Triple whammy

These 8 boys listed on Reece's Rainbow face a triple whammy - they are older, they have zero in their grants, and they don't have a photo in their profile. They get passed over more than most - with no picture to look at, there seems to be no point in even reading their profile. Who wants to choose a child in a photo listing if there isn't even a photo ? Who wants to donate to a faceless child ? How about you ??

Caesar - Boy, DOB: June 03, 2004

Location: Asia

Caesar currently lives in foster care. He is diagnosed with developmental delays and may also have symptoms of Autism. He is described as kindhearted and does not bully the other children.

Erik - Boy, born 3/29/04

An incredibly handsome and charming boy who is seven years old, physically healthy and diagnosed with moderate mental retardation. This little guy is quite independent in self care areas and enjoys eating and playing with others. He lived with his birth family for the first three years of his life, currently resides in an institution and receives speech and occupational therapy. He loves music and books and enjoys the computer. His adorable face makes him a favorite of his caregivers who report him to be popular with his classmates. It is felt that he would make more progress in learning and development in a family setting with consistent care. Resilience is the word to describe this little boy who grieved hard for his biological family and who now longs for a family to love him as their own.

Walter - Boy, DOB: November 29, 2004

Location: Asia

Walter is hearing impaired and currently wears hearing aids. There is additional information available through the agency, including updated auditory reports.

Terry - Boy, born 4/23/04

An eight year old who loves classical music! What a sweetheart. This little boy loves music and likes to shake a maracas! He enjoys his caregivers and is described as a peaceful boy who is a "people person". His medical history is significant for quadriplegic cerebral palsy, he is fed by gastrostomy tube, has seizures and severe developmental delays. His resilient character has helped him to survive a variety of different kinds of physical and mental challenges since his birth. He is in need of a strong and committed forever family who would be willing to embrace and open their hearts to the unknowns in his future. With the support of a family and various health professionals he would indeed flourish.

Dmitri - BOY, born July 5, 2003

Diagnosis: vegetative-vascular dystonia, scoliosis

Gary - Boy, born 10/3/03

Please meet the sweetest boy in his home! he is described by his caregivers as having a "smile of sunshine"! With the support of healthy professionals and community resources, and a stable and committed family who wishes to nurture this angel , he will grow and face whatever challenges are ahead with courage! His history of epilepsy and severe grade mental retardation limit his development but he is currently able to walk with support. He enjoys using a wheelchair when he travels between home and school or when he goes on an outing. He receives regular physiotherapy training and is able to feed himself with a special spoon made just for him. His caregivers say he is a cheerful and curious boy and they look forward to him one day finding his forever family!

Andrew - Boy, DOB: September 29, 2005

Location: Asia

Andrew was born to a mother with AIDS. He was treated as an “AIDS baby” until test results in 2007 confirmed that he does NOT have HIV/AIDS. All tests were negative. He has been in 3 different foster homes since birth. He had 2 siblings that were adopted (one domestically and one to another country).
He had laser treatment for retinal detachment and now wears glasses to correct his vision. He receives speech therapy and cognitive therapy. In August 2009, he was given cognitive testing and it was determined that he could attend kindergarten without any extra support. Photos and additional documents on Andrew are available through the agency.

Arthur - BOY, born January 15, 2004

Diagnosis: severe scoliosis.

These boys are the only ones on their category - "Other Angel Boys Age 6-9" who still have zero in their accounts. All it takes is a few dollars - they have been passed over so many times, please share their names and profiles and see if we can help them out a little ?

SIX down !!

This has been an absolutely wonderful week !! Way back in October, when there were 171 children with zero in their accounts, my dream seemed impossible. How on earth were we going to manage to zero the zeros - get money into the accounts of all 171 children ? Children who never seem to get a second glance, children who are older, not so cute, that have been passed over so many times. I definitely thought I'd taken on something that would take forever. However, slowly but surely, it happened. One by one, week by week, those grants started to get money in them. Two days ago, there were just 71 children left with zero - meaning that we had managed to get a little bit of cash into 100 accounts !!! Wow !! How about that for a breakthrough !! Could it possibly get any better ? Well - actually - yes. It could.

A few months ago, I asked the help of a fellow advocate. Actually, she's the reason I am doing this. Julia and her husband Rob adopted a little boy, Aaron, from an institute in 2010. I started to follow her blog, and reading her descriptions of the institute and the "Lost Boys" ripped my heart out. I fell in love with this little guy - Heath.

I long for the day he finds a family - I just know they're out there somewhere, waiting for him. Anyhow, I digress. Back to Julia - she promised she would write a blog post to help zero the zeros. At the time, she was busy busy busy and was instrumental in helping many many children reach their Angel Tree goal. She is a tireless advocate for the children of Reece's Rainbow. Yesterday, she wrote the promised blog post - you can find it here. I think you'll agree that she definitely has a way with words :) She also has many more followers than me - I don't know who they are, but they are an army of wonderful people !! When she wrote her post, there were still 71 zeros. As of 4pm this afternoon, thanks to Julia's Army, there are only 28 zeros left !!!!!!!! In one day, 43 children had money put into their accounts. Absolutely amazing.

Listed below are the ten categories of listings for the older children on Reece's Rainbow. As you can see, out of 10 categories, SIX categories have zeroed the zeros. Let's see if we can make that ten, shall we ?

Down Syndrome Boys age 6-9 with zero in their account - ZERO !
Down Syndrome Girls age 6-9 with zero in their account - ZERO !
Other Angel Boys age 6-9 with zero in their accounts - Erik, Walter, Terry, Dmitri, Gary, Andrew, Arthur, Caesar
Other Angel Girls age 6-9 with zero in their accounts - Brittany, Elise, Olive, Erin, Patti, Leila, Noel, Alisha, Ginger, Linda, Judie, Leesa, Allie.
HIV Boys/Girls age 6-9 with zero in their accounts - Jenny & Jordan, Yelena
Down Syndrome Boys age 10+ with zero in their accounts - ZERO !
Down Syndrome Girls age 10+ with zero in their accounts - Margit, Dawn, Lynette, Emilija, Natalija
Other Angel Boys age 10+ with zero in their accounts - ZERO !
Other Angel Girls age 10+ with zero in their accounts - ZERO !
HIV Boys/Girls age 10+ with zero in their accounts - ZERO !

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.