A Real life story of two girls

She has a room full of Barbie dolls and books. Her curtains are pink with butterflies and flowers, light enough to brighten her baby blue room when the early morning sun shines through the top floor window. They also block out the darkness of the night and the winter winds that howl around her windows once the sun goes down. She plays for hours in a make believe land, and if I am close enough to listen, her dolls speak kindly to each other, take good care of their pets, while traveling adventures in her neighborhood or cruising around in her toy doll car to more distant lands. She meticulously styles their long blonde hairs with her own hair ties and ribbons, and makes sure their dressed in their Barbie doll best. She has a bunk bed that is reserved for sleepover friends, but she really has only had her cousins over. She started a new school this year and is trying to break into already-formed groups, hoping to establish her own right to be friends. She is ten years old, and although her initial start to life was tenuous, she is growing into a wise, healthy and wonderful young lady, full of compassion with dreams to have a house full of puppies and kittens when she grows up and even a pony in her barn. I encourage her with hugs and kisses as I tell her she can accomplish anything she sets out for, because since her first breath, God has had a beautiful plan for her life. Hours of flight time, many, many miles away, sits another ten year old. While my daughter is fed, cared for and loved so very much, the other little girl has not been. She is a pitiful fraction of what she should be for average size, possibly wearing a toddler sized outfit because of her emmaciated body. She has been kept away from life as much as possible since her illness could have been caused by polio or cerebral palsy as an infant, or maybe malaria stole her years. Slightly crippled, she sat in darkness for hours, days, years. She has felt no value, since her culture determines children like her are not allowed dignity. She is treated less than an animal, as she slowly rots in a dark room, waiting for life giving scraps of food from kind neighbors. She lives only with a mother, as the father most likely disappears at the onset of her sickness which kept her from being "normal." She had no dollies to break the monotony of her days. She had scant and filthy clothing covering her body . She would never have considered dressing a toy to send it on fanciful daydreams. She had hours to ponder if anyone would bring her some food. Such are the daydreams of a little girl, stuck in poverty and seclusion. She has no voice to better her life, but a neighbor finds someone who cared enough to seek a life for this child. She is rescued into the sunshine, slouched and wan in a stroller much too large for her tiny, chronically malnourished frame. She appears to be a shell of a human child behind eyes that are dull and probably lost their sparkle many, many long days before. She was brought to the light by a stranger, given medical care and even more importantly, food. She is covered in filth and rashes, itchy skin conditions that our first world country has little understanding of. She is a mere 19 pound mess, at ten years old. But she is beautiful. Some say she is worth less with her dark eyes and skin, much less than the 10 year old American girl that I call my daughter. The contrast between the two is Heartbreaking. My daughter received medical care when she was born 13 weeks too soon, to a drug abusing mother, costing our state millions of dollars even before she came into our family. My taxes have paid toward her care and I would never regret all it has taken to give her the beautiful, normal life she holds now. But my daughter is not worth more than the dark skinned angel on the other side of the world. Not a penny more. They were born to different mothers on different parts of the world. One has had the extreme benefits of good health care and the love of a family. She has had food,clothing and shelter. She has experienced school and friendships, birthdays and time to grow in the warmth of sunshine. The other has been considered cursed, a "snake child", shoved into the darkness without even basic needs being met. A month or so since her rescue, she is gaining weight and eating rice and oatmeal. She had been denied so very Much, but smiles as if she was just simply waiting to live. Waiting ten long, dark years just to live. It wrings my heart into a tiny, painful place and I can hardly bare the pain she has endured. She needs our prayers, she needs a family who cares. She needs to know she is beautiful and worth whatever it takes to redeem her lost years. She needs to know that she is worth much more than the life of a dog, yet in America we value a dogs life more than this child. Would you deny her the privilege of life? How can we ever say NO because she was born there and not here? Oh that we could stop believing that America is so blessed that we can Stop caring for the least of these.