Daisy Will Have Her Chance To Bloom

We are coming for Daisy. Her sunshiny, smiling personality is going to have a chance to shine and grow. Daisy is going to have a family. Her hair will grow out and we will buy her barrettes and bows. She will have pretty girly clothes. She will have a big girl bed of her very own, no more crib. She has sisters who are so, so happy to add another girl to the family. They've been feeling outnumbered! She has brothers who can't wait for her to get here. We are all so excited!

Daisy has been in our heart for a long time. She was still in the bedridden ward when we adopted Evan. Her crib was on one side. On the other side was a fishtank, then the child I've mentioned before as V. My husband would visit Evan, and play with them too while he was there. Daisy would watch my husband stroke Evan's hair, then smile and quietly pat her own head. She was taken out of her crib more often than Evan or V, taken to the playroom at the other end of the building when the caregivers hired by the charity were working. She would scoot around the playroom looking at toys, but she always had to come back to her crib.

There were other children and adults in the bedridden room too. A girl near the wall past Daisy's crib would stim very loudly, grunting and throwing her whole body against her crib over and over again. The sound would echo around the room and down the hall if the doors were open. She seemed to be one of the healthier children in the room, with her round belly and full cheeks. She was transferred with the other bedridden children. Based on the most recent photo I've seen, I don't think she will survive much longer. She is laying still and glassy eyed, possibly being medicated to keep her quiet. Her skin is stretched tight, just bone. Her full cheeks are gone. I didn't even recognize her at first. And sadly she can't be adopted. There was a blind young man laying in a bed by the door, sometimes sleeping and sometimes stimming. Two tiny, quiet boys with feeding tubes were against the wall across the room. Sometimes they were so silent you would watch to see of their chests were still rising, still breathing. Denzel was along that wall too, so full of life under the blanket where he was swaddled, tied to keep his hands from sneaking out and pulling out his feeding tube. His sounds and laughs and watchful eyes were a sharp contrast from the other boys over there. Please God, bring him a family. Sasha was near him, little Sasha who is 20 years old and the size of a toddler. He was a favorite, a playful imp who was sure to get at least a pat on the head from anyone who walked in the room. Lastly, there was Svetlana, now Amelia in her very own loving family. She had been in the corner past V, and would turn to the side where his head was and peer in at him.

Amidst all of that, sweet little Daisy sat in her crib. She was much more mobile than the other kids, so she was often tethered to the crib with a pair of tights. This is one of those realities people are sometimes unaware of, that I was unaware of until my eyes were opened. Not all children in laying down rooms are truly bedridden. In fact there are many children who are healthy and have some mobility, who just require too much attention for the limited staff. There are also many children whose condition has never progressed because they spend every moment in those cribs without any interaction or stimulation.

Daisy, lucky little Daisy, was chosen to move into the new group home for girls. She and two other girls, Miriam who needs a family and Kendall who has a family coming, were taken out of the bedridden ward and moved into the group home. Those three still sleep in cribs there. Their needs are truly higher than the homes were originally designed for, and I think it can be difficult for the caregivers to supervise them and the bigger girls at the same time. Still, this is a huge step up from the empty rooms in the bedridden ward.

Unfortunately, there are changes coming at the group homes. As I shared before, they will be turning into foster homes that the children can't be adopted from. Because the foster homes will be for children, not adults, at 18 everyone will be returned to the very institutions these group homes saved them from. Sweet Daisy would be spared that horror for a few years, but her eventual fate would be sealed with no chance of changing course. 

But not anymore. We are coming for her. We want her to be part of our family forever, not just until she turns 18. Her sisters-to-be are already saying how excited they are to help her learn new things, to play with her, to love her. I don't know how much sweet Evan understands, but he laughed and laughed when we told him that she is coming here. Maybe he just knows my voice is so happy, maybe he recognizes her name, maybe he remembers her climbing into his crib and sitting on top of him, Often that would be the most human touch he would have in a day. Our other children are excited too. My husband and I are excited. Her precious, sometimes noisy, little spirit is going to do so well in our home and in our family.

We are coming Daisy.

Now the financial side of things. She is in a different region than Amos. That will add another $13,000 to $15,000 to our expenses. We think her having a chance at a full life is worth much more than that. If you would like to help us with that expense, you can make a tax-deductible donation at reecesrainbow.org/105435/sponsorbloom-2 . We still have a $1500 matching grant that we are almost halfway toward meeting! Thank you all so much for your support!