By Karen Feathers
When we first met Diana in late October 2001 at the Berizka Baby House in Kiev, Ukraine, we saw a very quiet and withdrawn little 2-year-old who sucked the inside of her mouth out of fear and was afraid to make eye contact.
Diana was a 17-pound “Ukrainian pixie,” as my husband called her, with a little sprout of hair poking up on top of her head whose brown eyes stole our hearts. Who was to know that God would have a plan for us to begin a ministry to an early intervention center for children with disabilities called the pahinets, which means “little sprouts”?
Who was to know that this little girl with her once hidden sparky personality and with her will to communicate and to engage herself in every aspect of life would motivate so many in Fork Union, Va., to believe in a better future for other Ukrainian orphans like her?
God knew and planned our lives accordingly to be ready to meet the calling of our hearts that has gone beyond a mission for adoption. He knew we would respond to the calling for a greater cause of fighting for the lives and rights of children of Ukraine with disabilities.
Our journey began in November 1998 with the birth of our fourth child, Erin-a beautiful little girl with Down's Syndrome and significant heart defects. She was welcomed into the world with open arms by her parents, three older brothers and a loving community and supportive church. After a couple of years with Erin, we felt God was leading our family to adopt another little girl with Down's Syndrome.
We felt Erin would need a sibling close to her age, and we felt that we had something to give another child like Erin, based on what we had learned as a family through the “Babies Can't Wait” early intervention program in our community. We had been educated and encouraged by special-needs educators and therapists and home and later in the public school program that began at the age of 2. We lived in a community that valued our daughter and encouraged our family. We were learning many things about God's unconditional love from Erin.
We quickly learned about the process of adoption. Parents of children with Down's Syndrome in Ukraine are encouraged to relinquish parental rights after birth and the children are placed in orphanages. Around the age of 4, these children are sent to Level 4 orphanages where they are institutionalized under poor conditions. Many do not live beyond the first year.
While in Ukraine preparing to take Diana home with us, we had several opportunities to explain the educational and therapeutic services available to children and families in the United States through federal programs and public education. We described the learning potential of children with Down's Syndrome and showed pictures of Erin at school interacting with nondisabled peers.
The officials, including the judge in court on adoption day, marveled at this concept of these “imbeciles” being important to families, going to schools and being included in society. The orphanage director asked me to return with people who could train people in techniques of early intervention for children with disabilities.
That led to the formation of the Ukraine Special Needs Orphanages Fund Inc., a non-profit organization based in Fork Union. Churches have responded to the call to minister with us across the Central Virginia Baptist Association. Joined with churches in the Northstar Church Network through New Hope Baptist Church of Alexandria, we have held fundraising basketball tournaments. Several Virginia Baptists have offered mission support for the needed therapy supplies and training professionals for mission trips to the Kiev, Vorzel, Rivne and Lutsk regions of Ukraine over the past four years.
Ministry opportunities have grown to include working with baby houses, older orphanages, an intake facility and an early intervention center for children with disabilities. Mission teams included construction workers and Vacation Bible School teams, along with the special needs professionals working to establish supportive relationships and developing improvements. We are working to understand an evolving society and to validate the need for change.
On our trips, we have found brave parents of children with special needs who are trying to keep their children at home within a society offering only a kindergarten education and limited therapy services to children with disabilities. We are collaborating with the Ukrainian-American Birth Defects Program to implement training programs for professionals and university students in teacher education; to fund the publishing of Small Steps, an early intervention curriculum; and to encourage parent advocacy as parents approach city officials to ask for more education and services for their children.
We have even been asked to write to President Yuschenko's wife to ask for her support of educational opportunities for the special children of Ukraine.
Our Ukrainian pixie has become an integral part of our family and community, and her determined spirit to live life to the fullest has fueled the mission of the Ukraine Special Needs Orphanages Fund Inc. As a family and community of Virginia Baptists, we have joined together on mission trips to Ukraine to bring God's message of the value of the lives of the children of Ukraine with special needs. These children have a right in this world to live and to be educated and to know that there is a God who has a plan for their lives for a better future within their society.
Special to the Herald
Karen Feathers is president of the Ukraine Special Needs Orphanages Fund Inc. and is a member of Fork Union Baptist Church.