An Adoption Parable

An Adoption Parable.

A picture and two non-pictures:  weeping for joy, weeping bitterly, weeping over oppression.

About 10 years ago, my wife was asked to care for a new born baby.  For two days, she tenderly cared for this black baby girl.  Then on Wednesday evening at 5:30, the adopting white parents came by/buy to pick her and take her home.  As my wife handed the baby to her new adopting parents, the lawyer snapped pictures of this joyous occasion.  Tears of joy flowed down the new mother's face.  Some white friends had helped the new parents obtain the money for the adoption.

A beautiful story, but allow me to tell the rest of the story---the non-picture stories.

Two days earlier the birth mother wept bitterly as she gave her baby to the adoption lawyer; then the lawyer walked out the door with her baby.  The house was poorly furnished, obviously a poverty-stricken home.  The mother could not afford to raise another child.  The lawyer took no pictures of the weeping birth mother.  This birth mother's tragic story will be lost in history.  She had no 'rich' friend to assist her, to help her keep her own baby.

The lawyer said this was a sad case, but she didn't cry because she knew the baby was going to have a better future. Another person was troubled because a white couple was adopting a black child; would this baby be cut off from its culture, its heritage?

A third perspective.  As I reflected on this story, it symbolized a larger truth.  The adoption cost around $10,000.  For the purposes of the parable, let us assume the birth mother had $1000.  This is a 10:1 ration.  Would the birth mother been able to keep her baby if the $10,000 had been given directly to her?

Guess what the wealth/assets gap is in the U.S.?  A 10 to 1 ratio!  The average white family has ten times the wealth/assets as a black household.  Why this wealth gap?  Many factors, but probably the number one factor would be white privilege/black oppression for the past 350 years.

This is the second non-picture.  Now is the time for all of us to weep over the oppression of the poor. Do you have the gift of weeping in the Spirit for the oppressed poor in America?  Do you have the calling to do justice in the power of the Spirit for the oppressed?

If you and I stop oppression, more birth mothers will be able to keep their own babies.