A friend of mine is trying to raise money for a little girl with club foot AND Down syndrome. They've adopted 2 boys with Down syndrome in the past year and their Xander also had club feet. The girl's name is Raina and this is what Shelley has to say per her blog:
Anyone want a Blackberry Curve???????
I am giving away my Blackberry Curve. It is in excellent condition....I've had it less than 6 months and always carried it in it's case. It works with a T-Mobile SIM card(and I'm sure it can be unlocked for other carriers). When we changed cell phone providers, I decided to downgrade to something cheaper. I sold my husband's identical phone on ebay in less than 5 minutes for $170. I decided to give mine away instead. So, here's the deal:
On July 27th, I will pick my Xander up out of his bed, kiss his chubby little cheek.....and thank the Lord for putting him in my arms one year ago. To honor that moment one year ago, I am auctioning off my Blackberry Curve with every penny of the money raised to go into the grant fund for Raina, who is waiting in Bulgaria. Raina, like Xander, has Down Syndrome and clubbed feet. She is destined to live her life confined to a crib unless a family takes a leap of faith and adopts her into their family.
So, here's how this is going to work. There is a Chip In widget over on the side of my blog. A $5 donation made through that account will enter your name in the drawing. You can enter as many times as you want....each entry requires $5. The auction will end on July 27th and Xander will draw the winner himself. Every penny of the money in the chip-in account will go to Raina.....and someone will get my Blackberry Curve. You can keep it, resell it yourself....whatever you want to do with it. My intention is to get some money in this little girl's grant fund.
If you are reading this and you blog, PLEASE mention this on your blog. You can even put the widget on your blog too. You can get the code here. Some of you that read this get hundreds of readers a day on your blog. My prayer is to raise at least $500 for Raina's grant. That's going to take 100 entries. My husband thinks I'm crazy and I'm going to give my Blackberry away for like $20. Help me prove him wrong and raise some money for this little angel who's waiting on a mommy and daddy to call her own!!!!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Please help an orphan!
Big Girl Iris!
Iris took her first steps tonight!!! She's growing so fast and took two steps 2 different times. Yeah Iris!
Kids are so funny!
We were on our way home tonight from getting groceries and we stopped at Taco Bell drive thru. On the way home, Sam and Ivy were in the back having a conversation that went something like this:
Sam: What would you like to drink? Coke, beer or water?
Ivy: I'd like lemonade!
Ivy rarely chooses from the options given to her. I also don't know where Sam picked up on the beer as neither of us really drink it and we rarely even have it in our house. Jon and I got the giggles.
Sam and Ivy took turns taking the order and when it was Ivy's turn, she put something(forgot what it was) up to her mouth so she actually sounded like she was talking through the drive thru speaker. I guess maybe we shouldn't go through drive thru's so much, lol.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Iris' Song
Sam made up a song about Iris and it's so precious that I had to get it on video. Of course it's a little different each time but he loves Iris so much. Sam is really into singing lately and knows a lot of nursery rhymes now too. I'm so proud of him! I hope this makes you smile!
Dentist!
Well, I took all 4 kids to the dentist today. The older 3 had cleanings and exams and Iris was just along for the ride. They all did great and we were all done within an hour. It would have been less except they were being pokey and the dentist was a bit behind. Funny how it costs more for them to get polished, flossed and fluorided than it does for Jon and I to have a complete cleaning and exam. YIKES! Thank goodness for dental reimbursement. I must admit that the Mayo Clinic does have some of the best medical benefits I've seen. With all these kids, we may never afford to be able to move. Oh yeah, no cavities either...YEAH! My kids actually beg us to brush their teeth. They get to play in the water that's why....grrr. Ian does have one cavity but it's in his front tooth and it's a tooth that had already been filled and the filling fell out almost immediately. So no new cavities and that on is scheduled to be re-filled towards the end of August. It's hot hot hot here today so we are inside for the remainder of the day. That's it for now!
Just Havin' Fun
We were just all goofing off and I got a glimpse of the kids trying to "pretend" they like each other. I love Ivy's look when Ian wouldn't let her hug him. I also caught Iris being her silly self. She was giving me the serious look while videoing but even she couldn't keep a straight face. Check out that bod of hers. She's really filled out in the 4 months that we've had her. I'm thinking she may be blessed with the same genetics I am. Poor girl!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
ABC Kids
Here are my kids practicing their ABC's. For some reason, Sam gets "t" and "y" reversed. Notice Ivy cannot hold still for a second. Also Ian pretty much knows his ABC's and if you listen close, you can make out one or two letters. I love how he says "Y". He'll get there with lots of speech therapy!!!
143,000,000 orphans
So many of our friends and family do not understand why we keep adopting children. First of all, we want a large family. Having just been to my family reunion, it was amazing to see everyone and one day, I want to be my grandma on her 90th birthday. Sitting there taking it all in and seeing what she has helped create. Not sure we will have 10 kids though, maybe 6! I plan to post orphan videos from time to time on my blog. We know we cannot save every child however with each child we do adopt, we are giving the world to that child. Unless you are in the adoption world, you probably aren't aware as to how big families can get through adoption. Over the past couple years, I've "met" through the internet, many families that have 10-20 kids. Now before our moms have a heart attack, this is not the road we plan to take however there will be one or two more. We are starting to do some fund raising for #5 and possibly our last child. We know we want one more for sure and with Jon's employee benefits, we need to do it before we leave Rochester. Once we leave, we know we probably won't be able to adopt again as we probably won't get the employee benefits again. In a perfect world, we'd like to wait awhile before adopting again but we want to move closer to family soon. Therefore, if we are to adopt again, we need to start in the next few months. We do not have a child or country picked out but will adopt a child with special needs again. I'm leaving you with my favorite quote and I'm sorry I don't know who said it. It may be from the Bible. "Once our eyes are open, we cannot pretend we don't see". Please watch the video, it's very powerful. I do not know anything about the organization sponsoring this video but I like it.
