We began our adoption journey wanting to make a difference in a child’s life. Russ and I were moved by the devastating AIDS orphan crisis and believed that adopting a child was the right response for us . Besides, we loved children and were eager to add more life and love to our family. We never imagined we would adopt a child who had HIV. We didn’t even know it was possible.

If you have not considered adopting a child with HIV, look at this information found on the From HIV to Home website. If you let yourself actually feel the devastating magnitude of these numbers, you just might find yourself considering it too.

Today, 6,500 people will die as a result of AIDS

6,000 of those people will leave behind children.

Those children will join the already 15 million children who have lost parents to this treatable disease.

2.3 million children are infected with HIV world-wide.

Most pediatric infection occurs in mother-to-child transmission – the virus infects while the immune system is immature, making it easy for the virus to disseminate through the body.

It is estimated that, without treatment, 50% of HIV+ children in resource-poor settings will die by the age of two.

I am not a numbers person, but these statistics changed my life. While there is talk of the success of ARV programs in Africa, thousands of parents and children are still dying every single day. There is an orphan crisis of huge proportion and among those little ones are children infected with the virus that killed their parents.

If you would like to learn more about adopting a child with HIV, please visit the From HIV to Home website, and contact Adoption Advocates International, the agency that paved the way for these children to find families. I also welcome any questions you would like to leave in the comments section.

Let the numbers change your life too, you will never be the same.
Lisa daily ponders what more she should do in response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa and around the world. She writes about her life as the mother of eleven children at A Bushel and a Peck.