The Heaviest of Hearts

I write this post with a heavy heavy heart.

 

This last week I discovered that over the course of the last few years we have had Lost Boys in our midst that we didn't even know we had.

 

 

BROOKS                                                      PAUL

 

 

FLYNN                                     JULIAN

 

  

 

DAVIAN

 

 

Do you see those 5 boys??

They have been listed on Reece's Rainbow for at least two years.  They daily live and breathe the same air my son lived and breathed.  I didn't know. 

 

I passed them over.

I had no idea they were Lost Boys.  I didn't know to look for them when I was there in December 2013.  I didn't know.  I haven't been their voice. I haven't shouted to the heavens for them.  I ignored them on Reece's Rainbow because I thought they were somewhere else and it is sometimes just too hard to go beyond the realm of what I know.

5 boys who were lost to us even though they were listed.

 

And not only these 5 but two more Lost Boys just became available.  One of them out of the laying down room.

 

 

  JACKSON                            XANDER 

 

     

 

 

7 boys. 

 

Plus Porter.  Beautiful Porter who has a new picture.

 

 PORTER

 

 

 

And Pearson who had a family but sadly they weren't able to bring him home.

 

PEARSON

 

 

NINE BOYS.

 

Nine boys.

 

What can we do?

 

How can we be a voice to these nine?

 

They are the Least of the Least.  They are in a closed facility where few enter. They spend their days doing nothing.  They are living in a world empty of language and music and laughter.

My heart is heavy because I recognize the impossibility of finding 9 families for these 9 boys.  I recognize that the adoption of each one involves a huge risk.  I can't guarantee anything about any of them.  All I know is that the life they are living right now is not really living. All I know is that deep in their deepest beings they are longing for more.

This week Grady/Bey has been walking the streets of the capital.  Free.  His Mama found out from one of his caretakers that each time a family would come he would ask when he too would have a family. 

 

His family came. They came despite his diagnosis. They came despite the cost. They came despite his age.  They came despite their family circumstances.  In spite of everything they listened to that still small voice and they obeyed. And Grady/Bey is transforming before their eyes.  Is he delayed? Absolutely.  Is he worth it?  A million times over.  Just ask Melanie who is walking the streets beside him and marveling at all that God has done.

 

9 Lost Boys need 9 families who are willing to listen.

 

Does it seem impossible?  Yes.  And that is why tears trickle.  

 

But I serve a God who knows each one of those boys by name.  He called us for Aaron. He called the Hartmans for Judd and Bey.  He called the Marrs for Jonathan and Benjamin.  He called the Drakes for Boden.  He called the Taylors for Samuel.

 

I cling to that as I consider each  boy.  I cling and pray that as God calls, families will listen. 

 

A few weeks ago at the Reece's Rainbow reunion Rob and I were hanging out by the steps watching our two little boys playing in the water.  Two older boys walked over to the steps to get into the water.  I knew these boys as we had been praying hard for their release.  They were just recently freed from inside the walls of an institute similar to the 9 Lost Boys on this page. 

 

This was their first time at a pool.  Rob and I and a whole host of other RR people sat and watched the first boy go boldly down the steps and into the water.  He was the smaller of the two but braver.  He splashed and played and beckoned for his brother to come in too. His brother stood at the top.  Scared.  He tentatively stepped down to the first step and stood there watching his brother splashing and playing.  Finally, after a few minutes he carefully, oh so carefully stepped down into the pool itself.  When he let go of the rail and stood steady and sure in the pool he began to shout with glee and clapped for himself.  All of us around him began to cheer and clap with him.  It was the most poignant and precious moment of that entire week.

 

 

I write this post with great longing and a deep desire that each of the boys on this page will know life outside the walls.  I write it hoping and praying that next year, in pools across our country, 9 boys will get to experience the joy, the thrill, the simple pleasure of splashing in a pool of water.

 

All 9 boys are listed on Reece's Rainbow.  Some of them have substantial grants. Some have little to nothing.  All of them need families. 

 

Please take the time to look at each boy.  Pray over them.  Sow into their grant accounts.  Don't pass over these boys.  They deserve to be seen. 

 

Share about them.  Consider.  Just consider.  Please some of you consider. 

 

I know I'm asking for the impossible but I serve a God of the impossible and I rest in that hope.

 

BROOKS                                       PAUL

 FLYNN                                      JULIAN

 DAVIAN                                     PORTER

   JACKSON                                 XANDER

 PEARSON