Lainie's Finding Ad

Every year many thousands of infants are found in China after they have been abandoned by their parents. There are many reasons why abandonment is so widespread. First, China's government has imposed a one child per family policy. There is a hefty fee for anyone who has more than one child. The fee is equivalent to a year's salary. Secondly, there is a cultural preference for sons. Especially in poorer, rural areas, sons are preferred because they are seen as future workers who will help the family become more prosperous. So, if a girl is born first, because of the one child policy, they are abandoned and the family hopes for a son next time. It is illegal to abandon a child, so these infants, mostly newborns, are found abandoned in boxes, baskets, and blankets in a myriad of places such as parks, markets, fields, orphanage steps, etc. When these babies are found they are taken to orphanages and attempts are made to find the families. One of these attempts is to publish their photos in the newspaper. The hope is that someone will come forward to claim them. Of course, this never happens. We recently found a researcher who saves these papers and makes them available to adoptive families. Last week he sent us a copy of the Hunan Daily that ran Lainie's picture in May 2006. It is a newborn photo of her. We are so thankful for these photos. They are the only infant pictures of her that we will ever have.

It made us sad to see the paper with those 13 precious babies. It is hard to imagine a culture where this is acceptable. China has thousands of orphanages and only about 250 of them put the children up for adoption. Many of these abandoned babies will spend their entire lives in an orphanage.
We are comforted in knowing that Lainie nor these other babies were ever abandoned by their Heavenly Father. He has been constantly by her side. There are no orphans of God.

Lainie is the second baby.

All of the girls in the paper on that day.