What CAN I do ?? Part 1

You may ask - WHY do I shout for the unwanted ?

I have not adopted, am not planning on adopting, and I don't have a child with a disability.

So what IS my interest ?  Why do I shout for them - for the children that the rest of the world seems to have forgotten ? Why them ?  Why aren't I passionate about a cause closer to home ? The homeless, the Veterans, the local associations for the disabled, the animal shelter ?  Why do I shout for kids that I have not and probably will never meet ?  

It is a perfectly valid question - and here is my answer.

Firstly - I have worked for many many years (30+ years !!), in one capacity or another, with disabled children.  I worked for 10 summers at a summer camp for kids with a wide variety of disabilities.  I have worked in residential schools, in group homes, as a nanny, and as a daycare provider. I currently work as a Personal Education Assistant, with a child with autism in a regular Kindergarten classroom.

In all of my jobs, I have seen what the kids CAN do.  After a while, you come to see the kids as just that - as kids.  Not as disabled kids - just kids.  You stop thinking about what they can't do - and focus on what they CAN do - what they ARE capable of.  

This is the difference between them and us.

The difference between the lives of disabled children in the Western world, and those that are forgotten, living in orphanages and institutions around the world.

Even children with such minor needs as a cleft lip are abandoned, as they are seen as unworthy, a burden, a curse. Lack of available healthcare causes families to give up their children, in the hopes that they can be better taken care of in orphanages. Sadly, orphanages and institutions fail the children, due to lack of funding, lack of resources, and in too many cases, lack of caring.

There, they spend their days doing nothing, or very little.

Here, they are, on the whole, treated the same as "typical" (non-disabled) children.

They go to school... 

have access to health care...

and receive therapies, and adaptive equipment.

There, non-mobile children are bedridden, spending their days and nights in a crib, whatever their age.

Here, "non-mobile" children play - and referee - sports...

volunteer....

 help out in Church...

 

enjoy nature...

dance at weddings...

and are interviewed by the media !!

There, visually impaired children spend their life withdrawn, unable to access vital aids to communication and independence.

 

Here, blind and visually impaired children help the family choose a Christmas tree...

go trick-or-treating...
 

go snow tubing...

 and co-pilot small aircraft !!!

The children pictured above are all real children.

The "there" children are all living in orphanages and institutions around the world, they all have some kind of difference or disability, and they are all available for adoption !

The "here" children were born into, or adopted by a family in the USA.
These children are thriving, given every opportunity to succeed.
This is how it should be !

Please go to www.ReecesRainbow.org to see the waiting children, along with hundreds more.  
Even if you are not in a position to adopt, there is so much you CAN do for these children.  
You can share them - get their faces out there in the hopes that a family will step forward to adopt them. 
You can donate to their adoption grants, which will help a future family with the huge expense of adoption.
You can pray for them.
You can help a family already in the middle of the adoption process.
SO many ways to help !
Just head over to Reece's Rainbow to see what you can do.

For more information about "Challenge Air", who offer the gift of flight to children with special needs, please go HERE.