Heavy on my heart

Even though we have begun the homestudy process, I still feel so helpless when I see these children.  I can't adopt them all, and most of them don't fit the criteria that we have agreed on.  So please, somebody, help them!

Little Sasha, eight years old and still the size of a baby, just transferred to an adult mental institution where he probably never goes out of his crib, is inadequately fed and changed, and where, statistically speaking, he is likely to die within a year:

I first saw 8-year-old Donovan listed under "Additional Children".  Now he has his own listing.  Look how tiny and frail he is!  Can you see his ribs through the t-shirt? I imagine he was "cheerful, sociable" as an infant, but now I doubt he has the energy for that.

Dylan is an adorable 9-year-old, sitting here on a toddler ride-on toy.  I just want to scoop him up!

Back in May I blogged about Nathan, whose eyes still haunt me.

Look what a sweet baby he was.  This is what years in an institution will do to a human being.

The same transformation is evident in Sonny, who went from a cute smiley redhead:

To a frightened child, beaten by the older children (or even the staff) at an institution:

Oh my. I can't take this any more.