What Is An Orphan?

Here is what an orphan girl thinks about it:

"Childhood is the most beautiful period of our journey here on Earth because it is the time when we get to know many things and experiences that contribute and influence our way to maturity.

Yet, I don't know if someone can imagine what is there in an orphan's soul, a child who has always wanted to know his own family, to spend at least a day with his loved ones. How happy must a child be when his mother hugs him, when he comes back from school and lays his head in his mother lap forgetting about all problems...but will I ever experience that feeling?

Why is that some parents leave their children in an orphanage?

Why do they just forsake us here and mind their own lives on separate ways? I wonder, will some day our ways cross, if so, what will they have to say?

To be an orphan is not something to be ashamed of, it is just a misfortune that some of us have, it is the fact that our way in life is sprinkled with more obstacles but we have to be optimistic and believe that the sun will shine bright for us as well and somewhere, sometime, a family will open their arms for us."

There is a huge difference between knowing the meaning of the word "orphan" and being in that position every single moment of your life. You might as well ask:
"A lifetime of being an orphan, isn't that pushed a bit too far? I mean, even if you have parents, you will eventually lose them sooner or later!"

All of us agree that growing children need strong, interactive relationships with responsible adults. Besides giving emotional and physical security, such ties help the child grow and learn to cope with an ever-changing world. In most societies, the child's parents are considered the optimal social arrangement for childcare and mothers are expected to play the central role.

How Do Orphans Compare With Other Children? How does the psychological development of children with orphanage experience compare with other children?

The comparisons might be made with general population norms, selected foster children, or children raised by relatives. When groups of children with orphanage experience are compared with other children, the average development for orphans is lower on measures of general intelligence, personality, language, or social skills. There are wide individual differences within some groups of children, but the overall trend is negative for orphaned subjects. Intelligence or related cognitive skills are widely reported to suffer from orphanage experience.

However, one of the most substantial studies (Trotzkey, 1930) to discount this claim is seldom mentioned, perhaps because it was published privately. It compared orphanage and foster care children in Jewish-sponsored programs in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland with public school children. Over 3,700 Jewish care children were involved, which included 2,523 from orphanages and 1,214 in foster homes. Data on IQ scores, using either group tests or the individually administered Stanford-Binet, showed the Chicago orphanage samples scored in the average range, the same as children in New York City elementary schools.

Another category of nowadays orphans

Nowadays we indeed meet orphans that are part of another category, the workaholics' children. Even if they have both parents very much alive so to speak, mom and dad have their own careers that need almost all of their time and by the time they come home, they are exhausted and moments spent with their children are dramatically reduced.

Even if they might be physically present, their mind is still focused on the next target at work and they are not really present. The business seems to always manage to climb to the top although they love their children very much! Of course, they do this for the best reason: to offer their children a better future and all what they could possibly want.

However, the most important need of the children is not a material need. They crave for your love as a parent, for attention, they want your time spent with them, they need you! Children silently suffer and by the time you as a parent realize what is going on, it might be late, if not too late!

Being an orphan is not easy but also, this is a special category of people whom God shows special favor; God's children are not orphans! There are no orphans of God!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Luke 18:16)