Adeye's Giveaway! It's BIG!!

I mentioned that a really big giveaway would be coming soon, but I had no idea just how big it would be. Adeye, at No Greater Joy Mom, asked for help with donations to this giveaway and she receiver over 100 items! I believe that God wants Vanya, the little boy for whom she is raising the money, to find a family! Vanya daily asks his caretakers for a family. Daily. They may not be able to do anything to help him, but God surely is ABLE.

Here's how to play (from her blog):

You will HAVE to leave a comment here on my blog telling me that you have donated in the Chip-In.


~~~ Receive one entry for each donation you make in the Chip-In (any amount).
~~~ Receive a second entry when you mention this giveaway on your own blog.
~~~ Receive a third entry for mentioning it on your Facebook or Twitter.

Please remember to leave separate comments for each of the above categories. And please do not forget to state your name so that I know who the winners are.


Thanks, y'all!

Job 31:16-23

¹⁶ “If I have denied the desires of the poor
   or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

¹⁷ if I have kept my bread to myself,
   not sharing it with the fatherless—

¹⁸ but from my youth I reared them as a father would,
   and from my birth I guided the widow—

¹⁹ if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,
   or the needy without garments,

²⁰ and their hearts did not bless me
   for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,

²¹ if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
   knowing that I had influence in court,

²² then let my arm fall from the shoulder,
   let it be broken off at the joint.

²³ For I dreaded destruction from God,
   and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

Elizabeth C. and her NEW FAMILY!

I just realized I hadn't updated my blog with respect to the beautiful Elizabeth C. yet. Her family found her (which I had noted), and what a darling family they are! Click on their blog to meet the Clark family...a family with three brothers for Elizabeth (they're keeping her name!) and two sisters. Both sisters have that extra chromosome, and one of those sisters just came home from China in September. Isn't that incredible?

I hope you will follow their family blog as they move quickly forward to claim their daughter and reclaim her and the abundant life the Lord has for her. I was searching my blog for pictures of Elizabeth that they may not yet have and found my prayer for her. What an amazing blessing to see how God answered that prayer with this fantastic family. My only complaint is that He didn't bring a family that lived a little closer to me, but who can really quibble with God's divine plan?

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever!!

Sophia C. and the Angel Tree--a Fairy Tale

Two years ago, in a faraway land, a beautiful little blond-haired princess was born. She had an extra chromosome. No one understood that made her extra special! The doctors told her parents she was cursed. Her parents believed the doctors and sent her to live in an orphanage until the curse could be lifted. No one in her country understood that it was no curse, but a blessing. They kept trying to remove the curse from princess, without success, until...
Something extraordinary happened!

The fearless and bold Andrea Roberts, leader of Reece's Rainbow Adoption Crusaders, has kind helpers in this princess's country who scour the countryside, looking for pretty little girls and handsome little boys with extra chromosomes. When they find these children, like our princess, Sophia, they take pictures of them and send them back to Andrea. Andrea puts pictures and all the information she can find onto the Reece's Rainbow website so families like mine can find these pretty little girls and handsome little boys and bring them home. Home, after all, is the place where people with an extra chromosome are best able to reach their amazing potential!! Home is the place where princess Sophia's curse can at last be lifted...the curse of living in an orphanage with no parents to love her, place sparkly tiaras on her head and dress her in the colors of royalty, as every princess deserves.

So many families look at the pretty little girls and handsome little boys on Reece's Rainbow and know they want to bring one or two or three to their own home. Isn't that a happy ending? No, because the big scary expenses of adoption stand in the way of so many of the families. These special families could treat the pretty little girls and handsome little boys to a sweet life of fun, family, and festivities, if only they could clear the path of that dragon and bring their prince or princess home.

Sophia is a true princess and she needs her happy ending! Will you help her family-to-be find their way to her by slaying some of the big bad adoption expenses? Sophia's expenses are even bigger and badder than most of the children on Reece's Rainbow. She needs a knight in shining armor!

This Christmas season I am raising money for Sophia as part of Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree. The Angel Tree is our biggest fundraising push of the year and I am honored to help. I would be all the more honored (more like thrilled) if you would join with me in slaying the expense dragons in her way! If you donate at least $35.00 to Sophia's account (as explained below), you will receive a Christmas ornament with the Reece's Rainbow Christmas Tree logo on one side and Sophia's picture on the other side. $30 will go to Sophia's account while $5 goes into the Voice of Hope Fund to defray the costs of the ornaments. Click here for a full explanation. Speaking of money-hungry dragons, all donations are tax-deductible, too.

If you click here, you can donate money to Sophia by clicking the "Donate" button, which takes you to a Paypal page. On that page, near the top, is a box with a blinking cursor in it--put the amount you wish to donate in that box and click the yellow box that says "Update Total". After that, scroll down a bit and you'll see a place to log in to PayPal. If you have a PayPal account, I probably don't need to tell you what to do! If you don't have a PayPal account, however, please note that on the left side of the page there is a place to click and you can then just pay by debit or credit card. By donating in this way, you are ensuring that Sophia receives the money you donated.

Click here to see all the other pretty little girls and handsome little boys that Andrea has gathered from around the world! For the months of November and December all our precious little ones with Down syndrome (aged 5 and younger) are gathered together on one page so we can follow along and rejoice as their dragons are slayed and the path cleared for parents to bring them home.

Thank you for being a part of Sophia's happy ending!

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

Anne Marie--In Memoriam

Today, the Reece's Rainbow family was given the news that one of our own children has passed away (because we have claimed them all as our own, every single child that Andrea Roberts finds and places on her website, because we cannot bear the thought that they don't have earthly families). Today, hundreds of her aunties are grieving her loss, grieving the death of a dream they had for her, grieving that she didn't know a tender touch, that she didn't know a soft, clean bed, that she didn't know a birthday party, or a special meal made just for her, or even get to have a ponytail and bow in her hair because they kept her shaved for convenience.

Most of all, we grieve that she didn't have a mom or dad to take her to the hospital when she was sick, stay by her side and watch like a hawk, just in case, so that she would get the amazing care we have here in America. We grieve that she won't have a funeral, or a grave, or a tear shed in her country, although she has plenty being shed by her aunties all over the world.

 Even within our sorrow, though, there is hope. Hope that we can continue to make a difference. Hope that another family will listen to God's call on their heart and home and step forward in obedience to bring home a child. Above all, we have hope in God who is still on His throne and still here, with us and our orphans just as He was with Anne Marie.

II Corinthians 4:7-18~~But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
  It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Eastern European Orphanages and Down syndrome

My least pleasant post to date. I can't help it. This is going on in our world, today. While I was feeding my children steak, potatoes, salad and cheesecake yesterday in celebration of Luke's birthday, these children were surviving, only just, in these conditions. This is why I share pictures of children with Down syndrome available for adoption.

The video below is 9 seconds long. This is what happens to children left in orphanages or, worse yet, mental institutions in former Soviet bloc countries. This could've been Vera.

The video below shows Serbian children and adults in mental institutions in a report by NBC. You are seeing (if you choose to watch it) real people, who feel pain, who are hungry, who could feel love, who have no sense of worth any longer.

This video is of Bulgarian orphans, emaciated and weak while their fat nurses hover around and treat them roughly. It isn't in English but that hardly matters. Skip over the interview in the middle and you can see the nurses bathing one of their charges. Heartbreaking hardly seems a strong enough word.


To be sure, not every orphanage in Eastern Europe is this bad. To be sure, almost every mental institution is close to this bad, and that's where our children with Down syndrome will end up if they aren't adopted or, in rare cases, returned home to their birth parents.

I honestly have only one response to videos of this sort, of which there are many:

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!