Quick break to see some other precious children....

Remember Owen?

Click here to see some more pictures of him, including a sweet baby picture.

Remember sweet Kacey with Apert Syndrome?

Here is a post from a mom who met her... she would do so well in a family.

I don't think I'd mentioned Tamara before... but she seems so sweet.

She had a family coming but they are not able to complete the adoption. She doesn't deserve to be sent to a mental institution. No child does... but Tamara is facing this only because she looks different. Could she be your daughter?
There is a mom who has met Tamara as well; if you contact Reece's Rainbow they could put you in touch with her.

Keegan is a sweet little boy with Down Syndrome.

He has a heart defect for which surgery is not recommended and a bit of strabismus but nothing too serious... and at the ripe old age of 1 is facing the institution because his baby house is closing.
If a family were interested, he could be adopted with Ollie, who is also under 2. Ollie has a heart defect which is more serious and will need attention when he comes home. He is not in the baby house that is closing, so he is not in immediate danger of transfer.


And Genesis is now officially adopted! She has a mommy, a daddy, three brothers, and a sister. Her new name is Sarah Joy.

In a few weeks they will all be together at home.
Yvonne (Sarah's mom) is pleading for a family for Angela, who she sponsors through Life 2 Orphans and was able to hold at the orphanage.

From her RR profile:
"Diagnosis: severe grade of the mental delay, hydrocephalus, fibrosis of hyaloid, secondary glaucoma, exfoliation/detachment of retina, congenital defect of the heart partition"
I don't know what all of that means, but it sounds like she has blindness, hydrocephalus, and a heart defect....

Ivan is also still in desperate need of a family.

Another sweet blind girl

Sera is described as cute, clever, giggly, happy, and healthy. She loves to play hide and seek. I have a daughter just her age :)

Sera also happens to be blind... this is a totally manageable special need. Blind people can work in almost any field sighted people can. She needs parents to help her develop the creativity to figure out how she can use her skills to compensate for her blindness. She needs parents who are willing to put sticky Braille labels all over their house. She needs parents who are willing to work with education professionals to make sure she gets the education she deserves--an education that will expose her to the the world through her ears and fingers and increase her independence. And she needs a family who will love her without regard to ability.

Is any of that really so hard? She is developing well and most likely cognitively normal. There is every reason to believe that one day Sera will lead a normal, independent life.

God loves her

Sarah is in the same place as Carissa (the orphanage that was very bad but is getting better, hopefully). She is underweight and severely delayed, but finally these kids are receiving good medical care. She also is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and blindness. Somewhere, though, there is a family willing and excited to love a 5-year-old girl with severe disabilities back to health, to help her reach her potential, to teach her about God's world and His plan for her through what means she can learn. God intended Sarah to be a daughter, not an orphan.

Region 3: additional children

Unlike 42, there are quite a few children in Region 3 with their own profiles, among them Shaun and Jamison. I noticed the additional children recently, though, and I noticed that some of them have a bit more information than is typical of "additional children."

I noticed two little girls named Maria with "other special needs."














Maria G, 3 1/2, is blind and looks like she may have additional special needs as well (50% of blind children do). Maria S will turn 7 (!) in April and I don't know what her special need is, or whether her picture is up to date. More information may be available... she certainly needs a family.






Christine, 8, is so high-functioning she's been sent to an orphanage for older children (like a boarding school, most likely) rather than an institution. She's an orphanage favorite.






One can assume from her hair bow that Suzanne is an orphanage favorite too... or at least was. She just turned 7 so it is likely she's in an institution and her picture has not been taken there.






Four-year-old Mark is healthy and "doing great."






At 6 Orielle is a much-loved favorite in her orphanage, but she is facing transfer to a mental institution. She was born with a heart defect, but seems healthy; the defect often heals on its own.






At 5 Maria T. spends her days in a walker. She has crossed eyes.






I noticed this little boy... Igor is 6.






Veronica needs something to smile about. She's 11.






Valery is 7. Looks like he may have some sort of repaired cleft or another facial issue in addition to Down Syndrome. Such a handsome young man.






I hope Vladislav's picture is not up to date... he is 8. He appears to be very lacking in stimulation. Look what institution does to these boys and girls. The older kids look younger. Vladislav appears to have a rash or hemangioma (probably Down Syndrome as well).






Ivan P. is 5... who could resist that smile! I hope someone finds him somehow and he never has a picture that looks like Vladislav's. This boy looks like a joy, someone must want him.

little blind girl with multiple issues

Arianna is a 1 1/2 year old baby girl (presumably her picture is out of date). She has some sort of "cleft/facial issue" according to her profile. She deserves a family that will see what a beautiful daughter of God she is.

More about Genesis' family

Genesis' new family's FSP (family sponsorship profile) is up on Reece's Rainbow! If your heart has been touched by this little girl, please donate to them--they will need the funds. They also commented on my first post about Genesis, if you want a little more information about them.

This family is perfect for Genesis. They are already parents to a special little boy who they believe has the same eye condition that she does. They are also already parents through international adoption. Genesis' dad is a pastor so they can really use financial help to bring her home.

God is good. I am so glad this little girl I fell in love with has a family.

My husband and I were on the phone with them for half an hour this morning... I know their life story now :)

Genesis' mom's blog is here. They will be naming her Sarah Joy.

Facing transfer or transferred

These children do not have forever to wait for their families. Some will age out of the system and be locked away in institutions forever. Most won't make it that long; they will probably die, like Warner and Dakota did.

Today I wanted to point out some of the kids who I've posted here before who are in danger of being sent to institutions soon. (All of the girls at that link--except Teri Lynn, who has been adopted--are also institutionalized or in danger of it).

Kyle is one of those boys who looks a little like my son.


Kyle is 5 years old and has Down Syndrome. He'll be in a mental institution soon. His fifth birthday is this month. He has a $2700 grant.

Sergey was due to be transferred in September, but I haven't heard any updates.

(Actually it looks like I haven't blogged about him before--now I am!) Sergey is 4 and has HIV. He gets along well with other children; he's never aggressive; physically and developmentally on track, cognitively normal. There's no reason why Sergey shouldn't have a family. It's not known whether he was/will be sent to a mental institution or a boarding school for older children.

Last but not least, remember Sasha, age 7 but so tiny.

Sasha has Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and possibly autism. No one pays attention to him or works with him. No one loves him. He lies in his crib and he chews on his tongue. At his age he must already have been transferred... he desperately needs a family. It is a wonder he has held on all these years. Sasha will need a lot of attention and care, but surely God has a reason for keeping him alive this long... perhaps because he would be such a blessing to your family. His needs would be a lot to take on... but even if you are not his mommy or daddy, you can pray for him.

Last but not least, remember Dmitriy and Genesis, who are both blind and in the same institution... they could be adopted together.


Every one of these kids deserves a family, not a warehouse. They deserve to live, not just be kept alive. Some have more difficult special needs, but sweet Sergey would fit into any family. And nearly every child would be adopted if money was not a problem--if we could fill Sasha's grant, maybe a family with a lot of love who had a heart for very special kids but not a lot of money would be able to commit to him.

Whatever we do for these little ones, we do for Jesus.

Genesis

This is not how I had hoped this post would go. I had hoped that when I finally posted Genesis, I would be saying she was going to be my daughter. But now I have to say that she isn't.

Genesis is a beautiful, sweet girl who needs a very special family. She is deafblind. We knew when we started working toward adopting her that she was blind. She has some hearing, she may even have some vision. She may be a candidate for a cochlear implant, which would restore some of her hearing. She is considered severely retarded. This could mean exactly what it says--or this could mean absolutely nothing, and she might have this diagnosis simply because she is deafblind, and it's hard for her to perceive the world around her, and the world must be brought to her fingers so that she can engage with that. She could have that diagnosis even if there's no cognitive involvement. At least one person who met her felt that she was very high-functioning. At this point she does not speak or walk. But how would a deafblind child living in an orphanage know that speaking and walking are things people do? How would she get the input to show her that one should move around on two legs when falls are much more likely? She can pull up to standing, and ride on a rocking horse, so if she does have a little bit of complicating cerebral palsy, it is not severe. She is almost certainly capable of walking--she just needs to be taught. It's even possible that she was not walking due to regression after being institutionalized, and she used to be able to walk.

Genesis is in a mental institution. She will turn 5 in December. She does not deserve to be where she is--there shouldn't be any little girls or boys there. She is blessed now to have a one-on-one caregiver, paid for by her prayer warrior in the US. (This program, through Life 2 Orphans, provides one-on-one caregivers to children at her orphanage. This can be a difference between life or death, or between surviving and thriving, and I would encourage anyone to support it.) It is through this program we received the update on her--but the update is from when the caregiver had just started working with her. So what we know about is really her low point, not her full capabilities.

She had lost weight. She had been taken away from everything she knew. If she had a strong bond with a caregiver, if she had a very special friend, she had just lost that. But even at her low point, I could see some hope. She smiled and laughed and showed affection. She had a short attention span--which means that, at least for short times, she could be engaged. Somehow, this caregiver had started getting through to her.

Genesis is not hopeless. She is God's daughter if not mine. She has so much potential. But she will also need a lot of one-on-one attention. She probably needs a mommy and daddy without 2 or 3 younger kids. She needs a family that can spend a lot of one-on-one time helping her learn about her world. And even as I write this, I am wishing so much it was us. I wish that I could help her explore the world, put pretty bows on her poor shaved head, cuddle her when she needed comfort. I wanted to be her mommy. Maybe I still do. If I thought I could make it work....



I don't know what her capabilities are. It may not be possible to know that until her mommy and daddy meet her. It may not really be known until she's been home for years. Even with no cognitive involvement, you couldn't just throw a deafblind child into a family and expect that she'd go with the flow. I don't know if she can even communicate at all. I don't know if she will learn. If I knew for sure that she had no cognitive involvement, or if we knew for sure she could hear and see a little, maybe we could go for it and there'd be reason enough to expect she would become somewhat independent. I'm not looking for a daughter who will become a Nobel prize winner, solve world hunger, or even necessarily live independently or go to college. But I have a 22-month old now, and I don't know if I can commit to a child who would function at a toddler level all of her life. And Genesis' parents need to be ready to be her mommy and daddy no matter what life brings. They need to be ready for a little girl who may never eat her own food, be potty trained, or walk. They need to be ready to provide a lifetime of care to a daughter who will never say thank you. They may end up with a daughter who is very bright, who can live independently, who can hear and speak and read Braille and sign. But they need to be able to commit to this little girl for her whole life, no matter where on that spectrum she is.

If I could know for sure that Genesis were my daughter, none of that would stop me. If God supernaturally told me I were her mom, or if she had been born to me, I would stop at nothing to give her everything she needed. I would find a way. But God has not told me I'm her mommy. It seems God has been very gently telling us that we are not her family. But I do believe she has a family!

How sad is it that if you travel backwards through Genesis's life, she becomes higher functioning?

She so needs to come home to a family.

Please, if you are reading this and think you might be her family--if you are thinking "I would adopt her, but..."--let me know and maybe I can help. I've done a lot of research now on educating and communicating with deafblind children. There is actually a school for the blind with a program for deafblind children only an hour from my house; I know of another in Alabama. This girl is so precious, and it is so important that she gets a family. Please pray for Genesis.

Dear Father in Heaven,
We pray for your sweet daughter Genesis. We don't know for sure what her needs or capabilities are. We don't know for sure what being her family will entail. We do know she is a precious little girl made in Your image. We know that Your Son Jesus loved her so much He died for her. We know that Genesis deserves every good thing, and we pray in faith that You would bring forward her family. Please, Lord, give her a mommy and daddy who can show her Your love and help her reach her full potential, be everything she can be, even while being willing to parent her if she is what the world would call the least of us. Please, Father, we pray in Jesus' name--show Genesis's mom and dad who they are. Teach them how to love her as you love us--not saying that our needs are too great, our potential too little, the cost to rescue us too much, but simply saying, my daughter, I love you.
Amen.

another blind girl

Wendy is 5 years old and blind. She was born quite prematurely. She also has CP. She is a beautiful little girl. She is facing transfer very soon--she may have been transferred already. Wendy deserves a family.

A little boy who has a family

This is Andriy.

Andriy is blind. However, he does not need a family. His family, the Burlinghams, are planning to go and bring him home soon. But Andriy's needs didn't end when he found a family, as great as that is. Andriy's mom and dad, like most of us, didn't have $25,000 or more in the bank account when they committed to adopting their son. Andriy's family needs a lot of money so that they can go get their boy.

Maybe you aren't called to adopt or advocate. But if you are reading this, you are reading because you care about these kids who don't have families. So I challenge you to examine if perhaps you are called to give something--anything--to help Andriy come home. Twenty dollars. Ten. Five. No commitment; no monthly donation; no guilt-inducing letters later pleading for more. Andriy's mom helped me decide I wanted to commit to my daughter M. If you've been reading hoping to donate to me, don't. Just give it to Andriy. He needs it more. M. is getting home. There really is a chance Andriy won't. Unless my situation changes drastically, I will never be on here begging you to donate to M.'s adoption fund. But I am asking you today to send what you can to Andriy's family.

They have a giveaway too. And pie.


If you do want to adopt a little one who is blind yourself... this is Jeanne:


Jeanne has a birth defect of her eyes. She is definitely vision impaired; right now RR does not know what the nature of her disability is or how much vision (if any) she has. More information could be obtained if a family had a complete homestudy. Jeanne is 5 and has a $3000 grant. She lives in Russia.