A jumble of thoughts...

We all had recent dental appointments here.  It cost each of us 95 cents, except for the one who needed an x-ray…that bill totaled around $10.  The contrasts between our two worlds are almost incomprehensible.

I also had a very small surgical procedure here for a bump on my foot that had been growing for about a year.  I pursued a resolution while we were in the U.S., but even getting an opinion surpassed $300, and then the doctor didn’t really want to operate.  Here, I have a friend who is a surgeon working at the mission hospital.  We went through all of the proper channels at the hospital.  I got the lump removed.  And the bill totaled just over $13.  I am thrilled with the outcome, and so happy that I could make this contribution to the budget here.  So many patients cannot pay their bills and need to use the funds that come from generous donors around the world, and that fund is running dangerously low.

I have had a blessed opportunity to receive training in neonatal resuscitation and in caring for burned patients (a common occurrence), as applicable to this place with our current set of resources.  I was thrilled when a few days after the resuscitation course, I was called to the operating room for a baby who was being delivered by c-section because of decreased movement and hardly any amniotic fluid.  I was so thankful to be equipped with an understanding of the local protocol.  The baby did fine.

In regard to adoption, every door we have knocked on has remained closed.  Our own government has erected a large barrier to adoptions because of insurmountable corruption in the system here in Nepal.  I recently read a book called Little Princes, which documents just one of the problems here: many of the orphanages in Kathmandu are full of kids with living parents.  Their parents gave money to a child trafficker (unknowingly) during the recent 10-year war in Nepal, believing their kids would be taken to the city where more food was available and where they could get an education.  Along the way to the city, additional funds were collected from foreigners who believed these children were orphans (and some false parental death certificates were sometimes provided to encourage that belief).  In the capital city, money was collected again as the kids were sold to wealthy people who wanted laborers in their homes.  Many of the children were neglected and some near death when they were discovered by international groups who established orphanages to save these kids from their slavery.  So now there are orphanages full of kids who are not truly orphans and yet reuniting them with their parents is fraught with difficulties and some are physically faring better in the orphanage than they ever could in their villages again.  I fear that not all parents would desire to take their children home again.  When I contemplate the emotional suffering that these kids have endured, I shudder.  This is only part of the story. 
We continue to see and know that there are many children wandering this country without parents.  Even if their parents are alive, they have abandoned their children, often due to hopelessness, in a world where they cannot adequately provide for their children.  Their inability to provide may stem from lack of resources, oppression as a single parent, addiction to destructive substances (most common being alcohol), lack of understanding of what children need, etc.  My heart is getting that ache again, even as I write.  So, the conundrum of our current situation is that we have the resources, the desire and the know-how to raise at least two of these orphaned children, and yet every avenue where we have pursued, our access has been denied.  We wonder why the LORD has put this on our hearts.  Finally, the next barrier that we may soon run into is our advancing age.  We have recently read some Indian documents in regard to adoption that say that once our combined age exceeds 90 years, we will be out of the window of opportunity to adopt in this part of the world.  This year, after our birthdays, our combined age will equal 90 years.  My current prayer: “We look to you, Lord Jesus…what have you placed in our hearts and for what purpose, and do you intend to move the mountains that stand in between us and some orphaned children?”  Will you join us in asking that He would grant us insight?  Thank you!

Finally, you might think that in our going back and forth between these two cultures, we might eventually become immune to culture shock.  Oh, I wish it were true.  However, I find myself in the doldrums of culture shock again, wondering how it was that I once saw beauty in this culture.  Don’t get me wrong, I still see beautiful people here, whom I admire and even love.  Yet, the dark glasses that my eyes seem to be wearing right now only see all the corruption, the darkness, and the dysfunctional aspects of this culture.  Yet, like all cultures, this one too is mixed with good and bad.  Please pray that I could soon remove my dark glasses and see more fully the beauty that is surely here.

Appreciating your input into our lives,
Kimberly