Day 7:31 for 21---Eastern Europe and Expectations

So I left off yesterday with a brief statement about Reece's Rainbow.  Here in the US we have a waiting list of families who want to adopt a DS baby.  That is not the case in other countries.  I have followed several blogs documentating several families and their journey to add to their families.  The ones I have followed have had their children adopted from Europe.  There are 147 million orphans in this world.  Unbelievable.  The families I have followed showed adoptions of children with Down syndrome.  These children are in baby orphanages until the age of 5, at which time they are transferred to mental institutions.  The stories reported out of these institutions are horrible.  In Eastern Europe our children have no value.  Some children have never had a single visitor to the orphanges.  I can't imagine children who have no one to comfort them when they are sick, no one to hold them when they can't sleep at night, no one to say I love you to them, no one to cheer on their every accomplishment.  Every time I have gone to this site, I sit and cry my eyes out that there are so many children who have no one.  Reece's Rainbow has about two hundred children on the website who are adoptable at this time.  You can sponsor a child during the Christmas season, you can pick a child and be their prayer warrior, you can put money into a child's fund to help them find their forever family.   Every dollar and prayer counts to save a life.

One of the blogs I follow, Adeye's , shows what a wonderful testimony we can be to those who believe in the power of praying.  Her family just adopted two girls this summer from Europe who have DS.  She spoke of what was weighing on her heart about a child she had a chance to interact with briefly during their adoption process.  In five days, this childs adoption became fully funded with over 20,000 dollars raised from people who felt led to help save a childs life.  What a testimony!  Someone out there has probably heard of God's call to bring this child into their life.  I cannot wait to hear what lucky family is going to have this beautiful child as their new daughter! 

Ultimately we should pray that families in Europe and other nations open their hearts to children who are diagnosed with DS.  Wouldn't it be awesome if we could just close orphanges because there was no need for them.  Thank you Lord to the families who so willingly opened their homes and hearts to these children and helped to save them from a bleak life of beds and cribs and limited human contact.  Check out Reece's Rainbow, you can  be a part of saving someones life.

Expectations:  I expect my daughter to live a  life full of love and laughter.  I do expect for her to be treated as a person who happens to have DS, not a DS person. I do expect her to have other childhood experiences just like anyone else who is raising a child.  I do expect her to have manners.  I do expect her to try her best at whatever goal she is trying to reach.  I expect her to be kind to others.  I expect Katie to be Katie and no one else.

Isn't it funny how we are always comparing our children to each other?  Example--little Joe walked at 10 months, is your child walking now?  Is she talking now?  I bet the terrible twos are in full swing at your house.  Crawling, rolling, sitting, riding a bike, etc. I could go on and on.  We have expectations in every aspect of our lives.  Our boss expects us to be at work on time and to do the job we were hired to do.  The person driving in the other lane expects us to stay on our side of the lane.  We expect our cars to stop when we have no gas in it.  We expect our paychecks to be in the bank and ready to be used on paydays.  We expect to the sun to set sometime in the evening.  Think about how much we expect in a day.  Probably more than you could have imagined.   We have all compared something at one time or another.  How has your expectations changed from what you first thought DS would be like?  Have they changed at all?  Am I still comparing?  At times yes, but I was reminded by a friend that her Katie will reach her goals in her time and no one elses' time.  What does she expect from me?  Just what I give her now, which is love, love and more love, food to eat, a clean bed to sleep in, toys, books and Signing Time videos to help her learn, clothes to wear and prayers.  Are there are expectations you need to let go of and some you need to accept?