Not Forgotten

Please read about this little boy's story a friend wrote.  This story makes me want to cry.  This little boy deserves a mother.  Please pass his story on.  It also has a story of a family at the end. 

I have two focuses for this Friday.  Both are heartwrenching and hard. 

Yesterday I received an e-mail that open the floodgates that hold back my tears.  I haven't recovered.  I am still leaking tears as I write this post.  This story pierced my heart, and I don't know when I'll get over it.

Six years ago,  a Mama across the ocean gave birth to a little boy. His little body was twisted and contorted, and the doctors and nurses whispered in her ears, urging her to give him up: "He will never walk."  "He will be a burden."  "You cannot afford to keep him."  "He will be better off hidden away." "He should not have been born."    She was in an unforgiving world where broken children are tossed aside on a regular basis.

Despite all of this, her mother's heart would not allow her to let him go. Against the advice of all of those worldly-wise whisperers, she decided to keep him.  She carried her beloved little boy with the contorted body home, where she cared for him and loved on him.  She tenderly worked his arms and his legs.  She nursed him and washed him. It was hard. We don't know if she had support.  We know that finding work while maintaining a disabled child at home in that world is next to impossible. Somehow, though, mother and son survived together in this way for six years.

Back in January 2011, financial strain and her own health problems forced this Mama to take her son to live in a baby house orphanage. She chose the best one she could find, one where the staff was willing to work with special needs kids like her son.  She wanted to find a job and a home nearby so that she could visit her precious treasure. Evey time she walked through the door, his face lit up: his Mama was back.  Her love carried him through the loneliness of the baby house and kept him going.  He loved his Mama and she loved him. 

A few months later, though, Mama suddenly stopped coming. Her little boy longed for her and waited for her; but no matter how hard he wished for her, she no longer appeared. 

Her absence wasn't by choice. Unknown to the little boy, his Mama had died of cancer in March.

Now he is all alone in the orphanage, with no one to visit him, for the first time in his six years of life. He refuses to believe the caretakers who tell him that she is never coming back. Each day, he continues to look for her.  He scans the face of everyone who walks into the building, looking for a Mama who can never return to him.

A little boy who was tenderly loved for 6 years, suddenly orphaned.

He needs a Mama. 

He desperately needs a  Mama.

He will not be allowed to stay at his good baby house orphanage.  Because he is wheelchair bound, he will be transferred to an institution for older children with special needs, just as Aaron was transferred. 

I can't bear the thought.

His Reece's Rainbow name is Patrick and he needs a Mama.

He needs to grieve in the arms of a Mama who will help him overcome his great loss.  He needs a family who can restore for him the joy of being loved and held and cherished. 

I would get him if I could.  I would cross that ocean and bring him home if the road was clear for us.  But it is not.  And so I am crying out for someone else to go get him.  He needs a family.

My heart grieves deep within me for this one little boy.

Please please please post on your blogs about this little guy.  Please, someone go get him. 

Little boys are not supposed to have to say goodbye to their Mamas when they are only six years old.

*****

Just like Mamas are not supposed to have to say goodbye to their sons when they are only five years old.

But that is what is happening in my other story.

A Reece's Rainbow family is getting ready to say goodbye to their son, Joshua. 

We met this family last year across the ocean. While we were bringing home Aaron, they were bringing home  two little girls with Down Syndrome. 

Hannah and Bethany.

Hannah came home and began to thrive immediately.  Bethany's story was different: her health was fragile. Over the last nine months, she has been hospitalized multiple times, for a long list of reasons.

While the Parkers were dealing with Bethany's litany of issues, their youngest son, Joshua, also became gravely ill.  He, too, had a  long list of health problems, but his health was fairly stable until they brought the girls home. Then Joshua took a turn for the worse, and the family has been forced to watch their little boy go downhill fast.  

Sadly, the doctors have no more help to offer.  Joshua is approaching the end.  His little body is wearing out, and his doctors now speak of pain management instead of cure. Joshua will be going into hospice care very soon.

I'm writing this because the Parker family just plain needs help. 

Fathers shouldn't have to say goodbye to their five year olds.

But that is what is happening. 

In a short time they are going to have to say goodbye to their precious little guy.

The family needs help right now, and I am asking you to dig deep for them.  By praying, encouraging and giving.

Some friends and I have created a blog for the Parker family to make it easy to GIVE and to SHARE their story.

Please donate, and please pass their blog around on your blogs and FB.

You can access their blog HERE.  Please lift this family up in your prayers.

They are going through a dark valley and desperately need to know we are there for them.

Teri Lynn

Please read a post copied from a blog that I read.  I don't think I could say this any better, so I will just repost what she had to say about this sweet little girl. 

Every now and then I see something that literally makes me feel sick in my stomach.  They're the pictures and the stories which bring me to my knees--begging God to intervene.

There are many things in this life which break my heart.  Poverty, hurt, broken marriages, wayward children, neglected and abused animals, struggling families, illness...I could go on and on.  I ache every time I see any of those things.

But something happens deep within me each and every time I see a picture of  sheer injustice--an orphan without hope!  A situation so desperate and so very heartbreaking.

I know that many of you have been reading my blog for a long time, and for that I am so thankful.  Some of you have even followed along from the time I was in Ukraine last year adopting Hailee and Harper.  You held up my arms in those weeks which were terribly lonely and difficult--especially when there was a chance that the judge would not allow me to adopt the girls.

While in that country and since coming home, I have tried as best I could to put into words the conditions that children live in there.  I shared my heart here and here.  It's a fine balance, really.  I want to spell it out and tell the world all about the reality of the conditions that millions of children live in.  But at the same time there's a very fine line in being cautious not to ruffle any feathers that could possibly cause problems for future families adopting from those nations. 

Last week I saw a picture that just about ripped my heart out.  Staring back at me was a little treasure.  An angel, really. 

Allow me to introduce you to Teri Lynn.

Isn't she just a little doll?

Teri Lynn has Down syndrome and lives in a country in Eastern Europe.  She has waited for years and years for someone to choose her.  Unfortunately for Teri Lynn, she turned five last December.  A death sentence!  Literally.  Do you know why?  In these countries young children are kept in a baby house for the first five years of their lives.  These are places filled to be brim with little ones.  And while conditions are positively awful in many of them, they really are paradise compared to what comes next.

Soon after these sweet children with special needs turn five, they become eligible to be transferred.  To a mental asylum!  An institution.  A place where 95% of children with Down syndrome DIE!  They cannot survive the heinous conditions.  They lie in cribs day in and day out.  They are starved of human contact and adequate food.  All dignity is stripped away as they lie in their own urine and feces until someone eventually finds enough time to come and change them.  These children have no worth and no value whatsoever!  To those who "care" for them, they are merely objects--not worthy of human love and care.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  I really could go on and on telling you story after story.  I could use every word in the book to try and tell the world about the reality of life for these sweet, beautiful, and amazing children who get transferred to mental institutions.

But this time, no words are necessary.

This, friends, is Teri Lynn.  Just a few weeks after being transferred!  This is an updated picture of the same little girl above living in a mental asylum.

Can you even imagine?  I weep for her!  How is this even possible?

How can a beautiful little girl deteriorate so quickly, in just a few weeks?  How can her head be shaved and her face look like she is the victim of some kind of abuse?  How?  It looks like she is definitely being drugged with something too.  Oh, God in heaven!

It's the reality of institutionalism.  A place where only the fittest and strongest can survive.

Dear blog friends, today I come to you begging for your help. Yes, I'm begging! Like every other orphan on the planet, Teri Lynn deserves to be chosen!  She deserves a chance at life. She deserves to blossom and grow and become all who God has created her to be.  But I'm afraid that time is running out.  She is deteriorating fast, and I have no idea how long she can hold on. She's holding on by a thread.

My heart aches for her.

PLEASE, will you help me spread the word?  Would you mind spreading Teri Lynn's story all over the place in the hope that someone will look at her sweet little face and know that she is their daughter?  We need to find a family for her, like, yesterday.  A family who will step forward in faith and head into the unknown.  Will it be easy?  Perhaps not.  Is God able?  Yes!  Able to do exceedingly, abundantly MORE than we could ever ask or imagine.



Teri Lynn has a grant fund which has been set up for her through Reece's Rainbow.  A large grant would make her adoption so much easier.  If you feel led by the Lord, would you consider making a contribution to her fund?  You can go right here to sow seed which God will multiply.  All donations are tax deductible.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.  Thank you for standing with me and trusting that this little life WILL be saved.  Thank you for praying that the right family will step forward very soon--and that they will get to her before it is too late. 

Who will rescue this treasure of darkness?