From Hopelessness to Hope

Jan 2004 -- Laxman was brought to us from his village North of Pokhara. His father died, his mother couldn’t care for him & she turned him over to his grandfather. Grandfather found him difficult to handle & was happy to turn him over to be raised in the home. Laxman was born with Cerebral Palsy, (lack of oxygen at birth) and basically crawled everywhere he had to go. To go the bathroom, he was on his knees. Everything he did, he was on his knees. But, Laxman had a drive to get above his circumstances & through the faithfulness of employees at the home & with the help of physiotherapists at Banepa Hospital, at the age of 8, Laxman was on his feet & able to walk.

He is now almost 10 years old & doing well, he moves quickly & gets along really well without the use of braces, walkers, any of the things that were necessary when he first came to his feet. He can run with the best of them now. No longer do kids run by & bop him on the head (when he was on his knees) & run away from him, now if other kids are playing tag with him & he’s it, he’s going to get you. You can depend on it. While Laxman was on his knees he found an outlet in art. Today he has refined that outlet & his pictures are breathtaking. This is just one of the many gifts that Laxman has. When I first came to Nepal to work at the home, Laxman & Pati were not included in going to school with the other children due to their physical disabilities. Now they are both attending the same boarding school with the other children & they are doing very, very well.

Pati is 4th in her class & Laxman is 6th. Originally, I think people thought these 2 special children were incapable of keeping up with the other kids. There was a different plan for their lives & they are truly amazing children.