rebelling against low expectations

Help Viktor and Yuri Get Adopted

H

It’s midnight in America. As we lay sleeping, the sun is dusting a half-curtained window far away. If you looked through that window you would see a line of cribs. Little heads are slowing raising. In the midst of these children are two tiny boys. One named Yuri and one named Viktor. Yuri crawls to the edge of his crib and pulls himself up to watch the rays of sun tumble to the floor. Viktor remains seated, but he clutches the bars of the crib and moans, rocking back and forth in his childhood prison.

The sun is a cruel beauty to both of them. It lightens the trees and overgrown grass in the yard; it lightens beyond—beyond where they will never see.

The sunshine flaunts the world in front of their faces, taunting them of joy and love and laughter they will never have. Taunting them about the roads that lead elsewhere—roads that lead away from barred prisons for seven-year-olds.

viktor_small

Viktor cries out into the empty stillness. No one answers—of course. He cries out again—yelling for the dream of a rescue that has nearly faded from his mind. He shifts his twisted ankles beneath him and stares out the window at the world that disabled Ukrainian children are shut out from.

Yuri lays back down in his crib. His sweet eyes become vacant as he fixes them on the ceiling. Nobody would know what he was thinking—if he even is. There is nothing to think in this place. And, by the time you are nearly seven, you certainly should have run out of hope. By that age you aren’t the cute kid with shining eyes who captures hearts with dazzling smiles. In fact, it’s a small miracle if you know how to smile anymore. No, by this age, your body is becoming twisted from needed but never received surgeries and therapies and lack of food. Your ribs show like you have spent your years in a concentration camp…and, in a way, you have. Eyes, glimmering with the last dying flecks of hope, sweep over the window and the lengthening morning. Another day has begun.

When I met Viktor and Yuri in 2011, I was appalled at the conditions in their orphanage, although I knew what to expect. Still, knowing and seeing are different. Holding the hands of 15 pound six-year-olds and watching little children screaming as they slowly went insane from being ignored and starved, dug its way into my breaking heart. I came back to America knowing that I would do all I could to find adoptive families for three of those children. Those three? Viktor, Yuri, and Katia. After months of advocating on my part, a family stepped forward for dying Katia and brought her home. The changes in this child are amazing. She is no longer dying—no, she is healing. But there is no healing going on for Yuri or Viktor. They remain, banging their crippled bodies against cribs, begging for freedom. Begging for love. Love that may just never come.

yuri_small

Yuri is turning seven this summer. His special needs include microcephally and cerebral palsy (although he is capable of being VERY active; crawling, walking—even escaping from the cribs and I do doubt that diagnosis). He also has many mental issues…what can you expect from a child who has never been spoken to or held? Viktor is turning seven, too. He has Down syndrome, microcephally, spastic tetraparesis, and partial atrophy of the optic nerves. He has deformed ankles. They didn’t seem to bend. I received an update summer 2012 that he had gotten an operation on his ankles, though!

I just received word that Yuri is being sent to an institution for older children. I knew that this was going to happen, being that he is aging out of the “baby house”, but, still, the news brought tears to my eyes. Statistics in these institutions are appalling. In some, almost no children escape death. It can also be harder to adopt from these places. The orphanage asked if there was an adoptive family for Yuri. If there was, there is a chance they could try to keep him at the orphanage until the family arrived.

There is no family.

A few days ago a man contacted me and told me that he would be would be willing to donate a few thousand—a few thousand—dollars towards Viktor’s adoption if a family stepped forward.

But there is no family.

And as the days pass, time is ticking down—ticking out—for these two boys. I have tried. I have tried to get the word out, tried to find people who could take care of these children; people who were ready to take on the lifelong responsibility of adopting a child with severe special needs. Yes, I have tried, and, for Yuri and Viktor, I have failed.

That’s why I need help.

Your help.

Please—send out an email to everyone on your contact list, call up a friend, make a Facebook post or a blog post. Pass on Yuri and Viktor’s stories. If you want to do even more, but cannot adopt one of the boys yourself, send me an email at mckennaugh [at] inbox [dot] com with a pledge of an amount that you would be willing to donate towards one of the boys’ adoptions, if they received families. Whatever you do, do it now.

They’re waiting.


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About the author

McKennaugh Kelley

age 19, recently launched APPOINT, an organization for teens who want to get involved in saving unborn children. When she’s not holding signs, running booths, or standing in front of abortion clinics, you can find her hiking in the Pennsylvania mountains, on an Amtrak, in a big car with lots of miles on it and a gas peddle that mostly stays near the floor, eating whole containers of ice cream while jumping off the ledges of Rock Run, holed up in a corner writing, or trying to get back to that old blown-up mountain called St. Helens and its close friend Mt. Hood.

30 comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Oh, I wish I could adopt one or both of the, but I’m still a teenager myself. I will pray for them myself and see if I can donate towards on of their adoptions. Is there a minimum pledge amount?

    • Dear Emily,
      Thanks for your love for these boys. No, there is not minimum pledge amount; every dollar would count to a potential adoptive family. You can send me an email at mckennaugh [at] inbox [dot] com if you would like to give a pledge. I will not take the money directly from you–I will waiting until a family commits to one of the boys and then I will forward your information to them. That way, if a family doesn’t commit, I don’t have a lot of money on my hands that I can’t actually put towards the boys’ good. Does this make sense to you?
      Anyway, even if you cannot donate or adopt them yourself, there is a lot of things that you CAN do to help. Pray for them. And, please, pass on their story. Every time their story gets passed on they get one more chance at life.
      –McKennaugh

  • Oh, and I am so encouraged to see you advocating to get these sweethearts adopted! Praise God!!! I wasn’t even aware that these boys existed!!

  • I just want to go and adopt them! I can’t but I will defiantly share this. My friends and I have been looking for a “hard thing” to do and we didn’t want to start something. Children with disabilities is something that sticks close to me. I wish they all could have a happy home!
    I will be praying!!!

  • I will definitely share and pray. Only wish I could do more.
    keep it up,

    Will

    “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. – II Timothy 1:7

    • Hi, Will! Don’t worry–sharing and praying can make a world of difference. Sometimes it is very hard to get people to want to spread the word. Thanks for being willing.

  • I am praying. This breaks my heart and I wept for almost an hour. I am angry that this is going on in our world. I have known about things like this before, but there is something about hearing about specific children. And I am hurt that this is going on. But I am grateful for people like you who try to do something. I already shared this on facebook and am praying and will continue to pray. I am also going to talk to my family to see if we can get together to pledge some money towards the adoption of these absolutely precious boys. If I were older I would do everything I could to adopt them myself. It really hurts that I can’t.

    I am listening to “Hope Is Rising” by Luminate. I feel like the words to the song are so appropriate. “Every prison has a door. Every captive will be free.”

    Thank you for sharing this. Thank you so much.

    • Thank YOU for reading, sharing, and, most of all, having a heart for Yuri and Viktor like I do. I am glad to know that I won’t be the only one praying for them tonight…really glad.

  • You are an amazing writer. I finished reading this article and was amazed and thrilled to see that you’re just 17. These boys are SO sweet, I wish I could just snuggle them and sing to them and give them the love they need and deserve. Thank you for sharing this, I will help get the word out.

  • Aw, how sad – I’d love to adopt all of them when I grow up. I so want to help all the little ones like these – they are soooo sweet…I love kids, they don’t deserve stuff like this. 🙁

  • Wow! Thank you so much for writing this! Love the letter. Love the compassion! Keep writing the stories of these who have no voice! I think you are fulfilling a life calling!

  • My friend and I are trying to spread the news about these poor boys, including Miroslav. God will find a way. 🙂 This is so sad… I wish I could go there right now, spread a blanket on the grass outside, and take them all out to play. I really enjoy little kids, I don’t understand how anyone can do this.

rebelling against low expectations

The Rebelution is a teenage rebellion against low expectations—a worldwide campaign to reject apathy, embrace responsibility, and do hard things. Learn More →