The Cost at Which it Comes (Before and After)

Part of what  makes things here in the Reece's Rainbow World go round are stories. Moving Stories. Heartwrenching stories. Sometimes, even happy stories. The latest in this set of stories, however...

ain't one of those happy stories.

I want y'all to meet miss Terri Lynn, a little girl, who, if you saw this photo, would probably say is pretty healthy-looking for being in an orphanage. Ironically, we selected her at random for our S4TS Facebook collage.

Sweet, right? I totally think so. Anyone within this world of Special Needs Orphan Care is probably more than aware that these children live with the threat of being transferred to mental institutions where they just can't or won't survive, let alone live happily. But, praise God, most of the kids available for adoption rarely ever meet this fate, or for a long time, at worst.

Our dear Terri Lynn has not been so fortunate.

A few days back, I created a little "now and then" photo of my little brother Addisu to celebrate his two-year anniversary of being home. It was amazing to see a tiny little peanut now a big little man.

If only I could say the same for our dear Terri Lynn.

Who has went from this...

To this.

My throat constricts with a golf ball-sized lump when I see this. Sometimes I feel like I'm using that threat of institutes and their horrors as just that: a threat. A threat to get things moving. To make somebody jump into action. In some cases it might be necessary to do so. But on another hand, doing that desensitizes it. You forget just how what the cost of institutionalization is: that it doesn't just shut a child out of the world. It breaks them, shames them, dismisses them as "Unlovable" and "useless" in the opinion of their culture.

This is why we move. This is why I do what I do, and devote all of my emotions to getting involved and deepening my relationships with others involved. Terri Lynn should NOT have to endure whatever situation she is currently living in. But she serves as a reminder, a visual, as to just how dear the cost of one life in an institution is; it's not just lost potential, or one more life lost for no reason.

It's a thorn in a heart of their Father in Heaven. So many causes need assistance. So much indecency and conflict explode around us that MUST be solved. But a Father's heart is close to all of his children. And no matter what way you might be helping, you ARE changing some piece of the world, large, small, or somewhere in between. And for me, Orphan Care is that little way I can change things. Maybe it's the same for you. Maybe it isn't.

But the question is this: now that you know, what will you do, how will you react? Will you do anything it all? I hope you will.