There are many updates to share with the current conflict in Ukraine. Jed and Kim Johnson with Wide Awake International live not far from Kiev, the center of much fighting. They stayed on the homestead as long as possible but made the decision to leave and get their boys to safety. Jed serves as guardian for many of the young men they care for and thankfully was able to talk through checkpoints at the border. Please continue to pray for their safety as they work through moving nearly 40 people to safety in Romania.
We know families who have been matched with their sons with Down syndrome and other special needs, a few very fragile. They were very close to traveling to bring them home. The war started the last week of February and all those plans have come to a standstill. We have been trying to connect them to folks on the ground near those orphanages and find ways to get their sons to safety. Please pray for these families! Many have no food or water, and are trapped by the advancing forces.
We are in contact with guys who have teams on the ground in Kiev looking for orphaned kids, evacuating and trading those folks at the borders for more supplies, and returning for more people. War brings casualties that boggle the mind. In this case, folks working at orphanages who don’t truly care for the children simply bail! They leave, which makes this work of life and death importance. Room to Bloom, with your help, will send a donation to our friends in the field to purchase diapers, baby supplies, etc… They have already flown 13 suitcases of supplies into Poland to be picked up and taken back into Kiev where they are so desperately needed.
Please pray for the innocents and send what you can.
The Troyer family is almost through adopting this precious 9-year-old girl with Down syndrome from Bulgaria. Keith and Lori are waiting on final approvals from the Bulgarian government, and then they can travel to bring her home! Room to Bloom will be traveling with them to document their daughter’s journey home and share the homecoming with all of you in a future issue of Plain Values.
Room to Bloom’s mission is to promote the beauty of adoption and to ascribe dignity to people with Down syndrome and other special needs. We do this by partnering with organizations that are dedicated to orphan care and adoption advocacy, strengthening families who have children with special needs, and giving a voice to the vulnerable.
