Ukraine Orphans

Remember this little girl I posted a picture of a few weeks back?

She's been home just a few short weeks and the change in her is already very obvious.

But, there are still millions of orphans around the world who do not have a family and many who will never know the love of a family.

The special needs orphans pull a particular string, because they are so much more helpless. Their parents abandon them at birth simply because of their genetics, a deformity or a disability They abandon them over something the child had no choice in. Did that child choose to be born with a third 21st chromosome? No, God is the one who made him that way. Yet, because they aren't "perfect", many of these children are rejected or looked down upon by the society they are born into.

And so, they live their lives inside of a crib.

And then at 4 years old are transferred to an even worse place, a mental institution. To either live the rest of their life out locked up, tied to a crib or die very shortly after being sent there. Like these two little girls I wrote about in a blog post a year ago February.

Living your life inside of a crib, starved of love and adequate care & nutrition results in this:

This little boy is Wade. He has Down syndrome, is 3 years old and weighs about 10 lbs. Unbelievable, sickening and sad. He is in the same orphanage that the little girl at the top of this post, Hailee, was just rescued from. In the same room, where the "most needy" children are. Left in their cribs alone. When I saw his picture on this blog post, I couldn't help but cry. This little boy is adorable and he would be a baby I'd adopt right this moment, if adoption wasn't so difficult.

I wish there weren't so many stringent requirements in adoption, because then so many more people could adopt. (Yes, I understand why the requirements are there, but I still think it's a bit over board.)

If little Wade was born into a family who loved him, he would not be 10 lbs at 3 years old. I've seen it with my own eyes. My little brother has Down syndrome and we've loved him and treated him like any other child in our family and he has thrived beyond anything we were ever told! Just simple love goes so far.

Little Wade could do so well in a family and I can only hope that God will open the doors for us to be able to adopt a little guy like him someday.