Adoption matters

You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. -Winnie Pooh

Often we get so wrapped up in our own lives we forget to think of what others are going through, or maybe we don't forget and we just think we can't do anything significant enough to help the matter. We have 3 biological children, two of them have a muscle wasting disease called spinal muscular atrophy. It is considered to be a devastating disease to leave a bleak future and existence. Text books write it up as terminal but through education, love and hope we have found truth in the opposite. We never expected to have disabled children but we do, and they have taught us that every child matters. We believe that every child has potential and every child deserves a family. Sadly not everyone sees it this way, in fact there are 100,000's of orphans around the world who are considered unworthy for society due to special needs or the government makes it nearly impossible for the parents to care for them. Many have no chance at life and on top of it have to live life without ever knowing love or family. Once they age out of the orphanages they face a life that truly is bleak, it will consist of institutions or a life on the streets. 60 percent of orphan boys will face a life of hard crime just to survive. 50 percent of all girls will be forced into prostitution. 15 percent will commit suicide within the first year. In eastern Europe human trafficking rates are high, and disabled children are sought after for sex and organ trade, these statistics are enough to make our hearts sink. How can this even be happening. There are said to be just as many kids on the streets as in the orphanages. We know what joy children can bring. We know that children are not their disability, or a burden and the thought of any child not having a family breaks our hearts. There are many reason why children become orphans, all are equally sad but because of our own childrens disabilities disabled orphans really touch close to home with us.

After our first child was born we knew we would have a big family. Being parents felt right to us but after our second and third child was diagnosed with SMA we decided that having more children might not be the path for us because we are the reason for the disability due to genetics. And when found out our daughter also has SMA.  We tried to morn the thought of our choice and accept it as truth, but the more we thought about it, the more we knew it wasn't our truth. Having special needs children has opened our eyes to an entire new world we didn't realize existed. Our children have taught us that every life matters equally despite disability. Knowing that if we have more kids they could be disabled isn't what scares us today, it is knowing that there are children out there without families because they are disabled.

We are in the process of adopting a boy listed on HHA and also Reeces Rainbow who is about to age out of the system this summer on his birthday. Children normally age out between 14-16 depending on the country. He has spent most of his life in an orphanage living a life of poverty and never having anything of his own. Medical treatment isn't readily available, and he faces a life in an institution or on the streets. We feel we have found our son, we will do everything in our power to bring him home. There are many other children who will soon age out needing a family as well

We have recently added a second child to our adoption. She has the same diagnosis as our two bio's and we know she will surely die there if she is left alone. It takes a very aggressive approach to beat the odds of a terminal diagnosis. Having the same disease as our kids she impacted us deeply when we discovered she was also in need of a family. We can not let the costs of adoption be the reason we say no. We are giving all we have and raising more. We don't have much time until we have only one more step before we can submit and await our invitation to visit orphanages in the country. you can help us by visiting our Family Grant page or our fundraising page.

If you would like more information about children waiting  on a family or want to see if you are illegible to adopt  you may just  find yourself wishing you would of done so before now. I know I do. 

LOVE MAKES US STRONGER