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Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving

What is Thanksgiving all about? Is it about the turkey, the stuffing, or maybe the pies? Is it about the pilgrims or the Indians, or family or friends? Is Thanksgiving about football or eating until you have to loosen your pants and then you notice that your granddad has fallen sleep on his favorite chair?
Or is there more to it?
After reading several books to the kids in my class about Thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful I got all kinds of answers.
"I am thankful for my toys"
"I am thankful for my mom and dad"
"I am thankful for my clothes"
"I am thankful for my dog"
"I am thankful for my sisters"
"I am thankful for for my barbie dolls"

There were several more, I thought about their list of things they are thankful for. Then I thought of Sydney. Sydney is in an orphanage. This Thanksgiving will be just like any other day, Christmas will too for that matter.
Sydney does not have any toys, or parents right now (we are doing our best to hurry sweetie!!), she does not have her own clothes, she gets whatever is handy at the moment, sometimes they are too big, sometimes they are too small, but they are never HERS. She has a dog here, at home in Washington, but right now, she more than likely does not even know what a dog is. Sydney has NO family until we get her, and she has NO toys. She has nothing to call her own. What does she have to be thankful for? Her nannies are underpaid, and overworked. I am sure they do their best every day, and for that, I am thankful to them. Sometimes, it is just hard.
You see, I work in childcare, I get up every day and spend 9 hours at work taking care of kids 3-5. These are kids that HAVE families, they HAVE everything that they need. And yet, there are days when I feel so bad about having to go home, knowing they need me and other days I can't leave fast enough.
Some days it is all I can do to pull myself up and dust myself off and go back. Why? It is because when you are a teacher and you have just you and an assistant, and you have to take care of 20 kids, you NEVER get to spend enough time with just ONE.
They ALL need you, they ALL want you, and these are kids that get that every night when they go home from school. These are kids who have parents who kiss them and hold them and feed them and give them a bath at night and tuck them into bed. These are amazing kids and amazing parents and the kids STILL need you, they need your time, your attention, your love. It is VERY draining trying to spread yourself between 20 kids.
I think of those nannies, WANTING so badly to do more, to help the kids more, and just not being able to.
I think of Sydney. I think of how sweet she is, how lovely she is, and how much I wish I could be there rocking her to sleep.
So what is Sydney thankful for this Thanksgiving?? More than likely, it is only a bottle of food. Because she has nothing else. As we are sitting at the table for Thanksgiving, let us really think of ALL we have and be thankful for everything.
This Thanksgiving, please include Sydney in your prayers. And, between now and Thanksgiving, if you are able, please help get Sydney home by donating, so NEXT Thanksgiving, she will have her family to hold her and love her, to have her sisters and brother, to have her own dog, to have her own clothes, to have her own toys.
If you are thankful for all you have, if you have a lot to be thankful for, help Sydney. Help Sydney come home!!

On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, by Act of Congress, an annual National Day of Thanksgiving "on the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." In this Thanksgiving proclamation, our 16th President says that it is…
"…announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord… But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, by the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own… It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people…"

So it is that on Thanksgiving Day each year, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings and mercies toward us throughout the year.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Special Thank You...

There are several people I need to make a shout out to today. (Due to privacy reasons, I will not be using last names- and if you know these woman even a little you will know who they are without their last name anyway)


Annie. I would like to thank Annie, she has been calling local places to help us with setting up a fundraiser to help bring Sydney home. This lady is amazing. She is Mommy to four beautiful little ones and prayer warrior for sweet Lacey. http://reecesrainbow.org/23052/lacey-15h  in addition to that she is also sponsoring a child through the Angel Tree name Ryder http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=ryder and has already gotten his grant from 0-$650!! Truly an amazing woman!!

Rebecca W. This lady is an angel!! Why?? This is a message she sent to our family... I would like to offer up a special hat in honor of Olivia Anne. I can create a design, and others could purchase them in her honor. I would give any profits (above the cost of the yarn) to you to support your adoption efforts. Please let me know if you are interested. ♥ Becky I just about have the design ready. It's a pixie style hat and can be made in any size. Once I have a sample completed, I will post it and we can market it on here. Any orders I take of the "Olivia Anne" hat through my shop will also go to help. Hopefully, we can sell some hats!  WOW!!! How wonderful is that??? I can not say Thank you enough!! And how wonderful will it be for Sydney (we are going to be naming her Olivia Anne) to have a hat named after her!! Too cool!!!

Michelle Z. Oh Wow... this lady does it all. Even dealing with strangers calling her in the middle of the day with tons of questions about adopting through Reece's Rainbow. LOL Poor dear, I was emailing Michelle with tons of questions and each answer would only create more questions. I ended up calling her and she talked until I had asked all my questions and felt calmer. Super star of a lady. Michelle has already adopted so she knows the whole process and is such a great source of info.

Another amazing woman is Rosemary. Rosemary has always been there to offer words of encouragement and support. This lady is all about awareness and helping others! You are awesome Rosemary!! Rosemary has donated to Sydney and because of her we are that one step closer to bringing Sydney home!! (Also, because of this beautiful lady, the contest of who can raise the most money for Sydney, my friends or Mark's friends, the ladies are winning!! Woot!!!)

Catherine. This lady has an amazing family!! Reading her blog makes me smile all the time. Have you ever known anyone who isn't afraid to talk about the good the bad and the ugly in life, in a humours way not a serious way? Well that is Catherine. A little while ago I asked Catherine to pray for us and help get the word out about our adoption. Well she did!! That is just how she is. I love this lady and her family :)  If you ever just want to laugh till your sides hurt, or come away with a big smile on your face this is where to stop.

Ashley. Ashley just got back home from Eastern Europe with her beautiful little boy Carter!! Even in the mist of all going on around her, packing, being off in a different country, and everything in between, she has made the time to talk to me about fundraising ideas and offer suggestions and advice. She has a beautiful heart and is a great mommy to a little boy that stole my heart so long ago. On Reece's Rainbow, Carter was listed as Antonio. This was my grandpa's real name and because of that I fell in love with Antonio (now Carter). I felt so honored to be able to share in his journey to get home.

Renee T. If you know Renee T, you know what a sweetheart of a lady she is. It makes it so special because she lives in my hometown. She lives only a couple blocks from where I grew up!! Amazing! Renee is adopting a beautiful little girl named Paisley and I can hardly wait till they get her home! Renee has taken the time to talk with me about fundraising ideas as well. She has taken the time to encourage me, and chat with me even when she wasn't feeling well. She was able to tell me about the wonderful mugs that are listed on Etsy that we are using in our giveaway and tell me about the coffee shop program. I was hoping to be able to offer the mug set for Christmas but when I looked at the details it said it will take 3 weeks to make as they are able to be personalized and then it takes a bit of time to ship them out as well. That does not leave much time to fundraise and then get the prizes out before Christmas.

Mrs. Brown. Ok, so I used a last name :) Mrs. Brown has helped raise awareness by posting her teaching videos on youtube. Mrs. Brown works with children who have down syndrome from her home, teaching them to read and works with math as well as many other skills.  http://www.sohappytolearn.com/  In addition, she has shared our story with her families!! She is incredible and I love how much I have learned from watching her videos as she works with her students.

Jaclyn. This lady is amazing. She is always commenting on my posts and is always so sweet and upbeat. Her family is working towards adopting a little boy to add to their family of all girls. Jaclyn's husband is sadly outnumbered. She could always use more supporters in her adoption journey. http://trendingwiththetrendas.blogspot.com/

Rhonda. Rhonda is a lady I recently meet through one of the groups on Facebook that supports families/children with down syndrome. She is so sweet and supportive!


My wonderful children!! Britney, Ariel, Tamara, Brandon for being so excited and supportive about adding more to our family. I can not even say how wonderful these guys are. They have helped raise awareness, come up with creative fundraising ideas, and showed support in every way possible! I love you guys so much!!

 
My amazing husband!! Words can not even begin to describe how wonderful this man is. I love you Mark, so much!!

There are so many others, so many that have helped us with their donation, their reading and supporting our blog, so many others that have helped raise awareness and have shared our site on their facebook or with their friends. We are so blessed that you have joined us in this journey to bring Sydney home.
For everyone who has donated, for everyone who reads our blog, who has shared our blog or story with others. Thank you!! We could not do this without you. You are a blessing!!

I wish so badly I could list everyone, however at the risk of missing someone I will stop there and make another post later on other supporters. If you have NOT seen your name here and you have been helping and supporting our journey, it is not because I forgot you. I am just saving it for another post :) You are not forgotten or overlooked, you are wonderful!!!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Under it All

I have friends that have gone ahead of us. They get to the orphanage and they see their beautiful little one that they have been praying for. They see the baby/child they have been thinking about for months or a year or more. They are everything they thought they would be. They are overwhelmed with love for their child.
They are able to visit, for a couple of hours every day until the adoption is final.
During this time, they mostly just sit with their child, hold them, play with them. But they rarely feed them, and normally don't get to change them.
In March, a little girl was brought home from an orphanage in Eastern Europe. It was not until they left the orphanage and they started taking off all the layes that they noticed how malnurshied she was. By looking at her round little face, you would have never guessed that she was skin and bones under all that clothing. She had been wearing so many layers of clothing at every visit that the family that adopted her had no idea she was in that bad of condition. Instead of a great wonderful homecoming however, she was immediately taken to the hospital because of her grave condition. This wonderful little girl was three years old (actually closer to four than three), and only weighed ELEVEN pounds!!! Yes, you heard that right, ELEVEN POUNDS!! The doctors at the hosptial said she was so badly malnurished that she would not have lasted even one more day.  Now, after 7 months of being home, she is doing so much better, there is actually chub on her legs.
This is NOT a story that is rare. All too often children from orphanages in Eastern Europe are in these conditions.

I look at Sydney... I see her cute little face... and I wonder... what is under all those layers. If you look really close you can see she has at least THREE layers on. How many more are under those?


Please, pray for Sydney.  Please pray that she is not crying out in pain or hunger and that someone there holds her, and plays with her. Pray that she will be ok, until we are able to bring her home.  Our blog here is new. Can you share it with friends? Can you get the word out?
Thank you

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Saving Sydney

Sydney is a special needs orphan in Eastern Europe. Because she has down syndrome, she is not one of the lucky ones in her country that will be sought after for adoption.
Children in Eastern Europe are able to remain in the baby house until their 4th or 5th birthday, then they are sent to live in an adult mental institution.
The conditions for these children are not good. Children in orphanages lack  food, medical care, and suitable facilities. Mortality in orphanages is dramatically high.
Our eyes were opened to the conditions in Eastern Europe after watching a special on NBC when Ann Curry traveled to an orphanage there. The footage taken while there, shocking.
Our family already planned to adopt, but had not considered special needs or international. Seeing the need so great, we decided we could not just sit by and do nothing. We needed to act.
While searching online for orphans in need, we found Reece's Rainbow. Below is a description of Reece's Rainbow taken directly from their website. http://reecesrainbow.org/faq
Our beautiful little girl was there and we knew that we could not let her grow up in an orphanage. We can hardly wait until we can bring her home. They say not everyone can be an adopting family, but everyone can help an orphan find their way home.
The cost of adopting internationally is great. We will need to fundraise the cost to rescue her. Rescue her from a childhood of not being rocked to sleep, or held when she cries, a childhood of never knowing what it is like to just get something to eat when she is hungry, or call someone mommy or daddy. Every child deserves a family. Please help us bring Sydney home. You can help by clicking the link in the side bar or Sydney's picture. Both will take you to Reece's Rainbow where you can make a tax deductible donation.
Thank you.


    1. Reece's Rainbow is not an adoption agency.  We are an advocacy and adoption grant/fundraising organization only.   We raise awareness for waiting children with Down syndrome and other special needs for the purposes of international adoption and social activism. We actively pursue donations as grants to offset the costs related to adopting the children we serve.
    2. Reece's Rainbow is a registered 501©3 non-profit, legally classified as a public charity with the IRS and incorporated originally in the state of Georgia.  Our non profit tax id is 20-5466141 and our 990 filings for each year can be openly viewed at http://www.guidestar.org/  Our offices are currently located at PO Box 4024, Gaithersburg, MD  20885.  Donations by check can be mailed to this address.
    3. Reece's Rainbow does not financially benefit from any facilitator or agency partnerships.  Grant donations are legally made on behalf of the child, and are available to families regardless of which facilitation team or agency they work with to complete their adoption. (with submission of required grant app and supporting documents)
    4. Grant disbursements can only be made after a dossier has been submitted and the family has recvd an official travel date.