An Orphan's Story, Part 6

In August of 2009, we found ourselves on an airplane headed to Taiwan.  And what surprises God had planned for us!!  Due to bad weather in our city, we were several hours late arriving at our connecting flight in San Francisco.  We were running through the airport in the middle of the night.  Long story made short: they had already given our seats away because the plane was fully boarded and ready to pull away from the gate by the time we arrived at the counter to give them our tickets.  They had to put us in first class, and first class on an international flight was even beyond our wildest expectations!

To get us onto Taiwan time, they served us dinner at 5am (5pm Taiwan time).  This was one of the best meals we had on our trip.  Notice that in first class, you get real dishes and a tablecloth!

Here is the sun coming up over the ocean, shortly before we arrived in Taiwan the next morning.  It was an indescribable feeling to know we were so close to our new daughter!

 Taiwan's flag was a pleasant site for our tired eyes.

Our driver took us to our hotel in the middle of Taipei.  God blessed us with this sweet man who drove us all over Taiwan and became a dear friend to us.

Taiwan's streets were very confusing to us.  There were signs everywhere, and we couldn't read any of them.  The hotel encouraged us to take one of the hotel cards with us at all times so that if we ever became lost, we could hand a taxi driver the card that told them to take us back to our hotel.  I hadn't even imagined getting lost, but sure enough, we did get turned around every time we left the hotel because all the streets looked similar.

God had another surprise for us.  For reasons that were never explained to us, they put us on the executive suite at our hotel but only charged us for a regular room.  It was beautiful, and they treated us like royalty.  That TV is on a rotating wall so that it can either face the bed or the living area.

Taiwan was breath-taking in its natural beauty.  Our driver took us on a day trip to Keelung.

The sites and smells of Taiwan were new and interesting.  I'll admit that this photo was taken while trying hard not to breathe in the smell.  This was a little shop with dried STUFF everywhere...dried fish, pork, etc.  They have little fan things that worked to keep the flies off (but failed).

And then there were delectable things that we STILL crave.  This was a passion fruit drink we discovered at a little stand on the street.

Again, God had amazing blessings in store for us.  Our driver took us to his apartment in Keelung, and his wife taught us how to make Taiwanese noodles and some other dishes.  In this photo, she is cutting squid (which, by the way, our driver bought ALIVE at a roadside fish market just 30 minutes before we ate it!).

This is their apartment.  Taiwan is too small and too crowded to have houses, so everyone lives in apartments.

Then the day arrived when our driver took us to the orphanage.  It smelled like cleaning solution and was quite nice.  This was the first floor where we checked in.  They took us in an elevator up to the floor where our daughter was.

When we got off the elevator, the very first thing we saw was our daughter playing with toys on the floor.  The caregivers kept saying, "Mama and Baba," and they asked her to wave at us.

The next hour was spent trying to begin the bonding process.  They wanted her to get her snack from me, but she was quite uncertain.  We tried many things to get into her world, but she was very clear that we were not welcomed.  She had grown used to the orphanage, and we were strangers about to turn her world upside down.  Have you ever had to do something that you know is best for someone but at the time causes them immense pain?  My heart was breaking this day.

She found herself having to say goodbye AGAIN.  In her short 3 years of life, she had said goodbye to her birth mother, foster mother and now her favorite caregiver.  This was a painful day for her.

They finally put us in a room alone with her in hopes that she'd at least begin to accept us to a small degree.  But she was not the least bit interested in us or any of tricks they wanted us to use (food, toys, etc).  After 2 hours, they finally asked my husband to pick her up and hold her while she resisted.  She cried the most pathetic cry I had ever heard...a cry of complete defeat...a cry that reminded us how helpless she was in this situation.  Again, she was having to say goodbye.  Again her world was changed without anybody consulting her about it.  When she fell asleep crying, they asked our driver to come quickly to take us away from the orphanage before she knew she was leaving.  This was very hard on all of us, but it was the only thing we could do.

The next day, she was beginning to come out of her shell just a bit; but for the most part, she would sit with her hair hanging down in her face to avoid eye contact with us.  She pulled out all bows we put in her hair and would let her hair cover her face.  Her daddy played his guitar for her, and she'd tilt her head slightly to see but wouldn't come out of her little sad world.

Slowly but surely, she began to give us little smiles.  We went to get her visa so that she could leave the country.  Here she was sitting with her Chinese passport and all her important paperwork.  She had no idea what all this meant.

And by the time we left on our plane to go home, she had warmed up significantly.  She never flinched as we got on board that huge airplane (and we even left in the middle of a big typhoon!).  She was the picture of peace.  Here she is asleep in her Daddy's arms on that long flight home.  Guess who was the only person on the plane who couldn't sleep??!!  (Mama took pictures instead!)

This is the journey of just one orphan.  From orphan to cherished daughter by the miracle of ADOPTION!

An Orphan's Story, Part 5

We stepped out to adopt our daughter, having not a single penny saved for her adoption.  We knew we were her family, so we simply relied on God to provide all the funds necessary to bring her home.

Every step of the way, we watched as He provided.

Some of our sweet little friends surprised us by running in a local race and asking their extended family to sponsor them.  They donated the money to our adoption

Our local homeschool group put together a Walk-a-Thon to raise money.  This was very successful, and we felt very supported to see our friends meet together to walk in support of our adoption.

I could write about many miracles in our adoption journey.  One example was the day that we owed a certain amount of money to our home study agency.  The check had to be written that day.  We didn't know where the money was coming from, but we knew He had promised to provide.  We wrote the check, and then just a few hours later found an unexpected check in our mailbox (for almost DOUBLE what we had needed!).  This was the way it worked every time we needed to pay for the next step in our adoption.  The moment we needed it, God would provide.  (If you've never relied on God like this, I will tell you that it's unbelievable how He works when we are trusting Him!)

So, in the meantime, in the midst of doing paperwork (and more and more and more paperwork), we began to learn sign language.  With the language issues that we were facing (a child with Down Syndrome as well as having Chinese as her primary language for 3 years), we took on sign language to communicate with her.  We practiced all the time and learned the very basic signs so that we could communicate with her.

Her birthday rolled in, and we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  We placed her photo album on the table and celebrated her birthday on the other side of the world.

And then, just 2 days after her birthday (and 9 months after we had first seen her photo on Reece's Rainbow), we received what is affectionately known in adoption circles as "the call."  Our adoption agency called us to say that all our paperwork was complete and we were invited to fly to Taiwan the following month!

That month flew by, with preparations to travel.  Soon, our bags were packed!

I have skipped many details in our adoption journey, but if you are interested in reading the play-by-play version, please feel free to visit the blog we kept during our adoption.

The road from start to finish was littered with trials, tears, frustrations, challenges, enough paperwork to undo our sanity (almost!), and many nights of wondering if our baby was okay on the other side of the world.  But in every twist and turn of the journey, HE was faithful.  There's something about stepping out onto the thin air of faith that gives new dimension to life.

Our obedience, plus His faithfulness.  Psalm 68:5 says He's a Father to the fatherless.  The next verse says He places the lonely in families.  Remember that we...the Church, His Bride...are HIS BODY.  He is a father to the fatherless THROUGH US.  He places the lonely in families THROUGH US.  It is not enough to simply agree with an Amen.  It requires stepping out into His Will for us.  The ride is like no other!

Next blog post will cover our amazing trip to the beautiful island of Taiwan...

An Orphan's Story, Part 4

Our daughter's story would be affected by our obedience on the other side of the globe.

Here's the part of the story that can often be glorified beyond its reality.  Some people think that we had this amazing "call" to adopt.  Some think we are heroes.  Some imagine that we are this amazing family that heard an audible voice of God calling us to adopt.  Some believe that we are special.  Most people think this was a huge moment in time when we were struck by a lightening-type boom from Heaven showing us a great sign.  People tend to think we are different than they are...somehow marked for greatness in a way that others are not.

But the truth is that we are just an ordinary family.  In the beginning of our adoption journey, we had no large explosive Heavenly message that zapped us.  We eat like you, cry like you, have bills like you, have moments of chaos just like your family probably does.  We are a regular plain ol' family.

And our story goes like this...

We were planning an orphan ministry event to raise money for orphans.   We didn't have any specific ideas as of yet, but our family and another family wanted to do "something" to help orphans.  We began to come up with some ideas for raising money for orphan ministry.

One evening, I got an email from my friend who was helping plan the orphan ministry event.  She said she heard of another family planning an event to raise money for orphans (we're now friends with this family...hello, E!).  She forwarded me the information to give me some ideas, and that email would be what changed our lives.

But, remember, at the time, we didn't know it was life-altering.  This is the part I want you to really understand.  I didn't feel an earth-shaking tremble in my being, saying, "This is about to change your life."  It was just a normal day (just like you're probably having right now), and I simply did the next thing...I clicked on the link to the orphan ministry site.  And there was Reece's Rainbow.  It was an organization that finds forever families for orphans.  In fact, you can probably see their info on the side bar of my blog right now.  Just as you're seeing those faces scroll before your eyes, it was the same for me...nothing more than that...no spine tingles, no booming voice from Heaven.

I simply spent some time looking at the Reece's Rainbow site.  The very first child I encountered was a little girl from Taiwan.  There was no photo (because apparently Taiwan wanted the photos only released to people seriously considering adoption).  So, no cute face drawing me, but still, I read her info.  She was 2 years old and had Down Syndrome and some other issues.  I emailed my friend back, thanked her for sending me the link...and then jokingly said, "I've found a little girl in Taiwan that I want to adopt."  I was kidding...mainly because my husband wasn't ready to adopt...and I had no real plans of adopting this child.

**Here's something I really want to stress...  We could have looked at that site, read about the children, said a concerned, "Oh how sad!" and then clicked that little X in the upper right corner and closed out the site forever.  There was nothing at all that screamed at us to get involved.  Instead, it was a simple CHOICE...a choice to enter into that pain, to not close the page, to look at those children and really begin to let them affect us.  It would have been much easier to forget the whole thing and instead find something happier to focus on.  We simply chose to enter into the world of these children's hurt and loss.  We chose to do what K.P. Yohannan once said:  "Lord, break my heart for the things that break Your heart!"

We decided to raise money for several orphans from Reece's Rainbow.  We set up a date and time and began to prepare for a simple fundraising event...a big yard sale and raffle.  We weren't sure how much this would help orphans, but we simply had to do SOMETHING.  I made a project board with information and photos of some of the children from Reece's Rainbow...

In the meantime, my husband and I decided that we'd like to begin to pray about adoption.  And we wanted to begin to pray for specific orphans.  I emailed the woman who runs Reece's Rainbow and asked her to send  some information and photos of orphans for us to pray over.  I didn't tell her any specific child we were drawn to.  I didn't give her any specifications, except for the size of our family (some countries will only allow you to adopt if you have a small family).  We left it wide open for God to choose the children to place on our prayer list.

Guess whose picture was at the top of the page she sent me?  Yep...the 2-year-old in Taiwan that I had jokingly said I wanted to adopt.  Think about this: out of hundreds of children on the RR site, she sent me the photo of the one child I had read about.  Again, there was no big booming voice saying, "HERE'S YOUR CHILD!"  Instead, it was a quiet "hmmmm" inside my soul.  Those little things that start to give direction once your feet are in motion...(and remember, your feet HAVE to be in motion before you are steered in the right direction...a parked car cannot be steered!).

We printed out the photos of 3 children, taped them to our bathroom mirror and began to pray for them every day.  My prayer went something like this: "Lord, please be with these children.  Protect them.  Love them.  Bring their forever families to adopt them.  And if WE are one of those forever families, please show us."  Keep in mind that we didn't have a single PENNY saved for adoption.  This was a step of faith to make ourselves available for adoption.

There were no claps of thunder or volts of electricity that ran through us to show us the way.  It was a simple quiet leading.  As time went on, this little Asian princess just began to take root in my heart.  He was beginning to steer us.

One day, our 3-year-old son was looking at the pictures on the mirror and said, "Mama, I want to adopt that one!"  I asked which child.  He pointed to the photo you see above, and he said, "I want her because she comes with a phone!"  I laughed!  It seemed that slowly, God was putting this little girl on our hearts (even though I was pretty sure she didn't come with the phone!).

My husband was still praying for each of the children, but he hadn't mentioned adoption.  In fact, he had recently told me he wasn't ready to adopt yet.  I chose to stay quiet and let God work in his heart.

One night, my husband and I stayed up late watching a movie together.  All day I had felt a heavy pressing in my spirit.  I felt it was time to talk about adoption, but I knew my husband wasn't at the same point I was.  This time, though, I felt a green light to talk to him.  But my flesh really fought.  I avoided the subject all day, thinking to myself, "He's not ready!  How can I talk to him?"  But it sat on me heavily all day.  At the end of the movie, the credits were rolling and the song lyrics nearly made me scream: "Say what you need to say!"  I headed up to bed, still not saying anything.

Sometimes it's very hard to know if what we are feeling is from our flesh or from God.  Sometimes we can misunderstand or mis-hear because we like to hear things we WANT to hear.  Feelings cannot always be trusted.  Our hearts can deceive us.  Having spiritual discernment is so important.  I needed Him to show me.  I went to bed that night with a heavy spirit, having never talked to my husband about adoption.

These are clues to our direction...  When we feel led to do something but then feel heavy and awful when we don't do it...well, let's just say that our spirits won't give us peace until we are walking in the right direction.  So all of these things serve as arrows pointing the direction we are supposed to go.  We can detect the road map by simply paying attention to the peace we have...or the lack of peace we have...about certain things.  It may be a quiet still Voice, but a sheep knows it's Shepherd's Voice...there is peace in following that Voice.

Still, I went to bed with a heavy spirit.  About an hour later, I woke up hearing a voice saying, "Tell him now" and I flew into a sitting position.  I was still half-asleep, half-awake, somewhere in that disoriented zone.  I had no idea if I had heard the voice in my dream or if the voice was in my room.  My heart was pounding in my chest, and I felt out of breath.  Maybe it was a bad dream.  Still, because I had felt so heavy that day, I decided to do all I could do.  I prayed.  I asked God if it was HE who was asking me to talk to my  husband.  I prayed, "If you want me to talk to him tonight, please bring him upstairs now."  I knew he was downstairs working on something and was planning a very late night.  But, I figured that if it was God who wanted me to talk to him, HE could arrange it.  A few seconds after that prayer, the hall light came on, and he came up to bed.

My heart was doing double-time at that point.  I look back and laugh now about this, but at the time, I was struggling with doing what God was asking me to do.  I remember telling Him, "Okay, I'll tell him, but he's not going to like this!  He's not ready!"  Why do we think we know more than God??

So, as he climbed into bed that night, I rolled over (better to do it right away before I lost my nerve)...  He thought I was asleep and was quite surprised to hear me talking.  I said, "I think we're supposed to adopt her."  Yep, nothing like just coming right to the point!  He said, "Who?"  I said, "The little girl on the mirror...the one with the phone.  I think we're supposed to adopt her."  And then I added, "Goodnight!"  I think I have issues with communication....especially at 1am.

The next day, my husband called from work.  "I cannot get her off my mind.  Email Reece's Rainbow and see how we can start the paperwork."  This was a modern-day miracle!  :)

God works in very mysterious ways!  True, I did hear a voice that night in bed...whether a dream or real, and that is not a typical experience.  It's never happened before or since.  God chooses to work in whatever ways he chooses.  Most of the time, it is in quiet moments, what I like to call "hmmmm" moments.

The truth is that we probably would have never had that specific leading if we hadn't FIRST stepped out to become available.  Remember, we simply looked at the photos on Reece's Rainbow and then chose to pray for specific orphans.  We chose not to look away.  We chose to be available.  We put our life into "drive" and then asked Him to steer it.  We were not special or super-spiritual.  We were simply available.


"I believe the Holy Spirit does not guide those who just sit still, waiting for His push.  We must expose ourselves to what God is doing in this world, keep a loose hand on the things around us, and be prepared to follow His leading."  --Warren Payne

It takes just a simple person (like you and me).  It takes a family willing to be available (like your family or mine).

The next step of our journey was the beginning of the faith walk into adoption...

An Orphan's Story, Part 3

This is perhaps the most difficult part of our daughter's story to share...

For reasons that we don't know, her foster parents could no longer keep her with them.  Perhaps they knew they couldn't care for her special needs any longer.  Perhaps the only way for her to find a forever family meant that she needed to go into the care of an orphanage.  We do know, from the photos they gave us, that her foster mother was very grieved to see her go.  I am not posting the photo of her foster mother with red puffy eyes and pain on her face (I chose not to share any front-shot photos of her foster family...for their privacy).

But here you can see our daughter at the train station in the arms of a social worker who took her to her orphanage.  Clearly, this day was very hard on our little girl.  She was, FOR THE SECOND TIME, saying goodbye to a "mother" in her life.  For the second time, she was off to a new place with new people and new smells and new "moms."

She was taken to a really wonderful orphanage many miles away from her foster home.  I say "wonderful" because I have heard the horror stories of other orphanages with children kept in beds all day long, often lying in their own filth.  This was not the case with our daughter's orphanage.  It was clean, had pretty pictures painted on the walls, and was run by caring people.  She had music class each week and other stimulation to help in her development.

But still, it was an orphanage, and she really needed a home and family.  So, the orphanage got her paperwork together and began the search for a family.  They took this photo of her and sent it to different adoption agencies.

Here she is playing with a bead chaser at the orphanage.

As is often the case in orphanages, her hair was cut very short (usually to keep lice at bay but also to make for an easier time taking care of all the children).  Her orphanage was run very efficiently.  Our U.S. contact told us that the children were given 30 minutes to eat each meal, and then bowls were taken away.   This is ample time for typical children to eat, but for our daughter with special needs (including low muscle tone in her jaw), this meant that she didn't finish her meals.  According to the reports we have, she would sit for a long time with one bite of food in her mouth, not clear on how to chew it.  The orphanage put her on baby formula every 4 hours to ensure she was being nourished.  She was still on formula at the age of 3.

Just before we adopted our daughter, her foster family visited her at the orphanage and took several photos of her.  Her foster mother wrote us a beautiful letter.  Among other things, she told us that because of what our daughter had had to go through, she was timid and not trusting of people.  You can see it in her photos here.  At this point, she had lost 2 mothers in her life.  And at the orphanage, she had a favorite caregiver, but with so many children, she simply didn't get that individualized attention and focused love that a family can give.  I imagine she woke up at nights and had nobody to sing to her or rock her back to sleep.  I imagine that she wondered where her wonderful foster family had gone.  She became withdrawn and had lost trust in people, especially "mom" figures.

And here you can see it again on her face...the hurt of the past, the distrust of people, the uncertainty of whose child she was...

This is the road she had to take to finally arrive in her forever family.  God knew every day of her life before it came to pass, even these rough days.  He was with her.

The next step in her journey involved a random passing moment when we (thousands of miles away) read her profile on Reece's Rainbow's website...

An Orphan's Story, Part 2

Here's a family for which we will always be thankful.  This is her foster family.  Here's our daughter with her foster mom.  We have many sweet pictures of them together, and it's such a blessing for us to have such loving photos to share with our daughter as she grows older.  She will know how LOVED she always has been!

Here she is with her foster dad.  Again, we have many great photos of them together.

Oh how I LOVE this picture with those toothless gums!!  We missed that stage in her life, so it is amazing to have photos to help bridge that gap for us and later for her too as she wants to know her life story.

And, as I stated in the last post, there are some photos that make me get teary-eyed, wishing I had been there for the little bumps and bruises and moments when Mama is needed.  (But, as you can see, she was well cared for...and I'm sure that the princess liked how her wound was bandaged like a beautiful head piece!)

Hmmmm...  Does she look like she's enjoying that beach gear?  :)  Poor baby!  But at least we do know that she went to the beach with her foster family.  That is a wonderful piece of her first year of life.  In time, I think she will giggle when she sees some of these pictures. It's part of her story.

Here she is at the beach still...but this time out of that contraption and into a cozy stroller.  Happy girl!

As you can probably tell, our daughter was blessed to have a good foster family.  This was all part of God's plan for her life.  We cannot understand the WHY part of everything...why her birth mother had to make the choice she did, why she was bounced from foster home to orphanage, why it took 3 years until she was placed in her forever family...many WHY's.  But we do know that for whatever purpose and reason, her birth mother decided to give her the gift of a forever family.  Her first stop on that journey was several months spent in her foster family's home.

And for whatever purpose or reason, the next step of her journey took her to an orphanage.  I'll blog about that next time...

An Orphan's Story, Part 1

Part of the calling on my life is to "tell their story."  Being a voice for the orphan means getting their story out there.  Every orphan has his or her own struggles, pains, wishes, dreams.  Every orphan has a story.

I'll begin by sharing the story of our daughter before she was adopted into our family.  This isn't the easiest story for me to share, but I choose to...if for no other reason that to give a "face" to the often quoted statistic of "millions of orphans" in our world today.  These are not just numbers.  They are real breathing children.

********************

It was a cold fall day when a birth mother placed her tiny baby in front of a busy restaurant in the city where she lived.  For whatever reason (which we will never fully know), she knew she couldn't care for her baby the way she wanted to.  The very best gift she could give her child was the gift of a family.  So, she did all she knew to do.  She bundled her baby up and placed her in an area where she knew many people would be passing.  She knew that doctors and social workers would be passing by...people that would find her baby and be able to give her what she needed.  Maybe she prayed...maybe she hoped...  I cannot say what emotions must have been pulsing through this birth mother's mind and heart as she made what was probably the most difficult decision of her life.  All I know is that, like the widow who gave all she had, this precious birth mother gave her baby the gift of a forever family...and it cost her this precious piece of her heart.

 A social worker was called, and our angel was taken to a doctor for a check-up.  Tests were run, determining that she was approximately 3 months old and had Down Syndrome.

She was placed in a temporary foster home.  She was BLESSED to have a loving foster family.  They cared for her and loved her.  In fact, they took many pictures of her (2 of which I'm sharing with you here).  Many orphans do not have this situation.  Many are not blessed with a loving foster family, so we are beyond thankful for the foster mom and dad who loved her long before she joined our family.

An array of emotions goes through my heart when I see the pictures...
-Grateful for her foster family
-Happy to have all these wonderful pictures of her early life
-And yet sad that I missed some of the moments when a baby just needs her Mama...

Sometimes a passing thought assaults my mind...  I wasn't there to hold her when she was hurt, lonely, confused, scared, sad.  But then a bigger thought settles in over that one and bathes me in peace: I may not have been there, but her Heavenly Father was ALWAYS there.  He is a Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5).  He was and is and always will be.  And He was there with her long before I knew about her.  It is HE who knows everything about her, cares for every detail of her life, watches over her beating heart.  And it is HE who chose to place her in our family.

Sometimes all I can manage to say to Him is, "THANK YOU."

(More to come in our daughter's story...)

Praying Miss Celine into her forever family...

Just look at this face!  I've asked my mom (a big prayer warrior) to pray for little Miss Celine, and I wanted to share her picture and information with you too.  As you can see, she will very soon face institutionalization if she is not adopted.  Please join us in praying for God's perfect Will for Celine's life.  Pass this along to prayer warriors who are willing to take just 5 minutes each day to lift up these children to Him.

Celine

 

Date of Birth: October 2005
Gender: Female
Eyes: Blue
Hair: light brown
Character: sociable. Calm

FACING IMMINENT INSTITUTIONALIZATION!

So happy to have updated pics and medical information about Celine!  She is a pretty little girl who is blessed to still be at the baby house.   She is facing transfer soon.   Celine has blonde hair and bright blue eyes.     She is quite self-sufficient and independent physically.  She very much enjoys the attention of adults, and likes to read books and engage.

From her medical records:  Down syndrome, moderate mental deficiency; hypertrophy of tonsils of the II-III degree; farsightedness; adenoids the II-III degree; allergic dermatitis; hypostatura.  Sveta also has talipes valgus and congenital chord anomaly.

Celine will do very well in a family setting.  Lots more photos available, along with FULL MEDICAL RECORDS.  Married couples only at this time.

$4188 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

Pray for Alexander's forever family to find him

Alexander

Born, Born April 13, 2005

HELP!  I HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED!!

OH, what a difference a new picture can make!!    Alexander has been listed with us for more than 2 years, and not a soul has ever inquired about him.  Up until now, the only photos we have had of him were laying down in a crib, never showing him up and mobile and active!     But look at him!!   What a great smile, and so much life in him! 

  

Alexander is a handsome little boy who really needs a loving family. He has light brown hair and blue eyes.    He is already 5!    He was born with a minor PDA, but does not have pulmonary hypertension. He also has flat feet. Please give Alexander the chance to grow up in a loving family

HEADS WERE SHAVED FOR THE SUMMER MONTHS

  

MORE NEW PHOTOS AVAILABLE!

There is $7621 in my adoption grant!

***The above information is from Reece's Rainbow, and you can GO HERE to donate into Alexander's adoption fund or to inquire about him.  Please pass his information on to prayer warriors who will dedicate themselves to pray for Alexander every day.  He has already been transferred to a mental institution, so time really is of the essence.  Prayer is essential for his survival.   Remember...prayer is the BIG WORK!