world would offer, but we had Jesus.”

Kristy and Edward Graham also felt the call to care for orphans through adoption. They share their adoptive story with Melissa Strickland, the Samaritan’s Purse director of communications.

After having three children of their own, Edward and Kristy knew God was calling them to international adoption. Shortly after, they received the difficult news that Edward’s grandmother had passed away and had left them a gift.

“We were sitting at her funeral and I just felt convicted,” Edward shares. His grandmother had left them a gift of money—it wasn’t enough to fund the adoption process, but it stirred their hearts. “I just looked at Kristy and said, ‘College or life?’ And she smiled and said ‘I choose life.’ So when we came home from that funeral we started the adoption process.”

When Kristy and Edward adopted their son from China, he was four years old. While traveling, they encountered sicknesses and setbacks, and they encourage adoptive families to rely on God, family, friends, and each other.

The episode closes with Kristy and Edward sharing ways to be involved in adoption, family support, and orphan care.

Edward reiterates to listeners that while it is Biblical to care for the orphan and widow, not everyone is called to adopt. However, all Christians are called to pray for orphans and families around the world.

This Adoption Awareness Month, please pray for Samaritan’s Purse partners working to bring loving and nurturing environments for orphans, as well as families striving to bring utmost care to these hurting children.