Welcome new visitors!

Welcome to everyone who has visited our blog from Kelly's Corner and Stuff Christians Like!! And a HUGE thank you to both of those blogs for the opportunity to "link up" and share our adoption story!!

I thought I would give a quick re-cap of our journey to adoption for our new visitors. Brandon and I have chosen to start our family through the process of international adoption. We both have always known that we would like to adopt, but weren't quite sure where that would fall in building our family. We decided we were ready to start a family, but unfortunately I miscarried our first pregnancy. Our doctor told us the miscarriage was likely because of a chromosomal abnormality. Following that, although we should be able to get pregnant again, adoption was once again brought to the front of our hearts and minds, so we decided to pursue it some more.

Over the summer I was introduced to Reece's Rainbow, and the ministry they have advocating for orphans around the world, with Down syndrome. My heart began to break for the sweet children listed on the website. I began reading blog after blog, and was completely smitten. I showed the website to Brandon, and his response was a resounding “Let’s do it!” I didn’t find it coincidence that the children who had stolen my heart, have been blessed with an extra chromosome – after losing our first pregnancy to a chromosomal abnormality. God certainly works in amazing ways!

We committed earlier this winter to bring home two sweet girls, both girls have Down syndrome. "Emilie" is one and "Abigail" is five. Both girls have been orphaned because of their Down syndrome diagnosis. Both live in the same city in Eastern Europe. (for safety reasons we will not post the name of their country) Abigail is at significant risk, as she is already 5 years old. At between ages 4 - 6, most children in the "baby houses" that have special needs, are transferred. To adult mental institutions. These sweet babies are often left to "live out" their days in a "laying down room" - where they are left in a crib. It's tragic to see these sweet children, who have so much potential and deserve SO much more, being hidden away.

We are in the homestudy stage of our process, and you can read more about what our journey will include throughout my blog - but we have our home visit scheduled for this coming Friday! After that is finished, our homestudy will be sent off to our placing agency for review, and then will head to the girl's country to be translated! We're moving right along! But as you can see from my post about what it costs - we have a lot of money still to raise!! There are several ways you can help!

How can you help??

• You can donate directly to our ChipIn - which is linked to our paypal account. These funds go directly to us, but are not tax deductible. These funds help pay for our agency fees, USCIS (immigration) fees, and things like that.
• You can donate to our Reece's Rainbow Family Sponsorship Page. These funds ARE tax deductible. And will be released to us later in our process - about the time we travel. Which will be very helpful - because we will be taking THREE trips to our girl's country!!
• PRAY!!! We SO appreciate your prayers of support throughout this whole process! Leave us a comment and let us know you're praying for us!!
• Share our story!! If you're a blogger - share our story with your readers, post on facebook....get the word out! And not just because we need your help - but because there are SO many sweet little ones who need your help! We ask this, not for ourselves, but for all the other orphans around the world who are still waiting for their mama and daddy, and for the ones who are left behind.

Thanks again for visiting!! I hope you'll leave us a comment so we know you visited!!!