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A Good Kind of Broken

Posted by on April 15, 2012 2 Comments

My heart is constantly torn in two by sweeties like Lyla

She is a gorgeous little girl in desperate need of a family and heart surgery!

And Mr. Teagen and Mr. Kelton

Look how tiny Teagan is and Kelton seems bigger until you know that he is 13 years old!! Their Mama is coming!!

And sweet Faith, soon to be called Hasya which means “have mercy”, or “take refuge”. Beautiful!

Hasya is 14 years old and she weighs 14 lbs! My two year old weighs double that!

So, while I could ask you to donate money, mostly I ask you to pray. Let Jesus stir your heart to be broken for “the least of these”( Matthew 25:40). Trust me, its a good kind of broken!

 

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Violet P.

Posted by on July 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

This is Violet P.

She is a 7 year old girl who was born with an extra chromosome. She has Down Syndrome. But that isn’t something that holds her back. They are labels, but they aren’t that big of a deal compared to her other label. Her other label is harder to deal with. Orphan. She is alone. not really of course because she is probably surrounded with people at an orphanage somewhere. In a groupa, but alone. She is fed, but likely not much. She is clothed, but likely ill fitting wornout hand-me-downs. She is probably rarely even spoken to. She needs many types of therapies like physical, occupational and speech, but she hasn’t ever had them. She might even need surgery, but she is alone.

I am a prayer warrior for Violet P. until her forever family comes to find her. I have faith that they will. Maybe you are her family and thats why I felt the need to write about her today. She is described as being “active and independent. Easily come into contact with others. Likes outdoor games.” That’s it. Nothing more. She needs a family. Desperately. That’s what I pray for everyday.

So let it touch your heart. Give your money to kids like Violet P. (her chipin isn’t working right now). Spend some time with a kleenex looking at pictures of sweet little girls and boys. Let it change you. Be the difference.

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Kirill is Going Home!

Posted by on June 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

I last wrote about Kirill on March 26th when my heart broke in two for a little guy who had no hope of having a family and having any form of life. From then on I have been praying and praying and praying for that little guy and the family that desperately wanted to bring him home. Last week God answered my prayers and the prayers of hundreds of other people and he changed the heart of the supreme court of Ru$$ia and sweet little Kirill is going home! He is going to have a Family!! Can you believe it. Thank you Lord for rescuing this precious little one! I cried about it again today as I read part 2 of his story. I’d tell you all about it, but you need to read it for yourself! Read it on his new Mommy and Daddy’s Blog!


Many of my friends and family know that Morgan and I are  praying about adopting a sweet little special needs prince or princess like precious Kirill. It’s hard not to see how Gods heart is for adoption when you read about the mountains he has moved to rescue this little one. I can barely make it a few pages in the Bible without my heart being tugged again and again with God’s heart for orphans, widows, the lost and the broken, the poor and the hungry. I think my heart is getting broken more and more and more every time I read about someones “gotcha day” or the money they are trying to raise to ransom a child from an institutionalized life. All I can say for now is if/whenever we decided to take the leap of faith in this stage of life, you’ll hear all about it and then some! And until then, I will be telling you all of the stories of these precious ransomed children as they capture my heart.
Right now my heart is captured in the eyes of 2 sweet little boys named Carson and John. They have a skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) that causes them to have horribly painful sores on their bodies from friction on the skin.

Aren’t they sweet?! So here’s my challenge to you. Go to the Reece’s Rainbow Website which helps connect families who want to adopt with orphaned children who have Down Syndrome and other Special  around the world. Put your money where your heart is and donate to whichever child tugs at you the most. Help bring them home! For other kiddos like Kirill. You might not be able to adopt, or you are not quite ready to adopt like us, but you can help other people who are. Give $20 and see if that $20 doesn’t change you by giving it away. $20 isn’t all that much, but it does change your heart and it does make a difference. If you don’t have $20 then pick a child and pray for them until they meet their forever family. You can be a prayer warrior for someone’s son or daughter. Who know’s, maybe it’ll be ours…

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Kirill’s Story

Posted by on March 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

If you read anything I’ve ever written to date in the last 4 years, you need to read this. This is a post written by an amazing family who is desperate for your prayers. They are trying to adopt a gorgeous little boy who has special needs. I could tell you all about it, but Kirill’s Mom tells it better. Read her Blog too!

“Two years ago Greg and I began praying for God to do whatever he wanted with our lives. We handed him a “blank check” so to speak, and told him to cash it. He opened our eyes to children with disabilities wasting away across the ocean in Eastern Europe. We joined God and started our adoption journey.

Our family is more than equipped to handle a child with special needs. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education. I am a member of the Board of Directors of Best Buddies of Alabama. I have volunteered for RISE and Eagles’ Wings. All of these organizations serve individuals with special needs. My husband I have close friends and family who have special needs and we are a big part of each other’s lives. Our wedding party included some of these special people. Our involvement with individuals with special needs led us to adopt a child with special needs; specifically, we chose Down Syndrome.
As we prayed over the faces of thousands of orphaned children with Down Syndrome, we ultimately chose a little boy named Sergey from Russia. Eight months later, as we neared the finish line of our adoption, one of Sergey’s family members in Russia stepped forward to adopt him. We were heartbroken for our loss, but God showed us that we were following him, and his ways are perfect. We knew we still wanted to adopt, so the way we saw it, two children would find homes because of our journey…Sergey went to his family and now we would choose another child to come into our family. We took great comfort in knowing that God could see this when we first committed to Sergey! We were honored to be a part of his plan.
Shortly after losing Sergey, we received a new referral with a grainy photo of a four-year-old blond-haired boy wearing pink glasses named Kirill. We were instantly in love with him. We had to re-file a lot of our paperwork because of the change in referrals and regions of Russia, but we were fast and we thought we were looking at three more months at the most until we would have Kirill home.
That was well over a year ago.
Since then so many things have happened. A tragic story of an adoptive mother sending her child back to his country alone on a plane with a note pinned to his shirt rocked our world…he was from Russia. Adoptions in Russia came to a screeching halt. Kirill’s region stopped processing adoptions for eight long months. The judge refused to accept any Amercian adoption cases until an official treaty was signed between the United States and Russia.
Even though we wouldn’t be able to finalize the adoption in court until the treaty was signed, we were allowed to go visit Kirill and sign our official petition to adopt him in August 2010. We fell more deeply in love with him. This was our son.
During that time, we found out that Kirill is the first child from his region EVER to be adopted with Down Syndrome. A birth mother keeping her child with Down Syndrome is unheard of in this area of the world. Adoptions of children with Down Syndrome just don’t happen there, these children are literally hidden away from society in orphanages and mental institutions. As our process continued, it became apparent that Kirill would be a pioneer. If our adoption was approved, it would pave the way for other children with special needs to be adopted from this region.
Then, a miracle happened around Christmas and the judge in this region suddenly changed her mind and began processing American adoptions again. We were elated.  Could this be the light at the end of a very long tunnel? I was somewhat nervous about Kirill being the first child adopted with Down Syndrome from his region, but our agency was very confident that if we got a court date, our adoption would be approved. In seventeen years, they had never had a case rejected IF the family was issued a court date. We were told not to worry, so I didn’t. After meeting the judge’s requests for several supporting court documents, we were finally granted a court date-March 17, 2011. St. Patrick’s Day…I was thrilled. This would be our new favorite holiday! Our son was coming home!
Our other son, Clayton, who had just turned three when we started this adoption process, has prayed fervently for his brother. He is now almost five. When we told him Kirill was coming home, oh my…we had an excited big brother on our hands! At one point he even went to his room, dumped out his toy cars and divided them into two stacks…one for him and one for Kirill.
Last week, as we sat in the courtroom and suffered through five agonizing hours of difficult questioning, we were not prepared for anything but an approval of our case. Two doctors, two social workers, and the Minister of Children’s Services all made very strong statements on our behalf. They fought for us. Hard.
But when the ruling was read, the judge said, “Your application to adopt is rejected.” The basis given was that Kirill was “not socially adaptable” due to his “medical condition” and he was better off in an institution than in a home with a family. As the judge read her ruling, she stated several times that we were a good family, that we met all the criteria to adopt a child, but that she would not approve our adoption because Kirill has Down Syndrome. She told us that we could adopt another child, because legally our application had no problems according to Russian adoption law. She said she would approve our adoption for a “typical” child, but not this child. Why? The only reason? Because he has Down Syndrome. Even though we were approved by our home study and by the USCIS to adopt a child with special needs. It makes no sense whatsoever. Denying a child a family because he has Down Syndrome is a violation of human rights at its most basic level!
It was like a terrible dream. We were so unprepared for this outcome. As we left the courthouse in a mental fog, the doctors and social workers that had testified came to us and said, “If you appeal, we will fight for you. Appeal. Fight this decision.” Of course we were going to appeal…I could no more walk away from our biological son, Clayton, at this point. Kirill is just as much my son.
So here we are, asking God to move the mountain that is standing between Kirill and us as we appeal to the Supreme Court in Moscow. There are also three other families who are in various stages of adopting children with Down Syndrome from Kirill’s region; one of the families has a court hearing set for next week.
We are hoping that someone will hear our outcry and help us bring our son and these other waiting children home. His adoption will set the precedent for many other children in his region. There are 98 children in his orphanage with special needs alone. It is one of many orphanages in this region that houses children with special needs. This is about more than just one child, the lives of hundreds of children with special need are at stake.  Please help us.”
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