I visited my first orphanage in 2002. I was 17. From that moment I knew I would give anything and do anything to better the lives of those less fortunate than me. Especially the orphans. As a believer I am called to "help the widows and orphans" (James 1:27.) According to James this is accepted by our Father as pure and faultless, undefiled religion. Since my first experience in a Ukrainian orphanage I have taken every opportunity to live this out. It is not important what or how I did, but that God has given me His heart for the children of the world and has prepared me for the place He has me in now. A place where I have weekly opportunities to care for orphans.
For the past year I have been longing for the chance to get over to this country and love on these children.I would read these articles about the children I was praying for and longing to care for and my heart just broke every time. It broke even more the day I actually walked into the orphanage.
I was seriously impressed with the facilities that are in my city here. This baby house did not smell horribly, the children were not screaming, and the workers were actually smiling. Most importantly the children were much cleaner and healthier looking than children I had cared for in other orphanages. I know much of this has to do with those who have gone before me, who have prayed, who have given money for clothes, food, toys and medication, and have given time out of their day to visit and love on the children. It has made a world of difference to these children and the workers. There is so much more that can improve and I look forward to being a part of helping meet the needs of these children and the workers who daily care for them.
The first day I visited the baby house we went outside and played with the children in the court yard. There were three of us volunteers and thirteen toddlers, and only one worker stayed outside. I did not once feel overwhelmed! I felt so blessed to have the chance to love on these children. They are so precious. So beautiful. For a moment, as I sat on a rusty bench building a tower with sticky, dirty blocks and a precious two year old princess, I felt like I was just caring for kids at a day care or mother's day out...for a moment...then their hard reality hit me. These children were where they LIVE, but they were not HOME. They lived day in and day out with each other. They were not waiting for their mom or dad to come pick them up after a long day of work or a short break to run errands. These children were abandoned by their parents, for many reasons, most of which we can't understand. I can't imagine giving up my little girl because of her gender, or my son because he was born with a physical deformity. I can't think of any reason I would give up my child, but these children were given up for many reasons. I wondered for what reasons these children were given up and how many of them were there because their parents were dead. These thoughts were flooding through my mind as I built this dirty, sticky tower with this precious princess and I just grabbed her up and hugged her tight. She relaxed in my arms and giggled. It was so precious and I enjoyed the rest of my time flying toddlers around the court yard, swinging them around, and holding them close. They called me momma and I called them cutie, precious, princess, handsome and a number of other endearing terms they did not understand. But they understood they were loved by me and they were delighted!
I want, more than anything, for everyone of these precious children to know how much they are loved by their creator. How He will NEVER leave them or forsake them. I pray one day they will all understand and I ask that you will pray for this too.
Pray also that more women will be able to volunteer. There are many orphanages in our region and we would love nothing more than to be able to go into everyone of them at least once a week. We are seeing opportunities open up to volunteer more often but we need more volunteers for the directors to make these opportunities available to us. When we volunteer, we not only love on these children, which would be enough for them and us, but we help feed them, give clothes to clothe them, give medication for colds, teach the babies how to walk and the toddlers how to feed themselves, we even have the chance to teach them English! There are many chances to help them improve the living conditions of the children, the moral of the workers and the children's chances of living a full life. The things we can do are numerous, but it will take time, volunteers, and money.
As you pray for the children and the workers at the baby house, pray for those families trying to adopt them. International adoption is still a long process with no guarantees, but there are many trying. Pray for the citizens of this country to be more open to the idea of adopting children. It is a much more accepted thing in America, but we have our misconceptions and hang-ups about it too. Imagine those amplified and you can imagine what it is like here. If they are unable to have their own children they might consider adopting, but then they must have a lot of money and they are not interested in toddlers, they want newborns only. That leaves many children with no hope of ever being adopted and in turn a seemingly hopeless future. I pray to be able to help in every way I can to help change both their hope of adoption and their hope for a future. In the meantime I'm going to keep picking them up, holding them close and soaking in their precious giggles. They're changing my life!
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