A wonderful start to 2012 !!

I have wonderful things to share !! Since my last post on Christmas Eve, there are now 23 less zeros !!! Can you believe it ? I can't !! I am just so excited - some of the children now have a couple of dollars in their grant, but some have tens, twenties, even hundreds of dollars now ! This is just amazing, I cannot believe what a wonderful start to 2012 the zeros are getting. Plus, some of the children are ones I've been watching particularly closely, making it even sweeter :) Here's a list of the latest graduates from the zero list !!

Jeff; Grant; Dasha; Susan; Marjorie; Drew B; Steffie; Benjamin 15H; Maggie 2H; Eric; Christian; Jamie; Ahren; Lance; Frank; Maksim S. 14G; Sasha; Mickey; Tiana 26HA; Isabelle #2-2; Galen; Nettie #64-1 and Lauren. Isn't that list a wonderful thing to behold ??

What could be better than that ? Well - how about the fact that out of 10 "categories" in the Reece's Rainbow waiting children listings, you have now managed to zero the zeros in THREE categories ?? There are NO MORE ZEROS in the "Other Angel Boys 10+", "Other Angel Girls 10+" and the "HIV 10+" listings !!

AND - it gets better !! When I started this blog, as you may recall from my last post, there were 171 children with ZERO in their grants. Can you guess how many there are now ? Go on - give it a try. No idea ? As of this evening, January 2nd 2012, there are only 74 zeros !!!! Almost one hundred less than when we started !! Totally amazing !! I just know now that it can be done - we CAN zero the zeros. I thought we were struggling there for a while, during the Angel Tree fundraiser - but we did great at the end there - AND the Angel Tree was a huge success, with ALL of the Angel Tree kiddos reaching their goal - some of them far exceeding it !!! What a wonderful end to 2011 for so many of the Reece's Rainbow children - I cannot wait to see those grants increasing in 2012, and hopefully, those beautiful boys and girls will be spotted by their mommy's and daddy's, and will spend next Christmas and New Year with their families, where they belong. Happy New Year - and thank you !!

Merry Christmas ?

I started this blog on September 25th, in the hopes of zeroing the zeros by Christmas. Did I achieve my goal ? Sadly, no. However - wonderful things have happened over the last 3 months ! When I started, there were 130 children aged 6-9 years, who had zero in their grant. A month later, the children aged 10+ were added - another 41. That's a total of 171 zeros. One hundred and seventy one zeros. Discarded children. Beautiful children, who through no fault of their own were languishing in orphanages and institutions. Children who had been passed over. And over. And over. Children who suddenly had their own adoption grants, instead of a collective grant. Children who had a chance to grow those grants, to get their faces seen, their names heard, the chance to be a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter. Children who deserve so much more than zero in their grants. 171.

But that was then - and this is now. As of last night, there are 73 LESS zeros than three months ago !!!! Seventy three. There are less than 100 zeros left - a mere 98 children aged over six have zero in their accounts. Now, it may be true that most of the 73 who now have money on their grants don't have much - it may just be a few dollars. BUT - it's a start. Baby steps. Get everyone above zero - then build them up, a little at a time. Get those grants growing. Get those faces out there. Find those families !! But first - let's zero their zeros !!

Three months ago I had a Christmas wish. It WILL be granted - maybe a little late, but I know it will happen. We CAN do it.

Torn

Every year Reece's Rainbow has their wonderful Angel Tree fundraising drive - they feature all the younger kids with Down Syndrome, and raise thousands of dollars for the kids grants. Click here to learn more. While I love the Angel Tree, I'm also, as ridiculous as it sounds, jealous of it - how I wish there was something similar for the older kids and the "other angel" children. I am also torn - I see the pleas from people who are Christmas Warriors for particular children on the Angel Tree. I see the pleas from parents trying to raise money for their own adoptions. I see the pleas for the children who are even more desperately in need of a family than others. I want to help them all. But I can't. I am advocating for MY kids,the zeros, and I can't help THEM all, so how can I possibly help the other kids too ? Should I just give up and not help anyone ? How is it fair to donate to one and not the hundred of others ? How do I choose ? I am not rich, by any means, but I am able to donate small amounts on a pretty regular basis.

Last Saturday evening, I did my usual checking on Reece's Rainbow - going through all the profiles of the older kids, to see if any of them were zeros no more. I do this every three or four days - and recently things had really slowed down - only one or two children getting donations every few days. Baby steps. To my dismay, there had been zero new donations for the zeros, and I was pretty disheartened. I was ready to make a couple of donations myself, when I read a blog post by a mommy having a really hard time raising money for her own adoption. Torn. Help my zeros - or help this beautiful boy ?

You can read his mommy's blog here .

I chose to donate a little to Sergei's adoption fund, instead of to "my" kids. It wasn't easy, but I knew it was the right thing to do at the time.

Fast forward two days - again, I'm checking the "zeros" profiles, not expecting much after the last time. Boy, was I ever wrong !! There were NINETEEN less zeros !! I was in total shock (and tears) as I saw the names, saw that they now had a little something in their grant. Not huge amounts - but enough to say that someone cares, someone out there saw their face, read their profile, and decided that that child would be a zero NO MORE. I am so very thankful - if you donated and you're reading this - thank you so very much !! I donated to Sergei - I chose Sergei over "my" kids - and YOU chose "my" kids. How wonderful is that ??

Of the many blogs I read - there are a couple that tug at my heart strings just about each and every time I read them. One is responsible for me advocating for the zeros. Both are responsible for me being torn again. The first is Julia - she is currently advocating for some children on the Angel Tree - children that were on the Angel Tree last year, and have been passed over, not yet chosen for adoption. Children who deserve so much more. You can read her blog here -please head over and help out her kids. I did. I was torn again - but she won me over.

Then there's Kolina -

She is in desperate need of a family - you can read about her here - please feel free to help save her life this Christmas time. Please don't be torn.

128

There are currently 128 "older" children listed on Reece's Rainbow who have zero in their adoption grants. 128 forgotten children, deemed so worthless that their families abandoned them at birth or soon after. 128 children who, despite the fact that they are listed for adoption, are deemed so worthless by us that they have zero in their grants. No-one has looked at their faces, or read their profiles, and seen their own child there. No-one has looked into their eyes and found it in themselves to donate a few dollars to them. Zeros. Why is it that some children have hundreds or thousands of dollars donated to them, and some have nothing ? What is it that makes us decide to donate for one child over another ?

Do we donate because a child is just so cute that we can't help ourselves ?

Is it the bows in the hair ??

Is it their eyes ??

Maybe their smile ??

Their attitude perhaps ??

Or maybe they just look like they need all the help they can get...

All of the children pictured are listed on Reece's Rainbow. They are all aged over 6, and they are all available for adoption. They all have zero in their grants. They all deserve more.

Please help.

November Birthdays

A few posts ago I featured four children who were "celebrating" their birthdays in an orphanage or institution, with no family or loved ones to even acknowledge their special day. They are not alone. This month, November 2011, nine zeros had birthdays. Ellie, Walter, Judie and David turned 7. Kelly, Leonard, Ruslan and Andrey turned 9. Poor Yana turned 10. Ten years in an orphanage. Ten years of being unloved. So wrong.

Yana - 10

Ellie - 7

Leonard - 9

David - 7

Andrey - 9

Ruslan - 9

Unfortunately, Kelly, Walter and Judie don't have photographs, which makes it so much harder for their family to find them. No photo. No money in their grants. Double zeros.

Maybe - just maybe - next year they could celebrate their birthday - and Thanksgiving - with a family. Their family. Can you help it happen ?

The GOOD news this week is that two older children HAVE been found, and now have a family working towards bringing them home - Rafferty and James will be brothers !! You can follow their journey home here.

Zero's no more - soon to be orphans no more. My wish for ALL these kids.

Johnny

I have been following along on a families journey to adopt from Eastern Europe, and I just wanted to share what they had to say about their son's orphanage - and why we need to advocate for all these kids as much as possible. To read more, their blog is here. This is their son, Johnny -

""Coming to get Johnny has necessitated that we spend a significant amount of time in the orphanage. That has allowed us to see, just a little bit, into the lives of the children that live there.

The things that they do and see each and every day, rarely changes. They have little, if any, interaction with another person (child or adult). We have seen a couple volunteers come in to play with them, however, it seems as if the children don't know how to play. On one occasion, the young volunteer told us in English that the child didn't like to play. It was quite obvious as the child just sat still, not even looking at the toys that were brought in front of her.

Another older child with Down syndrome was sitting on her butt on the floor rocking forward and backward. One swing forward went too far and she hit her head quite significantly on the thinly covered concrete floor. She sat up after that looking a little confused and then continued to rock. As with Louey (I don't think that Johnny has learned this yet), they learn that it is pointless to cry because no one will come to help.

A young child with Down syndrome has a crib that he stays in all day long. I thought to myself that he was blessed to have a crib that wasn't quite level, allowing him to slightly rock the crib (which seemingly allowed for slightly more entertainment value).

There is a young girl (7?) who appears blind and is a room all by herself. Day after day, she tries to find something to do. She seems active, but has nobody to interact with and very little to do. They keep the lights off, but I suppose since she is blind there is no reason to keep them on. It just looks all the more careless without the lighting.

There has been a young child crying multiple times a day on the floor when Johnny is (there are 5 floors). Additionally, we had to wait a half hour in the lobby of the orphanage one day and there was a newborn crying endlessly the whole time. We have no idea if there was someone trying to comfort the baby or not. But, what we have seen (or rather, not seen) in the eyes of some other children seems to indicate that little interaction takes place. The children seem to lose their life - there is no flame, not even a spark, that appears in some of the children. We heard that baby crying and thought of the potential of that baby growing up to have the same lack of spark because of the lack of love.

We are not naive enough to think that all of these kids should be constantly entertained or provided with things to do. What should an orphanage do? What do the orphanage workers do? Should they be interacting with the children when they are not preparing food or changing diapers? Is that "job" of volunteers?

I think of the things that I used to spend my money on before we decided to adopt (and even now). I think of the things that I used to spend my time on before we decided to adopt (and even now). I cannot think of anything better to do than to spend it helping these children""

Please, if you can, give a little - every single penny helps - help some zeros out, give them a chance - if you don't - who will ??

New zeros

These three boys are newly listed on Reece's Rainbow - look into their eyes - they need a family so very much. Please, share their profiles, and help them out ?

Wayne

Boy, born January 2005

Wayne is a sad fellow, who could benefit greatly from more attention, and a patient, loving family. He's said to cry often

He has a deep mental delay, cerebral palsy / spastic diplegia, and microcephaly (small head size), .

$0.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

Frank

Boy, born May 2000

Frank is listed with a moderate mental delay. He could use a family to help him reach his full potential!

$0.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

Francis

Boy, born Oct 2004

This young man has a deep mental delay, and cerebral palsy. He's sitting in a chair with a handle, so it looks as though he's not currently walking on his own.

$0.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!