orphanage

for the past month or so STUCO (the school's student counsel) has been working a couple of fundraisers. one of which was a toy drive for a local orphanage. it seems like bishkek is full of orphanages and one of the things that i have learned since being here is that up to 80% of the kids in orphanages are considered "social orphans". there parents are still alive but have either abandoned them for financial reasons or because they are involved with drugs/in prison/etc.

anyway - our kids held a toy drive and a bake sale. with the proceeds of the bake sale we bought a bunch of fruit.

today we took the toys and the fruit to the orphanage. the place was clean enough but in typical soviet fashion a bit drab and cold (all the buildings here have cement floors and walls which are great in the summer but cold in the winter). we saw about 50 kids with most of them between 2 and 6 years old. the younger ones were in the nursery and the older ones were at school still. the kids looked happy enough and well kept. they were shy and friendly at the same time. they were so young and so small. it was heartbreaking. i felt like i was going to cry the entire time and had to step out of the building more than once.

so hard to imagine these kids spending their childhoods growing up without parents who love them. i especially feel that way now that i am a parent. how can someone not want to hold onto and cherish their baby? i love olive so much that i want other kids to feel as much love from their parents.

in many ways i know these kids are way better off in the orphanage. better off not being with parents who can't love them and care for them properly. but it is still so sad to see and think about. i wanted to take them all home with me. especially this one small little blond haired russian boy named david who kept looking at me and smiling when her learned that my name was david as well.

jen and i have talked before about adopting. we would like have a big family but we also know that since we are getting a late start (i am almost 40 and she is 30) that adopting (along with having another baby or two of our own) might be our best best. visiting the orphanage (and thinking about how many other thousands of children there are that need good homes) has us seriously considering that as an option.