Adoption.  It's an interesting subject.  There are pros and cons.  It's viewed differently in different cultures.  For example Cameroon.  They are strongly against adoption in the Western sense of the word.  They have their own form of adoption, however.  When a person dies leaving behind children to be finished being raised, the large extended family holds a meeting.  This meeting traditionally takes place in the village the day after the burial of the child or children's parent.  They collectively decide the fate of the newly orphaned child.  Maybe the child will be handed off  to a widowed grandmother, or to an uncle who is gainfully employed and thus able to take on another mouth to feed.  Or maybe the child will be given to an aunt who does not have any children of her own.  After a period of time when this person no longer wants the orphaned child, it is handed off to another member of the extended family.  And in almost every case, the orphaned child is treated as little more than a slave in the home of whomever he is living with.  The child belongs to the tribe and the tribe does not want to loose the future potential of that child.  If it is a girl, she has the potential of bringing a obscenely large bride price to the extended family if marriage is in her future.  However if it is a boy, he is even more valuable when he grows up.  He and his generation are the ones who will carry the tribal traditions into the next generation.  He will produce heirs who will keep the tribe vibrant and alive.  This is their age old system.  And though it is not perfect, it is their system, and it does work for them.  Cameroonians are not happy when Westerners invade their tradition and adopt their orphaned children.  

We have an adoption going on at Shiloh right now.  It's a nine year old girl from the Central African Republic, one of our neighbors.  She arrived at Shiloh on Sunday night with the house parents from an orphanage in CAR.  They will be with us for three weeks, taking care of all sorts of things such as a medical exam.  Then when all the final things are in order, the adoptive parents will arrive from America.  They will stay with us at Shiloh for 2-5 days, depending on how long it takes to finalize everything.  Over the years we've had all sorts of children and their care givers stay at Shiloh.  And we've had all sorts of adoptive parents join them, overlap for a couple of days, and then fly off to America or Canada to begin their new life together.  And we do what we can to help them transition into this major change.