We are the Baron family. Randy,Katie,Colin,Ellery,Alec,Antonela,Emilia and our brand new addition from China,Lucy. We are overjoyed to announce the impending arrival of our daughter Evelyn Hope Baron,age 5 coming home from China early spring 2017. Like our adopted daughters Antonela and Lucy,Evelyn has Beta Thalassemia. She has already outlived the life expectancy of a child with Beta Thal in China. We can't wait to use our gifts and resources to meet her many needs. In China 80% of children with Beta Thal die by age 5,no child has ever survived past age 14. Beta Thalassemia is ALWAYS fatal in childhood in China. This is due to lack of financial resources,chronic blood shortages and scarcity of life saving medication to combat the toxic side effects of chronic transfusions. 7 years ago we adopted our daughter Antonela(age 7 at the time)from Albania. She has Beta Thalassemia. The short explanation is her body does not make life sustaining hemoglobin so she relies on donor blood every 3 weeks. Just over a year ago we were far from the toddler years,busy raising our 5 young adult age children not expecting to grow our family again through adoption. Then our beautiful little girl Lucy unexpectedly crossed our path. She also has Beta Thalassemia. Lucy has been home from China for 8 months. When God calls you to step into the lives of children who have no hope in their birth countries slowly (and sometimes painfully) your paradigm starts to shift. You look at everything through different eyes. Updating everything old in our house or a dying child, going on a fancy vacation or a dying child, space in our too small home and our too small vehicles or a dying child, a comfortable retirement or a dying child, financial security or a dying child. Nothing seems important when weighed against the life a child. Taking on the financial burden of a second adoption in one short year is hard and scary! However,it pales in comparison to the burden we carry every single day for the 153 million orphans who continue to wait. This account is set up for anyone who wants to partner with us to sow (tax deductible)into our little Evelyn's life. We are so grateful. "We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do everything changes." Radical by David Platt
