We apologize

Okay I want to start off by saying that we sincerely apologize if you are offended by us reaching out for help to rescue Anna from a life in an institution. Apparently some people don't feel as passionate about helping other humans to have a better life. It's okay to make a donation to the Humane society to help animals. It's ok to donate to our local schools, and saving the trees and birds, but don't ask for a dollar to help save a childs life.

If you know our story, and some of you don't, then just read and know why we are doing what we are doing. I have followed Reece's Rainbow for over 2 years now. I have prayed many, many, many prayers for the children and the families that are adopting. We have donated money to several families along the way. I was born being a "giver" and so I guess it is hard for me to not relate to those who aren't. For over two years I have secretly wanted to go and rescue one of those beautiful orphans with Down syndrome but I knew my husband would NEVER go for it. So for 2 years I talked about the kids on Reece's Rainbow to him and my children but had never asked him what he thought about us adopting one of the children. Back at the first of the year I just out of the blue asked him if we could please adopt one of the orphans from Reece's Rainbow. His reaction blew me away. He said "absolutely not". With a broken heart I went away by myself and spoke these words out loud to God. God if you change his heart we will go and get her. These were words spoken out loud to God. So I just kept praying for him but never asked him again. A couple of months go by and I am sitting at work and Mike and I are emailing each other back and forth. Out of the blue comes this thought - Send him her picture. Ohhhhh you can believe I said right back - I can't do that, he will be mad at me. It didn't take long for me to realize you better send him that picture so I did. Well, our emailing back and forth stopped after that and I just knew he was mad at me. I went home that night and not a word was mentioned about the picture I had sent him so I just assumed he was unhappy with what I had done. The next day he brings it up to me and I started crying and poured my heart out to him and told him that I just couldn't get her off of my mind or my heart. After a few words were exchanged he said to me "we will talk to the boys about it". OK that almost blew me off of my chair!! Did he really just say those words? I couldn't believe it! Over the next couple of weeks of going back and forth he finally says OK we will do it. Well as soon as he said that I was attacked by all of these thoughts that we could never do this and we couldn't pull this off because this adoption will cost $30,000 + and we simply didn't have the money. So I started asking God for signs and honestly, every time I talked to him about a specific thing he would answer me. Riding down the road I told God, we don't have $30,000 how are we going to do this God? Is this really what you want us to do? A few seconds later there is a sign at a church above our house that read "Jump in with Faith". Okay God I get that message. So many times I would have these thoughts racing through my mind and wondered if we were really doing what God wanted us to do. I thought about how EASY it would be to BACK OUT now because we hadn't made our official committments but then God reminded me very quickly of what I had said out loud to him that day. "But you said if I changed his heart you WOULD go and get her, are you telling me now that it's just too hard to do?" THAT day I committed to God and haven't backed down since then, that despite the hardships we WOULD go and get her.



All along I have had the highest faith that God will provide a way for us to go and get her. I haven't doubted him at any point along the way. God knew when he changed Mike's heart that we DIDN'T have $30,000 to go and get her. He didn't have to do any work in Mike if he wasn't going to provide the finances for us to be able to adopt her. I believe that. I believe that in one way or another, God WILL make sure we are able to carry out his plan. BUT last night I read something that just went straight to the heart. People that don't know our story saying that what we are doing is wrong and that we shouldn't have committed to her if we didn't have $30,000. Really? Did God tell YOU that? Because that is not what he told me. Well are you making sacrifices? Of course we are! Mike and I do NOT go on high dollar vacations and do not blow money on brand new cars and a lot of things that we don't need. Last year we went to visit my family in Maryland and that was it, no other vacations that year. This year we went no where, trying to save money... and we are fine with that. Heck we might never go on vacation again and I could care less really. We are trying to save a life people....not asking for money for a brand new car.



I told Mike last night about what I had read, that we shouldn't be fundraising to adopt her. He told me that I worry too much about what other people think about me. Well that's just me and I can't help that. So this morning, a sweet, sweet person said something to me that put everything back in to perspective. You see, she has fallen in love with a wee one on Reece's Rainbow too. She was having a conversation with her pastor about her desire to adopt this baby with Down syndrome and she told him "we don't have the money to adopt him". The reply from her pastor was something like- you can reach out for help and if it is in God's plan everything will work out. She handed me a check to go towards our funds for Anna and I held myself together until I got to my car. She had no idea what I was struggling with after what I read last night that upset me so much!! I was so discouraged last night and this morning that I wanted to shut my blog down and not reach out to another person for help, UNTIL she said what she did to me!!! God is helping me to understand that there are going to be people who don't like what we are doing or asking for money. In fact, there are some people who think we have lost our minds for adopting another child with Down syndrome!!! One person even said to me - why would you do that to yourself? Do what to myself, save a life? How harsh is that? So I am just going to leave it here and say- if you are among those that are offended by us raising money for a good cause, then we deeply apologize. You can delete the link to our blog and never be bothered by us again. And then I want to say to all of you that don't think we are crazy and want to help us and have helped us - WE THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!!