Another Letter to Our Angels

Your Homecoming Outfits... We can hardly wait to see you in them!

Dear Sydney and Lucien,
This last weekend was wonderful. On Saturday, I got together with one of my friends, Annie, and my new friend Adria. We had such an amazing time passing out information for Reece's Rainbow and telling people about other children who need families. Hopefully those little ones will have their family find them too, just like we found out.
Your big sister was in a musical at church on Sunday and it was so wonderful just to watch it. Of course many of the kids forgot their lines or words to the song, but my heart was so proud of her. I thought of years from now when you will be able to be in the church musical and how wonderful you will be!
On of the ladies at church has a little boy with CP so we were able to get together and talk a little bit about who they use for PT. We do not want to waste a single moment, you have already lost so much PT time. What is PT you ask? Well, PT is physical therapy. Sometimes you will have a lot of fun with it, and other times you might really want to be doing anything but PT. But trust me when I say it will all be worth it. It will help you develop your muscles so you can sit up, crawl, and even walk. We will also work on OT... that will help you with your speech. We can make lots of silly faces at each other  and silly noises, you will love being able to chew on things, and we will hard on chewing before we swallow. I know you will be great at it!
One thing I want you to learn, almost more than anything, is to never give up, never accept that you can not do something. We believe in both of you, we will always be here for you. Some things you might find very easy, some things you might find very hard. No matter what, we will love you, and always be there for you!
I hate to break it to you, and we will do our best to control ourselves, but we hope you enjoy being loved on... because my angels, are are a very lovie family. We love giving hugs and kisses and cuddles and snuggles, especially to ones as little and  adorable as you.
So you wonder what it will be like when you get home? Well, our puppy is a chocolate lab who needs to be walked at least twice a day, so we will take a couple of stroller rides every day. Once you are sitting up well enough we can walk down to the local park and you can ride in the swings. I wonder if you will be like me and love that little tickle of butterflies in your tummy or if you will be more like your oldest sister and get motion sick.
We can play in the yard and let you feel the grass between your toes, and once you get a bit bigger I will find you a little slide and climbing toy for the yard as well. We have two miniature apple trees in the yard, a plum tree, and I am planting a vegetable garden so there will be lots of fresh foods to eat.
We believe in eating at the table as a family and saying prayers and that will include you as well. I have found some local playgroups that meets twice a month for other families with children who have down syndrome just like you. We have several little toys for the bathtub and after you have had your dinner at night we can get a nice bath and then into your pajamas, brush your little teeth when you get them in, and then we will sit together in the rocking chair and read some nice stories. I love books and I hope you will too. Then it will be time to settle down, and I will hold you in my arms, sing you sweet lullabies, and then put you in your cribs to sleep.
Sweet little ones... we are counting the days until we fly to see you for the first times... we can hardly wait to hold you and share our love with you. Sending you love and kisses my sweet ones!! Mommy and Daddy love you!
*hugs*
Love
Mommy

ALMOST THERE!!

Did you see it? We are on the "Almost There" page on Reece's Rainbow! So what does that mean? It means that right now the only thing that we are waiting for is a travel date. I am so excited and nervous all at the same time. I have been so moved by your outpouring of love for Sydney and Lucien. We are working as hard as we can to get everything done for Sydney and Lucien to be home. We have the nursery all set up for them and can hardly wait until they can sleep in their own bed in the comfort of their own home!

Recently a mother posted about her child that she adopted... she said... "It's hard for us in America to even fathom the neglect, but it is very real and damaging to their little bodies, souls and minds.
He was left in a crib for his entire life. Resulting in many sensory issues, a mouth full of rotten teeth (he had 10 pulled), not knowing how to even chew or swallow, non-verbal and cannot walk - at 7 years old! I believe strongly that it is just as important to rescue these children at a young age as an older child. The damage that is done due to to the lack of touch and love is devastating and completely unnecessary. WHY couldn't someone see a little baby that needed love and not leave him in a crib for 6 years!"
Please help us make sure that Sydney and Lucien do not have to endure that. Let's get them home!!

We are so close!! Only $8500 until we are fully funded! Thank you all so very much we have a fundraiser going on if you are looking for something for Mother's Day! You can check it out HERE !

Also, to help bring in the last $8500 we are having a little giveaway. For anyone who donates  OR who will share our blog between now until  May 19th, your name will be entered into the giveaway for a $50 Sephora Gift Card. For every $3000 raised we will add another item to the give away. Please leave any donations on the FSP instead of the chip-in. I know that is a lot to raise ($3000) to add another item to the giveaway but our time is limited... we could get a travel date any day now! Once we get a travel date we will only have two weeks to fly out after that so we need to raise the last $8500 FAST!! Unless you decide to be anonymous with your donation, I will be able to contact Reece's Rainbow to find out who all donated. If you shared instead of donated, please leave me a comment so I can add your name to the giveaway. 
Thank you all so very much and God Bless!!

Hope in our Future

Dear Sydney and Lucien,

When we started this journey, I have to tell you that my heart was worried. I was worried how we would get you home. But my sweet little ones, there have been some amazing people we have met since starting this journey.
You what to know something? In a world where a lot of teens and kids are so self involved, I have met some outstanding young people. I am so humbled by them. That it took me THIS long in life to be so active in reaching out, and they are doing it NOW, while they are still young! I can hardly wait until you can meet them, at least with emails or pictures.
Let me tell you about a group of young girls that have been so active in helping fundraise for you! They have a wonderful blog called To Love the Unloved . These girls have been holding a fundraiser for you to help us get you home! The girls are Sunny, Taylah, and Savana. These girls are so wonderful, I can not say enough about them!
There is a young man who has an amazing servant's heart! He traveled with his family to go get his sister from Eastern Europe who has down syndrome and it really touched his heart. He has a blog that makes you pray that your daughter will find a man as wonderful as this man is. I love his passion for orphans and his love for God. So inspiring. He has put you, my sweet ones, on his prayer list and will help pray you home! This young man's name is Caleb and his blog is called Speaking for the Silent.

And then there is another young lady named Ashley, she has a little sister with down syndrome and her family is working so hard to bring home a little girl from Eastern Europe that has down syndrome. Ashley's blog is beautifully written and is written in the form of letters to her sisters, the one she already has and the one her family is working so hard to rescue. Her blog tells it like it is, with hopes and dreams and even struggles. Her blog is called Something Beautiful (Dear Laura & Autumn... Love Sissy)
All of those young people have one thing in common, every one of these young people has a sibling with Down Syndrome. And EACH of them talk about the beauty of their sibling. They each say they are blessings. These amazing young people are changing the way others see people with disabilities. They are our youth, the world's future, and even if they only change the way ONE person views someone with a disability, it will become a ripple effect that will in turn, help change the world!

And then there are the people who say how wonderful we are for bringing you home.
We are not wonderful. We are just regular people, it is the community that is amazing, you my sweet little loves that are amazing, and we are just so blessed to be a part of it all. We are just a normal family who has too much love to keep it to ourselves and we are so excited to be able to share that love with you.
So you see my little loves, the world is full of wonderful people, amazing role models, and filled with people that love you. And if you should ever encounter anyone who does not understand how wonderful you are, just remember how much you are wanted, how much you are loved, and how so many people, all over the world, came together to help bring you home.
We love you!!
Mama and Daddy

We Did It!!!

We did it!! We made the amount that we needed to get our matching grant. Some people donated by FSP and some donated by Chip-In, but all together we got the $300 we needed to get the $300 matching grant!!! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, shared, and prayed!
We have been so blessed. Throughout this journey we have made some really good friends, and have learned a lot about patience and love.
We are still not fully funded but I have no doubt that we will get there.
We have stood in awe and watched our FSP grow so much over the past two months.
When we started out I was worried. I did not understand. But I was told that there has never been a Reece's Rainbow family that has not traveled through lack of funds. I was told that the community is amazing, the support is like no other. And those who told me this are right. It takes a lot of faith when you are at the start of this process and you are praying that everything works out. It takes a lot knowing how far you still need to go and you worry that you won't make it. You worry about what people will think when you keep asking for more and more help.
But this is NEVER about us. It is about two beautiful children. Two children who are orphans because they were born with Down Syndrome.  Right now, we do not know the full story. Maybe their parents really wanted them, but were unable to care for them. We have to understand that life in the country Sydney and Lucien live in, is not like it is here. There are little to no resources to help them develop to their fullest potential. There is no hope that they would be able to grow up and get a job at the store down the road. They would not be included in the local schools. We will know more when we get to Sydney and Lucien's country. Until then, we pray that they are safe and that the nannies are patient with them, and sending prayers to the nannies that they will do their very best to care for Sydney and Lucien until we are able to get there. We pray for the day when we can walk through this gate so they can see their new home.

 I can hardly wait to update you with you tons of pictures and videos of them once we are there. Thank you, ALL of you, for helping us rescue these two little ones. It is because of your help, that they will not be sentenced to a life as an orphan, alone and forgotten.
God Bless You!!

Matching Grant!!

We have been offered a matching grant of $300 if we can raise that amount in ONE WEEK by two anonymous donors!! Can we do it??  The FSP currently says $15,875. So for us to get the matching grant of $300 we need to FSP to say $16,175 or higher!!
We are getting so close to traveling and still need to raise $9500 but we WILL get it! Soon Sydney and Lucien will be orphans no more!
Thank you all so very much for all of your help. We could not do this without you! We have been completely amazed at  your response to the needs of our sweet Sydney and Lucien. Through God's goodness and His love you are helping us save them from a life of languishing in cribs on the other side of the world.
Words can not express how thankful, how grateful we are to you. God Bless You!!

Trave Date and Questions Answered

OUR Docs have been Accepted at the Adoption Authority!!! Now we are just waiting on a travel date!!
But we are still Short $10,000 !!! If you can please help,  $1, $5, every little bit helps!!

http://reecesrainbow.org/27586/sponsorjenks Thank you and God Bless!!
Here are some questions we have been asked lately...

1) Do you have anymore pictures of Sydney and/or Lucien?
 no, currently the only pictures we have are the ones that you have seen as well, which are the ones that are listed on the Reece's Rainbow website
2) Why does it cost so much to adopt rescue them?
part of the costs include travel, transportation while in country, translation of documents, medical and visa costs, along with many other costs
3) Don't you mean you are BUYING these kids?!
no, even if we adopted domestically, we could still be expected to help pay some of the birth mother's expenses, we would have to travel to their state to go get them, and we would spend money on lawyers and all kinds of things, a friend of mine recently adopted a little girl from the USA and their adoption cost them about the same ours is
4) Why do you use the word rescue instead of adopt
these little ones are in an orphanage, they have no family, their nannies are doing the best they can but when you have an overwhelming amount of kids and not a lot of time or staff to get things done, things such as rocking a child to sleep, or playing with a child gets left by the way side, children with down syndrome NEED phy. therapy, speech therapy, and they are NOT getting it where they are. Recently a family committed to a little girl who is 14 year old and weighs 14lbs.. in case you missed that... she weighs 14 POUNDS!!! THIS is what Sydney and Lucien's future could look like if they are not RESCUED!! 
5) Why special needs?
Because there is an overwhelming need. People wait for years to be picked for a healthy child, or a child with no special needs. However, children with special needs end up waiting YEARS to be picked. Mark and I have felt lead to orphan rescue after hearing about the conditions in countries around the world. 
 6) Do they have any health issues?

We do not know yet. They had no known healthy issues at the time they were listed for Sydney that was at age 2 months and for Lucien he was listed when he was 1 month. So how much they would know at that age is up in the air. We are prepared for medical issues but praying for none. 
7) If they have health issues will you still want them?
YES!! We have gone in this knowing there are no certainties. We just want to get them home and get them all the love and care they could ever need to help them live their lives to their fullest abilities no matter what that is. 
8) Don't you want to enjoy getting old, and not having kids around? With kids with Down Syndrome you will always have to take care of them. It is not fair to your other children that you will leave them with the "burden" of caring for their siblings when you are gone.
First of all, I ENJOY being around my kids. My two oldest girls have already grown up and moved away, I MISS them. As for always having my kids around... if we had a big enough house, I would have no problem if my kids all wanted to live with us forever. I would never stop any of my children from making their own way in the world, but I would not force them out either. As for my other children and caring for a sibling... I recently asked a young man who has a sister with down syndrome how he feels about it and this was his reply "OK, here's a better, more straight-forward answer for the "burden argument" then what I just gave- you might know the B* Family, who adopted a little girl named C* who was literally on death's door when they brought her home a year ago, now she's doing great. Anyway, when I met them down in * a month ago, S* put the question to me of how I thought having a sibling with DS had affected my life. My honest answer was that everybody seems to automatically assimilate DS to "burden," "hardship," all these negative terms, because a person with Down Syndrome doesn't "conform" to today's opinion of how we should live our lives for the most part. The thing so many fail to realize is that yes, you're life's not gonna be the same as before, but the change is a good one. Yes, you have bad days, tough moments, and you're not going to have as much "me time" as you might have before- but it's all a change that overall, in my humble opinion, makes you a better person, surrounded by a group of people that are equally amazing because of having experienced the same things you have gone through. that's the, and I quote, "short answer" that I give people "  

A Birthday Wish

Surprise!!  

This isn't Rebecca but its her Husband Mark. I would post under my own name but I didn't get access..

Well by the title you might have guessed that Today is Her Birthday. Please join with me In wishing this wonderful woman of 4 (soon to be 6) a most auspicious Day. I wont say how Old as a Man never says such things, Even on pain of agonizing torturous pain and suffering  (aka a night on the sofa). 

 I know alot of you reading out there have already done so much. even in an attempt to create a fire hazard on my birthday by donating for candles. However I'm not that creative so I'm just coming right out with it the best way I can. If you know the best way to wish her a happy birthday ? ? It's simple. a Dollar here a dollar there in donations. Spread the word ask friends and friends of friends. All she wants is for our 2 angels to be home.

Well Now I've said my piece, and its time for me to go back into the supportive shadows once more. Oh and Shhhh she doesn't know I've done this yet. but she will by the evening. I now return you to your normal blogging lifestyle. This has been a public service broadcast on behalf of the smart part of a husbands brain.

Remebering What's Important

Today was Easter. The day we stop to remember how so long ago Jesus rose from the dead. He died for the forgiveness of our sins and so we would have life ever lasting. This was not conditional. It was done out of love for us, his children.
Our job, is to remember what is important. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and whoever believes in him, shall not parish but have ever lasting life. I believe that with all of my heart. Some of you may disagree. That is your right, just as it is mine to believe. You do not have to love God for him to love you back, and even if you do not believe in him, he still believes in you!
Easters have changed in our house. We use to celebrate the way most Americans do, with tons of candy in the morning stuffed in the baskets. But today, on this very special day, we wanted to celebrate life. We wanted to stop and think of all the wonderful gifts God and Jesus have given us.
Lately, we have gotten so busy with the adoption that we have not stopped for a moment. We have been so busy, we started to loose sight of what we have around us.
We have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings. We stopped last night and talked about it, how blessed we are to have been where we are. Instead of being born into poverty or into a country that does not value differences, we were born into countries that allow us freedom. We were born into families that made sure we had enough food every night, a bed to sleep in, and a roof over our heads.
We prayed for all those who are less fortunate and who are struggling, then went to spend time with our amazing children. 
Last night we had a wonderful time together coloring eggs.

This morning started with a scavenger hunt since Tamara and Brandon are getting older. They had a lot of fun running around the house and outside trying to find all the clues that ended up leading back to their baskets.
Their first clue...

 

Lead straight to the Bible. 

The kids ran all over looking for their clues 

The clues finally lead them back to their baskets buckets. 

After lunch we all headed out to the local park to fly our kites and walk around. We had such a wonderful time!! 

What a wonderful day we had!!

 We can hardly wait to share our next Easter with Sydney and Lucien!!!

God Bless All of You and We Wish You a VERY Happy Easter!!