This is Laurel. Her birthday is in August.

When they asked “Laurel” to pose for this picture, I’m sure that smile she gave betrayed her hope. Why else would they take my picture? They must be looking for my family! I know for a fact that hope starts to run thin near the finish line. There’s no family in sight. Not yet. And that’s a problem. Because Laurel is 15, and that’s the worst age to be with no family in site.

When I turned 16 I got my driver’s license, my first boyfriend and my first surprise party from my friends. It was the best year of my life. I looked forward to it with delight. Laurel thinks ahead to her 16th birthday with dread.

In her country upon her 16th birthday two things happen: 1.) Laurel becomes no longer available for international adoption and 2.) she is placed in an adult mental institution where she might be confined to a bed all day, everyday for the rest of her life OR she will be out on the streets, forced to beg or her body to be used.

If you read this blog at all you don’t have to guess that Laurel has huge potential. You don’t have to wonder, “Will she be independent? Will she be mobile? Will she talk back to me like she knows everything?” Yes, of course. She has my daughter’s body, and my daughter’s mind… if it had been drug through years of living without a family to stimulate her. She’ll need encouragement and family love. She’ll need to feel safe. She’ll need maybe a little more time with Mom than other kids before leaving to start her own life. But her life could be wonderful. Or it could end. In August.

I almost want to say Laurel has six months to live. And even though she’s not dying, it’s a true statement. Her life will end and hope will be gone in six months.

I learned today that a new $1,000 grant is available on top of anything raised through Reece’s Rainbow. My family is throwing in our fundraising efforts as well. If you are hesitating because you cannot afford an international adoption, then come up with another reason. We will help you. You’ve got us in your corner. Our son is in that part of the world for crying out loud! Laurel has us choked around the heart! In fact, there’s a group we’re apart of called Bring Hope to 12 in 2012 who have promised to throw huge fundraising efforts towards this child. She’s one of their 12, and will be the focus of interest for the entire month of February. Don’t worry about the money. We’ll get it. I know it.

Worry about the child. Is she yours? Right now only a family can save her. Just because she ages out of being eligible for adoption in, what, late July? does not mean she becomes an adult with any rights. We cannot send her a plane ticket and have her move in with us. (That was my hair-brain plan upon learning about her.) No, her fate is sealed. She needs rescue. Because of a terrible situation, a ridiculous system and some downright unintelligent rules she’ll be lost in a matter of months!

This is an emergency. Please share her link (http://reecesrainbow.org/26309/laurel) all over Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Share her story with the world. Help us find her family. I would consider this a personal favor to me. Thank you.

Time is running out.

Okay for those of you who don’t already know: We’re adopting a little boy! Laelia is going to have a little brother!

If you’ll turn your attention to the right side of my blog you will see a big grant fund. Please consider donating! Or you can click here to donate. (All donations are tax deductible.) We just found out we could be flying out to see our son as early as this spring! That’s wonderful because he needs medical attention! But that’s also stressful since we’re not fully funded. We need another $13,000. Please consider sharing our fundraiser with people.

Below is copied and pasted from our son’s blog:

Every $5 donation you make to Roland’s (“Joel’s”) grant fund gets you one entry to win! All donations are tax deductible!

Also! If you share our story/fundraiser on Facebook you get another chance to win!

Also! If you have a blog post from your blog devoted to Roland’s story you get two additional chances to win!

The winners will be chosen by random.com on January 25th, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. PST.

You MUST comment on this blog OR shoot me an email at rolandquest@gmail.com and let me know how many entries you get! I don’t want you to rely on me being observant and stuff. Just a quick, “Hey I gave $10 and shared on Facebook!” or “Hey, I put you on my awesome hardcore guinea pig racing blog!” would be perfect!

Our first prize is already unlocked!
Our second prize is now unlocked!
For our biggest prize to be unlocked we need $2,000 more generated from this giveaway!

Our first prize is a $50 gift card! The winner will choose one card from the following: Starbucks, Benihana’s, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, P.F. Changs, 24 Hour Fitness, Michael’s, Target or Amazon.

(This prize is already unlocked and up for grabs!)

Our second prize is a 16GB iPod Nano Special Edition RED, product MC074LL/A. Worth about $330 on Amazon. This is a new, still-in-the-box product that sat on my donor’s shelf unopened for over a year. Now it can be yours!

(This item is now unlocked!)

The BIG prize is…

EITHER

A blog banner with custom characters for your personal or business blog by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! (Yes THAT Lauren. She’s pretty famous apparently! )

OR you can choose:

A Family Caricature Portrait to hang in your home (or put on your blog or Facebook profile or whatnot) done by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! See the one she made for us back in 2009 in our About page! Or check out the sample family below!

Used with permission. Available on iStock.

($2,000 from being unlocked.)

-maximum of 5 family members together in banner (photos are necessary for reference).
-The caricatures are designed to be together in one image (characters are not designed to be separated).
-from waist up
-maximum of 2 small revisions after the final design
-must take advantage of the giveaway prize within two weeks of winning.
-simple background elements (solid colors, simple flowers, polkadots, etc)
-simple text

Winner will receive a high-resolution file for printing OR a web-resolution file for their blog banner. (Standard/common blog banner sizes OR 8×10 family portrait size file for portrait in standard-sized frame.)

So if you missed it: Knee surgery is FEBRUARY 1st! Yeah I know! We pack up to leave just a few weeks after Christmas! (Just breathe.)

This surgery is going to be much harder than her last one (which was cake). I want to explain it clearly so you all know what’s coming. I’m even open to questions. Just from writing this post I thought of a few myself and have emailed Laelia’s doctor.

But first, why this surgery? Laelia was born with arthrogryposis (joint contractures making her joints stuck). Her knees came out of the womb in flextion (meaning bent, opposite of extension, meaning straight) and bloody from rubbing against my internal organs for months of my pregnancy. We’ve stretched them for four years, casted them and put them in stretching KAFOs. We did a pretty good job too. She was born so bent that her feet touched her thighs and now she’s pretty straight. If her legs had stayed as bent as they were without all our intervention we would have put Laelia in external fixators. (And I know families who have done extensive therapy on the knees and still had to do that option.) (And yes that link for external fixators is just a Google search. ) But because she’s now at less than 40 degrees of flextion in both knees (closer to 25 actually!), she instead will get (I don’t yet know how many) releases and then two eight plates inserted for each knee. These plates will stay in and encourage her legs to grow straight over time. It’s a process called “guided growth,” and it’s shown specifically to help kids with neuromuscular conditions like Laelia’s arthrogryposis.

The plates are drilled into the bone to be removed at a later date. We just got her hip pins out and now she gets more hardware in her bones! Yippie hurray (sarcasm).

The surgery is five hours long. She’ll be in full casts for a month followed by full leg braces to be worn 24/7 for a few weeks after that. There will be hard daily therapy in there too. That’s about six weeks of HARD (“hard” being a noun here). Six weeks of struggle and adjustment. She’ll be out of school for over half of that. Around mid March or early April she should be pain/discomfort free depending on the braces.

This is the surgery she was going to have around her next (fifth) birthday in October. Because it’s now in February this most likely means she will not have a surgery next year on or around her birthday for the first time in her life! She can actually age without consequence this next year!

With another surgery looming and the last one so fresh in our child’s mind we’ve had a few long conversations about surgery. It is always amazing to me to hear Laelia’s own perspective on something. For example I know she hates having her blood pressure taken. She says, “I don’t like when the cuff hugs my arm.” So every time they get the darn blood pressure cuff out (which is a stinkin’ lot after surgery!) she starts to cry and then she requires I hold her hand. Well she started talking about the time they took her blood pressure twice. I remember this–I was there, but my version of it is so different it’s funny. A nurse came in and wanted Laelia’s insurance card so she could go pick up our medicine for us (which was really sweet of her). I let go of Laelia’s hand in the confusion and didn’t realize that the cuff had not worked and they had to do it again. In the time it took me to walk to my purse and fish around for the card, they had already taken her blood pressure again. Laelia was fine and I wouldn’t have known it happened except for the nurse told me. Since blood pressure cuffs don’t terrify *me* and since it was already over and she was fine I assumed it was no big deal. But even though it was pain free and I was two feet away, Laelia tells a story of triumphant bravery in the face of extreme torture all alone and abandoned. It’s pretty adorable when her eyes light up and she says, “And Mommy goed away! And they did it again! Again! And the cuff was lower on my arm. And I was a big brave girl! And I was all by myself. And Mommy didn’t hold my hand!” I couldn’t help but squeeze and kiss her over and over as she told her story. Mama’s big brave girl got ice cream.

Well we don’t bring up surgery with our daughter for fun, but because I want Laelia to have a voice in decisions about herself. Of course I always hope her decisions agree with mine and are therefore the “right” decisions. But after Laelia voiced her preference loud and clear we have decided not to give her sleepy juice for her next surgery. They give this to children (orally) to calm them down before the anesthesiologist carries them away from their parents. It makes them loopy and giggly and fearless. Sometimes I joke that it’s just pediatric whiskey. But without it Laelia may be terrified going back for surgery without me. But giving her a choice in this matter may also empower her to feel in control and get through recovery better. The sleepy juice is not necessary or mandatory, but just a good idea. But Laelia doesn’t take medicine well and it’s often forced down her throat. So Laelia asked me in a very mature way not to have to do it again. She explained how brave she is now after the blood pressure ordeal. I’ve explained the consequences of this choice, but she’s unwavering. It makes me very nervous.

Plus I’ll miss that little drunkard!

I have this list of things I would love if people prayed for regarding Laelia’s next surgery.

1. That Mommy can keep it together. We just did surgery (whine). Now we’re looking at two more trips to Philly and a hard surgery before our timeline. Ugggggggggggggggggh. She’s just now taking regular baths after her last surgery! She’s still in bandages! Don’t I get some sort of tropical vacation between surgeries? I remember that in the Mommy handbook somewhere…

2. That Laelia is once again first up for surgery that day instead of waiting and freaking out all day. (It all depends on the ages of the other children getting surgery that day. If Laelia is the youngest she’ll go first. If not then she may freak out all afternoon.)

3. That she can remain calm without her sleepy juice while carried through the double doors into surgery.

4. Pain management. Oh please oh please. And on a personal note for my marriage during pain difficulties. Laelia’s pain has a way of tearing at her parents’ hearts and making emotions raw. I think Charles would claw out his own eyes rather than let his daughter feel pain, even if it’s necessary and part of her therapy routine.

5. Casts–swelling, itching, painful, heavy, skin breakdown, fear of them slipping, pulling her legs, etc. A month of casts, followed by…

6. Leg braces worn 24/7 for weeks. This may be harder than casts, and I know she’ll beg us to remove them constantly. This is when life will get really hard. Also we live 3,000 miles away from the people making and adjusting the braces. So I hope they are done correctly the first time. And that will be a first and is unlikely.

7. Rest.

8. Peace. She’ll be scared.

9. Travel mercies. It’s two or three airplanes one way, and takes all day. Flying with a post-op child on pain meds is the worst.

10. Travel expenses. (Surgery itself will be covered by Shriners.)

11. And lastly, although it should be more important but it’s against my policy of living day to day, I ask that this surgery be successful. That her future walking is helped by this surgery. We’ve had a couple unnecessary surgeries before finding this surgeon that I’m still upset about. But I trust this guy. But just because it’s the best surgery from the best surgeon doesn’t guarantee success. I hope this helps her one day walk easily and without assistance. Although I realize that may never happen. I just pray it is the best for her.

Thanks so much!

Pout face.

I went to a Parental Readiness workshop and legal clinic the Saturday before last to meet with a lawyer about our school issues. When I signed up to go we had just been kicked off the bus schedule for being special. I learned a lot and have my work cut out for me.

I just have to say that our SEEC coordinator, Sue, and Laelia’s classroom aide, Rosie, are so wonderful. It takes good people to do what’s best for a child when it would be easier to ignore that child’s needs. I’m so lucky to have them both on Laelia’s team.

Right now Laelia is not allowed back at school until after we have a meeting with Neighborhood House’s health department since the next time Laelia attends school she will have had surgery on her legs. They want to assess her and determine if it’s in everyone’s best interests that she return to school. Our meeting is scheduled for November 7th (the Monday after we get back) with possible return to school as early as November 8th. And even though I can understand the reasons behind the meeting, it makes life hard. Emotionally I feel like she’s officially black-listed until we pass the tests, but thankfully I know more of the process and the people involved now. Last year was hard because it was clear to me that the director of the school didn’t want my daughter back. (And I wasn’t wrong–that school is no longer servied by SEEC and special needs kids are not welcome. Laelia was the last one there.) In my perfect world our meeting would be five minutes long, a couple of instructions and then school time. In other words it would be part of the process of going back to school instead of a roadblock that we must overcome to be allowed back at school. Once again I find myself trying to put just the right spin on it for Laelia not to feel unwanted or hurt. It helps when the adults involved genuinely like my daughter. I’m so thankful for that.

When I met with the lawyer I learned that a legal battle is the only cure for schools not following IEPs. It seems like there should be some middle step between no consequences for non-compliance and a lawsuit. And there’s no way if they want to kick her out of school illegally for it to be resolved quickly or without cost. So I’m happy to play by their rules unless and until it conflicts with the law. But I initiated the communication with the school, and my hopes are high. I plan on getting to know everyone working for (yes FOR) my daughter, including supervisors of supervisors. And I plan on attending every school meeting not in conflict with a surgery or doctor’s appointment.

That is part of the reason why I left my job. My last day was Friday. I worked in CSR for DSP for five years. I will start a new position from home the next business day after we arrive home from surgery. Why did I plan this huge life change around a surgery? What was I thinking?

Baby Joel doesn’t have a mommy. He’s a little baby boy who is ten months old. He desperately needs rescue. Desperately. Look at him! He’s little and helpless.

I wanted to make him mine. I have asked my husband countless times if we can rescue him. My husband doesn’t see it ever happening. It’s too much. We never wanted to adopt before. My husband is supportive of fund raising efforts, but we’re not prepared to bring him home. I’ve lost sleep over him and shed lots of tears over him, but I can’t save him.

Please consider Joel for your family. Please share his picture with a family considering adoption.

I emailed RR about Joel and they told me there has been no inquiries about Joel “in quite some time.” No interest. It struck me as impossible because I think about him all the time. He’s my little male version of Laelia, trapped in an orphanage. And he qualifies, based solely on his physical disability, for a mental institution. And these mental institutions are torture. If I weren’t so dang emotional and could mentally pull Laelia’s face off of this little boy when I think about him, then I would probably be a better advocate for him. But I’m not.

He’s “unadoptable.” There you go. I won’t downplay it. He’s got physical issues. He’ll need physical therapy. I think maybe a surgery could really help him. So would serial casting. He’ll need splints at night.

His convulsive disorder could be nothing or it could be a terrible nightmare. It could be something he outgrows or something he would need daily medication for. It could be something just neglect and abuse has caused. It could have caused him damage. I don’t know. And no one will know until he’s in a loving home. Because frankly no one cares.

But I do know that he is guarenteed 100% to greatly improve in a loving home.

The plight of Ukrainian orphans is well known. Kids with special needs are transferred out of baby houses/orphanages as little as three years old (Laelia’s age). They are sent to institutions where they don’t live long. A lot of kids die 18 to 24 months after arriving.

Watch this video all the way to the end. Notice the children who died at the end. Notice all the ones with arthrogryposis like Joel.

The system you would be rescuing him from will be heart breaking. People won’t understand why you want a broken child. The workers who are keeping Joel alive may care for him, but they are completely overworked. And he is hard on them. And he can’t feed himself. And when they make their way down the line of 30+ children during mealtimes, Joel might get missed. He may get his diaper changed once or twice a day.

Oh yeah and it will cost you. Joel won’t be considered fully human by his country, but his ransom will cost you.

And if he’s not saved soon…

“When we arrived at the orphanage we were met by older children without coats, they were begging us to give things to them and not to the directors. It is very hard to write about the rest of this part of the trip. I cannot give a step by step account because we were all in a state of shock. We spoke to the director about our program and he told us that he knows the children need more but he said, ‘I cannot ask my workers to do more, they work very hard, clearing the road, shoveling snow, cleaning the floors and the children, they have not time, they must work very hard all day and then they must dig graves and bury children.’ What do you say to that? Still, the staff took us around to show us how it is. Words don’t come to mind, most of our team was crying and could not stop. Dark hallways, screaming, children clustered together in freezing rooms, some in strait-jackets, haunted looking crying, asking if they were good, asking for food. Water dripping from the dark ceilings, mold everywhere. We held children who were 10 and 13 years old in our arms like infants. One team member said later that she never knew that humans are like fish and will only grow to the size of their environment. One team member threw up outside. Children never leave their beds in some rooms. These children are ages 4-16. In other rooms they leave to go to a room with just a bench and nothing else in it. They hold each other -rocking one another. I have never seen such deprivation and our photographer said it best when he said it was a concentration camp for children. Sorry, this is such a hard part to write but I looked in the eyes of many children who are dying. Their tiny bones fit into the palm of my hands. Their skeleton faces begging for help. No one in our team has really slept since.” –Ukraine: Death Camps, for Children (http://eng.maidanua.org/node/581)

Proverbs 24:11-12.

11 Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

Help me advocate for this little guy. Share his picture! Share his link on Facebook! (http://reecesrainbow.org/joel2501) Share his story! Share and show and tell and speak up! His mom is already in love with him, she just doesn’t know him yet! Help me find her. Please.

You don’t know us, little guy, but we’re here to help you. Because that’s what grown-ups are for.

Click here to donate!

Jumping onto Joel’s account today after the anonymous donor dumped a few more matching funds in, and seeing the $972.55 (!!!) made me squeal out loud! Laelia asked me, “What?” I told her that people had given money to help baby Joel, and that I was very happy and thankful. She said, “Can I see baby Joel now?” And I said, “As soon as his mommy finds him, and IF they take him to see the same arthrogryposis doctor we all travel to see then probably!” Laelia nodded and went back to eating her sandwich. In her world good things happen. Adults take care of babies. Period. And Joel’s situation is as foreign to her as advanced calculus is to me.

She would never guess some babies end up here. And Joel could face something similar to this in a couple of years.

Just to recap: A generous, anonymous person has offered to match every donation made to baby Joel’s adoption fund until either we reach $2,000 or until Saturday, June 18th, whichever comes first! If we reach $2000 by June 13th (TOMORROW) the donor will throw in another $500 bonus! So really we only have to raise less than $600 for that to happen! So even if you only have $5 PLEASE give because it will become $10! And it’s tax deductible!!!

Right now Joel is eight months old! The more money in his account, the more likely he’ll be adopted! The faster we get funds into his account, the faster his parents can afford to bring him home. And anyone associated with arthrogryposis KNOWS that the sooner these kids get treatment the better their outcome! It’s not too late.

If you can’t give right now, please share this! Please help him! He has my heart in a vice grip and I’m desperate for him.

Thank you!

Yep just about this exciting. No wait…

Maybe a little closer to this exciting!

Joel, the Ukrainian orphan with arthrogryposis, has *another* (different this time) anonymous donor! This time we’re trying to get to $2,000! That would be quite a bit! Funds will be matched dollar for dollar and penny for penny until either Saturday, June 18th, or until we reach $2,000, whichever comes first! (Oh I hope we reach $2,000 before next Saturday!!!) Click here to donate!

But that’s not all!

If we make our goal by Wednesday (June 15th), three days early, the donor will throw in another $250 on top of that!!! (Whoa! I’d LOVE to see $2,250 in Joel’s account!) Please click here to donate!!!

But that’s not all!

If we make our goal by Monday (June 13th), five days early, the donor will throw in $500 instead of the $250!!! (For a total of $2,500 if we’re quick! I’m crying because I’m so excited!) So… um… CLICK HERE TO DONATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No time to lose! If you help us now, your gifts will be doubled! If you help us sooner rather than later we may even get a bonus!!! All donations are tax deductible!

Then after the excitement dies down you can go back to whatever you were doing before. Like eating dinner!

Thank you!

$5 will be $10!

$50 will be $100!!!

ALL WEEK!!!

We have $355 now so we’re really close! Let’s do this!

Please go here to donate!

Please if you never thought to give to Joel before because you didn’t think $5 would go very far, well now it will!

In 13 days we have raised $70!!! THANK YOU! I know three little kids who each donated $5 to help Joel. It made me cry!

He has no one else. No one else is raising funds for him. He’s an orphan facing a life without hope in a mental insitution just because he has arthrogryposis.

Please help! And now you’ll be helping double!

Thank you!

So to help the cause Laelia wants to make a very special video for a very special person!

Simply go here and donate to Joel’s account. For every $5 you donate I will enter your name into the drawing. (But you have to comment on this blog and tell me how many chances you earned! Reece’s Rainbow doesn’t just let me know who donates. ) Once Joel makes it to $640 (which would be double the $320 he has now) then the contest will be over and we will pick the winner! (Well technically random.org will pick the winner.) Then Laelia will make a very special video for the winner.

It’s that easy! All donations are tax deductible.

Thanks for playing! And thanks for saving a child with arthrogryposis from a life without hope!

This is baby “Joel.” He has arthrogryposis like some of the best people on this planet do. Below are copied and pasted articles and stories of the reality for those with arthrogryposis in certain parts of the world. Donating a few dollars to Joel’s account by clicking on his picture will help save him from this fate by off-setting the cost of his adoption. He could be Laelia. He is so similar to her it’s scary. He haunts me. Please help me support him.

In you the orphan finds mercy.–Hosea 14:3

Never take advantage of any widow or orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure that I will hear their cry.–Exodus 22:22-23

Around age four, children with special needs (despite maybe having no mental problems) face mental institutions.

Here’s what they look like. (Warning, prepare your heart before clicking on this video link.)

Little has changed since that video above was made by the Today show.

And I just imagine Laelia here and it makes me hurt deep within.

Below are other stories.

“Lillian Horodysky, founder and Executive Director of DVOU commented on the alarming condition of orphanages in Ukraine, ‘There were rooms after rooms full of children, lying in their beds, just staring up at the ceiling. All that could be heard was the rustling of their covers, if they moved. It seems as though the thoughts in my own head sounded louder than a disabled orphans barely audible sigh.’ The conditions of most Ukrainian orphanages are deeply concerning. Most orphanages for children with special needs are located in remote areas of Ukraine[...] and orphans’ chances of survival are dramatically reduced even further because of substandard medical care, childcare and little or no education.’”
(http://www.artukraine.com/uasupport/dvou.htm)

Because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him. – Job 29:12

Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. –Isaiah 1:17

“Within two weeks of arriving in Ukraine, Nita went to her first orphanage, Veloska, where God broke her heart for the plight of the orphans. She discovered a system which is the same throughout the former Soviet Union. Children are housed in different facilities depending upon their mental and physical conditions. It is estimated that there are over 60,000 ‘orphans’ in Ukraine. The vast majority of these children have parents and have been placed in the orphanages[...] simply because they are handicapped. When the children reach the age of three to three and a half, they are evaluated by a panel of experts who determine whether these children are ‘normal’ or ‘retarded.’ Once a child is labeled as ‘retarded’ (or ‘imbecile’), they are sent to an orphanage for the mentally retarded where they will remain until they reach adulthood.” (http://www.godshiddentreasures.org/orphanmin.html)

I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! –Matthew 25:40

“Working in Ukraine, he [Terry Hallman] discovered that the standards of care given to disabled children in many orphanages were extremely poor, and that children often stood little chance of surviving into their teens. Terry wrote an insightful and shocking article, ‘Death Camps for Children’, which explored and exposed the key reasons behind the issue, such as a lack of funding, limited medical knowledge and large-scale corruption.” (http://www.justmeans.com/reports/Ukraine–Death-Camps–For-Children/525.html)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. –Proverbs 31:8-9

“When we arrived at the orphanage we were met by older children without coats, they were begging us to give things to them and not to the directors. It is very hard to write about the rest of this part of the trip. I cannot give a step by step account because we were all in a state of shock. We spoke to the director about our program and he told us that he knows the children need more but he said, ‘I cannot ask my workers to do more, they work very hard, clearing the road,
shoveling snow, cleaning the floors and the children, they have not time, they must work very hard all day and then they must dig graves and bury children.’ What do you say to that? Still, the staff took us around to show us how it is. Words don’t come to mind, most of our team was crying and could not stop. Dark hallways, screaming, children clustered together in freezing rooms, some in strait-jackets, haunted looking crying, asking if they were good, asking for food. Water dripping from the dark ceilings, mold everywhere. We held children who were 10 and 13 years old in our arms like infants. One team member said later that she never knew that humans are like fish and will only grow to the size of their environment. One team member threw up outside. Children never leave their beds in some rooms. These children are ages 4-16. In other rooms they leave to go to a room with just a bench and nothing else in it. They hold each other -rocking one another. I have never seen such deprivation and our photographer said it best when he said it was a concentration camp for children. Sorry, this is such a hard part to write but I looked in the eyes of many children who are dying. Their tiny bones fit into the palm of my hands. Their skeleton faces begging for help. No one in our team has really slept since. We talk about it but just end up in tears. I promised the orphanage staff we would come back with a team of people to help them. They are counting on it. The director told one team member that 20 years ago he asked for help there and the soviet minister came and visited. The visiting soviet minister told the director, ‘why do you keep these animals alive? You can kill them, you know how to do it you are a doctor.’ He never sent any money or aid to the orphanage.” (http://eng.maidanua.org/node/581)

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. –Proverbs 3:27

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. –James 4:17

“End of the Road. The children’s home at Kalinovka in rural Zaporozhye Oblast can scarcely be called a ‘home,’ and the children, 160 in number, ages 4-40, are by no means typical ‘children.’ For this facility in rural Ukraine is the end of the road, both literally and figuratively, for some of the oblast’s most severely impaired children–kids with neurological, cognitive, and other crippling disabilities. Alyosha, for example, age five, lacks hands and feet. But he is only one of many at Kalinovka needing care and affection. Between thirty and thirty-five children are confined 24/7 to beds in a ward that has until recently been off-limits to visitors. Permanently institutionalized, 80% of the children here seldom see moms, dads, or relatives. For the 100 or so children who can walk, there is little in the way of planned activities or learning. None of these children, so we were told, is ‘educable.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. Clothing is often shabby and dirty. A number of the girls have Down Syndrome; many boys here appear to have some degree of cerebral palsy or similar neurological impairment; others lack arms or legs; some appear autistic. In 2005 a child, Nadyusha, with a congenital brain hernia was sent to Kalinovka, probably to die; still untreated, she has managed to stay alive. There is no doctor in daily residence; a physician comes once a week. The bedfast children seldom, if ever, go outdoors. As a result of limited care and nutrition, the mortality rate at Kalinovka is said to be eight to ten annually.” (http://www.deti.zp.ua/eng/show_article.php?a_id=90002)

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.–James 1:27

“And so it began.  The road to teaching Haven new things.  The road toward healing. The little angel was locked away in a room for the last two years of her life, isolated from everyone because orphanage staff were afraid to “catch” what she had if they touched her (autism, becoming non-verbal).  Life for Haven was about to change. It struck me this week–the change in Haven’s life has been nothing short of miraculous.  I have looked at my sweet little girl after being away from home for a while, and something has struck me over and over again. Haven has hope!  It’s not that I did not know it before, because I did, but this time it’s different. I see in Haven what every single child waiting deserves.  Hope! THERE IS NO HOPE FOR ANY CHILD IN AN ORPHANAGE! Nothing.  Zero.  Zip. Haven would absolutely have ended up in a mental institution for disabled adults. What kind of hope is that?  What kind of life is that for any human being? Adoption is their ONLY HOPE!  And in most countries, foreign adoption is their only hope.  There is a less than zero percent chance that either Haven, Hannah-Claire, Hailee or Harper would be adopted by a local family.  They have no value in their own country.  They have absolutely no worth in their society. They are are defined by their ‘special needs’ in their countries. Their only hope is for a foreign family to come and rescue them. Period. (http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2010_04_01_archive.html)

Proverbs 24:11-12.

11 Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.–Matthew 18:5

For more facts click here.