Everyone Needs a Family

A few weeks ago, my youngest brother, Brennan, who is 3, fell down while he was rollerblading, and broke his arm (he wasn't wearing his wrist pads). My brothers and I were all rollerblading in our friends' hockey room (it's a room with a cement floor which is painted to look like a hockey rink.) Yes, it was alarming, especially since none of us “kids” had ever broken a bone before. Brennan was surprisingly brave for his age, though! It was hard to tell at first if he had broken his arm or not, since he didn't act like he was in pain. Our neighbor knocked at our door, and as soon as he walked through it, Brennan stopped crying. (To me, it wasn't really a surprise, since he likes being treated like a Big Boy! For some reason, he thinks big boys DON'T cry!) The whole evening he seemed happy, like his usual self, until he started crying in his sleep that night . The next morning my mom noticed that he wasn't using his left arm and decided that she would take him for an x-ray..... and sure enough it was fractured!

Brennan was pretty cute when he came through the door with his cast! It was obvious that he was pretty proud of himself! We gave him lots of attention! We all signed his cast and we had a movie night with pizza & popcorn.

The whole thing made me think about orphans, and how they often are not able to get the medical care that they need. There are many orphans in China and around the world who are waiting for minor surgery, or major surgery. Some of them are orphaned because their parents couldn't afford the expensive medical care that they needed when they were born. Some children need a cleft lip or palate repaired, or heart, eye, or spine surgery etc. Sometimes even orphanages can't afford surgery and specialized care, and so many children go without the help that they need to heal and thrive. You can click: here, here, and here to find out about some organizations, that my mom showed me, that are providing surgeries for orphans in China.

China has a “Special Needs Program” that families can choose if they want to adopt a child with special needs. The Berzenjis are in the process of adopting a “special needs”child right now. You can read about it on their blog.

I am very excited about it because I believe every single child needs a family. My mom tells me that every child has special needs..... in fact, every adult has special needs too – at least sometimes. That's why families are so important. We all need each other. People who can take care of us when we need it. For example: The stomach flu has been traveling through our house the past week (and yes, I'm writing this post in bed:) Believe me, we have all taken turns looking after each other.....

I really feel for those children who don't have families to look after them...parents to rush them to the hospital if they “break a bone,” or kiss them better when they get hurt. Brennan had a loving mommy and daddy to take him to the hospital, he had a lot of loving attention, and he had his family.

Lately, I’ve been really thinking about what life would be like if I was an orphan. I think I would feel unwanted, unloved, terribly lonely, and scared. Would I trust anyone? Maybe not. I'm not sure. If I was an orphan with “special needs”, I may not look perfect on the outside, but on the inside I would be just the same as everyone else. I would feel even worse if someone didn’t adopt me just because of how I look on the outside, or because of my medical needs.

Hopefully, the money we all send to the orphanage will provide some children with the medical care that they need. Perhaps, some will even become eligible for adoption if they get the surgery they need. Either way, we are praying that the money raised here will be a blessing, and will change lives!