Saturday while I was reading in "The Binder", I came across the article The Forgotten Child. Here is a little from the article so you have an idea of why we're doing what we're doing.
Just who are the children we are adopting in Congo? They are abandoned children, relinquished children and foundlings. They are brought to the orphanage, given up willingly by their biological parents, found in rail stations or wandering the streets, placed on porch steps or left for the state at maternity hospitals. Sometimes they are police relinquishments due to neglect. They are victims of poverty and the ailments and addictions that go hand in hand. There are many ways a child becomes an orphan. They typically come from desperate economic situations sometimes from situations so bleak, we can't even fathom.
Where does our child live right now? In an orphanage, Life is the same day to day. The schedule is rigid, the food bland and the activities redundant. Some well-equipped orphanages have wonderful activities and motor play for children; most do not. Children do not receive the basic stimulation necessary for proper development and as a result, can become hypersensitive to different types of stimuli and non-responsive to others. We often see children who are very small for their chronological age, children who are developmentally delayed because of orphanage living, children infected with intestinal parasites, children with rickets, children heavily sedated, children tied down in bed, children with physical deformities and normal brains, placed with severely retarded children. The basic food product is porridge. It costs too much to provide regular balanced nutrition. The most important issue in an orphanage is feeding. As a result of state under-financing it has become impossible to give the children the accepted norms of feeding and to make the meals well balanced. Orphans starve regularly.
Within the last decade, the orphanages have received little financing on repairing the buildings, or payment for the public utilities and the result: the roof leaks, the sewage needs repairing; there is no money to pay for light, water or central heating. There is sometimes no adequate running water for proper cleanliness or hand washing. Our agency has seen children being bathed with laundry detergent and rinsed with non-potable water drained from radiators. Quite frequently the orphans have parasitic intestinal infections that they have gotten from poor water supply. The hot water situation in the wintertime is desperate.
The children begin potty training before a year of age. They are sat on porcelain potties right after eating, sometimes right there in their cribs. The children go to the potty with a very regimented schedule. Eat, potty... Eat, potty. Many of the children wet the bed at night, because they are not allowed up during this time.
The absence of sewing and knitting machines and instruments for metal or wood work does not allow the staff to teach crafts and house-keeping to older boys and girls, which is very important for them as their independent adult life begins at the age of 16-17 when they are turned out to the streets, with no skills to cope in life. It is very important to give professional education to the orphanages' graduates and to help them become employed, but there are very few programs. There is little chance for the parentless child to find a job and make his own way in life. As results, once released to the streets, the children, among the orphanages’ graduates, have a very high percentage that turn to crime, become drug-addicts and prostitutes. Many end up in prison or worse, murdered or commit suicide.
The last statement got me and I spent the next 15 minutes crying. THESE CHILDREN HAVE DREAMS, JUST NO OPPORTUNITIES TO FULFILL THEM. It's not their fault. They just weren't allowed the opportunities as the other kids.
I suddenly had this HUGE sense of urgency. I don't want my baby to ever have to endure these kids of conditions.
Baby boy...mommy and daddy are on our way. We ARE coming to get you!
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