Orphans

My heart is breaking. There is no keeping the tears back. Andrew is almost 20-months-old. His skeletal bones are on target for height, but he weighs 8 kg. He is all bones. Bones protruding from his skin. Small bones. Fragile bones.

 

I fear I will break his hip bones or spine when I change his diapers. It. is. so. sad!

At night, he must lie on my chest as I recline in a sitting position. If he does not, he stops breathing from choking on his phlegm from the bronchitis.

The night between Gotcha Day and Adoption Day, I had to do the Heimlich maneuver on Andrew to get the phlegm out of his throat, as he stopped breathing from choking. It happened twice that night while he was propped up. Thus, he must sleep as vertical as possible.

Carileen said I probably saved his life that night. It’s probably true. How long would it have taken the nannies to have heard him choking and rescue him?

My heart is breaking for the orphans. There are so many! So many! With no hope.

I HAVE to do more! My heart is breaking and my tears won’t stop.

When Andrew coughs, it hurts him so badly he cries and wraps his legs and arms around me as tightly as he can to cushion the blow of his lungs pounding against his rib cage. It is heart-breaking.

How much more do the orphans suffer? With no one to come running to aid them through their nightmares, through their traumas, through the vomiting, through the pain, through the loneliness, through their multiple agonies.

I MUST do more! May my eyes see with new understanding from now on.

Called to care for the orphans—James 1:27,

Julie (and all believers)

P.S. More to follow as Derek went to visit Andrew’s orphanage and Maria’s Big House of Hope today