Baby Hatch

Baby Hatch gives me hope.

Baby Hatch... I wish we could begin to teach them to care for their children.  I wish there could be mass education and propaganda that children with disabilities are special.  I wish these parents were given support from their families, neighbors, and community.   There is a lot of judgement, a lot of bad advice given, and many people are giving up babies they should be keeping, that they probably want to keep but feel pressured to give up.  Same thing happens with abortion.  I've seen it, I've heard it, I'm sickened by it, and I pray one day "survival of the fittest" will no longer rule the minds of these people.  Please pray for China.  Pray for families who have babies with special needs.  It will take some courageous people to start the movement, but I believe it can and will happen.  This has been on my heart for many years.  Bless those who are waiting with open arms to care for these babies.  I'm about to blog about this... so much to say.

And so I blog....

Baby Hatch gives me hope.  It shows me that there are many in this country who love the disabled and sick.  It shows me that prejudice is lifting and that people are beginning to love others.  This is huge.  I have visited orphanages and seen the nannies love on the children.  I don't know if they all do it because they love the children.  I am sure for some it is just a job, but I see these children call them mama and I see the nannies give them affection.  Most babies in these state run orphanages were abandoned at the door.  It was illegal for years to abandon your baby, but hundreds of thousands did it anyway.  There are many reasons people abandoned babies.  Finances are probably the biggest reason.  That and the desire to have a boy.  I've been privy to knowing families who have abandoned babies or "taken them to the orphanage" because the baby was a girl.  Another girl.  Oh no!  But in a country where they were only allowed to have one child for many moons (now they can have 2) the pressure was on for women to give birth to a son.  If a girl child was born then they'd try again.  Heaven forbid another girl... this was just bad luck.  For the rich a fine can be paid and a card can be obtained that allows the child to go to school and be an active member of society.  For the poor, the child stays in the village, they may or may not be able to go to a village school without proper papers, but in essence they don't exist.  They can never get any legal documents themselves without having a ID card.  So, it is a horrible bind these parents are in when they have over the legal number of children.

Now, Baby Hatch seems to be specially designed for sick children.  That is not surprising.  Although medical costs can sore when a child has a life long condition I'm not so sure that is why these children are being abandoned.  It is not my place to judge the families.  My heart breaks for them.  I have been witness to many women who seem to have no motherly instincts toward their children... this I don't understand, but it happens.  Most however love their children.  They don't always show it the way we do in the West.  They don't usually lavish children with words of affection or hugs and kisses, but they love them.  The problem I see though is that in this communal society what your neighbor next door thinks about you is really important.  People are in competition when it comes to their children.  They compare everything from looks to grades in school.  Being the best is important and being the least is a horrid thought.  Of course that doesn't mean people don't love their children regardless, but it does mean that they have a negative attitude about them in regard to their weakness.  They blame them, they tell them they aren't as good, and the sad thing is that they believe that themselves.  Society has made these parents believe their child isn't as good.  The Chinese are very open with their opinions too.  They point out perceived faults, they will ask a perfect stranger questions about an imperfection that would make our blood curl.  Sometimes they are being cruel, but often they are just playing out an atheistic view of mankind.  Love on merit.  The best man wins.  Survival of the fittest.  They actually never consider the emotions of others, they just rehash advice that has been cultivated in their hearts over the decades.  So when a woman has a baby with disabilities that baby is worthless.  I'm not saying the mother feels that way, but that is the message she is given.  A message that echos from way back.  She will be told that the burden will be too great for her family.    You see that child is the entire family's problem, not just mom and dad's.  She'll be reminded that the child will not be able to learn or work or be an active member of society.  The child will never meet their filial duties in life.  So the stress of already having to deal with a child with disabilities becomes so great with the added pressures of family and community that people give up their babies.  If they had know in-utero they probably would have aborted.

This societal pressure is what needs to change.  There needs to be some serious propaganda that these children matter.  There needs to be government programs, at least in the schools for disabled children.  Society must have a change of heart and accept these children and respect their parents enough not to degrade them.  I see the tides changing.  Baby Hatch gives me hope.  In a country where there are no good samaritans I see beauty rising from the ashes.  God created these children, He loves them and I see that He is rising up a band of soldiers to care for them.