How many? Where do they come from? Why?

The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate the social and environmental problems of China. The policy is controversial both within and outside China because of the issues it raises; because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented; and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences.

China, like many other Asian countries, has a long tradition of son preference. Many argue that the one-child policy induces many families to use selective abortion, abandon female infants, and even kill female infants under the influence of the son preference. Some families even kill or starve the female infant and then try again for a male child.

The commonly accepted explanation for son preference is that sons in rural families may be thought to be more helpful in farm work. Both rural and urban populations have economic and traditional incentives, including widespread remnants of Confucianism, to prefer sons over daughters. Sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for the parents in their retirement, and a son's parents typically are better cared for than his wife's. In addition, Chinese traditionally view that daughters, on their marriage, become primarily part of the groom's family.

The sex ratio at birth (between male and female births) in mainland China reached 117:100 in the year 2000, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100.

Today there are over 15 million orphans in China. Most are healthy young girls, abandoned due to China's one child per family law. They are newborns and toddlers, they are preschoolers, they are children with profound special needs, and they are older children. All will grow up with the legacy of having lost the love of their birth families.

All will grow up with the legacy of having lost the love of their birth families.

Ninety-five percent of the healthy children living in Chinese welfare institutions are little girls. The influx of healthy infant girls into social welfare institutions began in the 1980s when China introduced strict birth control policies in order to control its burgeoning population.

When the traditional, especially rural, Chinese family’s preference for boys collided with well-intentioned population controls, healthy girls were abandoned in heartbreakingly large numbers.

In recent years, the ‘floating population’ of migrant workers has meant an increase in the number of healthy boys, as well as girls, given up by their birth parents.

And rising health costs have contributed to a recent influx of children who have medical needs that impoverished families cannot meet. Whether these children were found at a few days old wrapped in a blanket on a busy bridge, or discovered at four or five, wandering alone with a few belongings near a police station, they now live in state-run institutions and await uncertain futures. The local authorities post their pictures, but no one comes forward.

After many years of prayers, our hearts have been led to China to bring home a little girl. I know it is not going to be an easy journey, long waits, frustrating paperwork, bureaucracy and heartache but God willing, we will one day bring home our baby girl.

We pray that we have the faith to endure and that Gods grace will once again do miracles.