Casa Daniel...

Our biggest need right now is for funding for a therapeutic home for our most troubled kid. Last year child psychiatrist, Dr. Dan Myers, came to Romania to train our clinical staff and to assess some of our kids who had been abused when they were in the state orphanage system. Thereafter, the most problematic of the children, a ten year old named Daniel Simon, continued to digress. (Daniel was abused by his birth mother, abandoned to the streets at age 5, eventually sent to a state orphanage where he was sexually abused by older boys and violently beaten consistently until he was finally taken into the care of our foundation two years ago.)

Because Daniel's condition is currently causing him to lash out and behave very dangerously, we had him assessed by Dr. Karyn Purvis from Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas. She is a neuro-psychologist who is the leading expert in helping post-institutionalized kids overcome the syndromes and abuse issues from their past. Her recommendation for Daniel is that we create a temporary "therapeutic home" for him so that, through an intensive and intimate therapeutic regime, we can allow Daniel's brain to re-route through his past obstacles and ultimately allow him to be healthy and whole again. After all the research that we have done on this issue, this seems to be the only hope for Daniel to safely be reintegrated into the group home in which he now lives. She is willing to take on this case and to come over to train staff specifically for this and to monitor the treatment. Our obstacle is that we need $40,000 up front if we are going to be able to commit to this ministry to heal Daniel.

Honestly, we have thought about throwing our hands in the air and saying this is too much for us and too much of a risk for our other kids. However, the alternative is to throw Daniel to the lions back in state care that would not treat his condition at all. The abuse would almost certainly start again and any potential for healing would be over. This would also send a devastating message to the rest of our kids that if they get too sick, we would send them away. We say that we try to care for our LOC kids as if they were our own. I think we are being tested on this right now. If he were my child or your child, each of us would sell the farm to attempt to make our child well again. After consulting all of our clinical staff, those who care directly for him, our Executive Council, and our Board of Directors, we are stepping out in faith to raise this money for this child's treatment that we need to begin as soon as possible. Please pray with us for Daniel's healing and pray that the all-knowing God would provide the resources and personnel for this therapeutic home. This is our most daunting challenge at the moment because we cannot see what is behind this dark cloud hovering over Daniel. Any help that you can offer would be greatly appreciated. You can give to this by marking checks for Casa Daniel and/or giving through our website and noting it for this specific ministry project. Our prayer is that we will be able to see a NEW Daniel a year from now!