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From Hell to Heaven: How Orphan Care Evolves

Level 5: Heaven

More of this Feature • Level 1: Hell • Level 2: Purgatory • Level 3: Limbo • Level 4: Heaven's Gate • Level 5: Heaven • More from this Author

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The 5 Levels of Orphan Care 1. The Streets: Orphans living and dying in the streets, a few orphanages run by religious and non-profit groups 2. Orphanages: State-run and church-run orphanages, usually overcrowded and understaffed 3. Foster Care, Few Adoptions: State-run foster care homes and institutions, adoption is not supported or particularly encouraged by the government 4. Subsidized Adoptions: Adequately funded foster care, financially subsidized special needs adoption, government actively encourages adoption of all waiting children 5. Child-Centric Society: Very few waiting and foster children, adoption accepted, supported at all levels, and viewed as an equally valid way to build a family, all adults feel responsibility toward all kids. -R.L.

So advanced is our nation's orphan care system, there is only one step higher, and that's heaven itself. At this highest evolved level of orphan care, children needing permanency barely wait any amount of time at all. There are always more citizens ready and wanting to adopt than there are waiting children who need to be adopted. The government and society as a whole are familiar with adoption, accepting of it, and enthusiastically supportive of families that adopt children with special needs.

Heaven may sound like it is out of reach but, throughout history and into the present day, many cultures and societies have achieved this level of child-centeredness. Tribes in isolated areas of Africa and South America, to this day, cherish each and every child as a priceless resource. An orphaned child is immediately taken in by another family because all adults are seen as parents to all children. Early white explorers in America left behind written accounts of Native American tribes with the same attitude toward orphans. These explorers wrote with amazement about this attitude that every child is special. They asked how Indian families could readily take in Caucasian children captured in raids, and raise them with so little prejudice that some of the children actually achieved chieftain status within their tribes. (Indian children captured in white raids, on the other hand, were not raised within society, but sent to boarding schools.) This type of societal attitude is not just heavenly, it is the ultimate in adoption support. Every child a wanted child. And is not an unreachable goal.

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© 2002 Rita Laws, Ph.D.

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