Pick-up week:  10 lbs. 9 oz.

Today:  27 lbs.

Height

Pick-up week:  29 in.

Today:  33 3/4 in.

Head circumference

Pick-up week:  16 3/4 in.

Today:  18 in.

Waist circumference

Pick-up week:  12 in.

Today:  19 in.

Leg, hip to heel

Pick-up week:  12 in.

Today:  15 1/4 in.

Foot

Pick-up week:  almost 4 in.

Today:  just over 5 in.

Upper thigh circumference

Pick-up week:  5 in.

Today:  12 in.

Ankle circumference

Pick-up week:  3 in.

Today:  5 3/4 in.

Arm, shoulder to fingertip

Pick-up week:  10 in.

Today:  13 5/8 in.

Upper arm circumference

Pick-up week:  3 1/4 in.

Today:  7 in.

Wrist circumference

Pick-up week:  2 3/4 in.

Today:  5 in.

Photos taken on December 4th, three days after Katie arrived home from her twelve days of nutritional rehabilitation at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  Verity was 17 1/2 months old and weighed 18 lbs.  Katie weighed 14 lbs.

Five weeks later, Katie had caught up with Verity~

Today, Verity is 22 1/2 months old and weighs 20 lbs.  Katie weighs 27 lbs.

~To every mom who reads this blog,

may your children rise up and call you blessed!~

A happy mother with four sweet daughters–Laura, age 12, Jane, age 10, Katie, age 10, and Verity, age 22 months~

The same happy mother with seven fine sons–(left to right) Joseph, age 18, holding Peter, age 5, Daniel, age 16, holding James, age 5, Stephen, age 3, Joshua, age 15, holding John Michael, age 6~

P. S.  Here are two Happy Mother’s Day presents for you!

1)  Do you love seeing many sweet faces of children with Down syndrome, all in one place?  If so, you’ll enjoy watching the slideshow my friend Patti put together this weekend.  If you have a child of your own with Down syndrome, I’m warning you–you may need to have tissues handy!

2)  This one wasn’t originally going to appear on the blog but I was outvoted by my own family.  (Huh.  On Mother’s Day, too!)

We’ve been interviewed over the past several months by an extremely respectful, thorough, and professional newswriter named Tom Avril.  Our first news media experience was a painless one mostly because of both Tom and Michael, the photographer, who put us all at ease.  It would be hard to be more pleased with Tom’s careful and excellent handling of Katie’s story.

Tom told us Thursday evening that the story would appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer today, but he let us wait and be surprised by the fact that it was put on the front page!  We are so thankful for the wider exposure this may give the story, with all the greater potential to get more help to the children.  We thought you may especially enjoy seeing the two videos linked to on the site, especially the one that includes footage of Katie coming home.

So after Monday’s triumphant success…

…after pulling Katie’s tube at the supper table on Monday evening, and after all the (silent) whoopings and hollerings had died away…

…came Tuesday.

A day that will surely live in infamy in my memory.

There is a cost to love.  And it doesn’t come cheap.

Katie took three hours to drink her eight ounces at breakfast time on Tuesday.  This is the eight ounces we formerly would have put through her tube.  You understand that the tube feedings did not take three hours!  And there were seven of us who could manage that task easily.

At the end of the three hours, she still needed to be fed her solid food.

By the end of this feeding marathon, both she and I were a sight to be seen.  Or preferably left unseen.

She needed to be cleaned up, taken to the toilet, dressed for the day.

See me have fun, get clean, and build my upper arm and body strength all at once!

All cleaned up so that we could start the process over again, this time with lunch.

Her lunch drink took two hours.

Are you picturing the scene?

The mom of a big, noisy, busy bunch sitting at the kitchen table for many hours.  Picture her with sticky hands, focusing intently on the even stickier girl on her lap.

Normally, sitting in the hub of our home like this, I would be fully able to direct operations.

But this was my third day without any voice at all.  Nothing more than a whisper would come out of my mouth.  The little ones were greatly amused at the result if I forgot I had no voice and tried to use it anyway.  “Croak, croak,” says Mama.

We had started out the week behind on cleaning and laundry, since we had just spent two days enjoying the company of friends, and not doing laundry or cleaning the house.  Since our laundry machines are slow, it took three days to do twenty-two small loads of laundry.

We’d strategically planned the Get-Katie-Off-The-Feeding-Tube campaign for a relatively clear week, but somehow ended up with a full schedule anyway, every day but Thursday.

And here I sat, immobilized and voiceless, with slimy hands to boot.

I’m learning that I can bring my hands to my mouth and get something yummy in my tummy.  That doesn’t happen if I put my hands into my hair like I’ve been doing for years.

When I got too excited and flapped my arms and couldn’t calm myself, my mama helped me settle down…

…so I could finish my meal.  I have a lot of trouble with hand-eye coordination, and my mama is thrilled when I look down at my food instead of off into space like I am doing here~

All that endless day, the hymn at the beginning of this post kept running through my mind.

“Our cross and trials do but press the heavier for our bitterness…”

And I couldn’t sing it out loud.

When Joe came home that evening, I tried to wipe the strained look from my face.  But he asked about the day.  ”We cannot live like this,” I whispered, “This is an unsupportable plan!”

Supper was late that night.

After spending too much time trying unsuccessfully to fool Katie into thinking her eight ounces of Pediasure with purple smoothie was a tasty and desirable treat…

…and rather than capitulating and putting the tube back down, which I’m sorry to admit I was strongly tempted to do…

I thickened her drink to pudding consistency and added chocolate.

Yes, chocolate.

And fed it to her with a spoon.

That’s proof of desperation right there, but it worked.

She still took nearly an hour to eat it.

It was past nine pm by the time Katie was washed and in her clean jammies and snuggled into bed for the night.  Past nine pm by the time Joe and I sat down to eat our supper together.  It was date night, you see.

The next morning, as I conversed with the Lord while getting ready for the marathon ahead, He impressed on my mind that this was a test.

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

Would I stand the test?  Would I groan bitterly under the pressure God had laid on me?  Or bear it with patience?  What would He see when He looked at my heart?  What would my children see when they looked at my face?  Would they see that God’s grace in the present was enough?

Is it enough?

Yes.  Yes, it is.

O Lord, give me what I need to bear this day cheerfully!  

That morning, Katie drank her eight ounces in half an hour.  And has done so every mealtime since.

By Wednesday night, the house was clean and tidy and we were caught up with the laundry.  We were finally ready to begin our week.

“Only be still, and wait His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
And all-deserving love hath sent;
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To Him who chose us for His own.”

[Note:  All the photos above were taken prior to the Day of Infamy!

You may have noticed that I was using the 7 oz. cut-out cup.  After that one attempt, I went back to the 4 oz. cup.

I have Katie sit up on my lap with proper posture in a supported position.  Katie thrusts her tongue forward as the cup approaches her mouth.  I use her maroon spoon to exert downward pressure on her tongue, which causes her to use her muscles to retract it, then I quickly replace the spoon with the lower rim of her cup.  This encourages her to tilt her head downward toward the cup and use the proper muscles while drinking.  All this muscle work should help her to grow stronger and more skilled as time goes by.

Also, I make up the girls' six daily bottles the night before, adding the appropriate supplements to the appropriate bottles.  The bottles are marked on the bottoms with either "V" or "K," and the lids with "B," "L," or "S," for breakfast, lunch and supper.  Monday night, I added a purple smoothie to Katie's Pediasure, hoping she'd approve of the flavor variation.  Unfortunately, she didn't.  Tuesday night, at Joe's urging, I went back to what had worked the day before--hazelnut creme decaf coffee.  A T21 mama told me decaf coffee had solved her daughter's constipation issues.  Katie guzzles that hazelnut creme coffee-flavored Pediasure right down and no longer needs the Colace.  Thank you, G!

P. S.  Thank you to every understanding soul who prayed for me.  My voice is mostly back!]

…tape on my face!

…more tape changes at least daily because of disgusting, loose tape peeling off near my nose!

…tube in my nose and throat!  Or having to put it back in after I pulled it out!

…more syringes and tube flushes and Press and Seal on the port end!

…need for you to put my milk into a tube to get it to my belly, because I can drink!!!   Okay, so it takes me just under an hour to drink eight ounces, but that’s down from almost two hours so I’m getting faster, and I know you don’t care how long it takes, because…

…best of all…

No need for a g-tube!  Hallelujah!!!

P. S.  I think maybe the only reason you can’t hear my mama whooping and hollering from where you live is that she has laryngitis!

Friends, could I ask a favor of you?

Please read the following list, and form a mental picture of the individual described:

~Has Down syndrome.

~Is ten years old and was officially assessed to be functioning overall as an eight-month-old.

~Is considered to have multiple disabilities.

~Has severe delays in all areas.

~Shows severe cognitive impairment.

~Suffers the damaging effects of severe, long-term neglect on every level.

~Demonstrates socially-inappropriate stimming behaviors typical of institutional autism.

~Has a tendency toward auto-aggression if she becomes very upset.

~Has difficulty regulating her emotions.

~Avoids making or maintaining eye contact.

~Is completely dependent on others for her care.

~Wears diapers; cannot take herself to the toilet.

~Cannot dress herself.

~Cannot stand or walk independently.

~Cannot crawl.

~Cannot feed herself.

~Swallows her food whole; cannot suck or chew.

~Takes all her liquids through a feeding tube.  <which she pulls out on a regular basis>

~Requires special nutritional formula.

~Requires special adaptive equipment, therapy tools, and orthotics for normal daily activities.

~Requires therapy.

~Is non-verbal with the exception of one word.

~Understands very little spoken language.

~Doesn’t play properly with toys.

~Has nystagmus and her eyes occasionally cross.

~Requires daily thyroid medication.

~Is recovering from severe, long-term protein-energy malnutrition.

~Has extremely fragile bones that require expensive medical treatment and special handling.

~Has a callous on the back of her head from lying in her bed for many years.

If you would read that list, and allow it to form your mental picture of the child it describes…

…would you ever come up with this?  This child who brings nothing but pure joy to our family’s life?

No?

Why not?

Honestly, I had to wrack my brain hard to think of all the most “scary” facts about Katie.  There are probably more I can’t remember right now.  It’s part of life, yes, but it doesn’t get much attention around here.

Why is that?

Why the huge divide between Katie’s list of problems and our everyday relationship with Katie? 

Aren’t all the facts on Katie’s list correct?  Cold, hard facts?

Then why aren’t they the most important facts about Katie?

If I listed all the most important facts about you, would you want it to be solely a list of your bad habits, health problems, struggles, and inabilities?

Why not?  Aren’t they the most important things to consider when summing you up and assigning you your overall worth?

Then what would you want to see on a list of facts about you?

What’s missing from Katie’s list of facts?  If I wrote them all here for you, it would amount to a Katie-update, and that isn’t the intent of this post.  But here are a few more facts about our sweet daughter, facts that we see and experience in our daily life with her.

These facts are what impact and constitute and determine our relationship with the person who is Katie.

These are the most important facts.

Her spunk and determination to learn.

Her sense of humor and love of teasing.

Her patience when I must place her NG tube for the fourth time that day.

Her sparkling sunshine smile and infectious giggles and peals of laughter.

Her pure joy in the most basic provisions of her life.

Her response to genuine love and affection.

Even deeper than those facts?

That when we look into her face, we are looking at a list of miracles that is way longer than her list of problems.

Why are these the most important facts?

Because, simply stated, Katie is not a list of problems.

And neither are sixteen children whose photos I first saw yesterday.

A comment from a reader motivated me to visit the page of children who were newly listed on Reece’s Rainbow.  As I scrolled down through the page…suddenly…their faces.

My heart was immediately transfixed.

And this post began to form.

The children were all born with Down syndrome, like Katie.  This isn’t some exotic mystery condition, friends, this is ordinary, garden-variety Down syndrome.  A known entity that is NOT cause to warehouse a human being in a little bed all their lives!

Some are very small for their age although they’re all age ten or over, like Katie.  Remember what we learned way back in the very beginning about what happens to children who don’t receive enough human contact?

All the children have been impacted by lifelong institutionalization through no fault of their own, like Katie.

They are human beings, like Katie.  The Katie who also had her hair clipped short, lived in her bed, and was rejected, neglected, untaught, unloved, and headed for a lonely death.

They are human beings, like Katie.  The Katie who is now healing, learning, changing, growing.

A Katie who is being thoroughly and unstintingly loved.

Please look at the faces of these children, and see beyond the dry, cracked skin and buzzed heads.  If someone shaved your head and took a mug shot of you, would people look at your photo and see the person you really are?

I struggle for the words to convey what I want you to see!  How I wish I could reach through the screen and share the glasses we have worn since receiving our Verity and our Katie.

Please, look at their faces and see what is most important to see.

They are not a list of problems.

Joy, turning fifteen years old this year, caged up in her tiny metal bed.  I picture her hand-in-hand with her mom in Target, picking out just the right girly outfits.  I picture her waking up to all that her new life has to offer her!

Hope, turning fifteen years old in July, also waiting for a family to set her free from her cage and help her become the person God created her to be.  My heart breaks to see what institutionalization has done to precious Hope.  I picture this calm child safely enfolded within a family who considers it a high privilege to give her what she has never had–total acceptance and tender care from loving parents!

Faith will be fifteen years old in November.  I picture this quiet girl with her hair grown out and cut in a cute style.  I picture her keeping up with an active family and embracing her new world with her whole heart!

Bartholomew will be fifteen years old in August.  I picture this sad boy out of his tiny crib!  What does he have to smile about now?  I picture him with the sparkle in his eyes that is put there by new life and love and hope and triumph!

Kirk will be fourteen years old in July.  I picture this guy in an active family, leaving the mindless boredom of the institution behind him forever.  A family who will give him plenty of opportunities to burn off energy in fun and appropriate ways!

What a precious personality shows in Charlie‘s photo!  Way more personality than we ever saw in our Katie-bird’s pathetic file photos!  Charlie will be fourteen years old in June.  I picture him bringing sunshine to his family, making all the extra work seem light!

Quiet, friendly Abilene, just turned fourteen years old.  How beautiful a smile would look on her face!  I picture her being welcomed into a family who loves to have her hanging around as they work, watching and learning and wanting to help!

Landen just turned thirteen years old.  I picture him in a skilled and experienced family that can surround him with unconditional love and acceptance and provide him with the therapy he needs.  I picture him in a baseball hat, bursting with life and potential!

Helena will turn thirteen in August, two months younger than our Laura.  I picture Helena in a family who sees past her list of issues to the precious human being she is.  I picture her with her hair grown all the way out, looking beautiful with a flower on her headband!

Dahl will be thirteen in November.  Look how thin he is and how small on his chair.  I picture this calm child in a nurturing family who will feed him well and help bring out the best in him!

Seth just turned thirteen.  For crying out loud, what is a thirteen-year-old boy doing in a little metal crib?  And he still has a light in his eyes!  What a survivor!  I picture this boy in a family who wants to help him catch up on all the things he’s been missing all his life!

Gabrielle, how my heart hurts for this almost-fourteen-year-old!  Sitting behind bars with her head shaved as if she’d been convicted of a felony!   I picture her being doted on by her dad and mom who are finally giving her the care she clearly hasn’t received.  And maybe chattering happily with some sisters while they dress her up and put bows in her hair!  Hair grows, friends!

Buddy turned ten years old last December, and looks ready to get out of that place and start living!  I picture him talking a mile a minute to his new family and friends and embracing life with gusto!

Stefan!  He’ll be turning sixteen in September and his last chance to escape the adult mental institution will be gone, unless a family looks at him and says “Yes” to God.  He looks to me like he could be Katie’s biological brother.  I picture him with some godly and patient men in his life to model and teach appropriate manly behavior as he enters his young adult years!

Jared will also turn sixteen this year, and if he isn’t adopted by then, he will have lost his last chance to leave the institution behind and know the love of a family.  Look how tiny he is on that couch!  You can look into his face and see his history, but I picture him in a family who wants to help turn his story into one of joy!

Trina, oh my heart weeps!  She also will turn sixteen this year, and is available for adoption for less than six more months!  I picture Trina in a family who sees her life as a miracle and takes joy in cooperating with God to make the rest of the miracle happen!

Did you watch the Serbia video and grieve for what you saw there?  Did it make you feel helpless?  By some miracle, here are children in a similar condition, available to be adopted!  What are we going to do about it?

Oh, how I pray that God would continue to wake up His people!  Shake us up, grow us up, open our eyes, break our hearts, and help us get over ourselves already!  Make us eager and fit for this task!

Special-needs adoption may not necessarily jive with our previous goals for our family.  But how vital it is for those who belong to Christ that we cling to Him rather than to our own visions for our families!  If we open our hands and let Him lead us, He will bring about something so much greater than we could possibly do by insisting that our life fit into the mold of our cherished ideas.  This is the crux of why many people close their minds to the idea of adopting children with special needs.  They know it would change the way they want their life to be.

Those who refuse to listen to God’s call are missing out on being at the counter-cultural cutting edge of what God is doing in the hearts of more and more of His people.  It’s time to embrace the value of the human beings that many in our culture would openly say are burdens that should never have been born.  Children who the world says would ruin a family photo or family vacation or family goals.

Let God-haters be the ones to send the message (and many do) that there is no room for people with special needs in our vision and goals for our lives!

Let God-haters be the ones to send the message (and many do) that we can’t figure out what use the world has for people with cognitive impairment!

Let God-haters be the ones to send the message (and many do) that people with severe disabilities are embarrassing and should be hidden away!

Let God-haters be the ones to send the message (and many do) that adoption is all about us keeping our lives beautiful and not messy!

May it never be that Christ’s people even come close to a hint of agreement with this ungodly stance!  Even agreement from silence or a reluctant attitude!

Is this special-needs adoption task challenging?  No question about it!

Does this task require superhuman superheroes?  No, no, a thousand times, no!  None of the ordinary, boots-on-the-ground adoptive families I know are superhuman or superheroes.  But what we all have in common is our willingness to sacrifice.

These children don’t need superheroes, they need parents with willing hearts and open homes.  Parents who gladly say yes!

YES!

We will make room for you in our vision for life!

YES!

We will make time for you in the busy-ness of our schedules!

YES!

We will make space for you in our home!

YES!

We will make a place for you in our family!

YES!

You are light-years more than a list of special needs!

YES!

I agree with God that your life is precious and I say it with my life as well as my mouth!

YES!

My heart is willing and my home is open!

YES!  YES!  YES!

Coming soon–Straight Talk II: Fear

Two weeks ago, there was a big meeting in Sofia with the Vice Minister of Health, representatives from the Child Protection Agency and a whole lot of other people, including representatives from various Bulgarian NGOs. The meeting’s purpose was to develop a plan for improving the conditions at the orphanage in Pleven and to see who (what organizations) could do what RIGHT NOW to help the children of Pleven and meet their current needs.

The Vice Minister of Health was pleasantly surprised to hear how much money has been raised so far to meet the medical needs of the children at Pleven (The fund is currently at $36,000).

Earlier this week, the official proposal was released. As expected, the 2 projects we are advocating for are on the list and “officially assigned” to be done.

So, we continue to need your help!!!!!

Here are the 2 tasks we are trying to complete as part of the efforts to reform the conditions and level of care the children at Pleven receive and how you can help:

1.) One Heart Bulgaria will be employing 2 nurses full time to work on the 6th floor, where the children with the most severe special needs live. These nurses will be trained by Prof. Lilova and will have the responsibility to ensure that the children are properly fed and that all medical needs are addressed.

We are raising the funds to cover the salary and training of these 2 nurses for a minimum of one year. Initially, the goal was to fund more nurses for less time. But, after the inspection of the orphanage and the findings there, it was determined that the greatest need is for well trained supervised nurses on the 6th floor. To date, this project has raised over $6,000, with a projected need of $10, 815.
To donate to this project, you can make an online donation using the chip in at the bottom of this post or you can send a check with the designation, “Pleven nurse fund” on it to:

One Heart Bulgaria
561 N. 150 W.
Centerville, UT 84014 USA

All donations made by check or through the chip in are tax deductible through One Heart Bulgaria.

2.) Through a partnership with Tokuda Hospital in Sofia, Dreams Foundation (in Bulgaria) and Eli Project (in the US) have established a medical fund to provide surgeries and other medical care above what is covered by Bulgaria’s national health insurance to the children at Pleven.

The money raised through this effort will fund the medical treatment and cover the transportation costs to get the children from the orphanage in Pleven to the hospital in Sofia. Tokuda Hospital will in no way profit from this partnership, as Prof. Lilova and the hospital have volunteered their services for the children at Pleven. Per the agreement with the hospital, detailed expense reports on each child that receives care will be provided so that every dollar donated to this account is accounted for. Updates on the care provided and the number of children benefiting from this fund will be shared.

The first child to have surgery covered under this fund will receive his surgery TOMORROW! He’ll be having an eye lens implant done. The surgery is covered under the Bulgarian health plan, but the lenses are not. So, the Pleven Medical Fund will cover the cost of the lenses so that this little boy can SEE! Six children have already received evaluations and basic feeding care and those expenses will be paid as well.

Currently, the medical fund has received $36,000 in donations.

As fabulous as this is, more is needed.

I wish that I could say that only a few children need extensive medical care, but the reality is that there are many many children that need treatment and procedures to improve their health.

Donations to the medical fund can be made via the chip in below or directly through Eli Project on their specific page for the Pleven Medical Fund Project, which is located here. All donations are tax deductible through Eli Project.

Several people have asked about donating Pediasure, clothes, toys and other items to the orphanage in Pleven. One of the things revealed in the investigation is that over $300,000 worth of donations are “missing”. Donations and funds were mismanaged by those previously entrusted with the care of the children.

All donations made to any orphanage in Bulgaria should be legally documented in writing, which wasn’t happening at Pleven.

IT IS NOW.

Pediasure, formula, food items and medications (including things like diaper rash cream) all have strict guidelines on what can and can not be accepted. That is why, at this time, we are NOT asking for these types of donations. There are organizations going in and providing food and diapers and such. These things need to be bought in Bulgaria.

We are currently trying to determine if there is a way to get specialized formula that is not able to be purchased in Bulgaria in for the children who need it. There is a legal process that must be followed in order for that to be done and we’ll update as soon as we have information on that. There are also families traveling to adopt children from Pleven that are taking donations to purchase diapers and other items once they are in Bulgaria, so that the donations can be legally documented. One Heart Bulgaria is also accepting donations to provide diapers and food to the orphanage in Pleven. They have a provider in Bulgaria that provides diapers at a discounted price. People wishing to donate for food and diapers can do so through this link, and specify that the money is for “food and diapers for Pleven”. We are thankful that there are many organizations stepping in to meet the day to day needs of ALL the children at Pleven.

If you’d like to help the children with medical needs and those with the most severe special needs, please consider a donation to one of the 2 above mentioned projects. Both projects are being supported by US non-profit organizations for accountability and so that all donations are tax deductible to donors.

[Note from Susanna:  There are Chip-in buttons over on the sidebar for both projects.  Please pass the word along.  This is literally life-saving help!]

The next update on Pleven will be about all the children benefiting from these efforts!

PRAY. SHARE. GIVE.

~Shelley Bedford

Answer:  No.  I feel like the big sister who can help when the mom can’t.

I like to go along and help when the little girls have doctor’s appointments.  We just have a few appointments once in a while, anyway.  Not very many.  And mom isn’t pumping anymore.

What I do every time a therapist comes is listen and watch and learn and sometimes help.  I get to count that for school.  Other children work hard at other activities like sports, and I work hard, too.  I’m not very interested in sports.  But I’m learning different things like how to do therapy and how to put an NG tube in.  I like learning how to do these things, and I like knowing how to do them.  I also enjoy teaching them to other people.

Before I had little sisters with special needs, I didn’t…

…have to clean dirty faces,

…have to change stinky diapers,

…have to go to therapy sessions,

…have to be wakened up in the middle of the night by little children like Verity and Katie did to me for a while when Katie first came home,

…have to take so long with activities like mealtimes,

…have to do as much laundry as I do now (laundry is my daily chore),

…have to miss a special event like my cousin’s wedding in Virginia,

…miss going on a family vacation like we did last year when we were adopting Katie.  We had enough money to go, because it doesn’t cost very much, but we didn’t want to because other people were giving us money for the adoption, and we didn’t want to spend money on a vacation.

Now that I have little sisters with special needs, I still do things like…

…have Family Night every week,

…Girls’ Night every month,

…take turns going with Dad on errands like grocery shopping,

…go clothes shopping with Mom,

…take fun trips to the Franklin Institute, the North Museum, Landis Valley Farm Museum, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Sight and Sound, and Longwood Gardens~

…go on family vacations (we’re getting two this year),

…Game Nights with friends,

…spending time with friends,

…celebrating holidays with my grandparents and cousins,

…watching Courageous in the theater,

…hymn sings,

…family campfires,

…writing letters to my friends,

…baking,

…reading books,

…riding bike,

…climbing trees,

…photography,

…art lessons and drawing pictures,

…acting out imaginary stories,

…origami,

…tea parties at home or with my grandma and girl cousins,

…piano lessons,

…playing at the creek,

…picnics,

…hiking,

…frisbee, baseball, and volleyball with my older brothers,

…having Dad read to us every Sunday night until it’s very late,

…learning English country dances, like you can see our family doing here and here,

…playing Mafia and Four on the Couch with my family and friends,

…playing games like Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, Scattergories, Scrabble, Loaded Questions, Boggle, and Pictionary with my family,

…hand sewing and latchhook,

…stamping and making cards,

…doing other creative projects like this~

Because I have two little sisters with special needs…

…I don’t think people with disabilities look strange, like I used to.  Now I’m more used to them, and I’m excited if I see them in public or on a video.

…I’m not afraid of doing things like cleaning goopy, crusty eyes and noses, learning to put an NG tube in, or taking Katie to the bathroom.  I am glad God put Verity and Katie into my life to teach me not to be grossed out when I see that kind of thing.

…I feel protective of them and don’t want people to think bad things about them because they have Down syndrome.

…I have learned so much and it will be good for me when I grow up.

…God showed me what I would like to do when I grow up.  I would like to adopt as many children as I am able–children with disabilities.  I adore children with Down syndrome, and I am sure if I adopt children with other disabilities, I will adore them, too.

The love

Verity and Katie are so sweet!

Babies who have Down syndrome have low muscle tone, and they melt onto you like butter.

Now that Verity knows the sign for love, she uses it a lot.  Verity has a few different ways of telling us that she loves us, and that she wants to cuddle with us.  She hugs and kisses and pats and signs “love” and says “wuv-oo” for “I love you.”

Katie can’t do any of these things except for patting, but we can tell which people she really loves.

The girls are both very cuddly and sweet.  Sometimes when they’re next to each other, they will both reach over and pat each other.  It’s really very cute to watch.

When I write all this down, it seems like the love is just a little part of the whole story.

But really, the love is all through everything and it’s there all the time.

~by Laura, almost 13 years old 

Note from Laura’s mom:

I am so grateful to the Lord for putting Laura in our family right where He did.  She is sweet through and through and doesn’t seem to mind doing anything she’s ever asked to do.  I have to guard her free time, because she is so uncomplaining and undemanding.  Here’s a little anecdote that sums up her attitude toward her life with her little sisters–

Recently, I was explaining the next day’s plans to the children and handing out their assignments.  Katie and Verity both had complete hearing exams scheduled.  I told Laura she’d be going along with me to the Clinic to help, and she immediately responded with glee, “Oh, goody!!”

Less than two months until she’s two years old!

She’s wearing eighteen-month to 2T clothes now, but she seems so petite to us in contrast with Katie.  She’s still wearing a size three shoe, while Katie’s feet have gone from a size two to a size five.

To think I worried that Verity was overweight when I got home with Katie!  Back then, even weighing a pound and a half less than she does now, Verity looked so huge and chubby next to her frail sister.

Remember this video?

More than a month ago, Verity learned to put herself up to a standing position from the floor, balancing on those tiny feet.  I hope to capture it on video some day soon.

Now she’s learning to shift her weight to one foot or the other, so that she can learn to walk.

“Dance, dance, Veri-ty, back and forth, side to side!”

We’re curious to see what comes first, her second birthday or her first independent steps.

For months now, she’s been able to put her glasses on quickly without help, and it is the cutest thing to watch her tiny little hands doing it!  I’ll have to capture that on video also, one of these sunny days.

We can fold the glasses and put them into her lap, and she’ll open them up and turn them until they’re in the right position, then put them on.  If they don’t go on perfectly the first time, she’ll try again as many times as she needs to.  We are so proud of her perseverance.

She is so very far-sighted that the glasses enable her to see the world around her, and she likes that.  Most of the time she ignores her glasses, but she whips them off and pitches them in a flash if they’re dirty…

…or if she’s irritated about something else, as if to say, “That’ll show you!”  Uh, yes…we’re working on that one.

Hmmmm, let’s see…

She wakes up bright and cheerful in the morning, but refuses to open her eyes until she decides it’s time to stop sleeping.  She will even lie there talking with her eyes still closed.

She knows what a potty is for and is exceedingly proud of herself when she uses it.

Speaking of which, her constipation issues caused by her low muscle tone were so persistent that in addition to probiotics and dietary measures which weren’t effective enough, we now give her fruit-flavored sodium docusate liquid.  Commonly known as Colace, and also given to her sister Katie.

Both she and Katie have had constant upper respiratory congestion since I stopped giving them my own milk.

Verity does like her almond milk smoothies.  (We’re still not giving her dairy products.)  We’ve discovered that almond milk is very simple to make with the proper tools.  I add a pinch of salt, dates, and a little vanilla.

We also give Verity vitamin D, fish oils, ginkgo, and grapefruit seed extract.

She’s increasing her sign language repertoire, and it’s not stopping her from progressing with verbal speech.  She is willing to attempt to mimic many words, but doesn’t usually use them without encouragement.  It gives me great joy every time she imitates a sound or word.

Her little body is meltingly soft and there are no better hugs than Verity-hugs.

When she needed help refining her pincer-grasp, at the suggestion of her occupational therapist we began putting her puffs or raisins into a mini muffin tin.  Ideas that work are the best!

She can accurately stack the rings on her ring-stacker, and carefully build block towers.

She’ll pick up her socks and try to put them on her feet, and loves to help put her shoes on.  She puts her feet into her pant legs and helps to pull them up.  She knows that barrettes and hats are to put onto heads.

She can put a hat properly on her own head, and says “hat” if she notices someone else wearing one.

She defies the persistent stereotype that people with Down syndrome are always happy and love everybody.  She can be grumpy with the best of them, and gives the evil eye to strangers that get too close to her personal space.  She shows no propensity for habits of indiscriminatory affection.  Far from it.

A specialist who works with children with disabilities recently spent some time observing her, and then asked me, “Does she have any delays?”

Delays?

Yes, we definitely see her delays and difficulties in learning.

I picture her brain as if it’s surrounded by two hollow balls, one inside the other, both with holes that have to be lined up correctly in order for something to get from the outside in.  We can easily tell when the holes are misaligned, and she’s just not receiving the information.

It’s just as easy to tell when everything’s lined up so she can take it all in.  When that’s the case, her response time is quick as lightning.

We have to work to get her attention, and then give her input, input, input, in the way she can best understand it.  We also make sure she and Katie get their ginkgo every morning, as this makes a noticeable difference in their ability to focus.

But in so many ways, Verity is just like the nine other toddlers we’ve had.

She is playful, inquisitive and on the move, gets into things and makes messes, is determined to let her voice be heard, puts all kinds of things into her mouth, throws all her stuffed toys out of her crib, loves being read to, has to be watched so she doesn’t crawl up the stairs, doesn’t like to hear the word “no” unless she’s saying it herself, and makes us laugh every day.

I was face to face with her, demonstrating the hard “G” sound.  She had recently said it for the first time, in the word, “Go!”

I exaggerated the sound, showing her what my tongue was doing back there, repeating it again and again.  I told her, “Verity do it!  Verity say, ‘G, G, G!’”

She watched my antics solemnly, giving no other response.

After a good five minutes of trying to no avail, I went on good-humoredly to brush her teeth and wash her hands and face.  Then thought I’d try again…

Mama:  Verity…

Verity:  G, G, G!

You are such a little doodle-bug, Verity.  And I love you so much I can hardly stand it.

As I handed you to Daniel this morning, he said, “It’s hard to believe some people wouldn’t want her!”

Both of our oldest boys, ages 18 and 16, offered to answer questions directly.  So if you’ve ever had questions you’ve wanted to ask our older children about having two little sisters with special needs, or about adopting Katie, you are very welcome to leave a comment on this post.  All appropriate questions will be considered and answered to the best of Joseph and Daniel’s respective abilities.

Thank you so much, friends!

Oh, and a P. S. too:  ONE WEEK until the Big Families and Friends picnic!  See link on sidebar for more information.  For picnic location, please email susanna@theblessingofverity.com.

…and his name…

…is Sam.

Oh the REJOICING!!!

Thank You, JESUS!!!!!

…we’re watching the doors of the Pleven baby house open up and the children come out!

[This photo was taken by Sasha Bliss in March of 2011.]

This week the doors opened to let one little boy go with his new daddy–the first child with special needs to be adopted after Katie!  His family has chosen to remain anonymous, but his mama has become a friend to me over the months since we first connected last August.  Could you pray for a safe journey home for little Niko and his daddy?

Two families spent the week in Pleven visiting their treasures!

To read about Tom Archer’s visits with his three boys this week, please visit the Archers’ blog.  Jacob, Noah, and Moses are three of the children I was granted permission to see and hold last August.  What joy to see them interacting with each other and their new daddy!

And Grace Knuth wrote eloquently on her blog about a remarkable week of visits with her sweet Samantha.

Could you pray for these four children, that the remainder of their adoption processes would be speedy so they can get on with the business of learning to live and love and grow and progress in their loving homes?  Thank you, friends!

There’s more big news from Pleven this week!

Guess who’s graduated to the My Family Found Me page on Reece’s Rainbow?

Hallelujah!  It’s true!  Sweet Sarah finally has a family!  What a treasure she is and how wonderful it will be to see her grow and progress once she’s safely home!

That means there are only three little ones with special needs from Pleven available for adoption right now!

Little Alyssa, waiting for a family for almost nine years.  Alyssa received a good baba, and now she is able to be adopted!  Please pray that her family steps forward for her quickly!  Email for more information:  shele337@yahoo.com

Little Gabby, turning three years old this year.  I can hardly wait to find out who will see past her diagnoses to the precious little girl she is!  For more information, please email Shelley Bedford at shele337@yahoo.com.

And tiny Sam, still waiting!  There is more than one family who wants to adopt Sam, but none of them have been able to commit yet.  Please keep praying for Sam!  I’m so eager to see which family God picks for this bright-eyed boy!  For more information about adopting him, please call (360) 383-0623 or email inquiry@chiadopt.com.

One more prayer request!  It’s another crucial time for the Pleven baby house–

A new director for the Pleven baby house should be appointed in the next couple of weeks.

Please pray fervently that the new director has the children’s best interests at heart!

The formula that the visiting families took to Pleven this week was turned down.  Pray that common sense will prevail regarding donations of outrageously expensive and urgently-needed specialty formula from the United States!

Thank you, friends, for praying so faithfully!  Thank you to everyone who is helping the Nurse/Baba fund to grow!  God is using your obedience to get His work done!  May He bless you for it as you are blessing the children!

Others may ask you.

“What are you thinking?  Are you guys crazy?”

You may ask yourself.

“What are we thinking?  Have we gone crazy?”

Yep, if you’re considering special-needs adoption, the “crazy” question is to be expected.  But if you’re going to be ready for it, you first need to know the answers to some other questions.

Where are you getting your perspective?

By what assumptions are you living?

When it all comes down to a point of decision, what trumps what?

In your mind, your decisions, your life, whose perspective has the last word?  Our culture’s?  Or God’s?

If you’re not sure of the answer to the last question, here’s one little test you can give yourself.

We challenge you to take an honest look at yourself over the next few weeks.  Listen to what you say when you give your opinions and make your decisions.

Do you find yourself saying, “I know it seems like…but God says…”

Or, “Well…I know the Bible says…but I think/know/feel…”

What trumps what?

Our culture is all about choosing for yourself.  It can look like such common sense when they show us how to put walls up around our lives and stay in control of what’s inside those walls.

But it’s not God’s highest goal for His people’s lives to keep them manageable. It is His goal for us to show His greatness through us.  As long as we rebelliously insist on keeping our lives manageable anyway, we’ll only get to see the unremarkableness of what we can manage in life, and miss getting to see the AWESOME GLORY of God.

If Joe and I had been convinced by the opinions of the surrounding culture, and made our decisions based on what looked most manageable to us at the time, we would have stopped at three children.  According to the best advice of our culture, we were foolish to remain open to receiving Laura, Jane, John Michael, Peter, James, and Stephen.

Simply adding newborn twins…

…to our family of six children, the oldest newly thirteen and the youngest fourteen months?  Seen from the majority perspective–yep, totally crazy!

Some people get to come into the world with a best friend.  What a privilege it was to witness this.

If we’d been mapping out our lives the way our culture says was sensible, we for sure wouldn’t have Verity, would we?

And Katie?

If we’d said, “Ha!  No way!  That’s crazy!” to God, we sure as shootin’ wouldn’t have Katie!

If we’d followed our culture’s common-sense plan, there’s no chance–no chance!–we would have gone to Bulgaria to bring home a child with severe special needs…

…when we already had ten children and our youngest child had special needs of her own and was only eighteen months old, would we?

Well, would we?

The culture we live in would say this was nonsensical, reckless craziness.

And if we had let them define “crazy” and “common sense” for us instead of going by God’s definitions, this child would still be lying like a reeking, dried-up, abandoned baby bird in her orphanage bed.  We wouldn’t be watching Him bring her to life or use her story to propel countless other children into families.

So…

If you’re considering special-needs adoption, be ready!  Ready to graciously answer the “crazy” questions with the truth as often as needed.  The questions may come from strangers, fellow employees, extended family members, or your own thoughts.

The truth is that because of who God is, following what He tells us to do is the most sensible choice possible.

But if you find yourself habitually saying, “No way!  That’s crazy!” to God’s idea of what is good and true and beautiful, are you more truthfully His follower, or a follower of our culture?  Whose side are you on?  Which side will you work for, even fight for, if necessary?

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”

Note:

This Straight Talk series of blog posts is specifically for those who qualify–or hope to qualify–to adopt children with special needs.  No, we still don’t believe that God gives this task to everyone!

But we do believe that if everyone said “Yes,” to God when He called them, there wouldn’t be any children waiting on Reece’s Rainbow.  There are no unadoptable children, just unwilling parents.  Please make absolutely sure that if someone closes the door, it is God and not you.

If you don’t qualify, but you know a family who’s seriously considering special-needs adoption, please do all in your power to help them and encourage them to listen to God’s voice, as many of you have so marvelously done for us and other families.  They will need it, as we did.

And we know, dear friends, you won’t ask them if they’re crazy.  <grin>  

Because we don’t know anyone who wants to take the side of those who say, “They’re nothing more than a burden, they’re not worth sacrificing for, they are somebody else’s problem, I have my own interests to think about.”  Those, that is, who institutionalized the children in the first place.

When I heard about his reaction to seeing her photo, I knew.

They’d better be ready to watch God move mountains.  ’Cause He’s moving.

I’ve been holding my breath to be able to tell you…

LAUREL HAS A FAMILY!!!  

This pleasant and intelligent young lady has a future and a hope!!!!  She has a wonderful family who loves her with all their hearts, working as hard as they can to get to her as fast as they can!

Nate and Colleen and their children have already seen God move in remarkable ways to help them adopt Laurel.  If you want to see how He continues to write her story in the months ahead, please visit Colleen’s blog, Homespun Hearts for God’s Glory.

Oh, thank You, Jesus!!!!!

…will be getting new names!

Yes!!!

“Mickey”   Misha!

…and “Shawn”   Judah! 

…have a FAMILY!!!

Praise GOD!!!!!

Answer:  I’ve been up in the attic, enjoying the prosaic, biannual task of switching to the next season’s clothes.  And the attic is–finally!–back in a decent state of organization.  Too late to impress the poor lady who came to appraise our home two weeks ago.  <grin>

Having the blog and related email account go completely down gave me a little break from the computer, but now that Joseph’s given the okay, I’ll have to beg your patience!  If you’re waiting for an email from me, it should come–Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise!

If you still haven’t heard from me by the end of next week, could you please re-send your note?   Thank you for understanding!

You may have noticed that some photos are missing from earlier blog posts.  They will have to be replaced manually, a time-consuming job that will happen as Joseph can manage it.  If you need photos for a presentation, and cannot find them on the blog, please email me at susanna@theblessingofverity.com.

The end of our family’s endurance marathon is in sight.

Joshua finished with his temp job a couple of weeks ago, Daniel’s last day at his temp job was yesterday, and our academic year also comes to an end next Wednesday, the 25th.  Unless God has a different plan, we’ll have more breathing space after that.

It has not been an easy time!  But God faithfully sent just the help we needed to enable us to stay the course, just as He promised to do.  There’s a blog post in the works to give you a little glimpse of how He’s been doing this.

We’re grateful for how perfectly He timed our transition/hibernation time with the cold weather.  Now the warm weather is returning, and Katie’s ready to go places!  Today–her first Musser family field trip!

[Note:  To those of you who mentioned the lack of photos of others in the family--they're coming...]

I have so much to tell you about our two little sweet morsels, but since it’s not as urgent, it too will have to wait.

Katie especially has been bursting into bloom over the past couple of weeks.  We are watching the real Katerina come to life!

Okay, I’ll leak one small piece of news.  She’s now wearing size 3T and counting!  Remember that she wore a size 12 month and was smaller than Verity when we brought her home?  

The towering effect isn’t quite so obvious in this shot~

Note Katie’s hand~

Now for some news…

…sad news first…

Sweet Harmony is no longer available to be adopted internationally.

She’s still available to be adopted within her own country, and someone there will be advocating for her.  As long as she is not adopted, God will be faithful to keep His promise to be a Father to her.

Another adoptive mom wrote to me, “We’ve been told that Harmony is in a good place, nothing like Eastern European institutions, and will be well cared for. [Her country] has a Christian group home for aged-out kiddo’s with special needs and we are praying specifically that Harmony will be chosen to go there after her schooling is finished if she is not adopted locally. Lots of hope left! God has not forgotten Harmony and neither will we.”

We are grieving with friends of ours who lost their two-year-old baby girl, “E,” in a tragic accident.  The sorrow is nearly overwhelming.  This precious girl and her mom (and big brother with an extra chromosome) first came into our family’s story over two years ago, when “E” was a tiny infant.  Her family is trusting in the faithfulness of the Lord, but it will be a long and painful road to walk.

Question:  How much money was raised in the April Hidden Treasures auction?

Answer:  Amy Rainey reports that when all the money is in, there should be over $3000–a record for the Hidden Treasures auctions.  Thank the Lord for again blessing the efforts of so many kind helpers!

Amy has announced the recipient family for June–the Booth family adopting little Makayla.

Question:  Did I see some new children from Pleven on Reece’s Rainbow?

Answer:  Yes, you did!  According to the latest information I have, there are six children from Pleven who are available for adoption and do not yet have families committed to them.

Six more hidden treasures waiting to be found…pray, pray, pray that the Help of the helpless would send families to love them and commit to adopt them!

“Gabby” turns three years old this year~

“Mickey” turns five years old this year~

“Sam” turns five years old this year~

“Sarah” turns six years old this year~

“Alyssa” turns nine years old this year~

“Shawn” turns ten years old this year~

Question:  What’s the new Chip-In button all about, the one that says, “Nurses/babas for Pleven?”

Answer:  The children in the Pleven baby house have two urgent, immediate needs that we can help to meet.

1)  Specialized formula and people who are willing to carry it to Bulgaria.

A thorough explanation of the needed formulas can be found at the bottom of this post.  If any of you have extra, unexpired cans of special formula such as Vivonex Pediatric, Elecare, and Neocate, and are are willing to pay to ship it to a traveling family, please email Shelly Burman at burmanshelly@yahoo.com, and she will connect you with a family who is traveling to Bulgaria.

Also, if you are planning to fly in to Sofia, Bulgaria, at any point during the months ahead, please email Shelly at her email address above.

2)  Nurses and babas to ensure that the formula is being administered properly, and proper care is being given to the children according to Prof. Lilova’s instructions.  One Heart Bulgaria, the non-governmental organization who has agreed to help us, provides close supervision and accountability for the nurses and babas they hire.

They can put nurses in place as early as the end of this month if the funds are there.  A nurse costs $175 a month, and a baba costs $125 a month.  Are you part of an exercise group?  A mom’s group?  Bible study group?  Sunday School class?  The list could go on and on.  This would be a great way for folks in your group to pool resources and make a big difference!

The nurses/babas fund goes through One Heart Bulgaria, and 100%  of what is given will go directly to pay the salaries of nurses and babas for Pleven.

These are URGENTLY needed, as it is imperative that expert help is right there to see that each child is fed the proper formula in the way prescribed by Prof. Lilova.  As soon as there is enough in the fund, One Heart Bulgaria will hire two nurses for the top floor of Pleven, and then expand from there.

Question:  Does the donated formula have to be high in calories?

Answer:  My friend Dr. Elizabeth DeHority answered this one thoroughly:

“First of all, I think I’d not call it high calorie.  It’s not any higher in
calories than any other formula unless you mix it to make it so. The doctor can
prescribe the very best calorie per milliliter ratio for each child, and these
powdered formulas can be perfectly adapted for each child’s needs.

Children with long term, severe malnutirion are often unable to efficiently
digest and metabolize many foods. When a child comes to the US and is treated
for profound malnutrition, they are usually fed IV for quite a while at the
beginning, with oral or tube feedings starting very slowly. Unfortunately, that
is a luxury these children don’t have. The next best thing is carefully
monitored feeding with very specialized formulas. Formulas such as Vivonex
Pediatric, Elecare and Neocate are called “elemental diets” because each
ingredient, the proteins, fats and carbohydrates, are broken down into the
smallest, simplest possible elements. They are also manufactured under the
strictest controls, just like medicines, so every gram has the absolutely
accurate amount of each component.

The malnourished child’s body has to do NO WORK to digest these formulas. 100 %
of the ingredients can be absorbed and used for metabolism, healing and growth.
Because the doctors know exactly how much of the formula is going to be able to
be used by the sick child (100 %) it is possible to very precisely prescribe the
exact amount needed each day, or even each hour.

Refeeding hypophosphatemia is a truly frightening syndrome that can happen to
anyone who has malnutrition and then is given calories. Obviously, these
children are at higher risk than, for example, you or I would be after a crash
diet or being sick for a while. Therefore, it is essential that when they begin
to be fed, that they are fed carefully and with the utmost precision.

These highly specialized metabolic, elemental formulas are perfect for this
situation. They are not recommended by the World Health Organization for
treatment of starvation because they are amazingly expensive, and in countries
with many starving children, they can’t be found at any price. But they are the
very best enteral (meaning “using the gastrointestinal system”) feeding option
for children who are very fragile.

Another question I’m often asked is this: Do these children need to stay on
these special formulas once they’re home? Probably not. Once they are stable,
safe, and growing, the very most healthy option is eating real food. Sad to
say, a certain percentage of these children may never be able to eat enough
regular food to be healthy and grow. They may end up needing to be tube fed
long term. Children who have an underlying enzyme deficiency or are missing a
large portion of their intestines may require a lifetime of these elemental
formulas. But most children who continue to need formula can, and should,
eventually be on a formula that’s as close as possible to real food. Each
child’s doctor will make that decision as the child heals and grows.”

~Dr. Elizabeth DeHority
esdehority@aol.com

Now we need to cry out to the Lord for a miracle for her!

We knew this precious little girl was literally running out of time to be adopted, because although she looks like she is nine or ten years old, she’ll be turning sixteen this July.

[Please do not copy this photo!]

But we just learned that because of the Hague adoption rules and adoption process of her country, in order for Harmony to be adopted…

…she needs a family to step forward quickly who is “already home study-approved, has their USCIS approval, and is registered with the officials from her country,” otherwise she will live out her years in a mental institution.

[For the name of Harmony's country, please email Andrea at andrea@reecesrainbow.org.  I'm not allowed to post it publicly with her name and photos.]

It is already too late for anyone who does not fit those requirements.

This is such a long shot!

It sounds so impossible! Like looking for a needle in a giant haystack!

But we have a God who delights to do the impossible!  I don’t know what God will do, but I do know that He can do this!

[Please do not copy this photo!]

PLEASE DO TWO SMALL THINGS

1)  Send the link to this blog post out to everyone you know, and ask them to help find a little girl a family by passing the word along.  Spread the word as if you yourself would be sent to a mental institution if a family didn’t come for you.  The more people who see this post, the better!  It only takes one family.

http://theblessingofverity.com/2012/04/emergency-family-needed/

2)  PRAY!  PRAY!  PRAY for a miracle!  Pray as if your time to have a family were running out and in a few months you would lose the opportunity forever!

If YOU fit the three requirements above, please don’t waste a second!  Email Andrea from Reece’s Rainbow and she’ll tell you what you need to do next.  andrea@reecesrainbow.org

I looked over this country’s adoption process, and was flabbergasted at how much easier it appears to be than the one we just did!  It takes slightly longer, but it is less complicated.  Also, they sometimes waive the family size restrictions in cases of urgent need!

NOTE:  PLEASE DO NOT COPY HARMONY’S PHOTOS FROM THIS BLOG.

I only have permission to post them if this prohibition is made absolutely clear.  Please copy the link to this post instead, and send that to as many people as you can.  Thank you so much for doing this!

http://theblessingofverity.com/2012/04/emergency-family-needed/

First up will be “Straight Talk I:  Crazy?”

If you have unanswered questions about special needs adoption, we welcome you to join the conversation by leaving your questions in the comment section!

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

And now, down to brass tacks.

Every day I care for my daughter Katie in the flesh.

She is a real, flesh-and-blood human being, a child in our family.

I touch her, hold her, carry her. She has weight, solidity, scent, texture, personality, preferences, habits…

…skin that gets dry and needs ointment, a tummy that needs to be fed…

…hair that needs to be washed and combed.  She gets messy when I’m teaching her how to feed herself.  I get messy, too!

She needs me to take her to the potty at regular intervals all throughout the day. She needs regular sleep.

We are present with her, we interact with her, we teach her things she doesn’t know.

Katie is completely dependent on us in every nitty-gritty detail of life.

We can’t minister to Katie’s needs at a distance.  We can’t take proper care of her without getting messy and tired and sore in the process.

Just like Christ could not minister to people’s needs at a distance.  He couldn’t care for people without getting messy and tired and sore in the process.

Christ wasn’t some ethereal spirit wafting through the Holy Land.  He took on flesh! His mother cared for Him in the flesh! He served others in the flesh! He died a humiliatingly public and painful death in the flesh!

He had one physical life to spend.  He spent his physical life on others and died a physical death for others, out of love and obedience to His Father.

If we love with Christ’s love, it will show up in the physical realities of our everyday lives too, because…

Christ’s love is love in the flesh.

Friends, we’re getting down to the flesh-and-blood reality of this story. Are you ready?

God is moving mightily for the children imprisoned in the Pleven orphanage, and for other desperately needy orphans!  He is moving!

Are you ready?

Here is a little one from Pleven who is available right now for adoption.

His name is “Sam.”  I hold this precious human being up to your view.  He has multiple special needs.

Please see this tiny boy’s worth in the eyes of God!

You can read more about “Sam” if you click on this link.  And see him in action if you watch this youtube video from minutes 8:37 to 8:57.

“Sam” is listed with the Children’s House International adoption agency.  Please email inquiry@chiadopt.com or call (360) 383-0623.

Please spread the word and pray that Sam’s family steps forward for him quickly!

More needy flesh-and-blood children from Pleven will become available.

Are you ready?

There are other very needy children waiting in other orphanages, including another baby house in Bulgaria where very malnourished children were recently discovered.

“Milena” is in this baby house.  This is the older photo of her that her future Daddy and Mommy saw when they committed to her.

I have seen recently-updated photos of Milena that made anguished tears run down my face.  Milena doesn’t know it yet, but her family is coming for her. Thank You, Lord!

Other real, flesh-and-blood children from her baby house should be listed on Reece’s Rainbow soon. 

Are you ready?

There is Ekaterina, still waiting in Russia.

She is a year younger than Katie.  She has been in my heart with the Pleven children since the day I first saw her photo.  She has the same skinny, dried-up, hopeless look Katie used to have, and her days are numbered, as she has already been transferred to an institution.

Please, I beg of you, could someone who qualifies to adopt from Russia and is home study-ready go and get this precious child before she gives up and dies?  If you do, you will have the privilege of being the hands and feet of Christ that will transform her life! Please email andrea@reecesrainbow.org.

Every one of these lives is inexpressibly valuable in the eyes of God.

Every one of them is worth fighting for.

Do you believe that truth?  Would you put your life where your mouth is?  Are you ready to go beyond words, and act when God tells you to act?

Those who institutionalized them, and those who neglected them, believe they’re not worth loving as sons and daughters.

“When we can’t find a home for a child, we are confirming their beliefs.”

The truth is, if God calls someone to adopt one of these little ones, and that person refuses, he is just as guilty as those who say the child has no value.  He is saying, “You are not worth the trouble.”

[Please read that again and note that I did not just say that everyone who hears about the children should adopt one.  Furthermore, other people answer to God and not to us.  But you need to know the hard truth that if you say no to God when He calls you to adopt one of these needy little ones, you are complicit in the crimes against them.]   

Friends, we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty.  There are children waiting.  More children are coming.

God is freeing very needy children to be adopted.

Are you ready?

He is calling families to the inestimable privilege of bringing these very needy children home.

Yes, He is also calling thousands of people to be the support system for the adoptive families.  Thousands can pray, help spread the word, and help pay the required ransom money.  We can give to help the children while they are waiting.

All of those things are vitally necessary!

But prayers, publicity and ransom money are not parents.

These children need real, flesh-and-blood parents to go get them and bring them home.

 Are you ready?

If God calls your name, please say “Yes.”

I thought my heart was already full!!

But…tears and laughter of absolute joy tonight!!!

If you hear people speak cynical words about things never changing, or more kids coming to fill up the emptied orphanage beds, don’t you listen to them for one second!

Did you know that cynicism is a self-fulfilling prophecy?  It kills the heart.  Kills the passion to throw your life into the work God gives you.

Listen only to what God says about what He thinks about the helpless and voiceless!  Listen only to what He says about what He can do on their behalf and put your hope only in Him!  Then roll up your sleeves and get to work on HIS team!  Pray with hope!  Give with hope!  Advocate with hope!

Work with all your hope pinned on God.  There is no space left for cynicism when you fix your eyes on the King of the universe!

And get ready to see what it looks like when the King of the universe does miracles.

Speaking of miracles…

Do you remember reading about the tiny fourteen-year-old girl weighing fourteen pounds who was admitted to Tokuda Hospital?

Do you remember reading that Shelley Bedford was able to meet her there and hold her?

Please stop right here, click on the following link, and read Shelley Bedford’s description of that meeting:

Meeting Faith

Do you remember reading that this tiny fourteen-year-old girl has a family?

Please click on the following link to find out who will be her Daddy and Mommy…and rejoice!!!  Rejoice!!!!!

Because this life matters

[Then please share that last link with everyone you know!  Thank you, friends!] 

The director of the Bulgarian Child Protection Agency recently met with the new Minister of Health who is directly responsible for the baby orphanages in Bulgaria.  She is a young and very determined lady and started acting immediately. The CPA’s director himself is an orphan and spent most of the first part of his life in orphanages and institutions, so he cares a lot.  They organized a sudden check up in Pleven.  Groups from both the MOH and the CPA went to Pleven last Friday.

They went through all the floors and visited every corner of the building.

Then they came out in all prime time news, on all national TV channels and radio stations.

The Minister of Health said that she witnessed conditions that shouldn’t exist in any 21st century European country.   “The situation is appalling.  This is inhumane,” she commented.

At the end of her report it was announced that an investigation was starting immediately and would most probably be finished by the end of April.

The response of the orphanage management was to disagree that the children were malnourished or that the building did not meet hygiene standards.  They stated that the disabilities of the children, and not malnutrition, were to blame for their small stature and low weight.

But Katie, as the first malnourished child from Pleven to come into a family and be loved and fed properly, is telling the truth without saying a word.

The following are hastily-edited translations of some of the news articles in major newspapers in Bulgaria.  After reading it, please click here to visit Shelley Bedford’s blog and find out how you can help bring about the exciting boots-on-the-ground changes that are coming to the children in Katie’s former orphanage.  All the efforts to help Pleven will require a WIDE base of support, so PLEASE pass the word along!  Thank you so much!

Excerpts from yesterday’s newspaper article

(on the photo at the left bottom, unidentified child from the sixth floor; on the photo at the top right, Veronica now; on the photo at the bottom right, Veronica before)

18 children died over a year and a half

Babies and young children are being left hungry for days, lie in urine without having their diapers changed for twenty-four hours, due to which most of them are severely ill.  Over a year and a half, 18 children have died, as evidenced by a Report of the CPA. This provoked an inspection by the Minister of Health Dessislava Atanassova.  Yesterday she commented that she left there crying.
At the moment, 154 children live in the institution. After the inspection, Ms. Atanassova found out that, obviously, the personnel had known about her visit, as the children were all dressed up nicely, the sheets were changed and the toys were new.  The stench of urine, however, made a huge impression.

“While I walked through the rooms and watched the children, I cried. After that, I got mad and was greatly upset that they were doing wrong things,” the health minister said. She made a hint that probably serious financial misuses had been done in the institution, as any accountability was lacking.

VERONICA AFTER LEAVING THE ORPHANAGE

4 kilograms and 850 grams. That’s how much the 9 year old Veronica weighed on November 14, 2011. That was her last day in Home For Medical and Social Care for Children in Pleven which terrified the health minister and CPA. She couldn’t pull up to a sitting or standing position and only was lying down. Today, 5 months later, in the USA, in Pennsylvania, she is already weighing 12 kilograms and has a chance for life.

This can clearly be seen from two photographs. The first was taken in the home for medical and social care last year, and the second is in the home of her new American family.

“I think that the photos speak for themselves enough and the words are not needed. The difference is striking and clearly shows what it means for a child to be raised in an institution,” declared Antonia Vladimirova, Director of Dreams Foundation, which facilitates international adoptions. She personally was helping the family Joe and Susanna Musser to adopt the Bulgarian orphan who has Down syndrome.

The Chance

The chance for a new life for Veronica came last November. After [three] months of adoption procedure, Susanna arrived in Pleven to pick her up.  [Three months before,] the American was in shock at the look of the child in real life and by the sight of the other children sharing the same ward with her future daughter on the sixth floor, where the orphans with the severest diseases are placed. Veronica was taken to Tokuda Hospital to be stabilized for two days…they took off by a plane to the USA…from the airport…she was placed in the Children’s [Hospital] in Philadelphia.

Thorough tests were done and they established that the child was with severe anemia due to the malnutrition, as well as advanced osteoporosis, and bones that had been broken in the past, together with lack of Vitamin D.  All this together with severe mental and physical lagging behind.

After only 4 months Veronica is already different.

So that you can imagine the difference, I will tell you that in Bulgaria she couldn’t sit up [properly]. She didn’t talk, only cried or, more correctly, was moaning. Now you can see her at the picture that she sits up. Soon she will be up besides a walker. She is still with a feeding tube but she eats normal food and very recently she said her first word “mamma.” All this after only 4 months, Vladimirova tells further. Now the child lives in Pennsylvania. Her adoptive parents have ten more children, the last of whom is with Down syndrome…she inspired them to adopt such a child. The mother is a homemaker and has entirely devoted herself to care for her children.

Treatment

After the admittance of Veronica in Tokuda, from the hospital they were so shocked that they decided to visit the orphanage in Pleven. The specialists chose another 8 children to be admitted in the hospital.

“We found out that the children need attention and decided that we would go and see them. We coordinated the idea with the CPA and went,” Prof. Marusia Lilova, Chief of the Pediatric Clinic at Tokuda Hospital, said for the Telegraph. Then several children were taken for treatment to Tokuda. To a question whether it was established that the children were malnourished, Prof. Lilova stated that she didn’t want to comment.

The rest

154 children totally are being raised in the orphanage in Pleven. 98 of them are with severe disabilities and most of them don’t move from their cribs. For now, only [18] of the children will have Veronica’s chance.  At the moment, adoption procedures for them are pending.

Excerpts from today’s article

(Photos: Top: at 11 years old Vesselina looks like a 3 month old baby; the teenager Plamenka looks like an infant
Bottom:  Veronica 6 months ago and now as Katie Musser)

“Holocaust”  That is how the chief of Dreams Foundation, Antonia Vladimirova, summarizes the care for the abandoned sick children in Bulgaria. And “Auschwitz” is the name she has given to the Home for Medical and Social Care for Children (HMSCC) in Pleven. On Friday, the institution entered the media with a label “Mogilino-2″ after the health minister Dessisslava Atanassova visited it suddenly and 16 year old children weighing 9 kilograms and eating from bottles met her.

Boriss Veltchev starts dealing with the child skeletons in Pleven

Prosecutors in Mogilino-2

Malnutrition, osteoporosis and broken bones shock the Tokuda doctors

For Antonia Vladimirova, the Pleven Auschwitz turned into her cause on August 15, 2011. Then the head of the Dreams Foundation went into the orphanage as a lawful representative of the Americans Joseph and Susanna Musser, who wanted to adopt the 9 year old Veronica. The little girl was on the 6^th floor, where actually the severest cases are placed. From the very door, the stench that hit us was unbearable, Vladimirova recalls.

Stink of faeces, urine, acetone and pus

In the rooms of the children, the windows are not opened. The little ones [cribs] are stuffed 8 in a [room] 4 meters by 3 meters. They are not showered, the diapers are soaked and they lie in their vomit. The children are prisoners in their cribs. They move only when their diapers are changed once each 24 hours, Antonia adds. From the orphanage they explained to her that this happens once a day as the diapers are expensive and they can’t afford to change the children more often. They pick up the child under the armpit, lift him/her in the air, and throw him/her on the board for change of the diapers. Several lightning, rough movements follow, without any cleaning or treatment of the rashes and the wounds from the soaked diapers. The child again is lifted in the same way and thrown in the crib, Antonia continues her terrifying story.

Antonia, however, is shocked with something else–the feeding of the children. The little ones receive

a beer bottle with a nipple on the top,

with an opening of 1 cm.  And as they are in lying position, without being set upright at least a little, they receive the nipple and start choking and the liquid pours down, explains Vladimirova. The children who can feed themselves, receive a mess-tin of soup with crumbled bread mixed with a spoon of [broth?] without meat.  The children are fed [in a matter of seconds] and then everything is taken away, goes on Antonia.

Thanks to the Musser family, Veronica is saved from Auschwitz. Today she lives in Pennsylvania and her name is Katerina Hope Musser. After being picked up from the orphanage, the 9 year old miss went to the capital hospital Tokuda, and the doctors there slipped into a shock at the little one’s weight of 4,850 kg.  5 months later Veronica, already Katerina Hope, is 12 kg.

From August till now, 18 more children from the ill-famous orphanage in Pleven are at different stages of adoption procedure by families from the USA. Two of them are the 11 year old Vesselina (weight at the moment 5,650 kg and height 76 cm), and almost 16 year old Plamenka (weight 8,600 kg and height 88 cm) who eats from a bottle. Both of them, as well as 6 other children from the orphanage, were treated in Tokuda. In all eight children, besides malnutrition and osteoporosis, old, already healed broken bones, were established. Vesselina even has displacements of vertebrae, recalls Antonia. And continues on to say that after only 10 days in the hospital the little patients gained 2 kilograms each.

The doors are closed for new little ones

174 people take care of 165 children; sanctions are at hand

The Agency for Social Support stops the placement of children from the whole country in the orphanage in Pleven. Only in extreme cases babies from Pleven and Lovetch will be admitted.

This is the biggest orphanage in Bulgaria and, at the moment, 165 children are placed there.   [The healthiest, mobile children over the age of 3 years old have already been transferred to other institutions.]  The personnel are 174 people, but only 1/3 of them remain on each shift. All of the children should be no older than 3 years of age. However, for a long time, no one has taken measures for the older children to be moved to other specialized institutions.  Among them are children with disabilities who have not been requested for adoption or foster care.

External specialists in nutrition and intensive interaction shall be appointed in the orphanage. For each child a specific plan shall be developed, according to his/her own needs, explained Kalin Kamenov. They will train the personnel how to take care of the children. Experts will work with the children with disabilities in the orphanage, so that they receive individual care and medical help.

For the end of April, a competition for appointment of a new director of the orphanage has been planned. Four months ago, the long-standing director Irzhina Kostova was fired after the signal of CPA.  By this moment, the orphanage has been under a temporarily appointed director. Most probably there will be more disciplinary sanctions, stipulates Kamenov. We hope that the new management shall implement quality reorganization in the operation of the orphanage, he declared.

Yesterday, for the Standard, the health minister Dessislava Atanassova revealed that, since documents for donations and reports for food products are lacking, the investigators had sealed the storage premises.

Lord God, O, hear my calling!

For death, He gave me life indeed

And kept my feet from falling.

For this my thanks shall endless be;

O, thank him, thank our God with me,

To God all praise and glory!”

One night not long ago, I lay staring upward into the pitch darkness, bitterly hot tears streaming from my eyes.

For this part of the story to make sense, you need to know that over 90,000 people have read about the children of Pleven on this blog.

Ordinarily, the numbers don’t make a hill of beans difference to the story God is writing.  It takes effort to learn what the numbers are, and why do I need to know?  I don’t.

Recently, however, those numbers did come into the story, so I went and looked them up on Google Analytics to report them accurately.

Over the nearly eight months since I first saw Katie last August, almost 90,000 separate individuals have visited this blog.  Over 60,000 of those individuals visited during the nearly five months since we picked Katie up from her orphanage bed in mid-November.  That doesn’t count those who subscribe to this blog, receive the posts as emails, and don’t actually visit this website.

Many hundreds of people have emailed me to tell how their hearts have been moved with compassion for the children in Pleven.  Many have said that they would do anything to bring one of the children home themselves.

From August forward, every time a new child from Pleven was listed on Reece’s Rainbow, no matter how severe the child’s special needs, a family came forward to commit to them within a matter of a few days.  Some of the children were snapped up before they were made public.

It was obvious to us that God was doing a miraculous work in His people’s hearts.  Adoptions of children with significant special needs aren’t easily explainable in human terms.  These adoptions aren’t “all about us” adoptions.  They aren’t “add to or complete our perfect family” adoptions.

These children are being pursued by families whose love is stronger than their fear or self-interest.

As I watched God at work, my hope soared high.  Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Of course not!  Surely God could have families lined up for the rest of the children!  Look at what He has already done just in this one orphanage!  We’re not talking about millions of orphans here, just a relative handful compared with the thousands of potential adoptive families who are now aware of the children’s great need!

The more families I heard from, the more excited I grew!  I could hardly wait for God to demonstrate the value He places on the lives of these children by sending loving families to rescue them.  I could see it as if it had already happened.  There would be families for the children with special needs in Pleven.

The wheels of governments grind slowly.  As we waited for more children from Pleven to become available for adoption, I could hardly wait to show them off.  What a privilege to carry these precious lives one or two at a time, to thousands of sympathetic people.  People who had already expressed how greatly they care about the children with special needs in Pleven and in so many other institutions all across Eastern Europe and the world.

Then suddenly, after months of waiting, two real flesh-and-blood human beings.

No more space for the imagination now, no space for one’s own romantic ideas of a Pleven child.

Remember what I feared the most after we got the news of Verity’s Down syndrome?  My most intense struggles after she was born?

I was afraid that others would look at my precious, vulnerable child and reject her as ugly and of little worth.  That hurt, very much.

Sarah’s diagnosis came in, and so did her photo.  I eagerly showed her off!  But the response…

Oh.

She looks…disabled.

Her file says she is blind?

She wasn’t quite what we had in mind.

Carissa’s diagnosis came in and so did her photo.  The same response…

Oh.

She’s not smiling.

Reece’s Rainbow staff see possible signs of fetal alcohol syndrome?

She wasn’t quite what we had in mind.

Two innocent girls who want to know, “Can anyone unconditionally love me?”

Just as I do.  Just as you do.  They want to know what all human beings, with all our flaws, want to know.

“Is there anyone who can unconditionally love me?”

Two innocent girls who don’t know that after many thousands of people looked at their photos, only three asked for their files.

And all three decided NO.

Shelley’s email read, “No families at all seriously interested in either of the girls “

Her words cut me to the quick.

These children are to me as the children birthed from my body.

How many eyes have looked at these precious, vulnerable children and rejected them as unlovely and of little worth?

A sister adoptive mom wrote, “I want them to know over there that we want those children.  That they are worth a lot.  When we can’t find a home for a child, we are confirming their beliefs.  That makes me sick.”

That is why one night not long ago, I lay staring upward into the pitch darkness, bitterly hot tears streaming from my eyes.

“Oh God, what are you doing?  I don’t want to lose hope and become cynical.  I know You can do anything.  Why aren’t you sending families?  Why aren’t You demonstrating the value You place on their lives?  Why aren’t you showing what You can so easily do?”

The next morning, I flipped to the very beginning of the book of Psalms.  What was I looking for?  I don’t remember, because here is what He showed me on the previous page…

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

Yes.

I paged backward.

“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?
He who rebukes God, let him answer it.”

Another note from another adoptive mom, “Also remember that while Pleven is alive and looming in your mind, it is directly in God’s line of sight all day and night every day and night.”

My husband’s reminder, “God can handle His own reputation.”

God’s reputation.

And I remembered Gideon and his 32,000 soldiers.  God sent back all who were afraid, and 22,000 went home.  Only 10,000 were left.  God said that was still too many, and pared that army down to 300 men.  When the battle was won against the enemy army of 135,000, it was clear that GOD, and GOD alone, not the strength of numbers, had won the victory.

Oh God, forgive me.  “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.  Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 

And now Carissa has a family.

Sarah has a family who is working hard to be able to commit to her.

The fourteen-year-old girl who weighed fourteen pounds when she was admitted to the Tokuda Hospital…has a family.

A little four-year-old boy who some other adoptive moms saw when they were at the Pleven orphanage…has a family.

A little two-year-old girl with severe delays has a family who is very serious about pursuing her adoption.

Family by family, God is calling out His army, and winning the victory in the life of each child.

“Though great distress my soul befell,

The Lord my God did all things well

To God all praise and glory!“

I just wanted to remind you that we have less than two days before the Tiniest Unroe auction wraps up. It is going well…and there are some REALLY good deals available. The iPad 2 is still well below retail value, as are MANY items that are listed. There are 106 items available…gift cards, art, crafts, items made with love by Keith’s brothers and sisters…so many things. Please stop by and check it out before time runs out. The Unroe family is bringing home five children [with Down syndrome] at one time. We have the privilege of helping to provide the ransom for these little ones!

Blessings,
Amy Rainey
hiddentreasuresauction@gmail.com

Please click on this link to visit the Hidden Treasures auction website, and get your bids in before midnight on Saturday night!

I received the thrilling announcement this morning from a blog reader who has been corresponding with me…

…that she and her husband are officially committing to adopt sweet Carissa from Pleven!

Lisa Matthews, Carissa’s future mom says, “I can’t tell you how incredibly happy I am!”  

Praise GOD!!!!!!

And an updated photo~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, we are adding to our efforts for the children in Pleven to work to ensure that the ENTIRE ORPHANAGE has what it needs to meet the needs of the children that live there. The findings of the Child Protection Agency were that the most basic of things are needed in mass quantities at the orphanage….food, diapers, basic care items and STAFF to hold the children, feed the children and ensure that their basic needs and basic medical needs are met.

One Heart Bulgaria is a licensed non-profit in the US and also a licensed NGO in Bulgaria. We will be partnering with them to get the needed supplies to the orphanage. One Heart Bulgaria is well established in their work in orphanages in Bulgaria. They have an in country team that will be the “boots on the ground” to help with this effort.

One Heart Bulgaria works with a diaper company in Bulgaria in order to buy diapers in bulk at a discounted rate. They already have programs in place to buy food. Donations to One Heart Bulgaria that are specified for Pleven will go to purchase diapers and food for the orphanage. Providing enough diapers to meet the needs of over 200 children on a daily basis is a HUGE expense. It is a constant ongoing need. The Bulgarian government provides a “food budget” for the orphanage, though it is grossly underestimated at the present time, based on the number of children there and their nutritional needs.

One Heart Bulgaria also has a well established “Baba program”, which employs Babas, the Bulgarian word for grandmother, to go into the orphanages and hold, feed, play with, teach and interact with the children. Babas are assigned to a specific child and they care for these children daily on a 1:1 level. I have personally met several of the Babas that are employed through the sponsorship of One Heart Bulgaria. Their presence in the orphanages and the attention that they give the children is LIFE CHANGING for the children that they work with.  One Heart Bulgaria is now accepting sponsors to donate the money to pay the salaries of Babas to work at the orphanage in Pleven. The salary for one Baba is $120 a month. That covers the Babas salary and also her bus pass to get her to the orphanage.

In addition to hiring Babas, One Heart Bulgaria also wants to ensure that once the children have received the medical care from Toduka Hospital, that the after care is done at the orphanage. There are many children that need to be fed on a special schedule, need specific attention to their medical needs, etc. In order to help meet these needs, One Heart Bulgaria is also going to seek to employ qualified NURSES to work along side the Babas and orphanage staff. The estimated cost of employing a nurse for one month is $175.Current salary rates are being checked for that exact amount, and I’ll update as soon as we have an exact amount.

These are the specific needs that the Bulgarian government has asked to be addressed immediately and as an on going effort, while they work on the government side of things to change/retrain the staff and improve the conditions.

If you would like to help, donations can be made through One Heart Bulgaria. All donations are tax deductible for US donors:
1.) Donations can be made via Paypal at this link. Donations being made via Paypal need to have “for the Pleven orphanage” written in the comment box, so that the funds are designated appropriately.  Please note: Paypal takes a 3% fee from each transaction. So, if you are making a large donation, please consider sending a check.
2.) Donate via check by sending the check to:
One Heart Bulgaria
561 N. 150 W.
Centerville, UT 84014 USA
If you’d like to make a reoccurring monthly donation, you can also set that up on this page. We are actively seeking donors or two/more people to partner together to fund Babas. We’d like to get more PEOPLE into the orphanage as quickly as possible.

*At this time, monetary donations are all that is needed. It is not cost effective to ship diapers and food to the orphanage, as shipping costs and customs make this an unnecessary expense. One Heart Bulgaria has a team in Bulgaria to deliver the supplies to the orphanage when the monetary donations are made. We ARE working to get special high calorie formula in for the children in the most critical conditions. This is being organized by several moms that have adopted/are adopting from Pleven now*

Have you noticed the Chip-In button over on the sidebar recently?  It’s been there long enough to turn invisible, but look again.

It says that $32,688.66 has been given to the medical fund for the children in the Pleven orphanage.

Yes, it is really true.  $32,688.66 for the thirty orphans in Pleven who need to be hospitalized, and for the others who can be medically treated at the orphanage.  

Two or three children at a time are being admitted to the Tokuda Hospital, and being treated there for about two weeks before going back to the orphanage.  Your gifts are already having a tangible effect in the lives of the first few children to get the medical attention they have sorely lacked!

Did you participate in the big Mulligan Stew fundraiser?  Then you know that $48, 708.24 was given during the month of March.

Yes, the stunning sum of $48,708.24 for the families who are adopting from Pleven and needed the fundraising help, as well as for   other orphans and another adoptive family.  (Don’t miss hearing how your gifts have strengthened and encouraged these families!)

Is anyone else astounded by the force of these numbers, and by the love that stands behind them?

We couldn’t help but wonder whether this outpouring of generosity would cause folks to tire of giving just in time for The Tiniest Unroe online fundraiser auction over on the Hidden Treasures site.  The exact moment the huge Mulligan Stew fundraiser ended, The Tiniest Unroe auction began!

Those figures total over $80,000!  Giver exhaustion, or something like that.  No, donor exhaustion.  Isn’t that what it’s called? 

You can imagine my astonishment and joy to read the following message from Amy Rainey, the hard-working coordinator of the every-other-monthly Hidden Treasures auctions:

“Until midweek, we only had about half as many donations as we do now.  Donations came pouring in this morning!  There is a lot of excitement surrounding the auction.  And we have quite a few brand-new participants!  I have had so many people tell me over the past few days that they are excited to be able to continue to participate.  I am very thankful!”

Did I say donor exhaustion?  What donor exhaustion?  You sound more like cheerful givers than exhausted givers!  Thank you for all you have poured out for these little ones.  THANK YOU!!!

And we’re also thankful for so many cheerful givers, because Shelley Bedford has some thrilling news.

So many of you have asked how you can help to get needed supplies into the orphanage itself.

Finally!  Finally!   There is now a way to get resources directly to the children Katie left behind in Pleven!!!  

Shelley Bedford has been working very hard to set this up, and God has blessed her efforts with success.   Some of you have asked how we can know that donated items will actually reach the children.  As you will see in the next post, that valid concern has been addressed.

So this week until Saturday at midnight–the April Hidden Treasures auction.  Don’t miss the fun!  Wait until you see the high-quality items that have been donated for The Tiniest Unroe!  Please help to spread the word!

All the funds raised will help Brent and Amanda Unroe adopt five children with Down syndrome–tiny treasure Keith from the Pleven baby house and four other children from four other institutions in Bulgaria.  They only lack about $6,000 to be fully funded, and we hope this auction will take a nice-sized bite out of that number!  I can hardly wait to see Keith being loved at home and growing out of his six-to-nine month sleepers!

Our attic is waiting to be cleaned and organized.  That job’s been waiting for months, growing bigger by the week.

Little child, are you worth it?

We now have 13 people living in 1300 square feet.

Do we want to send you back to the 15 square feet of your orphanage bed so we can have a little more space for the rest of us?

I’ve made it to a church meeting five or six times in the last five months.

Are we still glad you’re part of our family now, or do you cramp our style too much?

I have very little free time right now, and don’t often go anywhere outside the home.

Would we send you back to the orphanage to allow mama to do more running around?

We actually stooped to using the laundromat to catch up on laundry last week.

Do we wish you weren’t here adding to Mt. Laundry?

A meal requiring more than, oh, maybe half-a-dozen steps is pretty rare around here lately.

Would we rather have fancier meals, or you, lovey girl?

I can stay up past midnight working every night and still not be caught up.

If we could choose again, would we choose a more relaxed life?  Or choose you?

I have to place your ng tube or replace your tape every couple of days now, and not always when it’s most convenient for me.

Would we rather let you starve in the orphanage than be bothered with all this therapy and medical stuff?

We’re accepting outside help for some extra household tasks.

We could have handled it all just fine if you were not part of our family, our life.

We’re using paper plates more than we used to.

So big whoop.

When we look into your face, we see, with joy, that Satan lost and God won.

Your life is being reclaimed from destruction.

Our life looks very different than we would have envisioned it a few years ago.

Your life, small one, is worth it.

There are two days left in this month.

That means there are two days left in the Mulligan Stew fundraiser.

Today.

Tomorrow.

Oh friends, I’ve been sitting here for too many hours, wracking my tired brain, searching for the perfect words.  I’ve written and deleted countless times.

How can words communicate to those who have never been there, who haven’t seen for themselves?

All the words are coming out flat…two-dimensional.

I want with all my heart to help you understand how crucial this fundraiser is for the lives of many children, including two special little girls on Reece’s Rainbow.

These little girls have been waiting so long for their families that if they are not adopted by mid-summer, they will age out.  They will run out of time.  If this happens, they will never have their own family to love them.

One little girl is named Laurel; she has arthrogryposis.

The other little girl is named Harmony; she has Down syndrome.

More than anything else, they need families.

We can’t give them families, but we can make their grant funds grow to encourage families to consider adopting them.

And we can help to spread the word in wider and wider circles.

A donor has offered to put $500 into each girl’s Reece’s Rainbow account fund…

…IF…

…all eight families in the Mulligan Stew giveaway who are adopting from Pleven have at least $2000 in their adoption funds by tomorrow night!  Almost $6000 is still lacking!

Our family is in the middle of another stretching time.  All three of our older boys are working part time, two of them temporarily.  It is hard right now to keep up with the basics, let alone little extras like sleep or food for Mama.  Mama is in the trenches.  She is bone-weary and the words just aren’t coming.

I am praying that God will work HIS WILL through human weakness for the sake of these two precious little girls.  It is heartbreaking to picture them in an adult mental institution.

So…

Friends, even if you have already done so, are you willing to go to the Micah Six Eight blog, see what God has been doing there for some special children, and give until it hurts?  For His sake, and their sakes?  He is winning!    

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  

Important P.S.  Don’t forget to leave a comment on the Micah Six Eight blog or email Julia Nalle at covenantb@yahoo.com, letting her know how you participated in this fundraiser, if you wish to be entered in the giveaway!

Just six more weeks until the 2012 Big Families and Friends picnic!

If you are a large family, or love to hang out with big families, you are invited and welcome!

The picnic is scheduled for Saturday, May 5th. 

We are planning to meet from 11 am until dusk, with lunch planned for noon, but you are welcome to come any time after 8 am.  There is always plenty of food left over to make a light meal for those who are still visiting when suppertime rolls around.  Sunset will be around 8 pm that evening.

The park has a generous amount of lovely shade.  The playground is right in front of the pavilion, with a bathroom close by on one side.

The baseball field (which we have also reserved) is down a slope on the other side where it can be easily seen both from the playground and the pavilion.  There is always a large crowd of eager baseball players available!

There is also a sand volleyball court and space for frisbee, as well as plenty of young people ready to make up teams.

The pavilion is equipped with electricity, as well as two BBQ grills.

Please bring~

~A main dish to share

~EITHER a side dish OR salad OR dessert to share

~Serving spoons if needed

~Charcoal and tools for the grill if you intend to use it

~Drinks for your own family (with cooler chest and ice, or insulated thermos jugs)

~All table settings you will need for your family, including a tablecloth if you like

~Lawn chairs and blankets if you have them, to use and to share

~Any frisbees and baseball equipment you have on hand

~Anything else you think of that may be useful.  A camera is nice!

We’re again planning to clear a few tables after the meal for an exchange.  If you have items that you no longer need, that you think may be of value to another large family, you may bring them for this exchange and lay them out for all to peruse.  (Anything left behind will be dropped off at Goodwill on our family’s way home.)

And as always, please invite those who may enjoy coming to meet other big families!  If you want to be there, we want you to be there!

Please contact us with related questions, suggestions, and offers of help, as well as directions!  susanna@theblessingofverity.com

We’re looking forward to seeing MANY of you there again this year!

Special thank you to Adam Boroughs, who bought these traditional Bulgarian clothes for Katie when he was in Bulgaria with us.  They looked so enormous for her back then, didn’ t they, Adam?  Before too long, we wondered if she’d outgrow your gift before she reached her birthday!

“If something I am asked to do for another feels burdensome; if, yielding to an inward unwillingness, I avoid doing it,

then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I put my own happiness before the well-being of the work entrusted to me;

then I know nothing of Calvary love.”  ~Amy Carmichael 

We have heard it countless times since we learned in August how badly the children in Katie’s orphanage had been neglected.

“I don’t understand how anyone could…!”

But…

Have I ever felt that reluctant feeling rise up within me when I face an unpleasant duty?

Have I ever sighed inside when I had to walk away from a grown-up conversation to attend to the needs of a small person, again?

Have I ever felt weary just hearing about a large need?

Have I ever felt like saying, “I can’t worry about it, I have my own life to live, my own family to take care of?”

Have I ever felt that I don’t want things to change?  That I like my life just the way it is?

Have I ever felt afraid of added responsibility?

Have I ever chosen the easier path?

Have I ever, even once, met my own needs at the expense of someone else rather than meeting their needs at my own expense?

The small, soft, easy choice.  Many small choices that grow easier as they grow bigger.

Until, even when the stakes are high, we find it far too easy to say yes to self and no to sacrifice of self.

Too easy to justify a self-focused decision.

Too easy to say no to the desperate need of a tiny, helpless child.

Too easy to say no to Jesus when He calls to us,

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.“

We don’t understand how anyone could…?

I think we do.

I know I do.

Remember Kolina?

Kolina, nine years old, before she spent two weeks at Tokuda Hospital~

Have you ever wondered why some people knowingly adopt a child with special needs?

What about someone who is single, past middle age, and adopting her sixteenth and seventeenth children, who have special needs just like many of her other children do?

Every adoptive parent has his or her own story, of course.  I’ve heard many now, and am fascinated by every single one of them.

But the story behind the adoptions of this exceptional and experienced mother?  I’d like you to read it for yourself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was 14 years old and just entered high school in the late 1960′s the nun’s tried to get us involved in community service. They would take us in groups to the Red Cross where we would roll bandages (can you imagine!) and we would go to nursing homes and read to the elderly people. These types of activities were enjoyable to me, but I sure didn’t find those activities very compelling.

That changed the day that they took us to Fircrest. Fircrest is the State School for the Mentally Retarded. At least that’s what they called it then. Today it’s just Fircrest and the conditions I will describe, thankfully, no longer exist there.

When we first arrived I was struck by the long low buildings that I later learned were used as army barracks in the 1930′s. There seemed to be 20-30 of these buildings on the expansive grounds. As we entered the first building, the stench that hit when the door opened seemed as though it were a solid wall rather than air. It smelled of a combination of urine, feces and vomit. The second thing was the sound. Moaning, yelling, grunting, but interestingly enough, no crying. Then my eyes focused in on the children in the huge room.

Lying on the floor with blankets rolled into dividers were about 20 children of various ages probably 8 or 9 years old through 20 years old. These children were lying on the floor in between the rolled blankets. Most of them wearing just a large cloth diaper and hospital gown. Many of the children were bent in odd shapes, which later I learned they had Cerebral Palsy and their limbs were not broken as I had at first thought but contorted due to their CP. Many of the children were having seizures. The few caregivers that were there seemed oblivious to the “fits” as they called them. And some of the children seemed to have several while we were standing there.

The guide then took us to other buildings where we saw some older “children” who were obviously mentally retarded, but were able to walk and talk and they seemed very bored, but very happy to see visitors and wanted to touch our hair and clothes.

One of the buildings had the “water babies”. I thought that sounded kind of pretty and expected to find angelic little children floating in a swimming pool. What a shock to find out what a “water baby” really was. These were babies with hydrocephalus and since the shunt had not been invented yet, these were babies and children with heads with 25″ and larger diameters. Their heads were so big that it took 3 people to change their sheets because if someone moved the child without help they could snap their necks. It usually took 3 people to lift the child because their heads were so heavy. Oddly enough there were a few chldren that had lived 10 years and could talk. It was very surreal. We were told that their heads would just finally “explode” from the build up of the fluid.

As we left that building I was beginning to wonder if there was a place for me, when we walked into the buiding that has forever changed my life. By that time I was getting used to the smells and the noise, so I don’t recall either when walking into the last building.

Same large room as the other buildings but this one was lined in cribs. There was a long row along each wall and a kidney shaped table and chairs in the middle of the room. In each bed was a baby with Down Syndrome. The children in this room ranged in age from birth to four. I remember walking away from the guide and the group of my friends and walking down this long row of cribs and looking at all these babies and thinking that they were the most beautiful babies I had ever seen.

There were between 20 and 30 babies in this room and what struck me was that there wasn’t one noise. The ones who could sit up were rocking back and forth and flicking their hands. The babies who weren’t sitting up were just lying there.

I listened to the guide talk about these babies who would never walk, never talk, never feed themselves and that their life expectancy was 13 years old.

And then I saw her. A little blue eyed blond baby girl sitting in her bed watching the shadows on the walls. This was Coleen.

The next seven photos are of a teenaged Linda Duncan with Coleen~

I asked if I could hold her and they said sure. There were so many cribs and no space between them that they had to move several down in order for me to get beside her crib to let the side down.

From that moment I spent the next two years coming to Fircrest as many weekends as I could convince someone to drive me the 20 miles from my home. My parents could not understand why I was drawn to these babies.

My parents were foster parents and from the time I was 10 until I turned 19 my parents always had a healthy newborn in our home. Until I had that first day at Fircrest I was always pushing my parents to adopt one of the baby girls so I could have a sister. (I had 4 brothers.)

Once I met Coleen I began pushing my parents to adopt her. Her parents had given her up at birth and I had talked to the administration and was told that yes, it was unheard of , but she could be adopted if someone wanted to.

My parents told me that people put children like her in institutions for a reason. You don’t bring them home. I wasn’t convinced.

When I started visiting Coleen, she wouldn’t look at me, couldn’t stand, couldn’t talk of course, and actually I didn’t hear her cry.

I would sign in each week as a volunteer to work in her building, but soon it was obvious to the two women who worked weekends in her building that I was there to be with Coleen. I would help with the other kids, but as soon as all the diapers were changed or babies fed, I sat in the only rocking chair holding my girl and singing and talking to her.

The women who worked there would chuckle at me when I would stand Coleen up against the wall and try to get her to stand there alone. She would flap her hands and make a distress noise, but I persisted and it wasn’t too long until I could stand her up at the wall and move back and put my arms out to her to beckon her to come. Her little knees would lock and she would screech in protest, but she began to trust me and although it took a long time before she would take a step it didn’t take too long for her to reach her arm out for me to pick her up.

Meal time was structured for the two workers not for the kids. They were brought from their cribs and put in chairs around the kidney shaped table. One worker would bring the kids and tie them with a large cloth diaper around their waist to keep them upright in the chair. The other worker would have one bowl and one spoon and she would start at one end of the table shoving the food into one mouth after another and then go back to the first child with their second bite. The other worker would then start taking the children out of their chairs and put them back in bed and bring the next round of kids. Bottles were propped – some could hold their own.

They laughed at me when I would sit her down at the table and bring baby food from home and give her a spoon while I would guide her hand from the bowl to her mouth. “Even if you teach her, we can’t take the time to let her feed herself. She only does this when you’re here” And when I would hold her in my arms and feed her bottle, they would say the same thing, “You’re the only one that has time to do that. The rest of the time it’s propped.”

None of the children had their own clothes. They only had cloth diapers and hospital gowns. So on the weekends I would bring my doll’s clothes and dress her in them so I could take her outside. (I had a Patty Play Pal doll that wore size 3 clothes that my mom had made a small wardrobe for me for Christmas. )

By the time I had been there for two years Coleen was walking, feeding herself and she had one word. “Mama”. The workers assured me that word was reserved for me because she only said it when I came or when she was rocking herself to sleep at night.

The staff was amazed at her progress, but they said that it was easier for them before she was doing those things. Even as a teenager, I thought that was a very sad statement.

When I would get there, and she saw me coming across the room, she would sit rocking in her bed and start chanting “Mama, Mama, Mama.” Then when I would walk up to the crib she would squint her eyes, smile and reach her arms out to be picked up.

One day when I came home from school I was told that there was some very sad news. I was told that Coleen had died suddenly. I demanded to go to Fircrest to see her, I wanted to go the funeral, I wanted to know why she died. I was told that there was no funeral beause she had no family and that she was buried already.

I buried her in my heart.

Some how my life went on. I got married, had two babies of my own and as those two kids left home I started foster care. My pictures of Coleen (there are only 9 of them out of my friend, Christie’s Brownie camera) were always in my bedroom and everyone who knew me, knew the story of Coleen.

When I started foster care I asked that in my profile that they keep at the placement desk that I would really like to have a child with Down Syndrome. I did get placed with my Jacob 6 years later. He was 6 months old.

As Jacob neared his fourth birthday, which was the age that Coleen died, I had the overwhelming need to go back to Fircrest to see if I could find out why she died and if there was a grave I could go visit.

Fircrest Administration was very understanding and respectful when I shared my story, but they told me that if she died in the 60′s it was way before that information was computerized and there would probably be a paper record somewhere but all the information was archived.

When they saw my disappointment they referred me on to a kind man, Bill, who said that he would make a few phone calls to people who were around back then and see if there was anyone that remembered Coleen. I gave him her full name and birthdate and left feeling like there was little to no way I would hear any information.

Six weeks later I got a phone call from Bill. He told me that he might have located someone who remembers Coleen, but could I send a copy of the picture of her so she could be sure. I sent the pictures to Bill and waited.

Bill called a week later and said, “Call this number and ask for Linda, I think she can help you.”

So I called and started to explain to Linda who had answered the phone, “Kitsap Residences”, and suddenly she called out, “This is the woman looking for Coleen!” I said, “Excuse me?” She said, “Coleen’s here!”

Well, of course, I thought it was impossible. I thought it was a very cruel joke, but Linda insisted that they were very sure this was the same person.

The decision came from that phone conversation that I needed to go the 60 miles to Port Orchard, WA to see if this person they insisted was Coleen, was truely MY Coleen.

The first visit with Coleen – May 9, 2005

For the few days leading up to my visit the staff at the agency that cares for Coleen would call me with things that I needed to be “prepared” about.

For example they said she might not tolerate more that two minutes. She hasn’t had any visitors for at least the 15 years that she has been connected with this agency. No friends, no relatives have come to find out what happened to her.

They told me that since she is non-verbal she might just walk into her room and shut the door – visit over
She might walk me to the door – visit over
She might spit in my face – visit over
She might slap me – visit over

And then there was the picture that came that was meant to “prepare me” for what I would see. This picture was the best one they could get of her and it was dreadful. She was mostly bald with a few wisps of hair, but that wasn’t the worst part. Her eyes, her face were the saddest I’ve ever seen, and I’m a person used to sad faces on all the foster children who’ve come to my home over the years.

But the exciting news was that it was my Coleen! No doubt in my mind.

Over the next few days, including Mother’s Day on the day before my visit with her, I had lots of preparation from my family. My younger twin brothers and their families were at my house for Mother’s Day and they told stories of me begging my mom and Dad after Mass on Sundays to take me to Fircrest. I even told them I’d walk home, but of course they would come and get me.

Monday was agonizing – waiting for the time the babysitter would arrive so I could leave. I walked across the Bremerton ferry and took the foot ferry to Port Orchard where Debbie met me. Debbie has worked at the agency for 7 years and was chosen as my chaperone to visit Coleen because they felt she knows her best on a day-to-day basis. Debbie worked for 5 years – 40 hours a week with Coleen and now Debbie is the supervisor of the building that Coleen’s apartment is in.

But, apparently there was more preparing me to be done, because the 20 minutes ride from the ferry dock to Coleen’s apartment was spent telling me what to expect. Things like – “In all the year’s I’ve known Coleen, I can count on one hand how many times she has hugged me or someone else that works with her. “ And “ In all those years we haven’t been able to get her to sit still for a picture or catch her smiling”. I believed that one already because of the picture they had sent me. And she reminded me that she is non-verbal.

She also glanced at the photo album of the 11 pictures I had of Coleen and me from the 60’s and told me that Coleen doesn’t look at books. She doesn’t look at pictures. I told her that was ok because all I wanted was for her to have these eleven pictures of her childhood. That one day back in the 1960’s of my friend, Christie Brown, taking pictures of Coleen and I together are the only pictures Coleen has of her childhood. I had blown up the eleven pictures to 8 ½ x 11 and put them into an album with some extra blank pages that I hoped would be filled over time with more pictures of her. I had brought my Polaroid camera in hopes that I could leave that day with one of her and me together again.

I told Debbie that I would take her lead and if she thought Coleen had had enough of a visit that I would go.

By the time I walked into the apartment I was “prepared enough” to only hope for a glimpse of Coleen and then be whisked back to the ferry.

When I walked in, Coleen was in her room sitting on the bed, legs straight out rocking back and forth. She had a wad of clean socks clutched to her chest and she was looking at the wall.

Debbie said, “Coleen, I brought you a visitor.”

Coleen didn’t look up she just rocked faster. I walked into the room and stood near the bed. I could barely find my voice to say, “Hi Coleen”.

I started just talking softly about the pink tennis shoes she was wearing and then started telling her that I knew her when she was a little girl and that I brought some pictures for her to look at.

I opened the photo album to the first page. I said, “Coleen, look at you! This is when you were just a little baby girl.” Her eyes darted just barely noticeably and then, away again. “Look this is when you were a little girl and now you’re a big girl, and this is me when I was a little girl and now I’m bigger too.” Her eyes turned towards the book, though her face was still towards the wall. “Look, weren’t you a beautiful baby?!” She stopped rocking and turned to look at the picture for just a few seconds. Debbie gasped! Coleen tried to turn the page, but she couldn’t she started getting anxious.

“I’ll help you,” I said and turned another page. Coleen bent over the picture looked up at me, then at Debbie and smiled. The same little crooked smile she had 38 years ago.
Then as quickly as it appeared it disappeared and she started to rock.

“Keep talking to her, she’s listening”. Debbie barely whispered.

So I spoke on about the pictures and that day. How we went outside for a walk and how she was so little that her legs got tired and I picked her up and carried her. And how we used to play and how baby Coleen used to hug me. I showed her a picture of us with her head on my shoulder and her little hand hanging onto the lapel of my coat. She looked at that picture and studied it. Then she looked up and smiled. “That makes me smile too, I said. – Suddenly the hand came up and she slapped me in the face and she started rocking violently again.

“I think that’s enough pictures for now. “ I said

Debbie suggested that she make some coffee and see if we could get her out of her bedroom and into the dining room. Coleen wouldn’t come out so after a few minutes I went back in to talk to her. This time I stood at the foot of her bed and her feet were pointing off the side. I had my hands on the footboard while I spoke to her.

I started talking again about when she was a little girl and how I used to love to play with her. She kept rocking but her hand left the wad of socks for a fleeting second and came to rest on my hand. Then she pulled back quickly. I kept talking. A second time she put her hand on mine this time for a few seconds longer. I could hear Debbie shifting in the doorway to Coleen’s room trying to get a better look. I put my hand out, palm out and said, “Will you hold my hand, Coleen.” Several seconds later the little hand came up and rested on mine. I felt like I had a handful of gold! Debbie let out a little gasp and Coleen spit at Debbie and then at me.

I backed off and told her, it was ok, and I’ll go check on the coffee. I walked out to the dining room with Debbie and she asked me how I was doing. Although I was emotionally exhausted I was more interested in what she thought about Coleen’s advances toward me and the smiles we had seen.

“I don’t know what she remembers, but it’s obvious she’s remembering something about you, or the pictures, or that time. Keep talking to her; I think it might be your voice. She seems to recognize your voice and she’s really listening.”

I walked back in again alone and walked to the side of the bed. I asked Coleen if I could sit down, and since she didn’t spit at me, I took that for a yes. I sat on the edge with her legs stretched out beside me. She was rocking again and seemed calm so I started talking to her.

“Coleen, I have loved you for a very long time. I loved you when you were a baby, and I love you now that you are a big girl.”

“There was a very long time when I was very sad. A long time ago I lost you.” (Her rocking slowed) “I couldn’t find you. I looked everywhere to try to find you. I’ll bet you were very sad too.” (She stopped rocking and looked at me out of the side of her eyes with her head still bent toward the wall)

“But I kept looking for you and then I found you and now I’m very happy!” At that moment she turned her head toward me with a big smile and threw both hands up in the air like she was saying ‘What a great ending to the story!’

But just as quickly the hand came up again and hit me and then the spitting started. I rose slowly off the bed but stayed right next to the bed.

Debbie who had been standing in the doorway watching came into the room and told Coleen that spitting on Linda wasn’t very nice. Coleen’s rocking slowed back into her comfort speed.

I sat down on the bed again and laid my hand on Coleen’s ankle and put another hand on her back. I told Debbie, “I have a dilemma about something. Coleen didn’t know me as Linda, she called me “Mama”.”

Coleen stopped mid-rock and bent over to my face and studied it and then she said, “Bama”! Then she started rocking and chanting, “Bama, Bama, Bama, Bama” She smiled, she paused long enough for me to say, “That’s right Coleen, Mama” She started chanting again, and I started chanting with her. It went on for several minutes.

Debbie’s lower jaw hit the floor. When she could speak she said, “I’ve heard her do this before. But we didn’t think it meant anything! I used to work swing shift and help her to bed. That’s what she says when she’s going to sleep! I’ll bet after you stopped coming that became her way to comfort herself!”

Within a few minutes, Coleen had stopped chanting and was rocking steadily and more slowly again. I walked into the kitchen with Debbie to regroup. I looked at the clock and it was almost time for me to leave to catch the ferry as I still had a three-hour journey home and I needed to be there to put Jacob down for the night.

I asked Debbie about the Polaroid Camera. I was really hoping to just get a shot of Coleen and myself next to each other for her photo book. Debbie thought it was worth a try but reminded me about the difficulty of getting her to hold still and catching a smile was probably too much to hope for.

It was Coleen’s dinnertime and she was called to the table. She sat down in her chair and grabbed her spoon with the palmer grasp of a 12 month old, bent her head to her plate and shoveled in a mouthful. Her chewing was practically non-existent as she mushed the food between her tongue and her palate.

When she was about half way through, Debbie said, “Coleen, let’s get a picture of you and Linda.” No response, she just continued eating. Debbie and I joked about her priorities being straight – food first, pictures later.

Debbie glanced at the clock and said “If we’re going to do this, we better do it now”

At the risk of getting cooked carrots spit in my face, I knelt down next to Coleen’s chair and said, “Just go ahead, as long as we’re together. I just want both of us in the frame together.”

“Coleen, let’s take a picture of you and Mama.” Debbie said. Coleen put down the spoon, put her cheek right next to mine and Debbie shot the picture. “Take more,” I said between clenched teeth…Debbie got two more pictures before Coleen pulled her plate back in front of her and resumed eating.

Debbie and I glanced at the clock and Debbie said, “Coleen, we have to go now.” Coleen threw the spoon across the room and stomped her foot. Then she dropped her head to her chest in a typical two-year-old pout.

I knelt down beside her and she slapped me. I grabbed her hand as gently as I could and said; “I told you that I was so sad until I found you. I’m going home now, but I promise I’ll be back. I’m not going to lose you again.” She smiled, stuck her hands into the food and started eating again.

Finding Coleen again has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. Since that first visit, she has spent weekends at my house, has spent Christmas with us and even took her very first vacation ever with us.

She still has only one verbal word, “Mama’ which she uses alot, and when I disappear from sight she grabs my 12 year old’s hand and pulls her down the hallway chanting, “Mama, Mama”.

Coleen during her first overnight visit to Linda Duncan’s home~

…what she has done for my life is give me the drive to save at least one little girl from having the life that Coleen had. I couldn’t save her, but I can find one little girl with Down Syndrome and pull her from a life in an institution and give her a family that loves her.

Kolina after Tokuda Hospital~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t mind begging for the children.”  ~another mom who is passionate about adoption

When we were adopting Katie, people came to us and poured money into our laps.  We didn’t have to ask anyone to give to our adoption expenses.  Many of you were the givers.  You gave generously and told us that you were the ones who were blessed to be able to help bring our Katie-bird home!

Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever directly asked anyone other than Joe to give money to anything for any reason.  Let’s just say I would make a rotten salesperson…

Rob and Julia Nalle are the same way!

I have a lot of respect for this couple, and love and admire them for their tenacious and compelling compassion for the Lost Boys.  Their precious son Aaron used to be one of the Lost Boys, until he was found.

Rob and Julia have been compelled to go waaaaaaay outside their comfort zone and make what felt to them like an ambitiously risky move.  They started out to do a giveaway to raise funds for many orphans whom they love, including little Kolina and several other children who are being adopted from the dark place called Pleven.

Well, donated items OVERWHELMINGLY POURED IN to Rob and Julia’s giveaway, until they had over 80 items to offer!

I cannot stress strongly enough how essential it is to help the families who are in the process of adopting from Pleven.  They have been called to a battlefield.  The enemy is continuously doing his best to discourage them and get them to give up.  Joe and I know what they are going through!  But they are not alone!  We can help them fight back by praying them through and giving to help them bring their child or children home.

The best way to help the Pleven families right now?

I am now going to depart from my normal practice and *gasp* unashamedly beg you to please go visit the Nalle’s blog, Micah Six Eight, find out the rules of their Mulligan Stew Giveaway, and participate!  

Then pass the word along!!

And pray that God will bless this endeavor!!!

For praying that Katie’s vein would stay open for her last day of IV infusion.  God said yes!

For the gifts that many of you have shared to help with her extra expenses.  What an enormous and tangible encouragement to us, and a true provision for her needed therapy items, orthotics, vision and dental care, and the costly treatments for her osteoporosis!

For the emails that many of you sent to Shelley Bedford stating the value that you see in the lives of the little ones with special needs in Pleven.  Now that she is actually holding the files of tiny Sarah and Carissa, she asked if we could now limit the emails to those who are seriously inquiring into adopting a child from Pleven:  shele337@gmail.com  

To each of you who took time to write her this week, bless you!

And to everyone, please pray for courage, clarity of vision, and compelling love for the parents God is calling to adopt Sarah and Carissa.  Parents to scoop them up out of their beds and tell them that they are beautiful!  And that they can’t wait to bring them home and love them up and watch them blossom as God intended!  We will let you know as soon as we hear how God answers these prayers!

They will look at these two precious girls, who both weigh less than Katie does right now…

Sarah, age five~

…and Carissa, age four and a half~

…and will know that they belong in their family!

“I dream that I am carrying the children one by one from their beds out to groups of waiting parents, pleading with them, ‘What about this one?  Please, see his beauty, see her worth!’”

Oh, sweet, tiny treasures!  We can’t wait to see who God is sending to get you out of that dark and hidden place and take you home to love you!

Friends, could you please help to spread the word about these little loveys far and wide?  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!!

Speaking of a special Pleven family, stay tuned for the next post–one of the most amazing love stories you will ever read!  

little news

Mama was taking so long to get around to telling you how I’ve been that I thought I’d help her out.  She wanted to tell about the vacation first, because it happened first.  ”All things decently and in order,” says Mama.

But now I can tell you what I’ve been up to lately.  I have lots to tell you!

Here’s a picture of me on my way back home from The Cabin.  I’m a great traveler now, and never cry in the van like I used to do.  My big brother Joseph was giving me some milk very slowly, and I didn’t even notice it was going in.  That was very important just then.  I’ll have to tell you all about it.

My sister Verity was drinking her milk in the next seat over.

Verity and I are getting to be good friends now.   We’re happy when we’re together!  Verity likes to pat me and say hi to me!  I just reach my hand out and lay it on hers to show that we are friends.

Well, you know that Verity and I were sick, and got better again.  After my family took me to The Cabin, it turned out that I was still fighting the sickies.

Verity had fun on vacation.

I don’t remember much about it.

Verity can make fun wherever she goes.  She does funny things like this sight Mama saw when she came into our room to wake us up this morning.  She sometimes makes me giggle in my crib next to hers.

“Where’s Ver-i-teeeeeeee?”

I keep getting off the subject, don’t I?

Okay, The Cabin.

I smiled and laughed and felt comfortable when we first got there, but before long I didn’t feel like eating anything.  Again.

I cried a lot at night.  Again.

I tried to sleep all day long, even when I was sitting up.  Again.  Did you know that sometimes I try to sleep in order to tune everything out when it gets to be too much for me?  It was very hard on my family to see me like this day after day.

But on the very last day of vacation, I began to act more like myself again.

Does anyone outside our family remember what I’m saying when I make this face?

When we got back home, and Mama carried me up the sidewalk to our back door, I was so happy that I squirmed and squealed and laughed!  Home is my favorite place to be!

But…

…you guessed it!

Before too long, my low-grade fever came back almost every evening.  Verity and I still had leftover coughs.  My cough and sick belly still made me gag and vomit when I ate.  So I still did not want to eat at all, and even pushed the syringe away and fussed when Mama gave me my tube feedings.  She was thankful for the NG tube, so that I did not get dehydrated.  (She is giving me a mixture of Pediasure that her friend Shelly has generously sent, and breast milk that has been lovingly donated to me.  It gets so many supplements that Mama wonders how I will ever be willing to drink it all by mouth!)

My whole family felt sad to see me upset and refusing to eat.  They wondered if the doctors’ testing had missed something bad.  My church family prayed for me.  They’re good at praying and loving!

I didn’t want to do anything at all.

But after a while, I felt completely good again, and this time, I stayed that way!  My mama said that it was like the sun coming out in our family after weeks of gray clouds!

I started eating again, and each meal I ate a little more until a few nights ago, I ate a full supper!  I even drank a smoothie out of my little medicine cup!  Now I laugh when I see that it’s mealtime, just like I used to!

I’m still not using my hand to pull the spoon toward my mouth like I was.  But I’ll get there again, you just wait and see!

After all that nasty intestinal flu was finally gone, I’m doing so well with toileting that it’s been a long time since Mama had to change one of my dirty diapers.  (She was very proud of me when I was sick, though, because I tried so hard!)

She’s not going by a clock or schedule.  I always let her know when I need to go, and get impatient with her if she doesn’t take me right away!  My big sister Laura has learned how to take me, too.

Once I was really all the way better, I began to learn things again!

Since last week was therapy week, three special ladies, Miss Karen, Miss Julie, and Miss Marcia, took turns teaching Mama how to help me until they come again.  I like all three therapists, and I try very hard to cooperate with them.

Miss Karen is helping Mama with an important job.  This week, she brought me some knee immobilizers and measured me for some orthotics to help my feet.  After they come in the mail, Miss Karen will help to adjust my stander so I can use it!

I am making progress in speech therapy.  My family is thrilled that I can say “Mama,” the right way now!  You should hear the big deal they make every time I say it!  I always stop when they get excited and run for the video camera, though, I’m sorry everyone!

I also started gooing like a baby, and they are so happy to see me take one more natural step on the road to talking!  Miss Julie, my speech therapist, will be excited for me, too!

Miss Marcia, my occupational therapist, told Mama to try making a little rattle for me out of a medicine bottle.  At first, I didn’t want to touch it.

But by the next day I was picking that thing up and shaking it hard!  It makes me laugh to hear the noise it makes!

Mama also got more ideas to help desensitize the palms of my hands.  You see, for almost ten years I never had to touch anything with my hands.  So my palms were very sensitive and I didn’t like to hold things in my hands, or to touch them.  This is called tactile defensiveness.  Mama was doing deep pressure input on my hands, and that was helping.  I let her do that for a long time before I pulled my hands away.

I also let her clap my hands together, but only when all my family sings around the kitchen table after supper.

Now they’re helping me to touch many different textures over and over again all day long.  Mama says I am making fast progress!  Here are lots of pictures because Mama wants to show you how Laura is helping me, how I did not fight her at all, how I try to touch the textures myself, how much I enjoy this game, and what a long attention span I have.

Also because Mama thinks I’m a cute little doll-baby.

Here Laura stopped to tap my back muscles to remind me to straighten up.  That tickles!

First one hand…

Then the other.

That scratchy one makes me laugh!

My family noticed that I don’t usually look at the things I hold in my hand.

So they’re helping me build hand-eye coordination.

Every time I look at an object before I pick it up…

…or reach for it while trying to look at it…

…even when they hold it up high so I have to use different muscles in order to get it…

(Yes, I will be visiting a pediatric ophthalmologist one of these weeks!)

…they cheer for me until I am almost embarrassed!

I never get tired of hearing it, though!

If you’ve ever wondered just what occupational therapy is, my Mama found an excellent explanation of it on her friend Angela’s blog.

If you’ve ever wondered how Mama does therapy with Verity and me every day…

For one, Mama has helpers.

For another, she uses a nifty card system idea she got from her friend Anna.  Ours is color-coded–pink for Verity, purple for me.  We pull activity ideas from the front and put them in the back, and that way, we don’t get bored doing the same old activities every day.

Mama’s asking me to add another little helpful hint that she learned from her friend Elizabeth.  It’s called Press ‘n Seal, and it’s great for sealing off the port of an naso-gastric tube so it doesn’t accidentally come open and leak all over the place!  Maybe somebody else will be happy to learn this trick like my mama was!

As you can see from the pictures, I can stay sitting up for a long time now–about forty-five minutes!  I try very hard to stay upright.

When I get worn out, I rest.

I’m learning that the best way to rest is to cuddle with someone who loves me!

My family is glad, because…

…they have many years to make up for.

Did you know I love to be outdoors?  I’m so happy the weather is good enough for me to go out more often now!  I am fascinated by the bird songs I hear outside…

…and by the mittens Mama puts on my hands!  Pretty soon, we won’t need those things!

That might have been practice for what I’m doing this week.  Right now, I can’t use one of my hands at all.  This morning, Nurse Donna at the Clinic for Special Children had all kinds of trouble getting my IV started.  It took four or five tries, Mama lost count.

And Nurse Donna is really good at what she does.  Mama told me that, and Mama knows.  Nurse Donna has been taking good care of my sister Verity since she was just a few days old.

I cried very loudly indeed, but Mama was still so proud of me.  Do you want to know why?

It’s because I was so very, very upset, and instead of biting on my wrist like I used to do, I turned my face in toward Mama’s face for comfort.

And she did comfort me.

Maybe all that time when I was sick, and Mama thought I was tuning her out, I was learning after all.  Learning that Mamas are the best comforters.

Finally one of my veins cooperated!  And then I got to sit on Mama’s lap for four hours straight for an infusion of bone-building medicine.  I quickly forgot about the pain.

I took a little nap on Mama’s lap.  Mama thinks that this is about as good as it gets!

I get to go back again tomorrow and the next day.

Could you pray that the vein stays open and usable so Nurse Donna doesn’t have to start a new IV each day?  Our family would be so grateful if you did!  Thank you, everyone!

In happier news, did you know that it’s almost my birthday?  I’m going to turn ten years old in ten days!  Since I don’t understand about opening gifts, my family is going to give me one of my most favorite things–a hymn sing!

I also got an early birthday present from my Bulgarian baba!  She wished us all happiness and asked Mama to call her again through her translator!  Mama sent her a whole lot of pictures of me and she loved seeing them, and showed them to all the other babas!

Every time I see and hear my Baba Donka, I get all wiggly and giggly!

Just look at her kind, crinkly eyes and you can see why I love her so much!

I have one more little bit of news to tell you, and then Mama can have her blog back.  (I told you I had a lot to say!)

Mama wrote a little about me on her friend Patti’s blog, A Perfect Lily.

Patti is for life.

She’s writing about the prenatal testing that some folks hope will help our society “cure” down syndrome.  By “cure,” of course, they don’t mean “cure.”  They mean that if all the mamas abort their babies with Down syndrome, then there won’t be any more people with Down syndrome.

People like my sister Verity.  People like me.

My family is for life. I’m glad about that, because…

I’m for life, too.  You would know that even if I didn’t use words to tell you, because you know…

I should have died in that orphanage.

I should have died when I contracted pneumonia in the orphanage just a few weeks after I was born a month early, weighing between five and six pounds.  With Down syndrome.  And a heart defect.  In Bulgaria.

But I didn’t.

I should have died by the time I weighed seven pounds at six years old.

But I didn’t.

I should have died before my Daddy and Mama came to Bulgaria to get me four months ago…

And took me to the hospital to help me start to heal and grow.

Here I had already gained over one and a half pounds.

I’m so happy I’m alive.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”  ~Jehovah God

“The thief comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  ~Jesus

It holds many fun family memories for us, stretching back to 2002, when ten-year-old Jane was seven months old.  We’re appreciative that the owners still share it for $35 a night.   This year we were especially grateful for our first family vacation in two years–two very stretching years at that!

It’s perfect for our kind of vacation–

Not too much travel time, in the mountains, few chores, oldest clothes, our traditional simple Cabin meals, cozy indoors, unhurried time to sit and play games together (including hilarious late-night favorites around the kitchen table traditionally accompanied by Jelly Bellies), long, leisurely walks in all weathers, clear creeks and boulder-studded mountainsides to explore, hours spent reading aloud.

It feels like our home when we are there, but without the usual pressures.

And this time, several new family members were introduced to one of our favorite places to be.

Thank You, God, for the rest you knew we needed.

We all agreed that it wouldn’t be quite as a restful a vacation if we had to be picturesque for the blog, ahem.  Laura and Jane took lots of photos (thank you, girls, you did a good job!) and I chose a few that I thought captured the essence of our time of rest.  I snapped the few posed shots right before we left to go back home.  

We knew that God had arranged for the Tokuda team and two adoptive mothers to be at the Pleven orphanage at the same time.

We knew that thousands of His people would be covering this time in prayer.

We knew that the Pleven orphanage staff has a well-established history of putting on a big fake show of caring about the children for important visitors.

But we didn’t dream of how God would weave these elements together together this week.

Wow.

Read on, my friends, and marvel at how God has been answering our prayers!

From Shelly~

We cannot even begin to express the emotions we have felt these past few days.  With the darkness that has come before us we were a bit uncertain as to the events laying before us, but each morning before we go into the orphanage we stand outside those doors and ask God to lead us, protect the children, and to open doors.  

Little did Jenny and I realize that as we prayed in front of the orphanage for God to use us for His work that He already had it all planned out and that we were going to really be His hands.  Whether the people were being genuine or just putting on a show was not important to us nor is it the point.  The point was that God did not just open doors He flung them off the hinges!! Almost every staff member we have met has allowed us to visit with, play with, and take pictures of the children.  Many precious angels heard that Jesus Loves Them and received a bit of warm loving attention.

Each visit we leave emotionally drained, yet charged at the same time.  Drained because to see what we see is something that crushes us mommies with a force that is unmentionable.  Charged because we have seen children, loved on them, held them, changed them, and given them kisses.  With the help of my fourteen-year-old daughter Madelaine the three of us have managed to see every floor, love on many, many children, whisper into their ears just how much they are loved, photograph as many precious faces as my camera can hold each day, and even see some of your precious babies [of other adopting moms].  We have been there for seven hours each day.

We met with Dr. Lilova and her staff.  While it was only a brief visit it was full of results.  In my suitcase there were 56 cans of highly specialized formula, 106 packets of another specialized formula to be sent where Dr. Lilova determined.  Dr. Lilova said that the formula is to be left at the orphanage and she will instruct the staff how to administer it to certain children.  The total cost of this formula is approximtely $4,500.  We have contacts to deliver more of this formula if Dr. Lilova felt that was a good idea and she did!! Praise God these children will be receiving nutrition!!

[Note to those who can help supply formula to this orphanage, email Shelly directly at burmanshelly@yahoo.com]

Between the two of us over 50 pairs of pjs have been delivered, 300 diapers were brought from home for the children, diaper cream of about 15 large tubes, other clothes, and tights. For those of you who sent us items we delivered them as best we could.  

Jenny and I have both changed diapers of many children.  We always come in and change diapers right away as they are in the same diaper since 4:00 p.m. the day before and it is past 10:00 a.m. at that point.  I know our little ones are only changed when we do it. 

This afternoon we were able to talk with several babas.  We will get to meet Baba Donka [Katie's baba] and another baba.  We want to show pictures of Katie and how much she has grown.

[Note:  They did visit Baba Donka, and had a surprise for me afterward, which you will learn about in a future post!]

Teeth hygiene does not exist in the orphanage and many of the children have awful breath and eroded away teeth.  The older the child the worse the teeth.

Today was emotionally one of the hardest days I have had. The conditions are not anything what they should be for children who are so young and in need of love, attention, and guidance.  Instead they are “hidden” away and merely given minimal attention.  God knew we were struggling but we had His hand to guide us and we had each other.  Somehow Jenny, Madelaine, and I just flowed with the events of what was happening at that moment and improvised as needed.  Cameras were clicking, smiles were shared, kisses were given, diapers were changed, and love was shared.  For a few minutes we tried to love on the children individually and let them know they are a star.  Oh the attention they craved was so painful to see but we still pressed on knowing that God wanted us there and put us there for His reason.  We had the chance to see so many of the children who have families coming for them and to take pictures to share with their families. 

There have been three major turning-points in the past two years of our family’s journey…

Halfway through my pregnancy with Verity, the news of her Down syndrome began to open our eyes to the world of special needs.

That was the first turning point.

Four months after Verity was born, our hearts broke when we learned what was happening to thousands of Eastern European children with special needs.  Vulnerable children just like Verity.

Second turning point.

Then one year ago this week…

We had officially committed to adopt Katerina just a few weeks earlier.  We knew that she was in a poor orphanage, and wanted to send help.

God set up the perfect contact for us, a Bulgarian Christian missionary named Sasha Bliss.

She was allowed up to Katie’s floor, the top floor.

Yes, Sasha sent photos and videos of Katie, but unexpectedly, that’s not what made my heart squeeze in pain and cry out to the Lord.

Our tiny Katerina’s photos may as well have been stamped with the words “SAFE,” and “SAVED.”  She had a family who loved her and would come for her.

But the other children…

All those small, lonely faces…nobody was coming to take them home.

O Lord…please…all these little people…please…

I called Stephanie Carpenter and could hardly choke the words out.  ”The other children!  How will I ever be able to turn and walk away from the other children?”

That was the third turning point.

That was the day our family began to pray in earnest, “Please show us a way to help the other children in Katerina’s orphanage!”

A fire was lit in my heart for the rest of the children with special needs, the children that Bulgarians would never adopt.

You may know some of what was discovered when our attorney and I reached the orphanage last August, and were taken to the top floor.

After that trip, and the hope that was ignited for all the other children there who had special needs, the fire in my heart burned hotter.

You may know some of what happened at the orphanage between my first trip in August and our second trip in November.

But I could not tell you the whole story, until now.

With our attorney’s permission, I’d like you to read excerpts from the story in her own words, as she recently reported it to many high governmental officials in Bulgaria.

“From the first second that we stepped our feet on the sixth floor, a long and tormenting journey began.  Terrifying smell of musty air, rotting flesh, vomit, urine mixed with feces, filth, acid fumes, and who knows what else, hit us in the face.  The sixth floor, also called “malformations”, is a hallway, to the left of which there are only windows (never opened!) and to the right of which are the so called “kitchenettes”, each of them having six to eight children stuffed in the small room, lying each in a separate small bed.  The distance between the “cages” was literally as much as an adult could stand sideways.  The sheets on which the children were lying were soaked with their urine and vomit.

The first thing the adoptive mom Susanna Musser did was to change Veronika’s diaper.  The horror of what we saw was indescribable – the faint with hunger, emaciated skeleton of a nine year old child who was the size of a four to five month old baby; terrifying rash in the private parts.” 

“A lot could be written about the five days spent in the baby house in Pleven.”  

“But for the purposes of compact presentation, I will note that the children, regardless of their age, are fed with old beer bottles with a nipple with a huge opening; no one even tries to spoon-feed children who are three years old and older; the children are fed with liquid resembling in look, smell and taste fried flour mixed with water; the children are fed in lying position, on their backs, with the nipple thrust in their mouths and the liquid starts flowing with the speed reminding one of the speed of light.”

“The diapers are changed once or twice in twenty-four hours; the children spend all of their time lying in their cages and no one tries to move them, to play with them, to communicate with them, to teach them simple, age-appropriate skills and knowledge…

The list can go on.

After my first collision with the reality at Pleven on August 15, 2011, it became my mission, nightmare and way of life. 

You may be asking yourselves what I have been doing and how I have been keeping quiet half a year already…why don’t I name the culprits.  I will give you one name – [the former director]. But she is not alone.  Her team is with her because the horror triumphing in this institution cannot be one woman’s doing.  

During my first visit to Pleven I sent a signal to the Bulgaria Helsinki Committee.  Unfortunately, the procedure for initiating a sudden check-up of the institution was slow and trying.  At the end, it finished with the disciplinary firing of the director at the end of last year.

The investigation of Pleven, initiated by the Bulgaria Helsinki Committee, finished with a long report where endless shocking facts were described.  Fifteen children died there in the year 2011.  Even while I was typing this presentation, information reached me that one more child from Pleven has died.  She was almost thirteen years old.  Her diagnoses were not terminal.  I do not doubt that, again, the necessary medical and human care had not been provided to this child.”

From the day we picked up Katie, the fire in my heart for the children with special needs she had left behind her burned all the hotter.  Now I was living with a daily reminder of their need.  Now we knew what a tremendous difference family and love and food and care could make for the others!

From the day we first heard the fabulous news that the former director had been fired, I was overjoyed that perhaps now some roadblocks would be removed, and the rest of the children with special needs could be listed for adoption!  This was the roadblock we’d been praying about for months!  Now there was hope!

At the same time, there was cause for serious concern for the other very malnourished children in Pleven.  They were so close to receiving the care they needed!  However, what if well-meaning but ignorant people began giving them more nutrition than their bodies could handle, throwing them into fatal re-feeding syndrome?

Beseeching emails were sent to Dr. Lilova.  Dr. Lilova had seen Katie and would know I was not a random spamming crackpot, talking about nonsensical concepts such as teenagers the size of babies and toddlers.  She responded kindly by saying that a team from the hospital would arrange a visit with the orphanage.

But did you wonder…

Why did our attorney need to write a report to many high governmental officials in Bulgaria now?   

Because in the middle of January, some unspeakably shocking news came to us.

The director was still in Pleven.

She had never left.

Over the next weeks, we Pleven moms slowly pieced together what had happened.

“This person is not at all done defending her bastion. Even now she is employed at Pleven as Director of Human Resources.  Her daughter is the head social worker of the whole institution.  None of the personnel, directly responsible for the condition of the children, has been fired or replaced.  And the director has stated that she is going to defend her rights in court and would plead for revocation of the (according to her, unlawful) disciplinary firing.“

We were back to secrecy and silence.

But underneath the surface, God continued to work.

Several Pleven adoptive parents took their first trip to see their children.  None of them had children on the top floor.  But even on the floors below, the atmosphere was entirely different than when our attorney and I had been there last August.  Back then, we rarely saw a caregiver.  It seemed as if we could walk out unnoticed with armfuls of children if we wanted to.  Six months later, the atmosphere was tense and the parents were under constant surveillance.

While several parents were still there in Pleven, we received word from an unlikely source that Liliana, up on the top floor, was in dangerously poor condition.  We heard that she was unresponsive, had lost the will to live, and was refusing to eat or drink.

Again emails flew to Dr. Lilova.  Again Sasha Bliss was an invaluable help, this time by making direct telephone calls.  ”We have heard such-and-such a report.  We need your help.  But be warned, because we have learned that the former director is still in power.”  

Dr. Lilova arranged the hospitalization of three children with the help of the MOJ, the Child Protection Agency, and our attorney.  The orphanage resisted this plan in various low and shabby ways, including an attempt to blackmail our attorney into dropping the whole idea.  As you know they were not successful!  The children spent more than two weeks in Tokuda Hospital, and each of them was stabilized and gained weight.

Their hospital stay would have a far-reaching effect on more than just their physical lives, however.  As they were being released, one of the orphanage caregivers who accompanied them told Sasha Bliss that she would do all in her power to take better care of the children.

It was also inevitable that the children’s medical treatment by the world-class professionals at the Tokuda Hospital would force the orphanage situation to come to a head.

Again, our attorney~

“Prof. Lilova’s initiative brought a time-bomb to explosion.  Since Susanna’s blog is public, I took the liberty to provide the MOJ with its link. EVERYONE at the MOJ was shocked with and appalled at what they saw and read.  They took the initiative themselves to [decide to] totally remove the former director from the orphanage, to change the personnel, to bring CHANGE to this terror.  They don’t have the power to do it all themselves as they have no direct authority over orphanages.  It is the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the CPA who could bring to fruition the efforts of so many to bring change to the 240 children in Pleven.

So today, the MOJ called me and asked me if I would submit a document with them so that they can start the process with MOH and CPA.  They also said they’d understand if I felt uncomfortable or afraid.  I didn’t think twice.  I am fed up with all this evil.”

All this while, more disturbing information continued to trickle in, helping to explain the poor condition of the children.

Donated toys are put into a bag and henceforth ignored in a toy closet.

The staff all know the routine to impress visitors. An insider described this routine as “making one sick.”

The donated therapy room is hardly used, but it benefited the director–as leverage to get herself a higher pension.

Sometimes the children aren’t fed on Sundays, when there is a skeleton staff.

The children’s diapers aren’t always changed every day.

One child has been kept in isolation for two years for an upper respiratory infection.

The caregivers unashamedly lift the children from the beds and carry them across the room by one arm.

They are deliberately underfeeding the children to keep them small and weak, so that they don’t need much food or attention, and can’t be transferred (along with their government stipend) to the next institution.

One way or another, more photos of other Pleven children manage to make their way out of the orphanage to the Pleven moms’ private yahoo group.

With every new little face, the fire inside me grows hotter.

I hear from families who are waiting to commit to adopt small ones from Pleven as they are made available.

The fire leaps up still hotter.

How, how can we get the message through to the right people so they will list the children for adoption?  

This is the dilemma that is burning a hole in my heart.

On the one side, the families who are ready to commit to the children!

On the other side, the officials who need to list the children with the MOJ!

Our attorney has explained that they have been trying for years to get the social services to list all the kids in all the orphanages, to no avail.  It looks so hopeless!

I am helpless to do anything but pray to the only One with the power to make it happen!  To Him, there is no dilemma!

During the day, every day, I scheme and pray for a way, some way, to get the message through to the right people.  If they thought about the children at all, they would think the children are unadoptable!   They have no idea that there are families lining up in the United States to snatch them up as they become available!  How can we let them know this?  How can we tell them that they must give every single child with special needs in the Pleven baby house a chance at a family?  They must list the children!

During the night, I dream that I am writing eloquent appeals to officials, begging them to register the children for adoption.

I dream that I am carrying the children one by one from their beds out to groups of waiting parents, pleading with them, “What about this one?  Please, see his beauty, see her worth!”

I dream that I am walking through the orphanage at night, leaning down to kiss each one as he sleeps, as she sleeps, too unconscious to object.

I dream that I gaze into their faces, nuzzle their temples, smell their hair, feel the slight weight of their bodies in my arms.  As if they are my own little ones.

For many weeks, I have been dreaming of the Pleven children every night.

For many weeks, I have been crying out to the Lord for them every day.

Now you need to know that the battle lines have been drawn.

Things are beginning to happen quickly.

This week, from Monday to Friday, two of my friends are visiting their five children in Pleven for the first time.  Jenny is visiting Liliana, Sophia and Butler, and Shelly is visiting Tommy and Steven.  Click on those links to follow their visits–both ladies are blogging.  Children many of you have prayed for, who were lost and now are found!

This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the team from the Tokuda Hospital will be at Pleven.

Next week, a friend of mine, with two other women, will make a visit to Bulgaria.  You can help these ladies to help many Bulgarian orphans with special needs.  During her visit, my friend will be having a vitally important meeting!

For the first time, it looks like there is a way for the message to get through to the right people.

In addition to this, the closer we get to the showdown, the more intensely the people involved are experiencing spiritual attack.  The enemy seems to be doing his best to get people to give up the fight.

Praying friends, you have not been slackers.  You have soldiered on beside us for so many months!  You have not given in to apathy, cynicism, doubt, or discouragement.  You have opened your hearts to the children, given financially, helped to spread the word, and prayed!  This week, my friend Julia is gearing up for a huge giveaway to help many of the families who are adopting from Pleven.

It is obvious that this situation is beyond our ability to control.  But our true and living God has it well in hand!  We can have boundless and endless hope in Him!

I am coming to plead with you to cover the next two weeks in fervent, concentrated prayer.

Please pray that God would finally break down the stubborn walls remaining around the Pleven children!  Pray this as if you were one of the children who has been lying in an orphanage cage for years, kept there by the self-interest of those who are being paid to take care of you!

Please pray that the enemy would have no power to harm our attorney, the children, their adoptive parents, my friend who will be meeting with key people, and anyone else who is fighting for the lives of the children!

One full year after God first broke our hearts for the rest of the children…

…the battle lines are drawn.

O Lord, may this be the final battle for the children’s lives, and may you be magnified in your victory!

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
Brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

“…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  ~Jesus

I told Professor Lilova that she has the admiration and appreciation of many, many people for what she is doing.

She replied that the team is just doing its job!

Friends, thank you to every one of you who has given!  You are doing your part of the job, and God is using you!!

Children who need to wear glasses…

Children whose eyes are almond-shaped…

Children who have to work harder than most to develop their oral muscle tone…

“Oh,” says Verity.  And mom beams with pride.

Children who don’t learn to walk for a long time…

Children who have very strong wills…

[Toddlerhood hit Verity exactly when it hit the rest of our children--no delay there!  In one day, from "I love nothing more than to obey you, Mama," to "What if I don't?"  Hehe]

Children who would look perfect in the eyes of the world…if only they didn’t…

Children who need lots of motivation to get them to work at doing what comes naturally to most other children…

Children with disabilities that show on their faces…

“Verity, how big are you?”

Children who learn sign language because they have speech delays…

“Love,” says Verity with her hands.  ”Wuv-oo,” says Verity with her mouth.

Children who need you to decorate your living space with therapy items…

Children who need more protection and support than most…

Children who need someone to engage their attention to keep them from spacing out…

Children who are miserable when sick…

…and don’t cooperate with photo shoots…

Children whose greatest strengths are not highly valued by their society…

Children who work way harder than other children, yet will always be seen by most people as lacking.

Children who are working hard to stand alone at twenty months of age…

Children who make you forget what your other kids could do at that age…because you are celebrating every milestone so hard…

Children whose tongues show more than other children’s tongues…

Children with short stubby fingers, funny little ears, and telltale grins…

When we look at pictures of our older girls at this age, their noses, ears, hands and feet look so gigantic!

Children with special needs are a reward from the hand of God.

Children with cognitive challenges and developmental delays are a reward from the hand of God.

Reward means desirable.

We’re not taking this on faith.

We’ve got insider status now.

We live it every day.

And we feel sorry for people who don’t have at least one in their lives.

Little Verity, irresistible in your yummyness…

…you, O child, are twenty-months’ worth of desirable gift from a God who knows how to give the best gifts.

Please excuse me now, so I can go get my squishy-sweet morsel up from her nap and enjoy some extra-chromosome hug therapy.  

*aaaaaaah*  

 ”Everybody’s slow about some things.  Most of us are very slow to learn some pretty important things.”  ~Joseph

An official fund has been set up.

Please read the post titled, “Help provide medical care to orphans,” on my friend Shelley Bedford’s blog, and follow the instructions to give to this need.

Thank you, friends, with all my heart!!!

 Day One P. S.  I posted the above yesterday when our family was still in a cabin in the mountains with very little internet access.  The fund totaled a little over $2500.

Home again, and checking on its progress, a little more than a day later…

WOW!  THE FUND HAS DOUBLED IN SIZE!!! 

 Thank you to every single person who has given!  And thank You, Lord, for sending help to these precious little ones!  

Day Two P. S.  The fund is now a mere $171 short of $10,000!!!

…when you hear the words “nine-year-old girl with Down syndrome, living in an orphanage?”

If you’ve visited the Hidden Treasures site since the last auction, you may have learned about Keith, the Tiniest Unroe.

His mama sent eighteen month size sleepers for him.  Way too big for this almost-five-year-old boy.

Keith’s daddy, Brent, visited him for the first time in Katie’s old orphanage a couple of weeks ago.  After witnessing the neglectful conditions of that place, and their effect on Keith, the Unroe’s hearts ache for him more than ever!  They could hardly stand to leave him alone in his little metal cage and walk away, not to return for months.  He needs to get out of there quickly and be home with his family who has lots of love waiting for him!

Brent and Amanda Unroe are also adopting four other children, from four other institutions, and all of them also have Down syndrome.  They had already chosen these four when they learned about Keith and immediately loved him as their son.  They were told that adding Keith would slow down the adoptions of their other four children, and it did.  But he was their beloved son and he needed them. Praise God for sending this wonderful, loving family of fifteen to welcome five more lost lambs into their fold!

The fact that their five children are in five different institutions means that Brent Unroe is spending more than a month in Bulgaria for his first trip.  Adopting five at once also means greater travel expenses when the Unroes bring their children home several months from now.  This is why we’ve chosen their family for the next Hidden Treasures auction, and why they’ve recently been hard at work putting together prizes for their adoption fundraiser giveaway.

A couple of weeks ago, Brent visited Keith.

The next week, Brent Unroe visited his next two children–two little girls from two institutions in the same city.  Anita is six years old, and Ahnja is nine years old, just like Katie.

It’s one of these little girls I want you to see.

Ahnja and Katie were both born in the same country.

Ahnja and Katie both spent the first nine years of their lives in state care.

Ahnja and Katie both have “ordinary” Down syndrome.

Their smiles look enough alike that they could be sisters.

Ahnja embraces life to the full.  She jumps and runs, talks a mile a minute, and works puzzles like a pro.  [You can follow that link to more amazing posts and videos of Ahnja.]

Sweet Ahnja is in an orphanage where the workers see the children as human beings, truly care about them, and do their very best to help them grow healthy and strong and learn new skills.  They want the children to have the best life possible under the circumstances, even if that means harder work for the staff.

Katie at nine-and-a-half years old, most comfortable being left alone in her bed~

Katie at almost ten years old, learning that it’s fun to knock down a block tower~

First week in a very long time without the slightest pressure to blog, and what a relief!

That week flowed along furiously and beautifully.

At least, the parts of it that I could remember flowed beautifully.  I do have a forty-year-old mommy brain, after all.

By Saturday evening, it almost felt like the old days around our house again.

Clean, tidy house, full of sleeping children, and smelling like the freshly-baked shoofly cake that was cooling on the table, destined for the next day’s meal with our church fellowship.  And it wasn’t past midnight!

Laundry was completely caught up, a feat that is not to be underrated.  Even the ironing basket was empty.

And all that in spite of an atypical Saturday in which Joe, Joseph, and Daniel all worked, in addition to the usual chores, two piano lessons, three dishes for the next day’s church meal, and four little-boy haircuts.

I considered blogging about how well it was all working, but the early bedtime called my name more insistently.

That week was so fast-paced that I only took a few photos, and those hastily.

“Oh look, how cute!  John Michael, could you run upstairs for the camera?”  

*snap, snap, snap*  

…set the camera up out of reach of small fingers, and go back to preparing the little girls’ supper in the midst of the pre-meal whirl of activity… 

I jotted down a few notes about Katie’s progress.

She is more affectionate, more relaxed, more consistently cheerful, more receptive to learning.   

She’s caught on to the toileting idea.  

She’s cooperating with all the therapy we do with her, physical, occupational, and speech.  She’s getting more comfortable with the concept of play.

Sounds good, huh?

Before I knew it, Saturday night had arrived again, leaving me–WHEW!–breathless.  It would have been nice to blog on the 7th–the date two years earlier that we had received the news of Verity’s Down syndrome.

I had found a photo taken at random one Sunday night, and nearly forgotten.

This woman had a baby girl in her belly.  She would soon walk wearily up the stairs and make the telephone call that would change her family forever.

But the 7th was date night, so I refrained from blogging.  Joe and I ate our meal together and quietly reflected on the previous two years.  How tremendously grateful we are that He took us from the Before into the After.

By that Saturday night, both Verity and Katie had finally succumbed to the illness that had already run through the rest of the family.

Sweet cupcakes~

The next week and a half was pretty much a blur of caring for two very fretful little girls with intermittent low-grade fevers, next to no appetite but a need for food and drink anyway, uncontrollable deep cough that woke them many times each night, and in Katie’s case, an intestinal bug that had to work its way laboriously through her system, causing the need for many baths and outfit changes (hers AND mine).

By this past Saturday night, I was hanging on for dear life!  I hadn’t eaten or slept a whole lot, and my already-sore wrists and lower back ached all the more.  I joked, “I’ll rest when I get to Heaven.”

I kept thinking of Jesus’ words, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour?’  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name.”

I had to look it up and see the context, and was greatly fortified in my soul.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also.  If anyone serves me, him my Father will honor.”

And it struck me–

This week is why many people don’t want a child with special needs.  This is what they’re afraid of!  

This non-optional sacrifice right at the very core of life.  The painful giving up of self, over and over again.  The self that is still alive and active, believe me!

We know He doesn’t shower us with resources to ensure that we would never feel uncomfortable again.  So now I am feeling uncomfortable!  Will I now ask, “Father, save me from this hour?”

For this purpose I came to this hour, to pour out the strength of my life to the weak and needy, like Jesus continually does for me!  This opportunity to fall into the ground and die is what the whole of my life until now has been crafted for!

Both girls are clearly past the worst of it now, and are working their way back to healthy.

Verity was the first to succumb and the first to recover.

Katie had regressed in every area where she’d made gains, but most of all with eating.  Even the sight of the syringe and bottle of milk made her cough and cry until she gagged.  So we’re back to tiny tastes of yummy foods to remind her that eating is fun!

She had been so cranky, pushing me away or just tolerating me.  So it brought tears to my eyes this morning when she laid her head on me, patted me, made her happiest face, and crooned her happiest Katie-words.

Our happy and healthy girls are back, and we are grateful.

Yes!

Nearly a year ago now, God providentially brought about a connection between our family and a family who had moved to Sofia, Bulgaria not long before.

David and Sasha Bliss are missionaries there in Sofia.  David is American, but Sasha is Bulgarian.  She made a trip to Katie’s former orphanage last March with a large donation from the United States, and was allowed to see and hold Katie, and take pictures.  What a wonderful gift it was to have those photos and videos, and especially the photos of Sasha holding Katie!

David and Sasha offered for us to stay with them at any time we were in Sofia, and we took them up on their kind offer during both trips to Bulgaria.  They have a true heart of hospitality, and were unbelievably supportive and helpful to us in many ways while we were in their city.

What does Sasha have to do with the three little girls at Tokuda?

This kind-hearted woman has been visiting them, holding them for long periods of time, taking items for their care, answering their moms’ questions about them, and sending us wonderfully long and detailed reports!

I have permission to copy very brief excerpts of her reports here~

“The three girls are in a very nice big and warm room with lots of light in it.” 

Nine-year-old Kolina is in the best shape physically.  “She is a very beautiful and sweet child with beautiful eyes.  She looked at me like she knew me.”

Fifteen-year-old Sophia has gained over two pounds already!  This is amazing!  Praise God!  “Sophia was the most active one out of the three.  I held both Kolina and Sophia for a long time.  Sophia also spend a lot of time in a walker.  She really likes it in there.”  

Eleven-year-old Liliana is in the worst condition of the three.  She needs a lot of prayers!  Her clothing size appears to be about six to nine months.  Sasha was able to hold her for about twenty minutes.  “Liliana looks so incredibly small and sick.  She seemed even smaller than she did last March.  But they said she is much better now than before she came to the hospital so that’s good.  I got to hold her for about twenty minutes.  She smiled and laughed a few times, that was really sweet.  She has the same smell that Katie did.  The other two girls didn’t smell like the orphanage anymore, they had a sweet smell.”

Sasha said that the two orphanage caregivers who are present with the girls had all good things to say about Dr. Lilova and the nurses at Tokuda.  “Maybe they’ll learn something.”

Saving the best for last, and, my friends, it speaks for itself~

“One of them was really impressed how Dr. Lilova has been hugging and kissing Liliana.” 

If you have asked, “I wonder how we can help in a practical way,” this post is for you!  Thank you to every one who has an open heart to help!  God will bless your loving obedience!

Any time

You can continue to pray with fervency and focus that every single child with special needs in Katie’s former orphanage (the children who won’t be adopted by Bulgarians, and even those formerly considered “unadoptable!”) will be made available for adoption, and that God would have their families ready and waiting to commit to them!  Pray for every barrier to be removed!  We are seeing signs of hope that God might soon grant these ongoing requests!

You can take the time to research what the requirements are for adopting one of these little ones as they become available.  If someone is going to close the door, I appeal to you–let it be God and not you.  You can absolutely trust Him to direct your way.  If God is who He says He is, there is no reason to fear when following Him.  God is who He says He is.

You can spread the word in your local congregation and community in creative ways.  Most people have no idea that this type of mistreatment of children with special needs is going on in the world today.  Be ready to give them a list of ways they can help!

You can go further than sending money, and do a fundraiser for an adoptive family with your friends.  For one example out of many, you can take a planned yard sale one step further and turn it into a fundraiser, complete with local newspaper article, posters and flyers.  You may be surprised at how many people would be eager to donate their extra stuff to help.  This will be a huge blessing to an adoptive family!

You can stick with one family throughout their adoption process and beyond, offering moral support and practical help.  Let them know you are covering them with prayer.  You can do this face-to-face when possible, or through phone calls, emails, snail mail, and/or blog comments.   If adoption is spiritual warfare, reclaiming children the enemy thought he had in his grasp, then the adoptive families are soldiers on the battlefield.  They need to know that their Christian brothers and sisters have their backs, especially when they are worn down by the fight!

You can donate to charities who are collecting needed items, sending volunteers, and hiring babas—these folks make a difference in the children’s lives.  If you want more information about this, please ask for it in a blog comment.

You can apply to the volunteer organizations to spend a couple of weeks or a couple of months directly caring for the children.  Again, please ask for more info in a blog comment.

You can ask a family adopting from this orphanage if you can help them collect orphanage donations to take with them.

You can give or solicit quality donations, including gift certificates, to the Hidden Treasures auction.  Most people you ask will be happy to donate a gift certificate once they understand the purpose!  The purpose of these fundraiser auctions is to financially help families bring little ones home from Katie’s former orphanage.  The generosity of so many during the last auction brought the Archer family $2352 closer to bringing home their precious Noah, Moses, and Jacob!  Quality donations will keep the auction going for future families.  We plan to continue holding the auctions every other month, on the first seven days of the month.  So you have plenty of time to brainstorm and collect items and gift certificates for the Tiniest Unroe auction April 1-7!

You can help spread the word about the auctions, posting them in your Facebook pages and blogs or emailing around to your contacts.  The more we increase the base of folks who bid in the auction, the more money we will ideally generate for these adoptions.

Heads-up!

You can be ready to advocate for the children as soon as they are made available for adoption.  Get ready to share their story and photos wherever you can!

You can stay tuned for news of a fund that is being formed to help defray the costs of providing medical care for the children who need it.

There is a possibility that at least one group may form to volunteer at the orphanage during the weeks in August that the babas are on vacation.  We’ll let you know more as we hear more!

A few key people are beginning to brainstorm about the possibility of forming medical missions teams to go in to Katie’s former orphanage for short and long term service, ideally in conjunction with the efforts of the Tokuda Hospital.  Pediatricians, family practice doctors, nurses, dentists, dental hygienists, therapists, and other pertinent specialists will be welcome, if they are willing to raise their own support.  This will also be an opportunity for the rest of us to give!

Depending on what we find out from those in authority, we may need the help of a licensed social worker for a limited period of time.  Again, we’ll say more about that if it does end up being an avenue we can pursue.

[Note to our friends:  Please feel free to comment to this post with your own suggestions of how to help.  Further ideas will be added to this post if they are suitable and not redundant.  Thank you so much for your help!]

22 pounds, 13 ounces

Length – 29 inches  29 1/2 inches 30 1/2 inches

31 1/4 inches

Head circumference – 16 3/4 inches  17 inches 17 1/4 inches

17 5/8 inches

Waist – 12 inches  14 inches 17 inches

18 1/2 inches

Leg, hip to heel – 12 inches 12 1/4 inches 13 3/4 inches

14 1/4 inches

Foot –  almost 4 inches  4 inches 4 3/8 inches

4 1/2 inches

Upper thigh circumference – 5 inches  7 1/2 inches 9 3/4 inches

10 1/4 inches

Ankle circumference – 3 inches  4 inches 4 3/4 inches

5 inches

Arm, shoulder to fingertip – 10 inches  11 1/4 inches 11 3/4 inches

12 3/8 inches

Upper arm circumference – 3 1/4 inches  4 3/4 inches 5 1/2 inches

6 3/8 inches

Wrist circumference – 2 3/4 inches  3 1/2 inches 4 inches

4 1/8 inches

The child is growing before our eyes!  Katie has reached a healthy weight for her current height.  From here on out, we expect her growth to continue at a more typical pace, so…

…next Katie-stats update in the middle of May at six months from Gotcha Day!

Yes, I said “girls.”

Butler has an intestinal bug and is in isolation at the orphanage, so they looked for a third child who is suffering extreme malnutrition and in rough shape, and chose Kolina.

Remember Kolina?  She turned nine years old in December.

She’s being adopted by my friend Linda Duncan along with another little girl from a different orphanage.

Liliana, Sophia, and Kolina are now safely in the Tokuda Hospital in Bulgaria.

Liliana, who sat on Reece’s Rainbow for years, passed over, unchosen.

Sophia, who would have stayed unregistered and invisible to the end of her days, had she not appeared briefly on a Youtube video which was seen by her adoptive mom.

Kolina, who until the end of last year was also invisible and not available for adoption.

You know, if someone has a sturdily Biblical understanding of the world, they are not amazed to hear about cruelty, bullying of the weak by the strong, selfishness, hard-heartedness, corruption.

Grieved?  Yes!

Angered?  Yes!

Compelled to resist the evil?  Yes!

But surprised?  No.  Evil is a given in a fallen world, and to be expected.  Those who reject this reality do not understand the nature of mankind or its history.

According to all reasonable expectation in the normal course of events, these three girls with Down syndrome would die in obscurity, unnoticed and unloved.

According to the assertions of many consistent materialists, they should never have been allowed to live at all.

They certainly would not be in the best hospital in their country, being tenderly examined and cared for by the top pediatricians in their country, free of charge.

They would not have families who love them with all their hearts and can’t wait to bring them home.

That is the mercy of God.

And that, my friends, is truly amazing.

“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.”  ~Yahweh