That is what a special needs child can bring to a family…
Yes, a child with special needs will indeed change your life, it will change your days and how you see the rest of your life, the child’s life and it will change your perspective in life.
Change is not a bad thing. Many fear change; they are afraid of the uncertainty, they are afraid to give up their current way of living or are afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone.
Listen to how far this father has journeyed with his Down Syndrome daughter. (It’s a 15-minute video.)
This little angel needs a family asap. She needs medical attention.
i know that she can be such a blessing to her family. But she doesn’t have one. She could grow up and have opportunities to show off the talents which God has given her. But where she is, she will not get the chance to do so.
She has Down Syndrome and she has been cast aside. She is 4 and is now likely in an understaffed mental institution with no facilities suitable for children. She has a heart condition and needs medical care. But she will likely not get that surgery unless a family steps forward to claim her as their own.
Please help her to get the notice she deserves. Share her story so her forever family can find her. Pray for her, for her health, for her daily needs, for her family to step forward.
She is on Reece’s Rainbow Angel Tree, which means she has an Angel Tree Warrior working to raise US$1000 or more for her this holiday season so that her family can reach her faster (The costs of international adoptions are very very high.).
Visit here and here to support her fundraisers. Here’s a link to a beautiful note written by Angelina’s Christmas Warrior. Click on her picture or name to go to her profile and find out more.
Wesley has such a gentle spirit, even in his difficult situation. He needs a family who will help nurture that wonderful kind spirit within him.
In case, you are new to this blog or haven’t read about Wesley. Wesley is an orphan who lives in Asia. My son and i pray for him everyday; we pray for his daily needs and most importantly, we pray for a family for him. Wesley‘s family had to leave him – we don’t know why but it likely had something to do with his medical condition; Wesley has albinism and related vision problems.
Besides praying and sharing his story, we are also helping to grow his adoption grant. Wesley‘s best chances for a loving family who have the ability care for him and the heart to love him just as he is likely lies outside his home country. So that means an international adoption, which are known to be very very expensive, anywhere from US$20,000 to US$45,000. It’s crazy, isn’t it? That trying to bring an orphan into a loving family, which every child deserves, can costs so very much.
Many ask why they should contribute to Wesley‘s grant. My answer is borrowed from a couple who is on a journey to bring home a 12-year boy from Eastern Europe. (Wesley is also 12 years-old). So i quote Tania from 1,000 Loving Jack:
The magnitude of his needs are so much greater than ours.
Now some people might think that this is helping orphans business is not for me. It is not my business. But here again i quote Tania:
If we didn’t step forward and make this commitment to save him, then who was?
She and her husband are bravely stepping forward and adopting Jack. Not everyone is called to adopt. But we are all called to help the needy.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
i am asking for your help here; to help Wesley to grow his adoption grant so that a lack of funds would not be the reason that his forever family can not reach him. i have a special giveaway for Wesley, running from now till December 3rd. You get a chance to be entered into a draw for some lovely items while helping a little boy who is unable to do anything to change his situation for himself. Please click here to go to the Precious One Giveaway for Wesley.
You can also click on Wesley‘s name or picture to learn more about his story.
There are other ways you can help Wesley; you can pray for him, for his daily needs, for his forever family to find him. You can also share his story far and wide so that the chances of his forever family finding him would increase. Sharing his story and my giveaway would also give you a free entry into the draw.
i read in August a lovely blog post a mother’s reflections a year on after adopting two older kids. My favourite part of her post is:
Is adoption easy? No it is not. Is this simple? Nope. Complicated and long-term. Will bonding be immediate and seamless? Maybe, but probably not. Will you struggle with guilt and fear that first year? Yes, but you shouldn’t. You’ve agreed to partner with God in some difficult, heart-wrenching work, and it’s no kum-by-yah party. Give grace to yourself; God already has.
Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting through, and adoption is one of them. I can hardly think of something closer to God’s character, who is the “Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy.” Certainly, we are his difficult children who spaz out and pull away and manipulate and struggle. We distrust His good love and sabotage our blessings, imagining our shame disqualifies us or that God couldn’t possibly be faithful to such orphans.
But He is. We are loved with an everlasting love, and it is enough to overwhelm our own fear and shame and humanity. In adoption, God is enough for us all. He can overcome our children’s grief. He can overshadow our own inadequacies. He can sweep up our families in a beautiful story of redemption and hope and healing. If you are afraid of adoption, trying to stiff-arm the call, God is the courage you don’t have. If you are waiting, suffering with longing for your child, God is the determination you need. If you are in the early days of chaos, God is the peace you and your child hunger for. If your family feels lost, He is the stability everyone is looking for. If you are working hard on healing, digging deep with your child, God is every ounce of the hope and restoration and safety and grace.
In Him, you can do this.
He is enough for us all.
Yes adoption isn’t an easy path. But if you are called to it by God, then you have more than enough. November is National Adoption Month in the US. And i would like to borrow Jen’s words:
Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting through, and adoption is one of them.
From the 1st November till 31st December, Reece’s Rainbow has it’s annual Angel Tree fundraising period. Previous years, this special time was a special effort to highlight the kids 0-5 years old with Down Syndrome who needed families, it was also a time to do some very special fundraising for these kids so that their forever families would have less to fight through to get to them.
This year, through voting within the Reece’s Rainbow community, 3 children from the other age groups and with other special needs were also picked. Each child is then paired with an Angel Tree Warrior, whose goal is to raise awareness for this specific child as well as to raise US$1000 for the child’s adoption grant.
Teamwork Tuesday will spend the weeks in November and December showing off one of these Angels and their Warrior’s fundraising project each week.
Abbott has a matching grant, please help him meet it.
He is 5 years old and is reported to be a very kind and cheerful child who is active and likes to run and see new places. He was in a fairly good orphanage but was recently transferred to an institution and we have not been given any updates since. i pray and hope that he is ok, that the institution he is at is a good one with enough staff and facilities to care for him. (Such an institution is rare where he is)
His only special need is Down Syndrome, which in this day and age is very manageable, if he lived in a country with the facilities to provide the support he needs, if he had a family who would go that extra mile for him.
His Angel Tree Warrior has a wonderful matching grant for him; US$200 will be given to his grant once his grant total reads US$2985. Every dollar you donate will be doubled.
She also has a couple of fundraisers going on for him.
A Crochet Shop called Hooked on Hope, where 25% of sales goes to Abbott’s grant. Click here.
Help reduce the obstacles which may stop his forever family reaching him. Buy from the crochet shop listed above or if you are in the area, join the Walk/Run-a-thon. These will all help grow his grant. Please go to his Angel Tree Warrior’s blog for details or click on his name or photo to donate directly.
trippingdifferently 