Just about a year ago, a wonderful family adopted two boys from here. Everyone thought their littler son was more medically fragile, but as soon as they got home, they found out that the bigger one's pressure sores were so infected that he might not have lived long without the better medical care they got for him right away. He's doing wonderfully now.
He has a friend here who has similar problems: Anton. In fact, we have pictures of the two of them together at one of their hospital stays for this. Jackie, the mom in America, decided to try to get a pressure-relieving ROHO cushion for Anton. She asked the company, and they donated a whole pallet of them!
The cushions arrived in Ukraine a while ago, and Will got a call asking if we would pay customs taxes for them. The first estimate was based on a sale price, and it was reasonable, so we agreed. But then the customs people looked up the cushions online, found out the regular price, and reevaluated. They called back to say that we owed $1700! That started a long and very involved process, but the long and short of it is that the shipping company and Will eventually got the shipment re-listed as humanitarian aid, so that it came through customs free.
Then, last week we got to the fun part. We delivered the first cushion, showed Anton and the head nurse how to use it, and counted up how many more they can use. I was very happy to hear that he's the only one with sores currently, but there are other kids who tend to get them. Each of them will have a cushion. Also, the nurse wants to try using them under some of the smallest, most fragile kids who are completely bed bound and don't move around. Even though these are intended as wheelchair cushions, they're big enough to be like mattresses for the littlest ones. Then we'll distribute the rest of the cushions to institutions where "graduates" from this orphanage live.
An added bonus was that my parents were here when we went, so they got to go with us.
(Also, the smaller brother recently had his 17th birthday. His mother--who got these cushions--posted about him on that day. Because the wonders of adoption and family need to be shared far and wide, please go read what she wrote and look at the photos.)
3 comments:
What a wonderful story. I’m sure the generosity and help getting them to the children is much appreciated. I’m glad your parents got to participate in this story.
What a delight it was to be there when Anton received his cushion! We count ourselves highly privileged to see the long-awaited results of Jackie's concern, the generosity of the cushion company, and Will's persistence in paperwork. Hallelujah!
This is so wonderful!! Thank you to Jackie for getting them to you, Will being able to work w/ Customs to bring them through tax free and to all of you for getting them to those who need them!! We thank the Lord for all of you!!
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