Orphan Sunday: Reece's Rainbow

Dear Readers,

Every time I go on to Reecesrainbow.com, I go to the search box and type in the name "Marcia".

And every time I type that up, the above picture is my answer. I had allowed my heart to hope just a little bit in the moments between the home page and the no results page. "Maybe she will be there this time!!" But Marcia is no longer listed on Reece's Rainbow. So instead of her sweet little picture, 

I'm greeted with this dismal message: "NO RESULTS FOUND". 

But does the fact that she is no longer on Reece's Rainbow mean she no longer exists? Of course not!

Somewhere this precious girl is locked in a mental institution. Somewhere halfway around the world from me Marcia is hurting.  This sweet girl is in desperate need of a family. She needs someone to hug her and kiss her and wipe all her tears away. She needs someone to scoop her up from that crib she spends all day in and tell her she is loved. Marcia needs medical care for her Spina Bifida and love for her tender little heart. 

This picture makes me cry every time. Seeing her little fist on those metal bars...that hopeful look in her eyes! When I was able to get updates on her from Reece's Rainbow they said she had lost all hope. 

Lost all hope. 

Today is Orphan Sunday. 

Marcia is one of millions. There are hundreds of millions of children in the world who go every day without a mommy or daddy tucking them in at night. Like Marcia, they have no one to tell them they are loved. 

If you jumped from foster family to foster family because they couldn't handle your extensive emotional needs, or disabilities, or even just your personality, how would you feel? If you were left in a cold bed all day, never feeling a loving touch, would you feel loved?

Here are some staggering statistics from Show Hope: 

 43.4 million orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa, 87.6 million orphans live in Asia, and 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
 1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe alone.
 At any given point there are over 500,000 children in the U.S. Foster Care system.

Do you know what "public care" means? Public care means a mental institution where they lay a five year old down on a bed the day she arrives, and she will hardly ever leave that bed again. Public care means laying in that crib with nothing to listen to all day but the screams of the others in there. Public care means stimming and biting yourself because you are so, so bored. 

Today is Orphan Sunday. Today we need to do something for those children who are in Foster Care in the US. Today we need to do something for the millions dying in orphanages and mental institutions around the world. 

Today we need to pray.