Hosting opportunities are quickly arriving for the Christmas Holidays!

The rewards of becoming a Host Family for an Orphan:

• Seeing a child’s eyes when they experience something they have never seen before-something as simple as bubble bath or a vacuum cleaner or a clothes drier.
• Sharing special holiday events and summer activities and vacations!
• Hearing those first English words, spoken with a darling accent, “sank oo.”
• Giving them the attention they have craved for so long and done without and watching them bloom from it. I could go on and on about the positives of opening your heart to a needy child.
• Best of all, keeping up a correspondence with the kids, sending them little cards and gifts. They write back. I know I have touched lives forever. In fact, one child wrote about her hosting experience: “Those were the best days of my life.”
• Hosting to adopt, getting to know your child before you adopt!
• Hosting just for the joy of hosting and providing a once in a lifetime experience to a child.

Please see our Hosting Page for more information about this program.
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James dreams of helping others...

After we drove through Gulu, Uganda,  it should have been a very short journey to Kitgum by kilometer, but the roads were terrible and full of potholes and the heat beat down on our car, air-conditioner had stopped at the beginning of the journey.   We were sweaty and miserable, our bodies stuck to the car seats.  We had not stopped but once in 8 hours.   That last leg of the journey was as long as the 4 hours to Gulu.  I felt miserable, hungry, thirsty.   I remember thinking this is the longest road in the world.   The road to Kitgum showed beautiful terrain, landscape full of African wildlife and flora.  The  occasional Acacia tree hovering over the land, and the towering cashew trees made me realize I had truly made it to Africa, yet this trip was so tiresome, and we just could not stop until we got there, we didn’t want to be driving at night, it was too dangerous.  I felt excitement, and dread to see the conditions that lay before me.  I was being prepared for a tiny taste of life after war. A very small bite of that life, so bitter and not at all nourishing.  Yet what I found was food for my very soul.   My life was changed by the children I met.  They fed the empty place in my heart.

I  traveled on North into the former war zone of Uganda, and seeing the signs of the city finally welcoming us to Kitgum, knowing I had reached my final destination.   It was so peaceful when we entered, people waving at me, smiling, but the land mine warning signs said this was once otherwise.  This was the place that I knew God had sent me.   Why I had come here to Uganda.   I knew after this trip I would feel I had accomplished something in my life, fulfilled what God wanted me to fulfill.  I have now my destiny, my purpose:  help the children of the war, the children of Uganda.   The children that are called the invisible ones…the former night wanderers… orphans… and the child soldiers.

I met one such young man, orphaned during the time he needed his parents to guide him through his early life, puberty, graduation.   It wasn’t to be for my special son James, an orphan of the war.  He was articulate, handsome and smiling continuously.  I would have never known he  had suffered so during his short life. He came to say goodbye to me and told me his story before he left on the bus to go back home to Gulu.   He had come on the bus to meet me!   I could not imagine, all that way on those roads!!

I have adopted him under God and hope somehow that you can hear his plea as I did.   He is honest, and forthcoming with me, and still remains innocent to a life with loving family. I am giving him support as a guiding parent would, and I know that his story will be received by the world as I received it.  I pray that his story touches your heart in a deep place.   I pray that you are so moved that it moves you to step out to help.

I met James on the first day I arrived, and he came to me with his story one evening and asked if I might be able to help him get a sponsor.   And I am here on my knees praying for this to happen for this young man.

James spoke very frankly to me of his time as a captured boy under the control of the LRA (Lords Resistance Army) and the devastating effects that losing his parents had on him, orphaning him when he was only 12 years old. He spoke of his life after escaping and now during the peaceful (cease-fire) times after the war, that has left him stricken by the effects of war over poverty in Northern Uganda.

He wrote his story for me, which caused him to have nightmares afterward.   Please keep James in your prayers for emotional healing.   James wasn’t a child for long.   He lives amongst one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes and crises in the world, Northern Uganda.

“My name is James Ariama, a young man of God.  In my life I am a boy who has been wounded and has pains all over the course of his life. I suffered in the bush for three years at the hands of the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony.  This was the worst time that any person can imagine.

After my primary (elementary education) during my vacation is when we started having attacks from the rebels and and sleepless nights.  We were forced to stay awake every night to protect ourselves.   The attack threats were on and off I could not really tell whether it was the real rebels of the Lords Resistance Army,  or just threats.

One day the whole community was amazed and shocked when more than 53 people where missing in the society.  A terrible investigation began and not even three days later the rebels attacked my family too.  I was only 12 years old.   The rebels stormed my home.  They took my parents and my young brother, and I remained  alone because during the course of trying to run away from the rebels, I ran another direction than my family because the attacks were in the night when everyone was most vulnerable. I never saw my parents again.

Kony and his army who killed my parents, destroyed all the family properties and structures and brutally abducted me.

The remaining clan members of the village a few days later also were dead.   I began my new life, a hopeless life as a child soldier/slave in the bush with no parents or relatives. I was and am still alone.

After the rebels took dozens of abductees both boys and girls to the bush, all our minds could no longer focus on anything, which is human, but rather we were brainwashed and had destructive minds, and we became friendly to the inhabitants of the forest and the bush. I really encountered a lot of suffering in the bush, some which are still too hard to describe and continue to haunt me in the dark.

I served as a boy that carried excess guns and bullets for the rebels.  I carried everything that was of heavy weight.   I supplied and carried food to the rebels during the journey in the bush. We would sleep in open bush fields,  using grasses as our mattresses and blankets. All mosquitoes and other predators used their advantage on us.   This was no existence for a young boy, only survival.

We usually ate raw food, such as meat from dead animals and blood and meat from dead people under enforcement from the top officers. Failure to obey would be death. It was a miserable and terrible condition of life.

One day, when I attempted an escape, I almost died because a bullet came from nowhere.  God was with me that day, and because of God’s hand, it just grazed tip of my hair since I had much hair on the head. I bled but it stopped after some few minutes. I was very lucky not to have been killed.

We used medicines as forms of healing, and witchcraft was the final game for all the decision making that the rebels undertook. We always believed in the spirits of the dead. Every dead body would be buried under water possibly on the banks of the river or on streams of water and this would be done by us young soldiers immediately. We used to move long distances while carrying guns and bullets, but whenever somebody would complain of tiredness, the best answer from the rebel leaders was just to shoot them and eventually that child or person was left there to die.   So my time with the rebels was much worse than slavery.

My real break at life began one evening when there was serious fighting between the rebels and the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).  It was a crucial and ferocious battle, which lasted for more than six hours. During the fighting it rained heavily and many people thought of escaping the clutch of the rebels, but you couldn’t see where to start from or where to go.

God’s favor was upon us. We were told to go and collect water tanks as it was our normal custom. So I took this advantage of this situation to run away in the neighborhood forest known as the Kichwamba, but again the conditions worsened as a dreadful fear developed inside of me.    I stayed and hid in the forest three days without eating any food. The only food of mine was to fruits from the forest and drinking stagnant water.

After three days,  I saw the government army patrolling the forest. I thought that they would kill me, but they questioned me and knew that I was ignorant. I was taken to the IDP camps (internally displaced persons) where I started catching up from the hardship I had just endured.

To this day I remain parent-less, hopeless and a miserable person, except for my faith in God.  He will never forsake me, never leave me.”

After I returned back to Texas, James wrote to me asking me to help him choose his career path, and we exchanged ideas much the way a parent and child would talk about college plans and the future.   James currently lives with other acquaintances in the slums in Gulu.  He is a brilliant and gifted young mind and I intend to see him through his education!!!  James wrote me this letter recently, and I was even more touched and wanted to help James in a very significant way.  A young man so hungry for one person to care about his future.

Dear Mum,

I shared my story with you so that with GOD’s will somebody will get up and help in this trouble and struggle of education I have.   There really is no hope here without.   I  really need your help, and I know that God is arranging this for me.

I really appreciate and thank you so so much for encouraging me and giving parental hope and good future.  I have always been scared by myself, because there is nobody that can give me comfort and hope.   I had really lost all hope.   I appreciate you a lot.

Love, your son,

James

We will see the future Dr. James Ariama walk as an Advance High School Graduate soon, and I hope that you will be a part of making this child’s future dreams come true!!!  If you can help his dream to become a village doctor and attend Medical School,  by sponsoring James, we will forever thank you.    We will provide quarterly updates and photos from James as he enters the university.   He will be so grateful if you can help!!!

I will set up specific paypal buttons for individual tuition/books needs in the near future but we are desperate to get the $150.00  he needs to graduate right away!!   Any overage that I receive on this first plea 7/12/10,  will go to his college fund for fall.

James will need in the future, books, tuition, internet services.  We are happy to also get this young man clothing and funds for food and lodging if someone desires to do this for him as well.

Sincerely,

Lori Scott

To assist James with his Advanced Level Educational Plans:

Donate by Paypal (all donations are tax-deductible):

OR

Set up a monthly sponsorship of James’ Educational Needs (books, tuition, school supplies, internet for research, food, clothing)

$20 Montly Sponsorship : $20.00USD – monthly $10 Monthly Sponsorship : $10.00USD – monthly $50 Monthly Sponsorship : $50.00USD – monthly $100 Monthly Sponsorship : $100.00USD – monthly

OR

You may pay by check: Make payable to “Little Miracles International” on the “for” identification line of the check, please write the “James Ariama, Educational Fund” and send to:

Humanitarian Projects
Little Miracles International
PO BOX 19776
Amarillo, Texas 79114

Acholi Orphans

I’ve just had the most amazing experience, meeting some of the poorest of the poor, the neediest of the needy and loving on children from the depths of Northern Uganda. I will never forget these little tribal children nor will I ever forsake them in their desperate need. We will immediately begin a sponsorship program with these children and I’ll let all of you know soon how you can help. Their faces will haunt me forever. I bought them 100 kilo sacks of rice, maize beans and posha, soap and salt. They get no meat protein.

I love these children now and I cannot imagine their life without our help. We must do more. They have qualified nurses but absolutely no medicines.  My heart has been changed, I’ve seen and I cannot forget.

These children do not go to school, sleep in mud/thatch roof huts, haul water on their heads for miles and yet they are joyful. This by far has been the most humbling trip I’ve ever been on. I want you to know these children and help me pray for them.  They are cared for by a community granny and two nurses who love them. This orphanage was founded and solely supported by a 24 year old former child soldier who cannot stand to see the children lost and without someone to care.

They sang and danced and drummed and told song stories to me. Although there was a language barrier the laughter filled the sweltering Ugandan air. They were joyful. Yet they had nothing. They were behaved. They were shy and lovely.

I had a disturbing mail regarding the orphans residing in Pader District. My children are sick.

When I arrived in Northern Uganda what I found there broke my heart. Children tragic victims of dozens of family members adults and children abducted and turned into soldiers, or brutally killed by the LRA (Lords Resistance Army) The AIDS epidemic has also orphaned hundreds of thousands of children there along with the desperate conditions that invite illness. The conditions for the orphans and in the IDP (Displacement Camps) are deplorable. Dirty water, walking for miles for food and water.   All are riddled with parasitic infections in their little intestinal systems.  No medical care. Everything is filthy. Only means of living is simply to survive to the next day. That is a huge task and almost impossibility each day. Before I arrived the children were maybe getting one meal a day. Yet they were so joyful. When I asked the children if they had questions for me, one raised her hand and jumped up and asked, “mama will you help us?”

Tearfully my resounding answer, yes!  I now have 20 children in Northern Uganda.

Little Miracles/Dream of a Child needs your help.

Twenty lovely orphaned children of the Acholi Tribe from 3 and up are in serious need. Total desperation. They have food only for 3 more weeks. (I’ve personally fed them for a month) They have no clothing but what is on their backs, and some of their little bottoms were out of the clothing due to the seams not holding up. Their clothing is ripped apart. They are riddled with various parasites, typhoid, cholera, HIV and filthy situations. Their conditions are worse than you can see on television commercials assisting children in Africa. There are two qualified nurses caring for these children but absolutely no medicine for them to use if the children get sick. They suffer in silence with no one to love them. I’m about to change all of that.

We now have children sick. This is a matter of life and death for them. If they become dehydrated or weak, the nurses must put them on their backs and walk 18 kilometers to help. These children are so very rural.

I will be purchasing first line medical kits to be put together in Kampala, Uganda and then shipped up by bus to the children this week. In these kits will be Typhoid and Cholera medication, Malaria treatment, antibiotics, anti-parasitic medication, anti-febrile medication, fungal cream for infections, first aid supplies antibiotic ointments and bandages and HIV first line medications. I will prepare the children for individual evaluations if I get enough donations.

I also plan on having a mobile ambulance built that they can put on a bicycle so they can get children to medical care quickly.  The other alternative we do not want to think about.   These children deserve someone’s love and care!  Please partner with me!

If you can only donate a couple of dollars this will help so very much. I appreciate anything you can do to help. God bless you all.

Please Donate Now!   Your donation will go directly to assist the children and will be tax-deductible.   Little Miracles International, Inc. is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization.

You can send an instant payment by PayPal.

You may pay by check: Make payable to “Little Miracles International” on the “for” identification line of the check, please write the “Acholi Orphans” and send to:

Humanitarian Projects
Little Miracles International
PO BOX 19776
Amarillo, Texas 79114

I cannot thank this organization enough for surprising us with this blessing!

Please help them to help our special children by purchasing during the month of May!!

At any given time they are feeding up to 35 or so children each day. Our schools in America cannot come close or touch how absolutely delicious and fresh this food is here at the HOA. When the volunteers eat here, they eat typically the same things as the children. There is one cook here and she has a little help in the kitchen, but she’s an amazing cook.

The children eat fresh eggs, fresh meat and fresh vegetables bought from the market. They have fresh bread each day. There are soups and some rice and pasta and wonderful dishes. They snack on fresh fruit.

The great thing about the food here is that it is are minus the chemicals and food colorings and dyes that Americans like to preserve and beautify their foods with. Let’s face it, us Americans love to junk up our kids. I’ve been very careful with mine though, I know as I’m gone they are taking full advantage of the fast food places! Since my children came to me in full nutritional deficiency, I’ve become a post adoption feeding expert of sorts and know how much the feeding in the orphanage is essential to proper body balance.

Since the day we opened House of Angels, these children inside these doors have gained weight, and thrived and grown consistently. This is the only consistent thing in some of their lives and so very important. Their lives depend on it. This is why some of the children who seem to be so sick they should have died, are alive.

This most excellent nutrition has provided the ability for the children to grow properly and develop the brain in the best way. This facility has fed hundreds of children over the year and it always has had excellent nutritional results. The children are always on a customized and balanced feeding program with fortified foods rich in natural vitamins and minerals.

Being the most vulnerable of the population the at-risk of abandonment children and the orphans usually have nutritional deficits in this country. It is usually expected those deficiencies are severely magnified managed care facilities. So depending on where the child started or currently resides, their nutrition is a key factor in their development. I have seen first hand how the nutritional deficiencies in a child’s early life can affect the brain development and cause delays in growth and many other medical conditions caused from malnutrition such as anemia, bone growth, eyesight and rickets.

You will not ever see nutritional deficiencies caused here at the House of Angels. We’ve been combating these problems and winning each and every year the House of Angels has been open! I’m proud to say that we’ve fed some of the neediest children and the most wonderful volunteers and had fabulous results.

The state care facilities are less lucky and do not feed the children well. You can tell immediately the difference in the children the HOA has fed for a year and the new children. But the new children have started to thrive and grow so fast. It is amazing what a good healthy diet can accomplish!

There are always so many children that steal my heart. Some children take a part of my heart forever. Roxana is going to be one of those children. I can’t wait for you to hear about her. I think she’s about 11 years old, golden thick wavy hair cropped into a boy cut. She has the fairest of skin and a few freckles and blue eyes. Her features are very thin and frail. She doesn’t speak. She appears to have some institutional autism and major sensory deprivation and disorder. She has auditory and tactile sensory issues. She cannot touch things easily and she reaches out with much trepidation and recoils her hand a few times before trusting. She is thin and shuffles when she walks. I don’t feel she is truly autistic, she does engage and make eye contact and smile but she is terrified of the world around her. She’s so physically delayed and completely mute as far as I can tell. I love to make her smile. She loves to smile. She spends most of the day fearful of the sudden actions and sounds of the other children. She sits in the corner and rocks. I have talked to Simona to get her some one on one time so we can assess what her real abilities are for the future. This is why we need volunteers. We’ve given some plastic surgical brushes to the nurses to “brush” her skin so she can become more tolerant. I’m giving her some big deep hugs, the kind that reach right into the soul too!

Tonight I took Roxana around letting her touch the plants inside the House of Angels, letting her feel the different leaves and textures. She adored this truly. She held my hand firmly and loved the walk up and down the stairs. She was very worried about the stairs but she did so well we did it again on the other side of the hall. The stairs are marble. There are 23 of them. I walk them night and day along with the rest of the nurses and employees.

We took Roxana to the donation room. All the children were in ill fitting clothing and shoes. It was time for Roxana to get her new shoes. Roxana was smiling because I’d given her a new teddy bear and now we were trying to dig in huge boxes of shoes for something for her to wear. Her feet were too long. She got afraid when Gelu (House of Angels Director) started tossing shoes around on the floor. I held her tighter and comforted her. Finally we found something for her but I think I’ll go and buy her some newer shoes too. We found a sports suit for her which was brand new and she smiled. I asked her if she liked it in Romanian…but there was no reaction. I know she did like them. Thank you for the new sports suit and shoes, from Roxana. She truly loves them. Please pray for the restoration of the emotional and physical health of Roxana.

This is where I’d love to thank the donors for all their donations, however, there were so many unusable shoes in those donations. Please be mindful if you send donations, we need very gently used and new clothing. We cannot use shoes with holes and soles tearing off. These children are often growing fast and hard on their shoes. What we can really use is rubber crocks or slip on sandals that the children can wear socks with inside. These are the absolute best shoes ever for a child placement center. They wear socks all the time and the rubber shoes are necessary inside so the children don’t fall on the tile or wooden flooring.

Speaking of shoes and feet and such…I know this is silly but I painted my toenails very bright florescent colors before I left. They have polka dots on them in many patterns. The children adore them. I’m glad someone likes my feet, I don’t really care much for them myself haha. They always want to look at them! I’m wearing rubber flip flops here in the orphanage, I can’t handle wearing socks with crocks or sandals. I can go from the shower right to work in them Speaking of work…I hear a baby crying.

I awoke to the sounds of so many children! I’m staying in the House of Angels. How refreshing! I love little laughter. Giggles echoed down the long corridors of this place! When I walked out…little Christian whom I believe to be about 12 years old said “Good Morning Romania!” in perfect English. I loved that! The older boys are very clingy and love to be petted and hugged and kissed. They will even take your arms and wrap them around. As orphans in a disabled facility prior to coming here, they missed out on so very much. This may be the first time in their lives that people have truly cared about their little lives. I am holding and hugging and kissing and loving each and every one of them as much as humanly possible. They call me mama. One of the little ones is begging us to take them out in the village for a walk. You can tell that they really love to do that.

Today one of the little girls with Downs Syndrome kept trying to put a truck in the lens of my camera over and over. How could you possibly ever get upset with that sweet little face? I had to say “gata gata” which means enough enough or finished finished…so many times it is my mantra. She also begged to be held and loved it so much she frowned when I had to put her down.

I had to laugh because the founder of House of Angels, Simona, arrived last night here for the first time in 4 months. At 8:30 she was having the children sit down with markers and draw before bedtime. This morning they still had blue lips and green, yellow and red marks behind their ears and around their noses! Ha!

The older kids are about 3 and up. The children that can move around and walk are all in the same playroom. There aren’t enough caretakers for all the children and each caretaker has to take care of profoundly special needs children as well as children with minor needs. It is a difficult situation.

Today was still the Easter holiday so we had the after-school program kids all day. I think at any given time there are about 10-20 of them. For the longest time I couldn’t realize why none of the children were in school on a Friday! Finally someone was able to explain it to me.

I’ll tell a little about House of Angels and how it is set up.

First some of you may want to know the history of the House of Angels.

We started as an Emergency care facility for infants to three years of age. You can read all about that on the link I’ve provided.

In September of 2006 we had our grand re-opening. This time as an after-school facility and physical therapy center for some of the neediest school aged children in Dambovita County, Romania. At one time this county had the highest abandonment rate at 6% per 100 births. These children in the after-school program are provided with hot meals, helped with their homework, taught arts and crafts and music play. They are the at risk of being abandoned children, the poorest of the poor.

The Physical Therapy center run by the wonderful Radu, is given to those special needs children in the community, including orphans.

Today I spent most of my time receiving the physical therapy children and their parents, and working with the after-school program kids. They are each so very special. I don’t always remember their names, so many children have walked through these doors over the years, but their faces are forever etched in my heart. I’ll do my best on the photos with names.

The striking thing about the children of the Physical Therapy center from the community is that they all have such devoted parents. Had they not, it occured to me that I might be playing with them in the orphan room. In Romania there is a long held stigma against children with special needs. There is nothing set forth for the disabled here, and parents are often shunned. But there they were, bringing their children with smiles, doing all they could, doting on their children, the way parents are supposed to be. Not abandoning their imperfect child. I looked at the orphans in the next room and wondered what their fate would have been if their parents were as devoted. Such a stark awakening. My heart cried inside. I held back the tears as I watched so many of the careful mama’s wipe their children’s faces as they drooled and felt sad that no one was there to wipe the faces of those little unwanted abandoned babies in the room down the hall, in the beginning of their lives. These parents are all very active in their children’s therapies, and Radu has taught them how to work with their children.

Radu is simply put, an incredible young man. He’s finishing college for PT here and lives in Tirgoviste, travels to Bucharest for college and then travels three times a week to the House of Angels to work with all the children. And we complain about driving two miles to work! I believe he has also another job working at a spa. After a few hours of talking to him I was able to see his heart for these kids. He even commented to me when working with the most disabled children, his heart breaks inside, but he never shows it on the outside. This is so typical of the Romanian man, they are pure teddy bears inside, solid rocks on the outside. The children here are put into the most modern therapy with the little means and equipment Radu has available to work with. The greatest part of all of this work is, that results are coming. Profound results. Children that doctors said would never ever get out of bed are standing in their cribs and walking. Children with weak muscles are becoming strong, and parents are being educated. The stigma of disability is falling all around us here and it is beautiful to watch.

We have many children that come to the Physical Therapy Center. Some with minor needs, physical and emotional and some very profoundly special needs children. Some are driven from other villages to the center here because they don’t have transportation. This is why Gelu (George) has a new van! He made several runs today to pick up and take home. He not only is a tata to many children here at House of Angels, he’s like a dad to others in the community.

I have taken many photos today of the physical therapy sessions and I will post them up as soon as I get them ready. I know you will love seeing them and I hope they will warm your hearts. I also hope that if any of you are looking for that opportunity to help, to do more in this world, that this might be the exact vision you need to get started!

The first petitioner, the President of Amici dei Bambini Marco Griffini, explained in his speech the reasons behind the petition and his disappointment fo the inaction of the Romanian Government for coping with the worrying conditions of Romanian abandoned children, whose number cannot be absorbed by national adoption.

One of the solutions proposed by Marco Griffini consists of considering a gradual reopening of inter-country adoptions at least for certain categories of children who, because of their age, health condition and ethnic origin will not be adopted in Romania (special needs).

Romanian MEPs members of the Committee (Adina Valean, Elena Basescu and Victor Bostinaru) reacted sharply excluding unanimously the withdrawal of the moratorium blocking international adoption and urging the incompetence of the European Commission as well as the the European Parliament to deal with this issue.

The Chairwoman of the Committee on Petitions, Erminia Mazzoni, and the Italian MEP Patrizia Toia led the debate to more constructive channels and mutual understanding, stressing that the focus should be the interest of all to protect children and their right to have a family in Romania as well as in all other European Union Countries.

Thereby the Committee succeeded in reaching an agreement: it formally rejected the petition but it underlined the importance and the positive aim of this initiative.

The Committee decided that in the near future will schedule on the agenda of coordinators of political groups the issue of protection of children without families, recognizing its emergency as well as the need to address it at an European level.

Original link here.

Darlene Sullivan and her three children, oldest adopted in 1998 (the same year I adopted my Maggie) from Romania at the age of 3 years, and her two youngest adopted from Guatemala wanted to do more. We received the nicest donation in kind in the form of clothing etc. from the Sullivan children. Additionally a wonderful monetary donation for the House of Angels. We are thankful for their handwritten letter and we look forward to hearing from them again as they want to support as much as possible! It is so special when adopted children see the need and know what should be done to help! Thanks Sullivan kids!