Brothers

Brothers are family,

And brothers are friends,

Brothers stick together,

Brothers have no end,

Brothers part from time to time,

But come together again,

And be themselves,

No need to pretend,

Because...

Brothers are family,

And brothers are friends,

Brothers stick together,

BROTHERS have no end.

(Brandon Sigourney)

The two sweet boys you see above, are biological brothers. Because they both have special needs, they both lost their family and are now separated at different orphanages, though still in the same city. They are available to be adopted separately, but wouldn't it be so much better if they were adopted together?

I have met Brody, the younger one, on the left in all the above pictures. He NEEDS a family so badly. They both do! He is tiny, and has many institutional behaviors that he does for stimulation, because no one has shown him what it means to be loved. He was soaking up every little bit of love we were giving him. I haven't met Auggie, but it sounds as if he is the same way.

Brody on the day I met him

There is a young lady who has met them as well, and spent a lot of time with both of them, and has taken many pictures and videos. Let me know and I can put you in contact with her.

With each day that passes, their institutional behaviors become more and more engraved into them, and become harder habits to break. Not to mention a lot of them are self harming, and they are hurting themselves. These sweet boys need a family to love them so badly!!


More about them:

Brody, born April 2006

Auggie, born March 2005

Rough mental delay, partial atrophy of eye nerves, cerebral palsy, episyndrome

From someone who met Brody in 2011 and Auggie in 2012:

Brody and Auggie are sweet little boys who appear to have some sort of genetic disorder that causes developmental delays and self-harming behaviors. They are not aggressive towards others, only towards themselves, and these behaviors can be halted temporarily by picking either boy up and spinning him around. Brody is able to walk, and can drink from a cup without help. He is not quite able to feed himself, but is willing to try. Auggie was in a laying room for over a year, but after only 3 months of physical therapy is now sitting independently and working on learning to stand. Both boys have wonderful, heart stealing smiles. Brody appears to be in his own world much of the time, and loves things that crinkle or light up, and things shaped like sticks, as well as hands, gloves, feet and socks. He shows numerous signs of autism, which may or may not be environmental. Auggie loves things that crinkle or light up, slinkies, music, and tv. He is more interactive than Brody, and appears to lift his arms up to indicate he would like to be held. This is the only form of communication I observed from either of the boys. The boys are currently living in separate orphanages. I pray a family will reunite these brothers together in one family, where they can receive all the love and attention they need to meet their full potential!

We hope a family will consider adopting them TOGETHER.

More pictures available.

$1150.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

Looking Back Part 10: The Day My Life Changed Forever

This is Part 10 of the Looking Back series, previous parts are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, and Part 9.

Two year ago today, I began a journey which will last me a lifetime. A journey of heartbreak and hope, of sadness and joy, but most important - love. And intertwined in that journey is the amazing story of one very special little boy.

It had all started with a dream. A dream of something great which combined several things I love. That dream led to more dreaming and lots of planning. Which led to an amazing day and contact with new friends. Friends who asked a question that when answered yes brought me to the other side of the world where it really all started.

Through a series of events that no man could have orchestrated, God placed me in a country with poverty and and hopelessness like I had never seen before. It opened up my eyes to a whole new world. One morning (two years ago today) while visiting the baby orphanage I met the love of my life. I didn't know it then, but he was to change my life forever.

Though it sounds romantic, this was no cute teenage boy I fell in love with. Nope, far from it! He was just a a baby, almost 3 years old. And thanks to the ridiculous clothes he was wearing, I thought he was a she and didn't find out until afterwards that I was wrong!

That sweet little boy took my hand and led the way. I followed because he had already captured my heart and I'm pretty sure he had mesmerized me by that point! :) I led him over to some play equipment and didn't have kids swarming all over it. I could tell he needed some one on one attention and I was happy to give it! We played on the slide for quite awhile, both of us loving every second.

Unfortunately, he had me too far under his spell to think to take more than 4 pictures! My memory is clouded now, but I do remember that he wasn't happy to leave me when he had to go nor was I happy to leave him! I knew he needed (and still needs!!) his mommy to come get him ASAP! He was broken and aching from being alone, and yes, despite the fact he was two, I could tell his heart was ripped apart. I could hardly bear to see him go back to the life we both hated.

This is Sandy, one of my team members, not a nanny

I lost it on the way out of the orphanage and was in almost a trance the rest of the day. I'm fairly certain I horrible dreams about him and the others that night. Either way, I slept horribly. He needed someone, and since there was no one else, he needed me! And I had sent him back to his grouppa, alone.

I remember lying in bed that night just crying my heart out because he and so many others had to spend the night alone. And I had to leave them there. I know I wouldn't have gotten very far, but I regret at least trying to stay there with him a little longer. Despite my hopes, we didn't get to go back to the orphanage on during the rest of the trip.

Who would have thought that a half hour with a little boy I had never met before would change the course of my life forever? God did before the earth was even created. :)


Because my heart was opened up the the plight the orphan through him, I started this blog advocating for other orphans and families bringing them home.

As I sat here tonight writing this, my heart was broken yet again for "my" sweet boy. Because this post captures my time with him better than any post I have written before, all the tears it took to write this post are worth it.

I dream of the day he will know what it means to have a family, even though that is not possible right now. And for now, though I miss him immensely, and my heart is broken for him, I will continue to pray God will move mountains on his behalf to give him a family, and be thankful that he changed my life for the better.

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As you've probably figured out, sweet boy is my little Logan..

Today is also the 7 month anniversary of the day I found out that Logan no longer had a family, and then that he was not ever going to be adoptable. 

Interesting that I met him on Thursday, July 15, 2010, and I found the above out on Thursday, December 15, 2011. Those two days are exactly  17 months apart. Even the same day of the week! 

Coincidence? Nope. But for sure a God-incidence.

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Here are some more photos from the baby house. I went through and choose some, and turns out I choose 15 pictures! 15 must be my number! :)

Andriy, who also became unadoptable the same time as Logan

Liza and I

Brody lying there, with Ryan looking up at me

Marci and Ryan

Brooke and Evelyn - Evelyn is now home

Heading back inside

Waiting Wednesday: Brody

This Wednesday, meet another one of the little boys in the orphanage I visited. I don't think any of our team members saw him. He has now been transferred, but that's a good thing in his case! Brody!

Brody (63)

Boy, born April 2006

Based on the time that I was able to spend with him, I believe that Brody is autistic. Brody does not make eye contact however he shows no aversion to touch and actually likes to be held. Brody was transferred in December but while he was at the baby house, he exhibited a lot of self-harming behaviours, namely banging his head constantly, harder than I have ever seen before. Nevertheless, Brody is the child I saw the most progress with. During our one-on-one time he was calm and would often go the entire hour without engaging in any self-harming behaviour. He would smile, laugh, and explore his environment and sometimes even make eye contact for seconds at a time. Since being transferred to an orphanage for preschool-aged children (age 4-8) with special needs, Brody is doing much better. While at the baby orphanage Brody had what I thought were permanent bumps on his head the size of half a ping pong ball as a result of banging his head on the ground. Brody has since nearly stopped banging his head and when I last saw him in January those bumps had gone down considerably. The orphanage Brody is currently in is one of the good ones. Small with a good staff-to-child ratio (there are 6 kids to 2 workers in Brody's group). It is clear that the workers care about the children very much and show them plenty of love and affection. Brody can walk independently, is being toilet trained and is learning to feed himself. He does not speak and it's hard to tell what, if anything, he understands. Brody responds well to music (i.e. me singing to him) and his absolute favourite thing is playing with someone's hands – clapping them together, watching the fingers wiggle back and forth, etc. If you work at it a bit you can get plenty of smiles out of him and he has the best laugh when you tickle him.

Unfortunately, if he is not adopted by the time he is eight-years-old, Brody will be transferred to an institution. I know that Brody will become more and more troubled in an institution setting however I believe that with a patient, loving family he has the potential to be a truly happy little boy.

More pictures available.

$0.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

A post from the missionary who spent time with him:

My relationship with "Brody" took a little longer to develop than it did with some of the other kids. He was a favorite of one of my roommates who I was going to the orphanage with for the first several weeks so I held back while she played with him and focused my time on the other kids. It wasn’t until I started spending time inside the orphanage that "Brody" really grabbed a hold of my heart.

Outside, "Brody" does ok. He spends most of his time in the outdoor playpen but he doesn’t really seem to mind being in there. There was one time when I took him out of the playpen so he could walk around a bit and then made the mistake of turning my head for a second at which point he plopped down into the sand. The workers were not happy about him getting dirty and swiftly snatched him up and dumped him back into the playpen which resulted in a very upset little boy. Aside from that however, my observations from those first few weeks were that "Brody" seemed to be fairly calm and content.

Inside however, was a whole other story. "Brody" did not do well in the chaos and noise that took place in his room. He dealt with it the only way he knew how, by repeatedly smashing his head on the floor. "Brody" wasn’t the only one of my kids who banged his head but with "Brody" it was different. He would sit with his legs spread apart and throw his upper body forward with the full force of his weight, banging his head on the hard floor over and over again until I was sure he would knock himself out. The workers did nothing to stop him, they just say back talking and laughing as if they were oblivious to what was going on. Out of all the things I saw inside the walls of that orphanage, watching "Brody"suffer day after day without being able to do anything about it was the hardest thing for me.

 LOVES hands!) and even making eye contact for seconds at a time! On those days I feel like I got a window into who he really is, a glimpse at his immeasurable potential if only someone would give him a chance.

The day "Brody" was transferred my heart sank to my stomach. Knowing how he reacts when he is upset, afraid, etc. I was heartbroken thinking about him trying to cope in a new environment and, not knowing anything about the facility he was transferred to, I was afraid to think about how the workers might be responding to him. As it turns out, second of course to finding a family, being transferred was the best thing that could have happened to him. When I was finally able to visit him a month later, I couldn’t believe how well he was doing! "Brody" used to have what I thought were permanent bumps on his head the size of half a ping pong ball but when I saw him at his new orphanage those bumps had gone down considerably. I asked the workers about him banging his head and they told me that he did at first but that wasn’t doing it very often anymore; sure enough, he didn’t hit himself once during the entire hour we were there! There was more to it than that though, he just seemed so much more peaceful and content. He was free to walk around and do what he wanted and every once in a while one of the workers would stop and rub his back or scoop him up into their lap.

I’m so thankful that God allowed me to see "Brody" in his new orphanage and ease so many of my concerns. One concern remains however; if "Brody" is not adopted by the time he is eight-years-old he will be transferred again. I don’t know where he will be transferred to but, knowing the country he is living in, it is extremely unlikely that it will be as good as the place he is in now. I have seen how "Brody" reacts in an institutional environment and can’t bear the thought of him being subjected to that again. He needs a family. Again, I’m asking for your help. In celebration of their five year anniversary, helping over 500 children find forever families, Reece’s Rainbow has launched their 5/5/5 Warrior Project to bring greater awareness and grant funds to all of their 5-year old children. Being that "Brody" is 5-years-old, he is a part of this project and has a “warrior” who is trying to raise $5000 or more for his grant fund HERE IS THERE BLOGLet’s rally together and help them out, shall we? Right now he has $205 and I would love to see that number go up over the next few days. At the same time, would you help spread the word about this little boy and join me in praying for his family to step forward soon? Together we can see this little boy’s future changed for the better. For more information or to donate, click here.