A Precious Soul

We called him "Kyle".

His only crime was being born with Down Syndrome in a country that doesn't see the value in people with special needs.

For this, he was placed in an orphanage soon after he was born.

In Kyle's home country, Russia, the orphanages are usually run by the government.  The Baby Houses are not usually so bad.  It's certainly no place to grow up, but the children generally appear well cared for... like Kyle did.

But between the ages of 4 and 6 years old, children with special needs are transferred.  Moved out of the baby house... to another place.

An adult mental institution.

Adult.

Imagine that tiny, delicate little boy in an institution for mentally ill adults.

That's where this transformation took place.

Yes, that's the same little boy.

The new picture came a few months after Russia banned adoptions to American citizens, as well as to unmarried mothers in any country which permits marriage equality... essentially destroying any chance "Kyle" and his fellow orphans ever had to find a family.

It shocked us all.

How could they do this to such a precious, vibrant little soul?

Today more news came down.

He died.  Kyle died.

He died alone in a mental institution.

He died without ever knowing the love of a family.

A precious soul, gone from this earth forever.

When I first saw the news today, I immediately started to cry.  But as quickly as the tears came, they were gone, replaced by anger.  Anger at the government which places so little value on the life of a child, simply because he has special needs, that it would sooner allow him to die in an institution than be adopted.  Anger at the political posturing that brought about this adoption ban and erased Kyle's future.

Then came the relief.  Yes, relief.

Remember, a few months ago we learned that this was Kyle's existence:

Abused.  Malnourished.  Neglected.  Sick.  In pain.

What a miserable existence.

Kyle's pain is gone now.  He is finally home.

No, he's not in the home we wanted for him.  He's gone home to be with God instead.  We had hoped he could know the love of an earthly family before that inevitability, but it didn't happen that way.

Nevertheless, he is home now.

No more abuse.  No more hunger pains.  No more banging his head against the bars of his crib just for some sort of stimulation.

Kyle has a new, perfect body in Heaven... no more pain.

That's why the relief.

And that's the feeling I'm going to choose to hold onto.  Gratefulness that God did not allow Kyle to suffer any longer - that He called him home rather than let him endure this Hell on Earth for one more minute.

It shouldn't be this way.  Children aren't supposed to die.  They are supposed to live long, fulfilling lives on Earth before going home to God.

Sometimes there's something we can do.  Pray.  Advocate.  Give.  Adopt.  The things I beg you to do every single day, for children who we can help.

But sometimes... like in Kyle's case... we are woefully helpless.  For the thousands of Russian orphans that still survive on this earth, there is little or nothing that we can do to change their circumstances.

It is in times like these that I pray the hardest.  Jesus, please come quickly.  Your children need you.