I was looking at a page on Reece's Rainbow tonight and was struck by something. Go take a look at that page and see if you can pick it out: Already Home
It was pretty obvious to me, but not until I started thinking about it did the full meaning of what I was seeing sink in.
2.
16.
36.
76.
153.
196.
246.
Those might just look like numbers... rapidly increasing numbers... until you realize what they stand for...
...which is lives.
2 lives. 16 lives. TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX LIVES in 2012 ALONE...
...saved... redeemed... taken out of the clutches of institutionalization... through Reece's Rainbow, an organization I am PROUD to advocate for. More every year! That is awesome!
Not to mention the 13 families ALREADY HOME IN 2013!
Go ahead and add that all up, I know you want to see the number, I do too. I'll wait.
738... SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT... lives SAVED.
738 transformations from orphan... to beloved son, daughter, brother, sister, friend.
Now let's talk about the things this number doesn't take into account.
For starters, it doesn't take into account all the lives these 738 individuals will touch. Children and adults who were never listed on Reece's Rainbow, who may not have special needs, who may not have been born in a country with a culture of institutionalization. Parents. Brothers. Sisters. Grandparents. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Friends. Neighbors. Doctors. Teachers. Think about all the people you know, then multiply that number by 738... and you'll start to get an idea of just how many additional lives have been touched.
Then there are the families who, for whatever reason, choose not to be publicly listed on the Already Home page... or families who found their child through Reece's Rainbow but adopted them without the aid of the organization. Families who adopted outside Reece's Rainbow because they were inspired by an RR family to look into special needs adoption.
There are families in country AS WE SPEAK... waiting for the day THEY will be on the 'Already Home' page.
And this... this bit chokes me up...
...there are the biological families.
I've seen people be quick to judge biological families who give their special needs children up to orphanages. "How could they do that?" people ask.
The same way people in this country did it only a couple decades ago.
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| Pennhurst State School, 1977. Pennsylvania, USA. |
Without adequate support systems in place in the community, accessibility measures written into law, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for these families to raise a child with special needs. They are told that they were be cast away from society if they try to do so - no one will want to associate with 'a child like that'. They are told that the children are better off institutionalized. And without the resources to care for them themselves, what choice do they have?
But when these children are adopted internationally... a number of things happen. Sometimes the child's birth parents are able to find out that the child was adopted. Many birth parents want this for their children. They ask for their children to be listed on "the rainbow". They love them and they want the best life possible for them. On occasion, birth parents are even able to be in contact with the families who adopt these children, receive updates on their progress. Posters of photos of children - before, and after adoption, hang on the walls of child welfare agencies in some countries, proclaiming to everyone who enters that these children have worth. Updates are sent back to former orphanages to let them know just how much therapy has done for children that were deemed ineducable in their home countries. And slowly... attitudes begin to change. Slowly, people begin to realize that children with special needs do have value and can be helped. And the culture of institutionalization changes a little bit at a time... with more and more families choosing to parent their children, to adopt domestically, or even just to smile, instead of looking down on the child who is obviously different from the others as they walk down the street. Some families who had previously given a child up even began working to bring them home!
This is how change started here. And look at us now! This country has some of the best programs and options for developmentally delayed individuals in the world! If we can do it... so can they... and these families, children, these 738... have been a big part of paving the way for that change. We may never know exactly how many lives were changed in these children's countries of origin, indirectly, by Reece's Rainbow adoptions... but we do know that it has happened and is continuing to happen.
So the REAL numbers... go exponentially far beyond 738.
But now let's take the numbers out of the equation and look at one.
One child who was an orphan...
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| Credit: Reece's Rainbow/Brown Family |
Who was doomed to a life of institutionalization...
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| Credit: Google image |
When one day, something changed...
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| Credit: The Blessing of Verity |
And they were an orphan no more...
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| Credit: Jobes family |
When they went from broken and alone... to beloved...
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| Credit: Jobes family, Crystal Proper Photography |
It has been said that "Adopting one child will not change the world, but for that one child, the world will change."
Truer words have never been spoken.
These children were orphans.
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| Credit: Jobes family |
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| Credit: Jobes family |
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| Credit: The Blessing of Verity |
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| Credit: Jobes family |
These are the same children... but now their are someone's son or daughter.
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| Credit: Jobes family |
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| Credit: Jobes family |
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| Credit: The Blessing of Verity |
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| Credit: Jobes family |
Psalm 68:6 - God sets the lonely in families.
That transformation has happened 738 times... or more. Some of these children, I have held in my own arms. And in adopting 738 children, Reece's Rainbow families may not have changed the world (though I believe they have been a crucial part of bringing about change)... but 738 worlds HAVE been changed. And more.
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| Count my world among those these kids have changed. |
Because if you think for one moment that the worlds of all the lives those children touch won't be changed, you are very wrong.
That's what's behind the numbers. 738 stories. 738 individual lives. 738 tales of redemption and love. And that's more than awesome. That's truly amazing.
That's what I've spent the past year being a part of.
Thank you, God, for that opportunity.
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