So how is Jonah doing?

In a recent post I focused on the conditions in Jonah's orphanage.  This post is all about Jonah himself.

When another family traveled recently to Jonah's orphanage to adopt their own child they blessed us with new pictures of him.  We were so excited to finally have current pictures of Jonah, and naturally my first thought was to see if he looked healthy.  I wasn't pleased with what I saw.  His nose looked cruddy with both junk and blood.  One of his ears looked red with infection.  His cheeks looked flushed with fever.  His lips looked chapped, and there was a sore near his mouth.

Kids with Down syndrome tend to get sick more frequently and more severely than other kids.  Even in a clean home environment with parents to care for them and great medical care they suffer more with illness.  Jonah's orphanage would be a bad place for even a healthy child, but for a child with Down syndrome it's downright dangerous.  We desperately need to get Jonah out of that orphanage.  We are at the very end of the process and will be getting our travel approval anytime now.  However, we can't make any travel arrangements until we have the money to pay for them.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Reece's Rainbow to help us rescue this precious little boy!

Here is the link to the donation site.  Jonah is known as Breck on Reece's Rainbow because that is the name they used to advocate for him long before we chose to adopt him.
http://reecesrainbow.org/75910/sponsormurray

Moving down...

We are moving to a new home.  Everyone keeps asking if we are "moving up."  No, we're actually moving to a smaller, older home.  This current adoption is our 7th adoption in just 9 years.  The adoption expenses themselves have been enough to break us financially, but add to that all the medical bills (multiple special needs children means a lot more medical bills) along with the normal costs of raising children like food, shoes, etc. and it becomes obvious that we have to cut expenses somehow.  Moving to a cheaper home seemed the best option to both help with our current financial situation and also to be in a better position financially to adopt more children, help other adoptive families, donate money towards better orphan care, and donate more to the church.

The home we are moving to is VERY different from our last home.  It's smaller with a lot less closet space and also less garage/storage space.  It has fewer bedrooms, but we are converting the dining room to a bedroom to help with that.  It's older, built in 1970 and never really updated (e.g. the tubs are harvest gold colored, typical 70's color).  The floors need to be replaced, especially in the bedrooms.  The heating/air conditioning situation is a problem that will have to be replaced once we can afford it (we'll be very hot this summer!).  The windows need replaced, and there's other work to be done as well.  However, the house is in pretty good condition overall given its age and the lack of updating.  We preferred to get a home that needed some work since it would be cheaper knowing we would do the work little by little as we could afford it.

One of the biggest differences is the location.  Our last home was way out in the country where you heard more cows than cars.  There were a lot of empty fields around, and there were no worries about the kids playing in the road.  There were gorgeous views of fields, farmland, hills, and mountains in all directions.  Every morning you could see the sunrise over the Smoky Mountains, and in the evening it set over the ridge to the immediate north of our home.  Our new home is right in the middle of town.  We have a tiny front yard, and the street we are on sees plenty of traffic.  (This is a huge adjustment for the kids and a constant source of concern for me since it would take only the briefest moment for one of the toddlers to get into the road.)  We are close enough to the main road to hear nonstop traffic, and there is also a steady stream of sirens since we live close to the fire and police station.

However, despite how different our new home is and the fact it is both older and smaller, we love it.  It may be right in the middle of town without all the gorgeous views we had in the country, but we can walk to the kids' schools, several different parks, the library, and anywhere else we could want to go.  We are only a block away from the greenway that goes for miles, and there are sidewalks all over town as well.  We have great neighbors, and our kids love having a friend right next door to play with.  This is where God has led us, and we are excited about the future here in our new home!

Who cares what color the bathtub is when you've got such cute little babies to play in it?

All the girls are sharing what is supposed to be the master bedroom.  We figured it best to give them the biggest room since there were more of them sharing a room than in any other room, and it doesn't have a bathroom anyways.  Eventually we'll get mattresses to go under their beds so there will be more bed space (right now the babies sleep near mommy).

I was so proud of Caleb for not being upset about the pink carpet in his room.  Most boys his age would have complained.  Not that he likes it, but he said he knew we would replace it whenever we can afford it.  He has been a real trooper about moving.

A typical evening at our old home, our kids playing with our neighbors in the street.  We'll miss the peacefulness of that street (there were only a handful of homes on it), the beautiful ridge line to the north (visible in the picture), the view of the Smoky Mountains to the south, and the farmland and fields all around.  We'll especially miss the neighbors whose kids are in this picture.  We'll always be grateful for the time we had there!

Let's get him home!

When we first committed to adopting Jonah we joined a group on Facebook for people adopting from his orphanage.  As soon as I was on the group I started reading through all the old posts to find out as much as I could about his orphanage.  Unfortunately it soon became clear his orphanage was not one of the better ones (not too surprising since it is in one of the poorest provinces, and it is several hours away from the capital city of that province).  In fact, the conditions there sounded downright grim.

As I looked through pictures taken by other families who had traveled there I knew the descriptions were not an exaggeration.  I noticed not only did the building itself look grim (almost no toys, "cribs" looked more like cages, paint was fading and chipping off the walls) the children themselves looked truly pathetic.  In pictures at other orphanages kids are often seen playing on the floor with other children and caretakers.  In the pictures of Jonah's orphanage kids are just sitting in their metal cribs.  There are pictures taken by a number of different families who all traveled at different times, but in all the different pictures kids are just sitting in their cribs.  Most of the children appear to have vacant expressions, just staring mindlessly into space as the day passes by.  Many also appear physically unwell - they have sores on their face, redness around their eyes, runny noses, etc.

There are a number of smaller "group home" care centers where children receive medical care, therapies, lots of stimulation, and even love and affection by the caretakers.  In some orphanages younger children even attend preschool classes.  There are plenty of toys and clothes and enough food for all the children.  Unfortunately Jonah's orphanage is most definitely NOT one of these places.  No orphanage, no matter how good, can replace the love and care of a family, but the worse the environment the more damage that is done to the children.

Given the substandard conditions at Jonah's orphanage it is all that much more important we get to him without delay.  We are now awaiting our travel approval, which could come at any time, and once it comes the only thing holding up travel is a lack of funding.  Please consider praying for our Jonah and for us to have the funds for travel as soon as we get our TA, share our tax-deductible fundraising site on Reece's Rainbow, and if you are able please consider donating to help get our precious child out of a miserable orphanage and into the arms of his family.

Here is the link to our tax-deductible fundraising site on Reece's Rainbow, an amazing organization which advocated for Jonah long before we ever committed to adopt him.  (He is known as Breck on RR.)
http://reecesrainbow.org/75910/sponsormurray

This is how Jonah spends his days.  He is in the center of the picture wearing a yellow shirt and red pants.

Another picture from a different day.  So so bored... 

Jonah isn't in this picture, but it shows another day in his room.

...and yet another day of kids just sitting bored in their cribs.

No child should have to grow up like this.

Jonah, in desperate need of a bath and decent skin care.  Some boy clothing would be nice as well!