Home of God's Love - An Orphanage in Luodong

I took last Friday off to travel to Luodong for a visit to the "Home of God's Love" orphanage.  Luodong is a city in the northeast of Taiwan in Illan County.  One of my high school classmates grew up there as her parents (Ted and Bev Kiles) are missionaries running the orphanage. Tina and I have an interest in adoption so we thought we'd go up for a visit as we have some 'guan shi' (relationship) there through my classmate. We also had some friends visiting from back home who are quite serious about the adoption process and have been on the wait list for a China adoption for some time now.

In the end, Tina decided not to go as Seraphine had a bad cough and it would involve leaving Taichung quite early. Thus Moses and I got up at 5am and headed out to the HSR station to take the first train to Taipei. It was a smooth trip up there and we met our friends at the Taipei Train Station for a 'normal' train ride down to Luodong. That part of the trip took 1 1/2 hours but time passed by quickly as the boys (our friends have two boys about Moses' age) played and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery despite the gloomy weather. (We traveled through a mountain pass along a river for half the journey and then along the coast.) Arriving in Luodong, we took a 15 min cab ride as the orphanage is actually out in the countryside by a place called "May Hua Hu" (Plum Flower Lake).

The orphanage is on a relatively large plot of land located near the lake and hills and surrounded by rice paddies. I think the orphanage has been developed organically as the Skiles have been serving here for forty years having some here in the late 60's / early 70's and raised their own seven children here as well as countless local kids. The first thing we saw were the seven or so infants that were currently in the orphanage. They ranged in age from 3 months to 10.  We got to 'play' with them and hold and feed the little ones while Mrs. Skiles gave us a tour of the orphanage. The older kids were all in school but we were able to see their desks and play area. The facilities are quite good and the staff (both paid and volunteer) are extremely caring and loving. We learned that actually a small percentage (20%) of the kids at the orphanage are actually available for adoption. Many of the birth parents refuse to relinquish their parental rights though they are not raising the kids themselves thinking that the kids will eventually grow up and be able to provide support for them. ("Yeah, right.", I thought ... But who knows?) Domestic adoption placement is pretty low due to cultural stigmas (unfortunate as domestic takes priority) so most of the adoptions that do happen tend to be international. The Skiles do screen prospective parents closely as they only place children to Christian families. They also do not charge fees makes this easier for parents involved in ministry. Due to the low birthrate in Taiwan and great demand for adoption, this particular orphanage is not taking applications right now.  However, we found out the adoption process in Taiwan, unlike China, is not centralized so other orphanages may be more open. (Like they say ... being at the right place and right time ...)

We spent a few more hours there and had lunch at the orphanage before heading home. I'm glad I went as it was an eye opening experience and I think our friends were encouraged and felt renewed to press on with the adoption process.  Moses liked visiting the orphanage as well and said he wanted to come back a second time and show Mommy. :-)

Steve