What if he was your child?

I don’t know how he does it but this boy has a way of making every single person who walks through Loving Hearts Baby Home truly fall in love with him. . . if they stay for more than 10 minutes. I did not understand it at first. . . .and it did not really set in until the second day. . . but there is something about this boy. . .

If you were to look up "best baby ever" in the dictionary, there might be this picture next to it.

He is just SO good. Up until about a week ago, he really only cried when he was hungry. And even then, it wasn’t an intense cry.

He's also the BEST cuddle buddy ever. He wraps himself around you like a little monkey. He will just sit there with you. Just laying against you. The more he grows and develops, the more active he is getting while sitting with you, but still, he's so loving.
Perhaps this is part of what makes people fall in love with him.

Oh and the fact that he just has the sweetest spirit ever.

I can’t even explain it. You just never have to worry about Daniel. He does his own thing. He occupies himself.
He scoots around the house, army-crawl style. He lays in the rays of sunshine he can find. He bangs his feet and head on the ground for fun. He claps his hands. He touches your face so gently. He comes straight to any new person who walks in the room, especially his white friends.

To think that this boy was abandoned when just a couple of months old simply boggles my mind and breaks my heart.

I cannot help but wonder allllll the time:

Does his gentle, humble, quiet spirit come from the fact that for the first half year of his life no one cared about him? No one gave him love?

Is the reason he doesn’t cry very much because he learned that no one will come when you cry—or perhaps crying will only be met with pain inflicted upon him?

Has he learned to find his own contentment and fun because there is no one there to do it for him?
Has he learned to be satisfied with any food, attention, or affection he gets because its better than nothing?

I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I cannot help but wonder about it every time I hold him.

Because you see, he has learned to cry more now. I noticed it when I came back from being gone a week—after he had been there for 3 months. Now, when someone who gives him lots of tender love and affection puts him down after holding him, he cries. Now, he cries when he doesn’t get attention sometimes.

Perhaps he has learned from living with 3 infants that when THEY cry, THEY get held and get attention. So maybe he’s trying out that strategy.
Or maybe he’s realized how much he enjoys the love and affection he gets from us and it really does pain him when he does not get it.

Then there’s the other questions that come from his physical issues . . .

Something is wrong with Daniel's eyes in case you didn't notice in the pictures.
He had surgery to remove cataracts (from birth) so now he sees fine, but his eyes are always rolling around.

Its actually quite funny and precious. He is developing really well though. And he’s getting glasses, which should help.

He also has something wrong with his "private" area. Like, he doesn't urinate like a regular boy, but more like a girl. . .he's not fully developed down there. . .so we have to get that checked out. . .

So was he abandoned because he looked “retarted”/”disabled”?
That is a VERY common occurrence here.

Or was he going to be abandoned either way?

The doctor says his eye condition COULD be due to a brain injury.
So did the injury come when he was an infant due to maltreatment from the parents?
Or was it something that happened in the womb due to a careless mother?
Or was it completely out of the parents hands?

It is overwhelming to think about the life he would have if he was not in this home.
Children with "issues" like the ones he has are easily taken cared of in America, but here--they are tossed aside or locked in the back bedroom.

If he were YOUR child, what a different life Daniel would have.
If he were your child, these issues would be nothing. They may already be fixed.

I cannot wait to see the family who adopts this little boy and how well he develops! Any family that gets him will be extremely blessed.

Here are a few more from the Baby Home. . .

Yes, this is a very small stroller. With a very fat baby seated in the sitting part. And another baby scrunched up in the carrying pouch that reads, "Warning: never place more than 3 lbs in here." One of the mothers put Aiden in there because both of them would not stop crying. . . only in Uganda. . .

I just love when I have 2 or 3 at a time!