Reece’s Rainbow Report #63: Harper Family

The Ugandans just stared at Levi Harper. Who was this light-skinned child with Down syndrome, so obviously not a native — not even of America, where many aid workers came from — handing out Moringa seedlings among the huts of an East African refugee camp? 

He would obliviously chatter on in English. “I like your dress.” Despite many not understanding him, they smiled anyway. It was hard not to smile around Levi, a native Ukrainian adopted by American missionaries. That was his ministry, in fact: proving to anyone within earshot that people with disabilities have a place in society. 

“I think my biggest takeaway now is that they impacted a lot of people just by being there,” says Wendy Harper, Levi’s adoptive mother. “They saw us not hiding them away and including them in everything.” 

“Them” includes not only Levi, but also Charlie, another adopted Ukrainian with Down syndrome. During the Harpers’ nine years in Uganda, a nation known as “the pearl of Africa,” three more adopted African siblings joined the native Texas family, adding up to an even dozen children. 

“I think the ripple effect the boys made there is huge,” says Wendy, a 51-year-old full-time missionary with a ministry to other missionaries. “It changed the way we look at people in general, whether they have special needs or are from another culture.” 

Blame Charlie and Levi, in fact, for that trio of Ugandan siblings, one with major limb differences. Heck, why not take it a step further and place the responsibility for the move to Uganda in the first place squarely on their shoulders? 

“Adopting those boys certainly changed the trajectory of our family,” Wendy says. “I don’t think we would have moved overseas if not for them.” 

It all started when some friends of theirs adopted a son from Ukraine with Down syndrome in 2009. Wendy and Sid, her 52-year-old missionary husband, held a yard sale on their behalf. Wendy began surfing through and praying over the children listed on Reece’s Rainbow, often saving photos of kids as her screensaver until a family committed to them.

Charlie’s screensaver reminded Wendy of his unadopted status for around five months. Why wasn’t anyone picking him? Finally, she went to Sid with an idea: maybe no one had chosen Charlie because he was meant to be a Harper. 

Sid agreed. They were eventually approved to bring home two children, but six weeks before they traveled, the couple wasn’t sold on the idea — plus they still had a glut of money to raise. 

“Okay, Lord, if you want us to bring two kids home, you need to give us a sign,” they prayed. The next morning, they woke to the news that a donor had provided a substantial chunk of money for their adoption efforts. Two it was then, bringing home six-year-old Charlie and three-year-old “Zhora,” an orphanage mate whose real name was Levi. 

Their American homecoming was rough. Septic Levi needed surgery within two weeks of his arrival, and Charlie, who also has  autism, had plenty of unpleasant habits and reactions. He struggled to bond with his new mother. Still, there were improvements in both health and behaviors, enough so that the family could move to Uganda in 2014 with eight children in tow, including Charlie and Levi. 

An international move to a developing nation is difficult on any family. But add multiple children with major special needs to the mix, and everyday life suddenly becomes a monumental task. There were no therapists, physical, occupational or otherwise. Special education in schools was nonexistent, at least at the start. But the Harpers got their children involved with multiple ministries around them — including tree handouts to refugees to combat the barrenness around them. 

“Levi loved it,” says Wendy. “Everybody was Levi’s and Charlie’s best friends, and we still FaceTime with people from Uganda all the time. We would go back in a heartbeat.” 

Outgoing, high-five-everyone Levi attended Ugandan school, while Charlie, a music lover, was educated at home. Two other kids with Down syndrome joined Levi. Eventually, because of Levi and his classmates, that school created a special needs class that today educates about a dozen. 

“It’s a huge deal, because kids with disabilities are often not seen as valuable there,” his mother says. “But Levi showed the headmistress and teachers of that school that he was valuable and could make a big impact. They loved him and didn’t want him to leave!”

But leave they did, eventually returning to Texas in 2023, where they plan to stay, at least as a homebase. Levi is now 17, while 19-year-old Charlie just graduated high school, clad in cap and gown. The Harpers threw a “High School Musical”-themed party to celebrate, which he loved. Both boys still have spent more years in Uganda than either the States or their native Ukraine. 

But they certainly know who they are, and whose they are. Charlie is Wendy’s shadow, while Levi, an open heart surgery patient two years ago, is his family’s sports enthusiast, always up for a game of hoops or soccer with any of his siblings and extensive circle of friends. 

And their parents just take it all in, watching their six sons and six daughters ages 29 down to eight develop into their own inimitable person. Who knows what their family would look like, if not for finding Levi and Charlie? 

“The best part about those boys is the relationships that we have formed around the world — the people who impacted our family, as well as the people we’ve impacted,” Wendy says. “Because of Charlie and Levi, we have relationships with people we never would have otherwise. We see people for who they are everywhere, whether it’s here in Texas, or east Africa, or wherever.” 

Indeed, any kind of people, in any kind of house — because they have been shown by a child how to love it, and them.