Over the years, we’ve received so many emails of kindness from folks who have expressed gratitude for our book and our speaking engagements. While it’s always flattering to hear folks are actually listening to you (something that rarely happens at home), we believe we’ve been given far too much credit. Neither one of us signed up to raise children with disabilities; we got recruited. We were fortunate that in the process of raising our special children, we truly learned the meaning of love and acceptance and saw the blessings special children bring to the world. If you want to give us credit for that, we thank you. But today, we were struck by the email we got from one amazing mother, Denise Collins, who truly deserves the praise.
Denise wrote: “We have an adopted 15 year old daughter with several diagnosed issues. We have to take life one day at a time and try hard to keep things humorous too. My husband and I wanted to become foster parents and also have been volunteering for an organization that brings orphans form Eastern Europe to the USA twice a year to live with families for about a month. The more we got involved in that organization and the further we got along in the process of becoming foster parents the more and more we became aware of the huge amount of orphans in the world, the appalling treatment they receive in non-western countries and the fact that older orphans and those with disabilities (large or small) just don’t get adopted. In Eastern Europe disabled children (any disability) typically are put in an adult mental institution at the age of 5 or 6. Most lose their will to live and die within a year or two.
So we started a blog to advocate for these kids, promote host programs and any ministries we could find that reach out and help these kids that have been forgotten by the rest of the world. In the meantime we ended up hosting a 14 year boy from Ukraine and are now in the process of adopting him.
I would love to share about what we have learned with your readers. I know many of them have their hands full already and would not be able to adopt. But who better to help advocate and pray for these kids than parents who already understand the needs of these children. What these kids need are people to make sure they are not forgotten and keep passing the word along that there are beautiful children suffering in institutions all over the world that need families and people willing to help them.”
Please take a moment to read Denise’s fabulous blog — http://www.onelittlestarfish.blogspot.com and to like her FB page http://facebook.com/onelittlestarfish and to thank her for dedicating her life to help those in need.
Denise and her husband Chris' little starfish. Boy do they look happy!
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