Can you see? In memory.

I was saddened last week to learn that my favorite little guy from Reece's Rainbow had been moved away from his baby orphanage and placed in a mental institution. Little Maxim is now in a very dangerous place. Many children who are transferred don't survive for long.

Sure, he has crossed eyes - totally fixable. Can you look beyond the eyes and see the little boy who wants to run and play? The little boy who deserves to know the love of a mommy and daddy? The little boy who is priceless not because he is perfect, but because he has intrinsic value as a human being?

Meredith has written a beautiful piece that explains Maxim's new reality. She wrote this in memory of two beautiful girls who, we learned yesterday, died in one of these institutions when the flu swept through.

While we were eating...
... they were hungry

While we were playing...
... they were restrained

While we were tucking our kids into bed...
... they were alone

While we turned up the heat...
... they laid in the icy cold

While we wrapped our children in blanket sleepers...
... they laid in their own excrement

While we sang songs and listened to music...
... they listened to the screams and cries of those around them

While we rocked our babies...
... they silently rocked themselves

While we hugged our kids...
... they scratched at their own faces and pulled their own hair for stimulation

While we cried over scraped knees...
... they moaned in their loneliness

While we brushed our daughters' beautiful hair...
... they had their heads shaven to stave off the lice

While we fought off the flu with love and nourishment...
... they got the flu and went Home.

No longer suffering... but so many more still are.


In memory of those that have never felt the love of a family, but
have passed away alone. Today we learned of the passing of these two girls in Eastern Europe.

Margarita

Katarina