Pregnancy and Adoption Resources

I saw an article online the other day that caught my eye.  It stated something about the state that just topped the charts for the highest teen birth rates.  Wondering if it was Mississippi, I clicked to view the full article and saw that it was indeed Mississippi.  We took the place of Texas and New Mexico to top the charts.  Our rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006.   Across the board in America, about 435,000 of 4.3 million births in 2006 were to girls between 15 and 19 years of age.  In Mississippi, there were about 68 births to girls 15 to 19 for every 1,000 births (Clarion-Ledger).

What can we be doing differently to change these stats?  According to the Clarion article, several factors can contribute to the high rates…culture, poverty, and racial demographics bieng some of them.  The stats can seem a bit overwhelming and make you want to throw in the towel before you ever join the game.  And without hope, it would only make sense to do that and to give up.  But…when there’s hope, throwing in the towel is not even an option.  And there IS hope.

Sometimes all our strength and energy might seem like raindrops in an ocean, but we can’t turn our backs and look the other way.  Pretending this isn’t happening won’t make it not happen.  The fact is…it IS happening.  More and more teens are becoming mothers.  We care about these girls.  We care about the children they’re bearing.  We care what happens to them both.

So…by the grace of God and through the patient endurance He alone can give…we are trying to help those that come to us for help, one girl at a time.  Maybe our efforts won’t make a huge dent in the stats or have a huge effect on society as a whole.  But it may have a huge effect in the lives of those we help.  And that makes all the raindrops worth the effort.

Grace and peace,

Renae

So…I was floored by some statistics that came across my desk last week.  In response to an article by the New York Times about the link between homicide and military service, the author used stats (which i did a check on…and yes, they were legit Dept of Justice stats) the author pointed out the very real statistical link between men raised by single mothers or fathers and homicide rates. 
By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced.

A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared.

Various studies come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. A study cited in the far left-wing Village Voice found that children brought up in single-mother homes “are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home

Just a little thought on how adoption into a traditional nuclear family is also a way to give a new beginning to our society as well.

If the start of 2009 is any indication of what is to come, New Beginnings’ International Department is going to have a fantastic year. After visiting the wonderful country of Nepal, hosting Nepali Ministry Officials in the great city of Tupelo, Mississippi and successfully completing the registration process in Nepal, we are now able to place the beautiful children of Nepal in loving homes in the United States. The Nepali Government officially announced the reopening of the process on January 02, 2009. What an International Blessing!

For more information on adopting from Nepal, please visit our website at www.NewBeginningsAdoptions.org or contact me, Marcus Davenport, at 662.213.0369.

Marcus