A little perspective

When you adopt a child, there is always that uncomfortable moment when that four letter word "cost", comes up.
How much did she "cost".
Any you gently explain that you didn't spend your first hours with your child with a bottle of goo-gone in one hand while briskly rubbing the price tag sticky off with the other.
But, why does it cost so much? These kids have nothing, why are they charging you?
Completely forgetting all of the very reasonable places the money is really spent.
Air line tickets
finger prints
FedEx
Homestudy
government papers
government papers
government papers
foreign government papers
foreign government papers
foreign government papers
court costs
foreign court costs
hotel
and at the bottom of the list- orphanage fee (this helps keep the orphanage running for the million other children still waiting.

And still people don't understand it.

I read this on a blog today, she took if from someone else's blog, and I have blatantly snatched it from hers.
No matter, it perfectly puts the cost into perspective.

A wise person once told us as we were lamenting the cost, that we were not “buying children”, that we could not look at it that way. We had to look at the cost of adoption as “ransom.”
Think about it. Anyone of us would give up everything we had if one of our children currently in our home were held for ransom. We would pay whatever it took. Family would join in, friends would join in, strangers would line up to help. No one would think “well that kid deserves being held for ransom because of XYZ” … the thought is terrifying.

Look at adoption costs the same way. You are potentially stealing the future away from these children. But in a good way. There is a child being born in the US right now who needs a family so they do not grow up without hope! There is a child living in an orphanage where they share a 10x12 room with 15 other children at night who needs your help! There is an HIV positive child in a far away land who if they could only make it to the US would live a long and happy life because of all the breakthrough medicine. There is an older child that once they are aged out of the system will surely be forced into prostitution! Pay the ransom for these children, please … I humbly beg of you."

I would add that this goes hand in hand with the true "cost" of adoption- our lives for hers.
Jesus paid the ransom for us, and we must pay the ransom for these children.