Another Sweet Reception

Meet Stacie Joy.

Meet her new parent's.

 

Stacie met her new parent's today in Eastern Europe.

These were the words her new mommy wrote on her blog this morning:

"...We walked into the room where lots of 'official people' were...directors, teachers, our facilitators.....and Stacie. Behind the desk with the director. I hope I never forget these first moments of finally seeing our daughter. She walked around the desk to us and Andrew and I knelt down. She stood in front of me and reached out her hands, so we held hands and then I gave her a hug. This little girl held on so tight. As much as we were hoping for a good reception I was not expecting this. She hugged so long and held on so tight as if to say, "what took you so long?" From that point on she clung to me for the rest of the time we were in that room. My one arm almost lost circulation because I was afraid to move it away from her :)"

What you may not be able to physically see through this beautiful child's eyes is that she is HIV+--as are many of the children in Eastern European orphanages and institutions.  

Your first reaction might be "No way!  What is that family thinking bringing a child with HIV into their safe home?"  Or "what if their other children get infected?" 

These are just a few of the questions people adopting children who have AIDS or are HIV+ may have to face, day-in and day-out.  Visit www.projecthopeful.org to get these questions and more answered.  You might be surprised by just a few of these facts.

   1. You cannot contract HIV through casual contact such as sweat, tears, snot, feces, urine.
   2. There has NEVER been an accidental transmission of HIV or AIDS in a normal household setting.
   3. “ Don’t spend time worrying about weird and obscure ways of transmitting the virus. The simple
fact is that if no one shared needles and everyone wore condoms, the HIV epidemic would disappear. ” ---Joel Gallant, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins
AIDS Service at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
   4. Some of the greatest challenges individuals with HIV will face are related to social stigma and
ignorance about how the HIV virus is transmitted.

Hope

Yale

 

After reading the Project Hopeful website and the information above....look at these innocent faces who are still desiring a family to bring him/her home FOREVER!  Consider becoming a Prayer Warrior for any of these children, or pray for God to work on your heart about possibly adopting one of these children.

Joanie

Calvin