Have you ever seen anything cuter?

Linden has had some trouble for a few weeks now using her sippy cup so I tried the bottle. She hasn't had a bottle since she's been 5 weeks old so I wasn't sure how she would do. She did great! Sucked the whole bottle of Pediasure down! After about a week of sucking on the bottle, she can use the sippy cup. Yay! Here are two pictures of her last night watching Baby Einstein and having a bottle. I give her the bottle a little more often because it's easier to hold as she has no fingers on her left hand.

19 months old!

We went to a crawfish boil today at my cousin Jada's house. Linden had so much fun. The kids dyed eggs and later pocked them. Linden and Joe pocked and she won!!







She also got to play on the inflatable Fun Jump for the first time. She loved it.
(Look at those eyes!)




Here is she and I and you can see her two bottom teeth that came out at 16 months.


Middle sis and Little sis (Big sis was at Grandma's)


My cousin's little girl, Brooklyn, had some baby ducks and chicks.


I'm including this one because it's too funny :)


With her Paran Kip

Please help Jacob find his family!

Jacob is a 4 year old orphan boy in Eastern Europe who is already living in an institution. He deserves a chance! He deserves a family to cherish him. Currently, Jacob has $0 in his grant fund but you can help by donating via the chip-in in my sidebar. All I'm asking for is for 21 people to donate $21 each. If you'd like to donate more, that would be wonderful. His profile can be found here on www.reecesrainbow.org.



3-21-10 is World Down syndrome Day. What better way to celebrate these children than to give them the chance of a family?



What can $21 buy you? Let's see....
A quarter of a tank of gas [which won't last long]
A DVD [that you may only watch once]...
A bouquet of flowers [that will die]

What can $21 buy for Jacob?
Your $21 tax deductible donation to Jacob's grant fund will be added with other donations to equal a larger amount. That 'small' amount may be all that his future family needs to help them commit to him. That 'small' amount is subtracted from the total amount needed for them to come up with to bring Jacob home. Isn't he worth it?



Thank you from the bottom of my heart! If you are unable to give monetarily at this time, please pray for Jacob to have a family commit to him soon.

Bianca

Because it's Tuesday....

You get to look at this sweet face. Isn't this hilarious? Linden does this all the time, looks at me out the side of her eyes. Spunky girl much?!?!





One of our whole family taken after our Valentine's date

Just sad today

Giving 'it' to God, whatever 'it' may be, is easier said than done. My 'it' is adopting an orphan with special needs. I've been drawn to adoption ever since I was a little girl. Once, when I was about 7 or 8, I was told what an orphan was, a child with no parents. It made me very sad to think about a child perhaps the same age as me that had no family. I decided that I was going to set up my own orphanage where people could bring their kids to our family and we would take care of them rather than them being alone. (Again, this is a 7-8 year old's idea, keep that in mind ;) ) I straightened up my bedroom, put my toys in boxes along the wall, made my bed, gathered blankets and pillows from the other bedrooms in our house and after that was done, I started making signs for our doors. How would someone know our house was an orphanage if we didn't advertise? I put a big sign on our front door with the words "Orphans can live here." It was all set up, now, I waited. I fully expected for people to just start dropping kids off at our house. My mom probably thought that I was just playing around, but it really was all from my heart to save a child. A child saving a child.

Obviously, my bedroom did not become an orphanage, but that burden of 'saving children' has never left me. Before we were married, my now husband and I watched a Dateline NBC episode about the plight of the diabled orphans in Ukraine. It was absolutely heartwrenching to watch these people literally wasting away and forgotten. Many of the institutionalized had Down syndrome and although I didn't know much about it, I knew that they didn't deserve to be treated this way. I told my husband that I wished we could take some of those children in and love them like they should be loved, cherish them like they should be cherished. I don't think he took me seriously.

A year later, my 2nd biological daughter (technically 3rd), Linden, was born in Sept 2008, with Down syndrome. (!!!) I knew before she was born that something was going to be 'different' with her and I expressed that feeling to my husband. A mother's intuition is amazing! Through the Down syndrome message boards that I frequenced, I saw two different families with biological children with DS adopting another child with DS from Reece's Rainbow. It had never occured to me to adopt another child with DS, I didn't know that people did that. We were really overwhelmed at the time with our own children and Linden's health issues. After following those amazing journeys made by amazing families, I was really inspired to adopt another sweetie with Ds 'one day'.

I've followed many adoption journeys in the past year. I've witnessed God's hand in it all. I've seen people worry about the cost and then, somehow, He makes that burden go away by showing them that He is in control. I've seen husbands against adoption in general, finally come around to it and meet their child for the first time and wonder what their worry was in the first place. I've seen an 11 year old girl raise $30,000 in 8 days to bring home her baby sister. I've seen a family fall in love with a child on the angel tree, committing to raise money for them, praying for them to find a family, and ending up being that family themselves. I've seen children weeks away from an adult mental institution find families in the nick of time. I've seen many, many miracles.

This all leads me to the reason why I'm struggling right now. My husband is adamantly against adoption. His reasons (1.He thinks we have enough children. 2. We already have one with special needs. 3. To be honest, I think he only has two reasons..ha!) do make sense to me in a way, however, when weighed against a child like my daughter lying in a crib for their entire lives, wasting away, unloved, forgotten, alone, it is very hard for me to find a good solid reason to say no. I'm burdened with these children's faces. I'm burdened with their stories. The burden isn't so much the problem. I am not always sure with what to do with that burden. Does God want me to adopt one of these children? Does God want me to advocate and raise money for them? Is that enough? Does God want me to leave it up to Him and just go about my life while praying for His will to be done? I wish I knew what His will was..........

Giveaway winner!

Maria won! Maria, your package is on it's way! Have a great weekend everyone!

Want to win a P.S. I Love You dvd?

Got any plans for Valentine's Day? This month on Reece's Rainbow there is a project for the 'Other Angels' (orphans with other special needs other than Down syndrome) I'm doing a giveaway of the movie P.S. I Love You which is the perfect love story to watch Valentine's Day weekend. All you have to do is donate $10 or more to a chip-in that is listed on this post. 100% of your tax deductible donation will go to Reece's Rainbow and will be split equally among these precious children. I'm asking for $10 or more because Paypal charges 30% for donations under $10! This will only be on my blog for a week. The drawing will be on Feb 11 so that I am able to mail the movie off in time. Thank you!