Awakening.

These pictures are horrifying, the stats are hard to fathom. But sometimes people need to be shaken awake, instead of gentle nudging.

In other countries of the world, children born with special needs are given up by their birth parents because of how socially unacceptable their needs are. Their parents won't have support, access to therapies, proper medical care, and they will be looked down on for the rest of their child's life because they aren't what their country calls "perfect." Many times, the child is given up when they are born. The announcement of their birth should be joyful, but instead after a doctor makes a diagnoses, they are no longer considered children. They are "mistakes," suddenly they aren't people but "things." I don't think these parents are heartless, I don't think they are evil people who intentionally send their biological child off to a life of torture, I think they are uneducated. They have been raised in a society where special needs are hidden. They have been told their whole lives that people like this shouldn't exist and that they have zero potential. I think they believe that their child is better off without them,  that they won't be able to go to school, that they won't be able to provide for themselves. It must be scary really, to live in a society where people are expected to be "perfect" and all the same.

So these children are given up. They are sent to orphanages where they are surrounded by other children that share their story. They don't get cuddled, they aren't properly cared for, they don't get physical, occupational, or speech therapy. They are left in these orphanages until they are four or five, older if they are lucky, and then transferred to adult mental institution. I now shudder at the word "institution." They tie to children to beds, heavily medicated, and leave them in cribs constantly. The stats show, that over 80% of children don't survive their first year. 80%. Some countries are "better" at caring for the children, some are down right awful. There are "good institutions" and "bad institutions" in the grand scheme of things, but we all know that none of them are a place for a child.

Think of ten friends. Then think about only TWO of them surviving for more than a year. It's shocking when you think of it that way, right? But to the people "caring" for these children, it's ok. They weren't people anyway right? They have down syndrome, they can't learn. They are cerebral palsy, they'll never walk. They were born with hydrocephalus (which has the possibility of being treat very successfully) and the pressure on their brain is slowly stealing them from the world, but they don't know what's going on, right? NO. The answer is no to every single one of these questions.

No matter how many times I tell you about the restraints and the sedation and the screams that fill the rooms of these dark institutions, pictures tell the whole story. Pictures show just how terrible these places are.

This is Katie. She is 9 years old, and she weighs 11lbs. I'll just let that sink in for a second.
This is a picture of her in the orphanage where she was starved and bed ridden for years. She can't crawl, can't speak, can't eat solid food. She can hardly hold her head up because she is so malnourished that her muscles haven't developed.
She can't handle being held for more than a few minutes at a time. She sucks on her tongue and chews on her arm to comfort herself.
The good news for Katie, is that she has a family now. They rescued her a couple weeks ago. She is in the PICU (in the USA), being fed through a NG tube. However, it isn't as simple as just feeding her nonstop. Her body has been deprived for so long that they are slowly having to work up to feeding her everything that she needs. She has already gained over a pound, and she has only been home for a few weeks. She let her mommy hold her for over two hours the other day. She is getting some meat on those bones of hers, and already looks so much better. She was able to leave the hospital and join her family-the rest of her brothers and sisters-at home today. She is now going to know what it means to have a family. Katie has a very long road ahead of her. She has many things to learn. She has to learn that people love her, she has to learn what love means. But I have no doubt that her family will give her the best care available and will love her unconditionally.

This is Lilianna. She is 11 and weighs about 10lbs. It is amazing that she has survived this long. She is in the same country that Katy was adopted from. She has a family coming for her.

 And maybe even more impressive and shocking......this is "Pam.
She is 15. 15 years old. The hope is that Lilianna and Pam will be able to be adopted together. An amazing family has committed to both of them, along with two other little ones.

But what gives us hope is Carrington. She was adopted around the age of 4 and was severely malnourished. When her parents got her out of the orphanage and got her back to their hotel, they undressed her and found how bad the damage really was.

She weighed 11lbs. They brought her home and got to the hospital where she was slowly brought back to an acceptable weight.

This was her 5 months later. She had already gained ten pounds.

She doubled her body weight in just 5 months of care.

Here she is in October 2011. What a difference a family makes!!



Carrington's story gives all of us hope that Katie, Lilianna, Pam, and the other children in their countries, can in face recover if given the proper care. Sadly, the countries can be touchy, which is why I have not included where exactly these children were adopted from. They don't want the news of how terribly they treat their children to be exposed. They hide them, until someone comes to their rescue. When Katie was just removed from the orphanage, she was refusing feeds so her new mommy took her to the hospital to have a NG tube put in. All the staff in the hospital were shocked that she was 9. They kept asking over and over (because of the language barrier) if they were SURE of her age. People kept coming in to look at her and couldn't believe that she was adopted from their country. Hopefully, seeing sweet Katie is enough to make their own people make a change.

I do not believe that everyone is meant to adopt a child that is severely malnourished. It is a big commitment, and although extremely worth while, may not be possible for some. Not every family is meant to adopt either. But you don't have to adopt to make a difference. Sometimes just sharing photos is enough to spark something. Maybe you can't adopt or do not feel called to do so, but what if you post a picture, and then someone else shares it, and a friend of a friend sees it and feels called to adopt? You had a part in that.

You can also donate to Reece's Rainbow which is where all of these children were found. The are an adoption ministry that helps fundraise and place children with forever families. They are amazing.

reecesrainbow.org

Be shocked, be horrified. Let these little faces affect you the way that have me. Here are some other little ones that were adopted from different countries. None were quite as malnourished as the four I posted above, but they went without love for a long time and were underweight, in orphanages, with little to no medical care and therapies. All of them have Down Syndrome and have an insane amount of potential and have already learned, changed, and grown so much since they have been home.

 This is Gabe! He is six years old. He was only 20ish pounds when his family brought him home from the Ukraine. He didn't like to be touched or moved, he couldn't eat solids, his teeth are rotted, and he laid down constantly. He has already received physical and feeding therapy, gone to a cardiologist, had his teeth checked out, gained 4 or 5 pounds, he crawls and pulls himself up, he has glasses, he LOVES to be held and played with, he babbles and smiles and laughs, he eats solids, he is going to have his teeth fixed. He has been home since the summer of 2011 and has already come SO far! He was blessed to have been adopted before he was transferred; it was close. Gabe could have been a statistic.

Here is sweet Vahnya. I love this child and I am blessed to know him and his family. He was brought home from Russia in March of 2011. He was little but mobile and in good health, but had lived in an orphanage his entire life. He is now the youngest of seven kids and is SO loved. He has the best laugh in the world (you can't help but smile!), he has learned sign language, and words, he knows his family, he has gained weight and grown like 9inches or something insane. He likes to play and dance and sing, he likes to give loves and be held. He snuggles close, he runs and plays, he understands so much of what people say, he claps and smiles and knows what he wants. He is a smart, stubborn, lovable little man who just steals your heart immediately! I love my time with him. I can't imagine this child in an institution. He has so much potential, how can you waste that? Another child who was in his orphanage has been transferred which was a rude awakening to just how terribly sad Vahnya's story could have been.  

This is just a wake up call post. It shows where these children come from, the lives they are forced to endure because of the way they were born. They deserve love, they deserve to thrive and grow and reach their full potential. These children are capable, lovable, and hold something that none of us can understand. They bring so much joy to this world.

-Caitlin

I wrote this post and posted it on my personal blog a couple of days ago, but I decided I should share it with all of you because it is the history and future of why the four of us fundraise for these families. Because we want more smiles and less tears, more giggles and less starvation, we want more LOVE and less neglect!