Every time we lose one...

It never gets easier.

A few months ago, we mourned Lynette.

Lynette died alone in Eastern Europe... because she had down syndrome.  She never knew the love of a family.

Since then, more children have been lost.  Died.  I refuse to mince words here, this is the truth.  They died.  They breathed their last breaths alone in a crib.  They couldn't fight anymore and succumbed to illness, malnutrition, abuse, and who knows what else.  They had no family to mourn them or attend a funeral.  They were buried in usually unmarked graves with other children who never got the chance to have a family.  Some of them had been waiting for families for years.  Some of them had families who wanted desperately to bring them home.

Because they had special needs.

Down syndrome.  Cerebral Palsy.  Hydrocephalus.  Spina Bifida.  Dwarfism.

These are not conditions that cannot be treated.  But they cannot be treated in a place where special needs children are not valued, have no families to advocate for them.

So children die.

'Lynette'

'Mali'

'Margaret'

'Walden'

'Jaxon'

And now........................

Sweet baby 'Margaret'... only just a year old.

We got the news of baby Margaret's death today.  She had down syndrome, with a heart complication that could have been surgically corrected in the United States, but for an orphan in Eastern Europe... unless she was adopted... it was a death sentence.  

Margaret had a family trying to commit to her.  Someone wanted her to be their daughter.  Everyone loved her.  Everyone asked about her.  We all prayed for her.  Then, just weeks ago, another adoptive mama unknowingly watched the ambulance carrying a dying baby Margaret away.  Gone, forever.  

Remember January 1?  When you were celebrating with friends at midnight, toasting to the end of 2011 (whether you were glad to bid it farewell or thanking God for the blessings it brought)?  When you made your new year's resolutions?  The day off work?  

All the children pictured here have died since that day.  Their faces will never be seen on this earth again.  No earthly being will hold them close and tell them how loved they are.  They have died, never knowing the love of a family.

The blessing here is that Margaret and her friends are with Jesus now.  He is rocking them in His arms, telling them that they are His children, created beautifully, wonderfully and perfectly in His image.  The love and beauty they are experiencing now is more than anything we could imagine.

But they deserved happiness here on earth too.  They shouldn't have had to leave us so soon.  Because they were discarded by a society who didn't appreciate them for who they were.  

My friends, THIS is why we scream.  This is why I post face after face after face, beg for contributions, money or goods or time... THIS is why, when you think I'm being depressing and irritating by posting so many sad things on my facebook page, I keep yelling.

These deaths were preventable.

If only these children had been seen in time.

My heart is truly broken.

So next time I scream for a precious child - like my Angel Tree child, Elden...http://reecesrainbow.org/13177/elden-14g

Or my friend's Angel Tree child, another boy I love, Brett...

Or a family who is working hard to bring their children home, saving their lives...

Like 'Xenia's family...

Or Everett and Olson's family... 

Or Makayla's Family

...Or so many others...

Those faces are why I do it.  Those ones that will never be seen on this earth again.  I do not want these precious treasures to be next.  Please.  Hear my cries.  Feel their pain.  Ask God to break your heart for what breaks His.  Be a part of the solution... of saving lives.

In loving memory of all the precious angels we have lost...

May the Lord rock you in his arms, hold you, tell you you are loved, until we get there to finally meet you.  Rest in peace, in no more pain, sweet babes.

Remember...