Have you ever looked at the world and all the tragedies taking place and your heart just hurt so much you felt completely and totally overwhelmed?
Have you ever read or watched the news for the day and felt so helpless to do something to change things that you almost just turned away in apathy or denial ?
Have you ever heard stories of famine or poverty or war or injustice and felt powerless to do anything about it all ?
I have. I watched the adoption situation in Russia crumble this winter, and although so many were praying and hoping that things would shift in favor of orphan rescue, the government there had other plans. And they prevailed. Over 250 mid-process adoptions were shut down because of a law that now denies Americans the chance to rescue Russia's forgotten children.
Those aren't just numbers...they are children with names.
Names that will forever be etched in my heart, representing children I will never stop praying for.
Olga. Artem. Albina. Kacey. Nanette. Lera. And the list goes on....
I asked my friend
Kelly Dirkes, Charlotte's mama, if I could share a recent blogpost she wrote, in regards to these children who are now left behind. Each one of the faces you see were waiting for families to come rescue them. They had mamas and papas who wanted to bring them home and raise them and show them the love of a family.
They were wanted.
*******************
(from the director of Charlotte's Baby House)
I am glad that every child leaving our baby home takes with them kindness and knowledge that they were loved and spoiled there…
…and that their childhood was happy despite any circumstances.
Every person deserves a good present and past…
…a place to call home and people who love them.
After we took some of the children to the institution and saw how
they were welcomed, I do not believe there is kindness, warmth, or
compassion there.
But the memories of our love and kindness should warm them for now.
And we will pray for them. We will pray they remember love.
I knew this day would most likely come after negotiations stalled,
but that didn’t make the reality of it any less wrenching. There is
nothing left that can be done for them. Charlotte’s friends have been
sentenced to life in a place referred to as “the House of Invalids”.
Please pray they remember love. It is not enough…but right now, it is everything.
*****************
If you're a new reader and are unfamiliar with special needs adoption in Russia, here's a crash course in reality.
These children have no place in their society. Children like Lily, and those with other special needs, are not taken home from the hospital by their parents in Russia...they are deemed unfit, and they are left in orphanages or "Baby Houses" to spend the first four to five years of their lives. They are raised by caretakers, and when they graduate from their Baby Houses, they are transferred to adult mental institutions. There they will spend the rest of their lives secluded from society.
What do you do with children who are too small to contain in an adult mental institution ? With limited workers and inadequate facilities, how do you keep small wandering children from roaming halls or mingling with the "adults".
You tie them to cribs. Apparently.
You prop bottles filled with mush, you leave them for hours on end in soiled diapers, you ignore crying and screaming and eyes pleading for help, you leave them to fend for themselves, you pretend they aren't human.
Because one day they will grow out of that stage, and realize there is nobody coming to help. They will self-soothe, chew their hands, rock themselves to sleep in boredom, bang their heads against the bars of their cribs for stimulation, soil themselves without caring, stop living...and just exist.
This is Russia's answer to those who in America are called children with "special" needs.
Forget about them.
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| Albina...her family traveled to see her and named her Haley. They were waiting on a court date in December. |
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My heart is broken for these children. So many of you helped raise funds for them before they had committed families, and so many continued to give to the families adopting them.
My heart is broken for the families who spent months and years and finances and energy in an effort to rescue their children.
And yes, I feel helpless.
I will never stop praying for these children or their families, because that is all the hope they have left now.
So what do you do when you read stories like these?
Do you decide that your efforts were wasted, that it's better to leave these situations to themselves, to turn a blind eye, pretend they don't exist, give up, because it's all a lesson in futility ?
Or do you decide it's time to act.
Do you take that righteous anger - because I AM angry - and decide to do something good.
Because that's the only way I know to combat this feeling of hopelessness and helplessness.
I will pray.
And I will never forget.
And I will ACT.
This is Penny. She lives in B******* , a nation that also secludes children with special needs from society. However, B******* does not deny Americans the right to rescue their children.
Penny has lived in this orphanage for all of her twelve years.
Twelve years.
She weighs 21 pounds (Lily's weight) and is 36 inches tall.
This is not because of her condition- cerebral palsy - but because of starvation and neglect.
Penny has a
family committed to her, who will be adopting her this year. They have worked tirelessly to do all the necessary paperwork required to bring her home, and they have scrimped and saved for all of the expenses involved in her adoption.
They need roughly $3,000 to complete Penny's adoption...an amount I KNOW Lily's readers will meet.
You've done it so many times before - you've helped raise $10,000 in two days before.
You've helped raise over $150,000 over the past two years towards special needs adoptions.
Are you willing to do it again?
Are you willing to put your heart on the line and risk and sacrifice and give, to rescue one fragile and forgotten and beautiful and deserving child ?
Will you help save Penny?
An anonymous family is donating a brand new iPad for our Saving Penny Giveaway.
Here's how the giveaway works.
Donate ANY amount to Penny's grant fund on Reece's Rainbow to be entered to win. You can donate via the Paypal button at the top right hand corner of this blog. This will take you directly to Penny's grant fund on Reece's Rainbow. All donations go directly to Penny's grant fund account. You do not need to tell me the amount you donated, but you DO need to leave a comment in the comment section here saying you donated to be entered to win.
You may receive an additional entry by facebooking, posting on Instagram with a link, tweeting, or blogging about this giveaway. Just leave a comment here telling me what you did to receive an extra entry.
When we have raised $3,000 - and I know we will, because I know the heartbeat of this readership - we will draw a winner from the comment section through random.org. The Paypal gadget needs to read $8,463 for us to reach our goal.
The winner of the iPad will be announced that day, and it will be shipped immediately.
Are you ready to do something powerful in the face of all the injustice in the world ?
Are you ready to ACT ?
Spread the word, readers.
We're SAVING PENNY.
