Together with 3 friends, I visited Julia’s foster home last week. We mainly helped to play with the children, feed them food, weed the garden and clean the yard. It was such a full and interesting day that I couldn’t help thinking of it after I was back home.
Abandoned
There were 7 children in the foster home by the time we visited. The reasons they ended up being there are varied. Some of them were born with severe disability, some of them formed mental problems in their childhood, and some of them have an incurable disease which costs a lot of money for ongoing treatment. One thing they do share in common is that they are all abandoned by their birth parents.
There is no doubt that life is already hard for those kids. Being abandoned by their parents makes it even worse. One the one hand, they need to battle against the problem they have daily, endure the glances from others, and struggle to integrate themselves into society when they grow up. On the other hand, they are forced to accept the harsh reality of being discarded by their parents. It requires a plenty of love and efforts to bridge the gap and erase the grief later on.
However, the cruelty doesn’t just stop here. For some of the children, they will experience more than one abandonment in their life. Sometimes, they are moved from one adoptive family to another. In other cases, the orphanage itself is under too much pressure and needs to transfer the kids to somewhere else. This is where Julia’s foster home comes into play.
Adopted
Julia, a Christian and caring lady, is the founder of this special foster home. Without support from the government, her place accepts children with extraordinary problems that the state-owned orphanage rejected. Given the predicable future for those kids is to die slowly, Julia has been rescuing such children for 13 years, believing that there are still chances for them to get well.
Owing to delicate and appropriate, caring treatment and companionship, kids with autism got better, those who couldn’t walk are able to now, and those who were diagnosed with dementia can make human interactions.Those recovered kids are gradually being adopted by different families now, as they have been all through these 13 years.
Before children are adopted by a qualified family, Julia raises them as her own. With her great patience and love, children have made remarkable progress each year. Miracles happened every day in this wonderful place.
Adored
Not only Julia, but those who knew about her place are also willing to help. We heard about Julia’s story from a friend and decided to pay a visit last week. We were glad to do every task that she assigned. Knowing that every little work matters to her and the children, we did them with contentment and zeal.
Not only us, there was another volunteer who came by and helped the children take showers, and another couple sent breast milk for the little ones. Their lives started with desertion, but they are cared by many people that they didn’t know.
Not only us and all the other volunteers, God, who promised to be the father of the fatherless, also adorned them as His beloved children. It is He who created them in such a unique way. Though we can’t comprehend the reason behind, we know that God works all things for good. As Jesus replied His disciples regarding a man blind from birth, I believe the same for the children. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John chapter 9, verse 3).
If the children could know God one day, they will know that God Himself separated from his only son 2,000 years ago as well. But He did it out of no selfish desire but great love. It’s the only way that man can be adopted as His sons. “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians chapter 1, versus 5). May prayer for those children is that they could be adopted into God’s eternal family one day.
Cindy Cheng was born and brought up in central China. Cindy enjoys travelling and reading history books. Cindy is inspired by talking with local people when travelling abroad experiencing different parts of the world, as well as herself.
Cindy’s previous articles may be found at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/cindy-cheng.html