June 6, 2011

Let’s Bring Kyle Home!

There can be no image sadder to a mother perhaps than to think of a child left in an orphanage. When she tucks her own children into bed at night, giving them a kiss and turning out the lights, available all night long if her little one has a bad dream or is scared or lonely, she may think of another one like her son, alone, without a mother to call his own, to tend to his unique needs.

This is what haunted Danielle Stermer for months, especially wondering what living in an orphange must be like when a child has hemophilia. Her own son Max, only 18 months, who has hemophilia A, is doing well, but what about other boys in developing countries? Danielle lost her brother to hemophilia when he had a brain bleed 16 years ago, and thoughts of him and little boys overseas with hemophilia and no home or family truly haunted her. She knew she had to find a child and help him.

After a dedicated search she has found her little boy—Kyle, who has hemophilia A and lives in China. Danielle is desperate to bring him “home,” to America. She writes, “He was abandoned at 8 months old in a hospital in Shanghai, with a brain bleed due to a fall from a bed, and intramuscular bleed due to an injection, as well as respiratory infection and anemia. He has had many bleeds so far, including GI and shoulder bleeds. Every report I have read from the hospital shows him as malnourished and with respiratory infections.”

And perhaps most upsetting, “He is not allowed to go outside to play because of his hemophilia.”

For the past year, Danielle has filed paperwork, raised money, invested her life’s saving. She was recenty approved to adopt Kyle!

The only thing now preventing her from bringing him home is the cost. At a whopping $26,000, a foreign adoption is prohibitively expensive. Danielle expects to spend about $15,000 of her own money, and is seeking an additional $10,000 from the US hemophilia community.

Last fall we succeeded in raising $17,000 in only 48 hours when this community poured out its heart to bring “Luke”, also from China, home. He is now growing up in Michigan. In the past, we’ve helped bring a boy from Bulgaria and Vietnam to the US, all who have hemophilia.

Let’s do it again! Let’s bring Kyle home!

I will put in the first $250. Who will join us? How soon will we be able to bring this little guy to the land of milk and honey—and factor? We will be tracking the donations and seeing how quickly we can do this. If we all chip in, this shouldn’t take long at all. Think of what your contribution can do—completely change the life of a little one with hemophilia, in a land where factor is scarce to nonexistent, and where there are no parents to love him each day, or tuck him in each night. He is four years old—there is not a minute to lose!

To donate: Please mail a check directly to
Wasatch Adoptions
11430 36th street, #204
Ogden UT 84403

Put “Stermer/Kyle adoption” in the memo field. Wasatch Adoptions is a non-profit 501(c)3, and will immediately send you a receipt and letter for tax-deduction purposes, and will notify Danielle so she can thank you!

You can also go to
http://www.active.com/donate/kyleshope

Please visit Watsatch Agency at http://www.wiaa.org/ if you have any questions about the adoption. And visit Danielle’s blog at http://www.kyleshope.blogspot.com/

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