Yet Another Precious One

A sweet little face popped up on my Facebook newsfeed today. This little girl is nearly three years old, with developmental delays (cause unknown). She is beautiful, isn't she?

I don't often advocate for girls on this blog, for a couple of reasons. One, there are simply less girls waiting for families, so there aren't as many that need advocates. Two, girls are much more likely to find families than boys. It is a fact that the majority of adopting families prefer girls and so a girl with a specific special need will usually be chosen well before a boy of the same age with the same condition.

However, this little girl caught my eye. Isn't she adorable? She's been listed for quite some time. She has a video out there as well that I was able to view. I'm not sure if I can post that publicly so I won't include it here, but please comment if you are interested in seeing it. I can't argue with the fact that the video shows a child with developmental delays. At nearly three years old, she is rolling, sitting up, crawling, grasping baby toys, touching things around her, showing interest in the camera by smiling and approaching, banging blocks together, accepting food from a spoon, and seeking out toys she had dropped. All great skills - but not up to a three-year-old level.

And then I remembered that when he came home, Kellin had NONE of these skills, except perhaps for rolling (if you put him on his stomach or back, he would roll to his preferred position on his side). He did not sit, crawl, hold things in his hands, show interest in things around him, or eat from a spoon. And that was at 3 1/2 years old, several months older than this little girl.

This little girl has no diagnosis. There's no way to know what is causing her delays, whether it's a physical or neurological condition, or if it's more because of the institutional environment she lives in, or a combination of things. But I think it's clear that this little one has great potential. She needs a family to believe in her; she needs good education and therapy; she needs medical care. Who knows what this child could achieve?!