While We...

While we rejoice at the births of our children, counting their fingers and toes, holding them, loving them, memorizing every single part of them, making exuberant phone calls to family and friends, snapping hundreds of photos and praising God for their arrival...

There is only mourning at their births.  Hushed voices insisting that the family would be better off without them.  Tears of sorrow.  Cries of pain.  Little ones left, abandoned, alone. Mamas and Papas leaving the hospital empty-handed, grief-stricken.

While we rush in to pick up and console each whimper, walk the floors at night to soothe them in their cries, sing lullabies and whisper words of love in their ears,

They lie silent in their cribs, having learned that their cries are never answered, their distress goes unnoticed, and their pain must be suffered without relief.

While we savor every milestone, record every new experience, celebrate every accomplishment,

They lie day after day staring at the rails in their cribs, rocking quietly back and forth, waiting and hoping that the next feeding will fill the constant hunger in their bellies.

While we lovingly buy good food that little palates will enjoy, and carefully prepare it so that our children will eat without choking,

They are lined up in assembly-line fashion, the food force-fed down their throats. They swallow as fast as they can, gagging as much food down as possible before their turn for feeding has ended.

While we watch over them on the playground, making sure that they are safe and that no one will harm them,

They know what it is to be shoved and slapped, hit and tripped.  They have no one to defend their rights or stick up for them when they have  been wronged.

While we take them to their events, games, practices, productions,

They sit tied straight-jacket style in their chairs and play pens, with no toys and little stimulation, listening to an occasional car drive by, longing for more but not knowing truly what more there is...

While we dress them carefully for their first day of school and fill a box with each of their reports and accomplishments,

They are set aside, considered uneducable, mentally deficient and not capable of learning.

While we give them medicine when they are sick or in pain,

They are given medicine to keep them drugged so they will lay quiet in their cribs.

While we pack the car for the yearly family vacation,

They are packed into the car and transferred to the mental institute.

While we rejoice that they are growing and becoming more independent, knowing that one day they will grow up and move on,

They sit in empty rooms and sheds with nothing to do, day after lonely day, year after lonely year.

While we live a life that is full and rich and overflowing with all that God has entrusted to us, they live a life that is empty and lonely, without color and without love.

While we do our thing......

They wait.... they rock.... they sleep to escape... they bang their heads against the sides of their cribs to remind themselves that they are alive.... they scratch their skin over and over to experience touch..... they grind their teeth down to nubs in frustration and boredom....they stuff their entire little hands into their mouths to the point of choking for comfort....they moan quietly to cover up the silence..... they hit and pinch themselves believing that somehow this will ease their suffering.... they wait.... they wait.... day after day they wait....

While we do our thing.....

If you feel called to help - in any way - through adoption, giving, prayer or service - contact Andrea at Reece's Rainbow.  She is only an e-mail away!!