Answering God's call to EXPAND our family

Over a year ago, I read  A Hole in our Gospel and prayed to God for him to break my heart for what breaks his.  I never thought that I would be where we are today.  If ever I was thankful for anything it is for God guiding our lives and being our center point and navigator.

Before Christmas, our eyes were forever opened by the plight of the orphans with down syndrome in Eastern Europe.  Just because they were born with an extra chromosome, like Alayna, they are given up at birth to live in an orphanage.  At 4 or 5 years old these children, if not adopted, are sent to live in an institution for the remainder of their lives.  A cold, dank, dismal place without a family, without knowing love, where their limbs become stiff from atrophy and their ribs stick out from malnutrition.

Once our eyes were opened , it began to gnaw at our hearts.  Each day as we continued to look at Alayna our hearts would break a little more with the idea that she or someone else like her would ever know life in an institution just because she sports "designer genes".

At the beginning of January, God laid it on Jason's heart that we should look into adopting from Reece's Rainbow.  We had talked of adoption before but, Jason was never ready to move further in the process, he always cited that it was way too much money.

We have been praying daily and seeking God's path for our family. We are so thankful for our prayer warriors who have surrounded us with prayer to help us discern God's call.



Dariya

 We are thrilled to announce that we are stepping out in faith to follow God's call to add another sweet little girl with down syndrome to our mix.  She is 2 months older than Alayna and currently resides in Eastern Europe but, totally lives in our hearts. 

As Aidan continues to say, "Can't we just go pick her up today?!"

We are very thankful to the many that have donated to her fund already. We have seen God's hand guiding us each step of the way and know we are following His will.

We have begun the process of completing all the necessary paperwork to bring her home and can't wait to go and pick her up.  I have started an adoption link at the top of the blog for our timeline and expenditures.

This is a huge, life changing event for us and we couldn't do it without your help. 

Here is how you can help:

1.  Pray for our family and this process.

2.  Donate to our adoption fund:  (skip a couple starbucks and donate to Dariya's homecoming =) we have about $16,000 to raise.

• You can give us cash or check, for a tax deductible donation please click Dariya's picture to go to our Reece's Rainbow sponsor page and pay online via credit/debit card. 

3.  Share our story with all your friends, blog it, FB it, twitter it, talk about it at the water cooler...however you can get the word out, we need your help to raise this money get our daughter home. 

Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me (Matthew 18:5)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…defend the rights of the needy. (Proverbs 31:8,9)