Little help here!

So my fundraiser for Kaitlyn is going very slowly, but I'm not complaining! I'll do the best I can for her. I read so many other blogs where families are fundraising to children they have committed to and struggling, even 1 family that's had to withdraw their commitment to a child due to financial hurdles they couldn't overcome. I feel such a strong desire to help as many as I can, yet can't help as many as I'd like to. I guess I am led to the ones I'm supposed to help! That being said, we had a garage sale this weekend that I had decided to give 10% to Kaitlyn. Shelby had a bake sale to raise money too, so we decided to split the money with Olgas family to help get her home quickly-as she has waited long enough for a family or her own. I am happy to be able to add to both Kaitlyn and Olgas funds. My Tupperware fundraiser is going fairly well, so that will help Kaitlyn too. So if anyone is able to help and interested in my fundraisers, please see my previous post. I appreciate any help! I got a little (big) uplift tonight, seeing pics of the Cox family bringing home Mia. That just gives this fundraising more reality, something tangible to work towards. When I donated to them months ago it seemed like the day would never come that they would bring her home! Congrats to the whole family! You can see their journey at http://kareensjourneyhome.blogspot.com


Good night!

Pillowcases (and more) for Katelyn

Here are some of the pillowcases I am selling for Katelyn's fundraiser. Above clockwise from left is Pink Panther, baseball, Diego soccer, boys soccer, Scoobey-Doo, and Vikings (flannel)

This is material for more: Disney Fairies, cats, and Little Mermaid (above)

Thomas the Train, Hot Wheels, and Cars (below)

yellow, butterflies in both yellow and pink, and peace sign tie dye

All pillowcases are handmade by my mom and aunt. All are standard size and regular cotton, unless noted. They are $12 each, or 2 for $20. If you have a special print in mind, we can do almost anything, special orders will be $15 each.

This is the wolf my 17 year old daughter painted. I will have prints made. Isn't it beautiful??

Here is the link to the Tupperware fundraising flier. http://order.tupperware.com/coe/app/tup_widget.show_page?fv_page_code=fundraiser_us&fv_section_name=home&fv_category_code=shop

If you want to order from that you will have to send a check to my Tupperware lady, then she will give me a check at the end with all the donations. In that case, email me at christina0469@msn.com. It's best to leave a comment on here too, since if you aren't in my contact list msn likes to put those in my junk box!

5/5/5 Warrior

If you have visited my un-updated blog recently, you may have noticed the new picture on the right side that features "Katelyn". I have become her 5/5/5 warrior. Basically what this is, is that to celebrate Reece's Rainbow celebrate their 5th anniversary and over 500 orphans-no-more, they are pushing advocacy for all the 5 year olds listed. The goal is to raise $5,000, and help them find their forever family. Ok, so I admit, I'm a bit overwhelmed by those lofty goals. My blog doesn't have many followers, and that's how a lot of people fund raise. But I am determined to do the best I can for Katelyn, and so is my Shelby. She is already brainstorming ideas to raise money for her. The first fundraiser we are doing is pillowcases. I have donated a few of these to other blogger-friends fundraisers, and the response has been quite positive. My mom and aunt hand make these and we have dozens of themes. We have cotton and flannel. All are standard size. I'll get some pics posted soon, my computer crashed and it has all my photos on it, so the computer guy is trying to retrieve everything. In the meantime, pillowcase themes include cats, horses, Disney, Dora, butterflies, angels, fish, some sports teams, and lots of different colors. Each is $12. You can pay by clicking on the button to the right, it goes directly to Katelyn's adoption account on Reece's Rainbow, and is completely tax-deductable. Once you have paid, email me that you have and what type of pillowcase you want. We'll take special orders too!! Thank you for helping me help this sweet little girl, who has been an orphan way too long!!

18 months?!?! Really?

(note: I wrote this last night, and am posting it now with pics!!) Kellan loves his great-grandpa

Well I was all excited to finally post again, and have all these cute pics of Kellan, but my computer sucks and I'm ready to throw it thru the window. Everything I try to do takes forever, and half the time it say internet explorer has stopped working and closes me out of everything! UGH! Maybe I'll get lucky on one of the iPad giveaways I keep entering and finally WIN! In the meantime, I can give an update on my favorite little 1 1/2 year old! It seems so weird to say that, I can't believe it's been that long, and on the other hand I can't seem to remember not having him here! Kellan is growing by leaps and bounds! He weighs almost 21 pounds and is almost grown out of his 12 month clothes! He did just end up with another ear infection, darn it. We took him in on Friday because he had 2 rough nights of coughing like crazy and obviously bugged by something. I was really surprised to hear the doctor say his right ear had pus behind the ear drum. So much for the tubes. She couldn't see the right one, but our regular doctor has always had trouble seeing that one too, so I don;t know. We'll go back in a couple weeks for a recheck and if she still can't see it I'll call the doctor who put them in. Thankfully, she is as awesome as they come, and I know she'll take good care of Kellan. The doctors and nurses at the clinic where the kids go love Kellan so much that they have asked to have his picture taken professionally and put up on the wall in the clinic! They have several photos of kids up, so it'll be fun to add our little man to the mix! Kellan has finally decided that it is fun to sit up, and it makes playing ever more fun! He's still a bit unsteady, but doing really well! So his PT is really pushing the crawling now, which he hates! Kellan rolls to get where he wants to go, and there's no where he can't get by rolling! I have some fun video of him sitting and playing and rolling around, if I can just get my computer to upload them to my youtube, I'll cross post them here. Kellan is expanding his talents to signing too. He signs "more", "eat", and "all done", waves hi and bye, and blows kisses. He still loves his thumb, and now has to have a blankie to hold too...so darn cute! He still has just the 5 teeth, but has decided that's enough to justify not eating any more baby food! He loves anything with spagetti sauce, has eaten and liked a pickle, lemon and lime! Well my wonderful computer has done it again, so I am saving this to a word doc until tomorrow, shutting the piece of #@&% off, and going to bed. Hopefully a new day will bring a better attitude to both me and it!

A day to save Olga...I got it published! thanks, Patti!

Dear friends,
So many of you already know this beautiful little face....

Olga turned five last month. She has spent the last five years in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, without the love of a mommy and daddy- simply because she arrived in life exactly as God designed her. One chromosome too many, and her fate was sealed from birth.



Sealed, because in Eastern Europe, babies who are born with Down syndrome are deemed unacceptable at birth. They are discarded as cast-offs of society, and when they turn five they leave the only home they've ever known...


And I wish I could say that for most of these children, leaving that home means going to a place of safety, a place of happiness, a place where they would finally know the love of a family...know what it means to be cuddled or sung to or read to, tucked in at night, prayed for, loved.
Instead, they are taken to a place that most people wouldn't leave their family pet.

A place of living hell, where they will never know the tenderness of a parent, never know the security of being raised in a family, and there they will stay, one ugly, pain-filled day at a time...until they die.



I read a post last December that stayed with me to this day. It was called from baby dolls to bedstraps.
The blog author wrote about Elizabeth, an orphan on Reece's Rainbow who had been transferred to a mental institution, waiting for a family to step forward for her. Her words still haunt me.
I wonder where she thought she was going as they led her out of the orphanage that day. Did she think that maybe it was finally her turn? That they were taking her to her forever Mommy and Daddy?
And when they instead took her inside that dreadful place, when they shaved her head and tied her to a too-small metal crib
when they turned their backs and
walked
away…

when they left her confused, terrified,
in a room where the wails of schizophrenic adults echo through the cold air
what was going through her young mind?

Did she wonder if she was being punished?

How long did she hold out hope that this was only temporary?
That any minute, they would come and take her back to the baby house
to her baby dolls and teddy bear,
to her best friend, Angelina?

Did she long to free her arms from the restraints
to cover her head with her hands to drown out
the scary noises
the scary sights
the scary smells?

That could be my Lily….

It could be your child.
And what if it were?
What if you woke up one morning
and by some hellish, twilight-zone twist of fate
your child wasn’t still tucked into that warm bed down the hall,
what if your child was trapped
across the dark sea
in that nightmare that is
the institution?
What
would
you
DO?
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. Proverbs 24:11

Elizabeth is being rescued today, thanks to the efforts of that blogging mama, and others like her.
Olga is being rescued today, thanks to so many of you...you gave so much and created such a large grant that a family was able to step forward and start the process of adoption.
The Abells have done so much already, towards rescuing Olga. I can't even imagine all the paperwork and prayer and emotion and finances that goes into an international adoption. They have done numerous fundraisers, and will continue to do so until they can bring Olga home.
Through the help of so many, a grant of over $13,000 has been raised for Olga's adoption. That grant is set aside for the final travel costs and fees that it will take to bring Olga home. It will take every penny of that and then some.
Right now the Abells are in need of raising the $7,000 that is needed to submit their dossier for Olga. Without that dossier we don't even know if Olga has been transferred yet. Here in America you just pick up the phone and ask these questions. But here in America we don't tie five year old girls to cribs to keep them from climbing out.
The Abells need to submit that dossier as soon as possible- at the very least to find out if she has been transferred already- because I know an army of prayer warriors who is going to want to know that piece of information as well. And at the very most, it could be able to hold Olga at the baby house until the Abells can rescue her. I wish I could say with certainty that she won't be transferred- truthfully we just don't know that.
Olga has been so heavy on my heart for months- friends, I want you to know that I DO trust that God has a plan here.
I prayed like crazy for a way to help the Abells. I truly believe that there is a network of people who love Olga here in blogland...a net that is woven by God and is stretching out across this blessed country we live in, and even beyond to generous hearts in other nations. I really cannot express enough how thankful I am to be a small part of what God has already done for Olga, Peter and Kareen. But I don't think our job is done.
Olga needs us.
I don't want her to spend one more forsaken day in that place than she has to.
We're not doing a giveaway here today. I don't even think we need to do one- I know so many just have a heart to help and to give, and prizes were never the real reason we all gave anyway.
So I'm just asking- for one day- for you to do whatever you could to help Olga. Whether that's $10 or $20 or even a hundred...if you are able to help raise this money for the dossier, please do so HERE... This is the Abell's chip-in.

This is the link for the Family Sponsorship Page on Reece's Rainbow...every single dollar goes to the Abell's adoption fund, and every single dollar will help.
We're calling this A Day to Save Olga, because there are about 17 of us blogging mamas and one blogging grandpa who have set aside this day to blog, post on Facebook, pray, give and spread the word to SAVE OLGA.
Will you help us?
I know you will:)
Love,
Patti

A day to save Olga

Ok I'm a little frustrated with my lack of computer skills, and wanted to post this entire entry on my blog, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Patti, a wonderful blogger I follow, posted this today http://babynumber10.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-to-save-olga.html. I don't think many of us in the US realize just what happens to babies and children with Down syndrome (and other "abnormalities") in some other countries, like around Eastern Europe. Look at these pictures, and tell me you knew this was how it is there in the year 2011.

A Home For Riley: What Do Riley And The 2010 Emmys Have In Common?

A Home For Riley: What Do Riley And The 2010 Emmys Have In Common?: "STAR TREK! Well, not exactly. Yes, that is Chase Masterson (Leeta from DS9), but the other person in the picture is Rob's friend Melissa Lew..."