Archive for December, 2019

• Elyse’s Speech for Faith StoryTellers

  Date: 2019.12.07 | Category: Uncategorized

  My name is Elyse. Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 14 years old. 14 years ago I was left outside the gates of an orphanage in China.

  I have been in America for 5 years. When I get nervous I talk really fast. I am going to try to slow down because I want everyone to know that life in an orphanage sucks!

  • It sucks to have no family!
  • It sucks to be alone in the hospital.
  • It sucks to go through hard times alone.
  • It sucks to get hit.
  • It sucks to get burned.
  • It sucks to be told you are worthless every day.

  The nannies constantly told me that I was fat and that they didn’t want to lift me so I should die.

  When I was 7 or 8 I thought about committing suicide.

  Then one day when I was almost 9 I heard I was getting adopted and everything changed.

  My family loves me.

  • I have 8 sisters and 7 brothers.
  • I have a wheelchair now.
  • I get to be who I want.
  • I get to go to school.
  • I get to do para taekwondo.
  • I get to have my own clothes.

  I have learned so much.

  The BEST part is my mom and dad taught me about God.

  I was baptized on my mom’s birthday three years ago. When mom and I got out my papers to find where I was left, we realized that the day I was baptized was the same day I was left at the orphanage all those years ago.

  I have been mad at China for two years.

  • I didn’t get to go to school.
  • I didn’t get to play outside.
  • They told me I was worthless.
  • They hit me all the time.
  • I held a baby when it died.
  • My foster brother couldn’t be adopted.

  Then one day at VBS a girl asked me where I was born and I told her that I was born in China and I grew up in an orphanage.

  That girl said she wished she lived in an orphanage where she didn’t have to do anything and everyone did everything for her. I told her they hit me all the time and she said, “So? My mom hits me too.”

  I asked my mom why someone would say that. Mom said it’s because people don’t know how bad orphanages really are.

  But now I decided being mad doesn’t change anything. I want to make changes. I want people to know everyone matters. I want people to know what orphanage life is really like. I want people to know that kids need families.

  I used to think that I wanted to make a difference when I grow up. Then I had a dream where someone died before I could get to them. I felt like God was telling me that I shouldn’t wait to grow up to make a difference.

  I have two sisters who use wheelchairs too. We were all adopted as older kids. We want to help kids like us.

  We decided to start a group called Chairs4Change. We want to have people donate their change to help Love Without Boundaries. Love Without Boundaries is the group that helped Jasmine and I get a family.

  My dream is to raise $1,000,000. When I asked Amy Eldridge what we could with a million dollars I was so excited.

  We can…

  • We can fund 200 cleft surgeries and fix cleft lips like my foster brother had.
  • We can fund 90 heart surgeries and help children just like my four brothers and sisters who have heart defects.
  • We can build a school for 200 kids so they can go to school. Jasmine, J.J., and I were never allowed to go to traditional school.

  I want my dream to be so big people know only God could do that.

  • I believe every life matters.
  • I believe God has been with me through everything.
  • I believe God can use me to change the world.
  • I believe I have a purpose.
  • I believe every child counts.

  and most of all I believe A LITTLE CHANGE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!