Last Day to Win

I will be closing the giveaway at midnight tonight, so if you haven't entered yet, now's the time!

You could win a $100 Visa Giftcard!

All you have to do is go here and donate to Ian's fund. Scroll down a post and read why Ian's family needs your help!

Thank you to everyone who has donated!

I will announce the winner tomorrow!

I am ending the fundraiser on Saturday, so you still have time to enter to win the $100 Visa Gift Card.

As of tonight ( Wednesday), you all have contributed $350 to Ian's Fund which Gretchen told me will pay for Ian's passport fee!

Thank you all so much for caring and acting in love for this sweet little boy!

I will announce the winner of the gift card Sunday evening. Please link to the giveaway on FB or your blog and let's see if we can help bring in more by Saturday!

There is Still Time to Win!

**Updated total: $350.00**

As of right now, 8 people have donated to Ian's fund! I know there are some of you out there that are in a crunch financially, or maybe you are also trying to fund your own adoption, and maybe you think you cant spare anything. Maybe you would like to help, but you feel bad for taking away from your own adoption.

I understand! We are adopting and I know how hard it is when you want you own child home so badly, and yet your heart breaks for other families who are so close...yet so far away.

God's heart is for orphans. It's written all throughout the Bible- He is the Father of the Fatherless. He could save them all, find them all families, fund every adoption in a heartbeat.

But what a wonderful blessing it is that He hasn't, in that He asks us to be a part of bringing families together, to sacrifice for the purpose of helping give a child a home, love, safety, and the love of Jesus.

To give any amount will be to help Ian come home.

If you can give $5 you are a part of this.

If you give $100 you are a part of this.

You don't have to be rich to save a life, you just have to step out and trust that the Father of the fatherless is also our Provider, and He is faithful.

He is not in the business of leaving us in our hour of need, and He blesses those who bless others.

Please read what Gretchen has written on her blog about their need. Please see it from her perspective- a mother desperate for her son.

I am extending the giveaway for awhile, and anyone who donates ANYTHING to Ian's fund will be entered to win a

$100 Visa Giftcard.

Go Here to Donate!

Please leave me a comment and tell me how much you donated so I can tell you all the total at the end. You can leave a comment under this post or scroll down to the previous post and leave one there.

We need people to dig deep, to step up, to challenge the devil and show him what Love is made of. What happens if we don't raise this money now? To tell the absolute truth, if we would miss our court date because we didn't have the money, Ian will very likely pass away within a year or two. He will be transferred to an institution that he cannot be adopted out of, and he will die there. He will face multiple surgeries, one major, in his country (that alone could be it for him), and our hearts will be broken forever. We would never have the chance to adopt him again (if we missed court because we could not come up with the money needed). It would be devastating.

To tell another absolute truth, we could put this almost $9,000 on a credit card and carry that debt until the adoption credit comes through next year at tax time, and we would, if the day came to travel and we had not raised this last eight thousand dollars. We will NOT let Ian be sent on the car ride, and we will not miss our court date...he is our son already in our hearts and we would go to ends of the earth for him.

We do not want to do that however, because we know for certain that Ian is facing multiple surgeries, and when that time comes, we will be faced with insurance co-pays of 10%. What does heart surgery cost these days? $100,000? That would be a $10K co-payment. Leave time from work, COBRA costs, Ian's schooling, Ari's treatment (which incidentally Autism is NOT covered by insurance), and on and on. So, we yes, we could put it on a credit card and call it done but we have prayed about this and God's answer was to us was to go to his people for this last little bit to get Ian home, so we have what we need to cover Ian's surgeries when he comes home. Imagine trying to fund raise for that.

We beg for our Christian family to step forward and help us answer God's call to care for orphans. We are bringing Ian into our home forever. He may never live on his own, but that does not matter to us - what matters is that he LIVE, and he and we need all of you and everyone you know, to stop for a moment and make hearing about Ian and a need that is being shown, the most important part of your day in the coming week.

Our final dossier is in Ian's country. We expect to travel for court within 4 weeks, and 10 days later, return to bring Ian home. We have been told by our agency to prepare for first week in July court date.

Time is fleeting, we are at this hour, "just" $8,835.00 short of what we need to, as we say in the south - Git-R-Done! (humor sustains us:)

Seems like a lot, but not for God.

He has already provided more than $23,000.00 in donations for an adoption that will come close to a $50,000 price tag.

Ian's nation being among the most expensive and longest from start to finish.

I will keep this page up for awhile to allow more people to donate! Check back as I will post the amount raised periodically- Help us raise $1000 for Ian!

Win Win

This is Gretchen and her son Ian.

Gretchen lives in Georgia. Ian lives in Russia.

He has Down Syndrome and they recently found out he will need heart surgery.
He is almost 5 and will be transferred to a mental institution if his adoption isn't completed by then.

You've heard me talk about that kind of thing before right? Once or twice?

I don't know about you, but of all the things I have ever wanted for my birthday, for the last twenty-some birthdays I've had, I have never once asked for a family. Ever.

Because I already had one.

Ian doesn't have one.

Ian needs one.

Ian doesn't need to get transferred out of the orphanage he has lived in his entire life and into what amounts to hell on earth.

Hell.

Yes, I said it on my blog.

Because imagine that you are five years old, and you are taken away from the only people you have ever known, to a place where strangers will shave your head and tie you to a crib, where you will not be fed, or changed, or washed, or played with, or touched, or talked to, or loved, or prayed with, or taken outside, or taken to the bathroom, or read to, or sung to.

Where they give you adult doses of drugs to knock you out for most of the day so they don't have to deal with you. Because if a place for kids like you even exists, if there is actually a need in your country for a building to house children with Down Syndrome that nobody wants, and everybody says are trash, then what are the odds that the people who are paid to work there will actually take care of you?

0.

Because what's the point?

85% of the kids who are transferred do not live more than a year.

But Ian has hope. Ian has a family who is fighting for him and trying so hard to get him home. He has a mommy and a daddy and a brother.

But they can't do it alone. Right now, they need $11,385.

And they need it before the first week of July, when they must appear in court to finalize the adoption.

If they don't have it, they won't be able to bring Ian home.

They've already traveled once. They've seen him and held him and played with him.

They have this mountain of money before them. But our God is a Mountain-Moving God!

So here is the point of this post:

Ian needs a family.

The Stewart family needs money to bring him home.

You can help! ( Isn't that exciting?!)

I have 72 followers, and a few more who are not "official."

So if every follower donated $13.89, Ian would have $1000 more in his account at Reece's Rainbow- the tax-deductable (if you are into that sort of thing) account that is reserved for him and only him.

But if every follower donated say, more than $13.89, that would be ok too.

And to make it a little more exciting for you, besides the fact that you could literally be a part of saving Ian's life, how about if you donate at least $10.00, then you will be entered to win a $100 Visa Gift card?

(I'm no financial expert, but that's not a bad return on your money.)

It is so easy!

1) Go here and donate.

2) Come back and leave me a comment telling me how much you donated( I want to keep track so I can tell you all the total at the end)

3) Feel good about uniting a family.

4) Be entered to win a $100 Visa Giftcard.

You don't have to donate just $13.89 either.
You could donate $10.00

You could donate $72.63

You could donate $1000.00

You could transfer your Paypal balance.

Whatever amount you donate, the Stewarts and Ian will be so thankful!

You will feel awesome knowing you helped!

Its just a lot of feelin' good all around!

I really really believe we can raise AT LEAST $1000 for the Stewarts!

I will leave this up for a week. That's 7 whole days that you can donate. But don't put it off!

Do it now!

Ready

Set

Go!

And here is a really sweet Gotcha Video from another Reece's Rainbow family-this little girl Anya was friends with Ian and was adopted! Enjoy!

Dear Zoey, (Letter #6)

Dear Zoey,

It is summer here, Six months since I wrote you first. And six months that we've been waiting on Daddy's work for one little piece of paper that is the only thing that now keeps this thing on hold.

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that your birthmommy handed you over to me. You were so tiny. The next day we heard that the paper was ready, but it still hasn't made it home yet. I wonder why and try to be patient and not nag your daddy about it. But it is hard. I want you here.

It is hot here finally. It seems like the tail of winter lingered forever and now it is sunny all the time and sticky.

Daddy and I went on a date this weekend. Charlotte thought we were going to Africa. She asks about you every single day.

"When is baby Zoey going to get here?"
"It's taking a long time. Why is it taking a long time?"

Always the same answer to both questions; "I don't know."

Just now Charlotte is waking up and sits on my lap while I write to you. I ask her if she wants to say anything to you.

"I love her- can you say that to her?"

So do I baby girl,

xoxo Mommy