The boy who lived.

 I have been watching another Pleven story unfold before my eyes, thank you internet.  I have been AMAZED at the progress this little girl is making.  She too, was almost Simon's age and only 18 pounds, she too has a similar diagnosis to Simon.  It has left me wondering and hoping and thinking.  You know even from the picture that was taken for Simon's file in June and the picture another mom took in September of last year, Simon looks to be improving.  (at least the care he was getting was improving, you can tell by his hair)  In our photos from March 2013, he looks even better.

This is Simon in June 2012, 17 pounds.

This is Simon in Sept 2012, 18 pounds.

So in reality my son is already healing, just as I have been praying that he would ;).  When we committed to this small, sick, hurt boy we made the commitment to love him no matter what.  Which is a pretty big leap of faith if you think about it.  Many people in our culture today have trouble making that kind of lifelong commitment to people they have known AND already loved for 5 years or more.  Yet there we were...having to trust God that this was the right choice and that NO MATTER what we will LOVE this child with ALL that we have.  We will do everything we can to help him HEAL.

Why, would we do that?  Well, sometimes you hear about a need so great, that you just can't ignore it.  Sometimes you hear about an injustice too horrible to deny, you have to act, you have to REDEEM.  I studied the Holocaust in college, I always wondered what I would have done, if I lived in Poland at the time.  Would I protect my neighbors, would I risk the safety of my family to safe someone else's family?  Here, was my chance to answer a similar question, after I found out about an orphanage that held children prisoner in their cribs, who gave them enough care to keep them barely alive, who housed a 16 year old that weighed 16 pounds, what would I do.  Would I just try to block it out, or would I risk it all?  Would I agree to a 28,000.00 process I had no money to pay for, believing God would provide?  Would I add a child to my home that may NEVER leave it, who may never walk, never talk, never be potty trained?

I counted the cost before I started this adoption and I realized that nothing mattered to me more than doing my part to save a child from this place.  No vacation or freedom for myself and my family means more to me than another human life.  Somehow Simon lived through this "holocaust", at almost 9 years old he is 20 pounds and he is still alive.  When we traveled in March we saw that we could hope that he would walk.  The jury is still out on whether or not he will talk.  I don't have my hopes too high for his development, because I KNOW what he has been through, and I don't know if I could heal from that.  Heck, I have trouble healing from my little emotional hurts....imagine being abandoned, imagine being starved, imagine being alone in a crib in a dark room, imagine never being comforted or touched by a mother, while the world waits for you to die....but he didn't die.

HOWEVER, I know that everyday we will see him COME BACK TO LIFE.  I know I will see with my "mommy eyes" his wonderful strides but I don't know how quickly you will get to see them.  Maybe it will be as fast as that beautiful little girl that was brought home a week ago, who is signing for more food and laughing with her brothers.  But maybe it won't....I am okay with that.  I would love for you, my family and friends, to be okay with that too.  Please let us never forget where my son comes from, what my son has been through and please don't forget, we are leaving HUNDREDS more of these children behind.

I don't know what is going to be happening next week, but I feel so blessed to be apart of it.  I feel blessed to be apart of the group of families who have committed to these children.  I feel blessed to be called Simon's mom.