Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Prayers for Patrick

Calling all of Patrick's Prayer Partners!

Just because Patrick has a family does not at all
mean this blog is ending. It is actually just beginning! As Patrick's Prayer Warrior, my commitment is to pray until Patrick is HOME. Patrick and his family will need lots of prayer between now and then. So....here is where you all come in:

Hopefully, Patrick's family will have their own blog--so I will let them tell their story and Patrick's story. I do want to use this blog for prayer for them and for Patrick. So, I am using this blog so that all of you who love Patrick can share your prayers on his behalf. I would like to eventually compile all the prayers into a scrapbook so that Patrick can have a special reminder to look at of all the people who helped to bring him home!

So...please continue to pray. Prayers can be left as comments. I am thinking that unless you indicate otherwise, I can publish those prayers as separate posts. Those of you wishing to agree in prayer with someone can post a new comment underneath that prayer...or a new prayer that can become it's own separate post. Hopefully, I will get too many prayers to keep track of all of them--and when that happens--I will start working on the scrapbook.

Thanks to all of you for loving Patrick! He is one amazingly special little fellow to have so much love and prayers going up on his behalf.

Guess Who Has a Family?

If you guessed sweet little Patrick--the star of this blog--you have guessed correctly! No, it is not me....but I cannot wait to hear more! Hopefully, they will have a blog--it will be exciting to see Patrick with his family! Keep the prayers going up for Patrick and for his family! God is listening, and answering them!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Patrick's Story

I started this blog for Patrick, an orphan with arthrogryposis, in hopes that his forever family will find him. Patrick is listed on Reece's Rainbow, and I am his prayer warrior.

This is Patrick's story, told by Julia, who adopted her son, Aaron, who also has arthrogryposis. She puts into words a story, so heartbreaking, about a little boy who has captured my heart, and I pray he will capture your heart, as well:

"Six years ago, a Mama across the ocean gave birth to a little boy. His little body was twisted and contorted, and the doctors and nurses whispered in her ears, urging her to give him up: "He will never walk." "He will be a burden." "You cannot afford to keep him." "He will be better off hidden away." "He should not have been born." She was in an unforgiving world where broken children are tossed aside on a regular basis.

Despite all of this, her mother's heart would not allow her to let him go. Against the advice of all of those worldly-wise whisperers, she decided to keep him. She carried her beloved little boy with the contorted body home, where she cared for him and loved on him. She tenderly worked his arms and his legs. She nursed him and washed him. It was hard. We don't know if she had support. We know that finding work while maintaining a disabled child at home in that world is next to impossible. Somehow, though, mother and son survived together in this way for six years.

Back in January 2011, financial strain and her own health problems forced this Mama to take her son to live in a baby house orphanage. She chose the best one she could find, one where the staff was willing to work with special needs kids like her son. She wanted to find a job and a home nearby so that she could visit her precious treasure. Evey time she walked through the door, his face lit up: his Mama was back. Her love carried him through the loneliness of the baby house and kept him going. He loved his Mama and she loved him.

A few months later, though, Mama suddenly stopped coming. Her little boy longed for her and waited for her; but no matter how hard he wished for her, she no longer appeared.

Her absence wasn't by choice. Unknown to the little boy, his Mama had died of cancer in March.

Now he is all alone in the orphanage, with no one to visit him, for the first time in his six years of life. He refuses to believe the caretakers who tell him that she is never coming back. Each day, he continues to look for her. He scans the face of everyone who walks into the building, looking for a Mama who can never return to him.

A little boy who was tenderly loved for 6 years, suddenly orphaned.


He needs a Mama.

He desperately needs a Mama.

He will not be allowed to stay at his good baby house orphanage. Because he is wheelchair bound, he will be transferred to an institution for older children with special needs, just as Aaron was transferred.

I can't bear the thought.

His Reece's Rainbow name is Patrick and he needs a Mama.

He needs to grieve in the arms of a Mama who will help him overcome his great loss. He needs a family who can restore for him the joy of being loved and held and cherished.

I would get him if I could. I would cross that ocean and bring him home if the road was clear for us. But it is not. And so I am crying out for someone else to go get him. He needs a family.

My heart grieves deep within me for this one little boy.

Please please please post on your blogs about this little guy. Please, someone go get him.

Little boys are not supposed to have to say goodbye to their Mamas when they are only six years old."