Raymond

Ok, this is the post I have written, deleted, rewritten, deleted, etc. Why is this post so hard to write? Well the main reason is I feel responsible for finding "Raymond" his forever family! And let me tell you, that is a lot of pressure! Especially because who am I to beg people to adopt this boy when I have yet to adopt? Who am I to ask people for money? I know from my experience with donating to families, that I usually donate when I am particularly moved by a post from a blogger. Well, now the show is on the other foot and I have to be that blogger that inspires or moves people! Yikes! All I can do is speak from my heart and let the chips fall where they may.

Here is the few lines that we know about Raymond: 
Raymond has arthrogryposis, and optic nerve atrophy, and he is cross- eyed. He desperately needs a family to care for him and help him reach his full potential! If Raymond is not adopted, he's destined for a life in bed, with little outside stimulation.

Three whole sentences, and one blurry picture!  Wow!  This boy has been alive for 5 years and that is all the information we can get on him?  The first sentence is a pretty short list of his needs.  They are not what define this little boy!  I have seen kids with much more special needs than him, get into a loving home and thrive!  The second sentence is just the simple truth and the ultimate goal for him!  The last sentence is what we need to avoid at all costs!!  Now since he just turned five (just like my son), the first part of that sentence may have come to fruition but the last part.....that can change.  Someone just has to say "YES!"

Back to the first paragraph, Who am I to ask?  Why can't I go get him and leave you all alone?  Well there are a few road blocks in my way not the least of which is my husband is not on board.  The other is my medical history, in most regions of his birth country, they have very tight restrictions.  So as I wait and hope and pray that these blocks will get knocked down, I must do what I can to help these children find homes!  

I wrote a longer post explaining my journey and trust me, if my heart could be open to special needs orphans, anyone's can!  I never had any desire to adopt, any experience with special needs and yet here I sit, advocating and donating and praying for these angels and even contemplating adopting!  Any person who has known me for any length of time is probably reading this with their jaws on the ground...LOL  So to those people, I say, pick your jaws up, go to Reece's Rainbow, search for Raymond and look at his picture!  It's very easy to fall in love with him! 

I have wondered since I signed up to be his prayer warrior if I am a good enough person.  Are my prayers going to be heard?  After all, I am not a live by the bible every day, uber conservative Christian/Catholic who prays all the time and goes to church every Sunday and is part of the church choir.  But I want to be that person!  And I know what is in my heart even if it's not on the outside all the time.  Raymond, however, is a good person.  I dare any of his caretakers to tell me a sin he has committed!  He is an innocent child made perfect in God's image.  He is not a shameful secret to be kept locked up!  He is a child who needs a family!  Please, please all I want is for him to be home, getting therapy, walking, running, laughing, playing!  Just like my 5 year old!  Please open your hearts!  Ok I will stop begging now!  But I will not stop shouting for Raymond until he has his "gotcha day!"

Here is the link to the website where he will be featured the whole month of August!

http://arthrogryposisadoption.blogspot.com/2012/07/thank-you-for-helping-morrisons-win.html

I once was blind but now I see....

I believe it was 2 years ago when I was following a blog of a friend of my cousin in law.  My cousin in law or April, had posted on facebook to pray for her friend who had just given birth to her baby at 25 weeks gestation!  I immediately followed the link and began folowing along as day after day, the baby boy made progress.  Some days there wouldn't be an update and I started looking through this family's blog archives.  This family had had multiple miscarriages and had started their family by adopting a little boy from Russia.  After a few more miscarriages and even a failed domestic adoption, they adopted a little girl from Asia.  They had stopped trying to get pregnant and were working on a domestic adoption of a little boy when, you guessed it, they got pregnant!  This was like her 9th pregnancy and through a lot of proactive measures taken, she was able to carry him past the first trimester but then by 25 weeks, she had to give birth to her 1 lb 8oz baby boy.  I won't keep you in suspense, he is now a healthy 2 year old!  One of the days I went to her blog to check on baby B., I saw a post that made my jaw drop!  A family was in Russia trying to adopt a 5 year old boy with down syndrome and the judge had told them the boy would be better off in a mental institution!  I could not believe what I was reading!  And I went to that family's blog and began following them and praying that their appeal would be successful and he would be theirs! (Spoiler alert: he is!)  But before that joyous day happened for them, my eyes were being pryed open to things I never imagined and wished I could have nailed them shut against!

Through that blog I saw the button for Reece's Rainbow, so I clicked it and my life has never been the same again.  I started reading about all these children being locked away from society and treated worse than the lowest animal and I would cry.  Then I would weep with joy when a new face would pop up on the My family found me page.  I started following all the family's blogs and pray for all of them and donate and reach out and I suddenly found myself searching for kids who might share a name of birthdate with a loved one.  I relate to alot of things through dates and names.  I searched for my dad's name (He passed away on 1/15/10 and it was the hardest thing I have ever dealt with.)  Sure enough, a little boy popped up and his date of birth is the same month and year as my son Tristan. Talk about a slap in the face!  If only it stopped there....

I will write more posts about how God has spoken to me through dates and names but now I need to shift my focus solely to Raymond!  You see August is his month to be featured on a special website dedicated to orphans with Arthrogryposis.  The link is below and hopefully my post will be linked to that website soon!  Please consider giving $12.00 as the theme is 12 in 12 (12 kids in 12 months)  This is quite an opportunity to get his face out there!  Please share with your friends and families and please check back for updates!

http://arthrogryposisadoption.blogspot.com/2012/07/thank-you-for-helping-morrisons-win.html

Introduction

Oh goodness, I have had this blog for two years and am just now writing my first post???  I am good!  Well let's see.  You can see most my info on my profile and I really don't feel like repeating myself but the most important things you need to know, my name is Samantha, I am Sicilian and Catholic but I could be better at both! :)  My two kids (I am going to use their initials for safety measures)  T (my son) just turned 5 a few days ago!  EEK!  He starts Kindergarten in a few weeks.  YIKES!  Not ready at all!  My daughter S will be 3 in November and she is crazy!  In a great way!  I am getting payback for all the hell I put my parents through!  My husband K hates any sort of publicity so I probably won't talk about him too much.  He may slip in once or twice but I'll keep his secrets safe!  LOL  I started this blog not to share about my family, although I find them fascinating, for a blog, we are really not that interesting, but to have a place to advocate for special needs orphans listed on Reece's Rainbow!  Yes I know that was a run on sentence filled with grammatical errors but this is MY blog and I can do what I want!  HA!  This will be fun!  My next post will be dedicated to a very special boy in my life.  His (fake) name is Raymond and the way he came into my life is very strange and interesting.  So that should make a good blog post right?  Let's hope!  I'll be back soon with that!