Ripples

"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." Scott Adams

"Perform a random act of kindness for someone:
a smile, compliment, or a favor just for fun. These will multiply and spread very rapidly." Steve Brunkhorst

 I want to send out some very special Thank Yous!

I have had two very big, fall over type shocks this December. I want to give a big shout out to Kristi B. and Ryan W. I do not have words to express how thankful we are that you have been so gracious in your donation. The emotion that I have felt is beyond words, the gratitude, I do not know how to put it into words, you take my breath away.

I would like to thank Elaina L, Terry B, Ariel F, Kelly L, Rosemary M, Lara F, Anne P, Dayna W.C, Thomas M, Molly C, Christopher S, Angela B, Gianna M, Jemma W, Catherine P, Kristin T, Layla A, Linda and James B, Theresa M, Debbie M, Annie T, Cynthia W, Bart G, Martha M, Rachel D, Julia N, Shannon S, Sara S, Karen F, Karen H, Heather C, Rhonda C. all of you have been so wonderful. Your love and support is amazing. Thank you for becoming part of Sydney and Lucien's villiage!!

I would also like to thank all of those who have supported us with prayers, with blog shares, and your supportive words of encouragement.
You are not just helping to change the life of two orphans you are helping to change the world!! The wonderful thing about helping others is that it creates a ripple effect. You are such blessings!
If you did NOT see your name, it is not because I forgot you!! I still have many names I need to post Thank Yous about. I will be saving those for another post!!

Dear Sydney and Lucien

Dear Sydney and Lucien,

You do not know us yet, but we are going to be your mommy and daddy.

We are working so hard to get you home. Your daddy is working extra hours at work and we are trying to save as much as we can to get you home. We have sold candles, we have made crosses, and we are having as many fundraisers as we can to get you home!
You want to know something really special? There are people ALL OVER THE WORLD that are trying to help get you home too!! Isn't that the most wonderful thing you have ever heard? Yes, people all over the world heard that you are in an orphanage and they want to help get you home. They want you to be able to sleep in your own little bed, with your very own clothes, and your very own toys! They want you to have a mommy, a daddy, a family! Some of these wonderful people are people we know, they are trying so hard to help raise money for you, some are amazing friends we have met online, they too are working hard to help get you home, and then some, some my little loves are people who are strangers that are giving to help bring you home just because they believe it is a good thing to do, because they know how important it is for a child to grow up having the love of a family.
Did you know your mommy is making you something very special for your room? She started making this for you when you had your very first donation. When it is all finished it will be on your wall. Want to know what it is? It is a picture box that has the name of every single person who has donated to you, and in the center, is a picture of the world! We can hardly wait to hang it up!  Won't it be so wonderful growing up, knowing so many people cared so much about you, that they wanted you to come home?
We know where you are right now, people may not understand how very special you are. They may not understand your value and worth, but we do. You are our little prince and princess. Our sweet little ones who deserve to have a life filled with unconditional love and acceptance. That is what you will have when you come home and we can hardly wait.

Do you know what else you have?

You have three sisters and one brother! When they found out that you were going to be part of our family they were jumping for joy! Your sisters and brothers have even been helping raise money for you! They love you so much. They are looking forward to having a little brother and sister to give piggy back rides to, push in the stroller, and when you are older, even help with your homework when you need them to. They will give you pushes on the swing in our yard, they will play games with you, and they will love you forever and always.

But that is not all, no that is not all. Sweet little ones... you have something else! You have your own puppy!!  He is a chocolate lab puppy and will almost be a year old when you get home. He is a good puppy and is very friendly. He has been going to puppy school and is learning a lot of good manners.  He can hardly wait till you are home. He is so sweet and never barks or growls.

There are so many things you will have, but do you not agree that family is the most important? Oh little ones, we love you so. Every night I say a prayer that you will be safe and that others continue to help to get you home. I pray that God will touch their hearts and they will see your beautiful little faces and not be able to look away.
We love you Sydney and Lucien, with all of our hearts and we are coming for you, coming to love you, coming to bring you home.
Love Always,
Mommy and Daddy
Sydney and Lucien

ABC World News

Some of you may have watched the ABC World News tonight and that may have made you think of our blog.
Many other people around the world have been checking out Reece's Rainbow and it has made the site crash!!
If you would like to donate to Sydney and Lucien PLEASE donate with the chip-in, NOT the Reece's Rainbow button. At this time, the Reece's Rainbow button is not working and is only showing children listed on the website, and not showing Sydney and Lucien.

Again, until this is fixed, please make sure all donations are by Chip-in Rather than the Reece's Rainbow button. Once the FSP (Reece's Rainbow button) is fixed I will make a new post so you will know when it will go to Sydney and Lucien.
Thank you for your understanding!

One More Orphan

We will be bringing home a second child!! "Lucien" is in Sydney's region in Eastern Europe and we will be adopting him in addition to Sydney. One look at him and we were head over heals in love.
Lucien has down syndrome just like Sydney.

Yes, despite the pink, he IS a little boy. In orphanages children do not "own" anything at all. Not even clothes belong to them. They are put in whatever is handy. You can see from this picture, that not only are the clothes too big for him, they were also meant for a girl.  We can hardly wait to bring him home and put him in little boy clothes.

Matthew 18:5“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God gave his son up, so that we may live an everlasting life. Is it too much to ask of us, to give up eating out every day, or giving up Starbucks coffee, or that trip to Hawaii to save a child? To offer a child a family? We are more than willing to give up these things to save the life of a child. We do it gladly.  

We made the News!!

You can read the news article they wrote up on us at http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/dec/25/waiting-to-adopt-two-children-with-down-syndrome-s/

Our Blogs

We have two blogs. This one which gives you just the basics and the facts of our adoption but without any of the personal day to day stuff.
Or we have the more personal side of our adoption journey, which also talks about our family in addition to our adopting. We welcome you to visit that blog at  http://becauseyouareloved.blogspot.com/

Thank you for taking an interest in our story. We hope that you will follow along on our journey. We have made amazing friends through this process. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!!

It Matters!!

If you are anything like I have been over the last few years, and still am, you click on your dashboard and look to see which of your friends has made a new post. Some of you may look to see if there is a good picture to go along with the text. Some are more into the text itself.

 

For over a year, I have read blog after blog, living through other's adoption stories until I too was in the position to adopt.

I’ve been where you are now.

I have sat reading someone elses blog, hearing them talk about their fundraiser.

I look over and see where they are now and how much they have raised so far.

I notice there is still a really long way to go. I look at my $1 or $5 and ask myself and wonder if I should even bother, I mean, is it really worth it?

After all, I was planning on buying a coffee with that.

Will it matter?

There have been times when I did not feel like I could give more than $5 to a friend. So that is all I gave. Before we started this process I did not understand the full extent of how much my $5 could do.

I did not understand the value of just $5. I often wondered if I should even bother. I wondered if it would make any difference at all, if it would matter.

Let me tell you that YES it does matter. It DOES count. Every single penny, it all adds up. Not just in the money it takes to get Sydney home, it doesn't just count as money, it counts as your support. It counts as you saying "We feel you are doing a good thing, and we want to help you."

 

With every single donation, no matter how big or small, it all counts.

 

It lets us know you are choosing to support us.

That you too are making a sacrifice to help.

 

When you look at the big picture, it seems like such a large amount that is needed.

But when you break it down, by how many people need to donate, the number seems a lot more manageable.

Please know that EVERY donation matters to us. We celebrate every single penny raised.

One of the first things we do every day when we get home is check to see if Sydney's got any new donations. We check to see if there are any comments on our blog.

 

You see, I have been where you are now... reading a blog, wondering if I should actually click the link and donate or not. So does it matter? Will it really make that much difference? Will even $1 count?

 

YES!

Please stand with us in this journey. Be part of Sydney's village.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to bring a child home as well.

We can hardly wait till we can share pictures with you of our first meeting her. Of our gotcha day, and then share with you how she is doing throughout the years. But before we can do that, we have to be able to get there.

 

It all counts, it all adds up.

Friends, you can make a difference.

 

A bigger difference then you may understand, unless you too, are on this side of the adoption blogs.

 

Don't let the amount stop you from donating.

 

It all Counts!

 

 

Mark has been hard at work making crosses for Christmas. This is the first time he has ever tried this but the more he makes the better they look. We are thinking, if there is enough interest, that he will continue to make some even after Christmas. We can make them in almost any color of your choice and you could request some small ones or larger ones. We are also thinking of just making the down syndrome ribbon in the yellow and blue without the cross. Another thing we were thinking of was Easter! We will be playing with the idea of making Easter Eggs (yes it is a long ways away, but if someone would want a basket full, or several, it makes sense to start early) Each Easter egg would be able to "rattle" and because it would be breakable it would be for decoration, not to be used as a toy.

So now that you have gotten to see him "at work" with the crosses... we thought we would tell you WHY he is making them. You see, there is a little girl on the other side of the world who is in need of a daddy, and there is a daddy here who loves his little girl very much and wants to bring her home.  Mark finds time to set up the clay and get to work on making crosses for our sweet little angel on the other side of the world. His works until he is so tired he just can not do anything more.

I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such a wonderful husband. He is always there for us, he is so loving and caring. He is sharing his love for his little girl by making these crosses. We would like YOU to be able to have one.

HOW?? You Ask??

From now until Dec. 15th, we will be having a fundraiser.

Here are the prizes...

Here are a few of the crosses Mark has finished. The larger one is meant to hang on a wall the smaller ones can be used to hang from a Christmas tree or anything else you might want to hang it from. 

AND a lovely breakfast set which includes coffee, jam, pancake mix, and two beautiful mugs.

$10 will get you 2 entries

$20 will get you 5 entries

$50 will get you 15 entries

$100 will get you 50 entries

If you share this with your friends/family you will get 1 entry.

Please make sure that you comment with the amount donated so we can keep track of who donated and how much you donated so we can add you to the drawing. On December 15, we will do a random draw to see who the winners are.

There are 4 crosses and 1 gift basket, and they will be awarded to 5 very wonderful people!!

Show your love and support this holiday by helping an orphan, "Sydney", get home!

Show Mark your support and encouragement by donating so he knows his crosses are as loved by you as they are by us!

Thank you!

 

Sydney is waiting

Advent is a time of waiting. For Sydney, that time must seem to drag on, I know for us it is. Waiting is never easy, but when you are waiting on something important to happen, it just seems to taken even longer.
We debated on if we should get Sydney her stocking this year and put it up next to everyone else's stocking, but then decided that we should wait a little longer, because we do not know yet if we will be bringing home a brother or sister with Sydney and we would hate for there to be a stocking missing.
We look forward to all to being able to do the very simple things with Sydney that most people take for granted. Like cuddles on the sofa.

Or being able to play games with a brother or sister.

To kick off Advent, we spent last week without the internet, cable tv, and cell phones. We spent time in prayer and time as a family, we spent time being Thankful for what we have, and thinking of all the things we have to offer our Sydney.
Some people may ask... why go after a child if you can not afford to go get them. It is like the saying you hear on the radio all the time. "Not everyone can be a foster parent, but everyone can help a foster child." This is the same. We can afford to RAISE a child. We just need the help bringing her home.
My husband has a wonderful job with great insurance that will allow Sydney to get the best medical care she can get. She will be able to have educational resources here that she would not get in her country. She will not thrive in her country, but she can here.
So for now... we wait. But we do not sit by just waiting. No, we will be active. We will speak out about Sydney's need to be home. About how she has a family who can hardly wait to make her part of their family.
Let's try to make this a productive Advent. You can help! If you feel moved, then please donate to our cause. If you are able, spread the word. If you have faith, pray.
There is so much you can do. So please choose this Advent, to wait actively. Please do not overlook her needs or those of the many other faces of children in need.
Thank you