So today is the last day of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and also the last day of the 31 for 21 challenge. I didn't do as good a job posting about Down Syndrome as I wanted to this month, but I didn't miss a day! So to end off the month, I want to share with you a list of 21 people I love who have Down Syndrome!
Mind you, this isn't in order of who I love the most. I could never chose one over another!! ♥ And I had to take several off the list because I had too many... :( I could fill up at least 5 lists like this! :)
Elijah - My Ukrainian little brother, home 12-31-10
Jonathan - My other Ukrainian prince, home 7-9-11
Lilya - Home from Ukraine, and the inspiration for us to adopt Elijah!
Ruby - Lilya's little sister, full of spunk, and wayy cute! :)
Sarah - A 20 yo blogger with DS! A great inspiration to us all!
Sweet kids! Dusty and Sonya are from the same orphanage as Julia Lococo who I posted about last week, and Hailee Salem who I posted about awhile ago. Sonya and Dusty have changed so much since their already home pictures with their parents!
Before
This last one breaks my heart. This is at the hospital after he got home. Not only is he tiny.... He is SIX years old! (Sonya is 5 1/2)
After
Happy Beautiful boy!
HOME in their very own FAMILY!
I love doing these posts! :)
And Lyla wants one to be titled "'Mazing Monday - Lyla ______"
Remember when I posted for WW about sweet Bethany?? After I did that I joined a blogcontest Kelly put together to get as many people to blog about her as possible. Below is the note from her, but please blog about her ASAP, as tomorrow is the last day you can participate! Don't forget to email Kelly once you are done! :)
HI everyone,
I decided after struggling to post successfully about various orphans, and after inspiration from an RR colleague, I would like to host a BLOG contest.
This interesting contest has a twist to the ongoing advocacy effort, to spread the word about various orphans, who have yet to find their forever families.
Why am I doing this? Because the power of blogging has been SO powerful to help spread the word and to HELP find homes for orphan children within the RR community/network.
Here is how the contest is going to work:
1. A special other angel will be featured every 14 days. During that time, I am asking for as many people to BLOG about this child (including photo, profile, age, etc.). The information about the child must be presented within a post, on your blog at some point during the featured time period in order to qualify. Additionally, various blogs may be further recognized for creativity, innovation, and other interesting blogging techniques, and even may receive additional- interesting prizes!!! 2. For every person who blogs about this child (the blogger must email me their blog post with the information at Kelly@reecesrainbow.org to be eligible), and once this has been done, the blogger will be eligible to win a special $50 to $100 gift card, which will be randomly selected at the end of each child's featured blog event. 3. I will keep a tally of blog entries and announce updates periodically. 4. A winner will be announced after the featured child’s time!!! One gift card per featured child.
For starters, I am dedicating this first contest to dear darling Bethany, who has Brittle Bone disease. Bethany's blog contest will be from now (October 18, 2011) until November 1, 2011. (Don’t’ forget to email me your blog post and let’s help advocate for Bethany!!).
Thanks in advance to everyone who decides to participate in this fun blogging advocacy effort.
You are all free to take any pictures or info from my post about her to use. I also added a few things to that post that I didn't post originally. So join to fun to win some great prizes, and let's find Bethany a FAMILY!
Because I am new to blogging, and I'm sure many others are as well, would you mind explaining what a blog hop is, what those thumbnail size pics are for, and how we can go about adding ours? I've never done it before and didn't understand the instructions for it. Thanks.
I would be happy to explain it! :)A blog hop also called a link up is basically a widget, called a linky, that allows bloggers to add their blog to a list (like at the bottom of my last post). The list can be on multiple sites or may just be on the site of the blogger hosting the hop (in this case, it's on multiple sites, since I copied it from Jane). Link ups allow you to visit other blogs, follow blogs you like, share your posts and gain followers. So you can click on any of the thumbnails and it will take you to someone's blog who linked up.
Jane's 'Forget Me Not Friday' linkup allows others to share the kids they are advocating for, so I add my Waiting Wednesday posts to the link up every Friday. For Jane's Sharing Sunday post, she says you can link up fundraisers, prayer requests, or anything orphan related that you think is worth sharing! So I linked up my Mazing Monday post, my Faithful Friday post, my post asking for prayers for Nathaniel. In the past I've also linked up posts like this one about less orphans in the world! Does that answer your question?? If not comment or email me!
How to link up! Do you want to add your own blog or post to the list? All you have to do is go here to Jane's post, or go to the bottom of my last post (doesn't matter which), and look for the spot that says "You are next.... Click here to enter". So, you click there to enter! :) Then it will take you to a page, and for step #1, put in your blog address or post address. For step #2, put in the name you want to show up on the list. For example, the first one on this week's list is 'Dear Julia'. Putting your name and email in is optional. Then for step #4, select let me crop my own image, and then click from web. It will take you to a page with pictures from the site link you put in, and you can select one and crop it. Or chose whatever other option you want.
So there you go! Instructions on how to link-up and what a blog hop is! :)
And, I was also informed that Danil who I included a picture of yesterday, does NOT have Mosaic Down Syndrome. This little girl, whoever she is, does though! (Found her on a G**gle search! :) Hahaha, a picture of Danil came up on the first page too!)
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Wonder if she knows what a blog hop is! Actually, I wonder if she'll ever know what a family is... :(
Continuing with the DS Awareness month posts, since it's almost over! :) As I mentioned in here, there are 3 different kinds of Down Syndrome.
Trisomy 21
Lyla has Trisomy 21, and she still needs a family!!!
The vast majority, or about 95%, of people with DS have Standard Trisomy. This is what both my little brothers, and (I think) all the kids with DS I have posted about have. I explained about Trisomy 21 in this post - What is Down Syndrome?
Translocation
Translocation is the second type of DS, and is pretty rare, as it only makes up for about 4% of the population of people with DS. Translocation is caused when a piece of chromosome 21 is located on another chromosome such as chromosome 14. The person with Translocation Trisomy 21 will have 46 chromosomes but will have the genetic material of 47 chromosomes. The person with Translocation Trisomy 21 will exhibit all the same characteristics of a person with Standard Trisomy 21 since they have three copies of chromosome 21.
Mosaicism
Sweet Danil has Mosaicism, and he just got home!!! :)
Mosaicism is the third type of DS, and is extremely rare - only about 1% percent of all people with Down Syndrome have it. Mosaicism is when a person has a mix of cells, some containing 46 chromosomes and some containing 47 chromosomes. This occurs either because: a) The person received 46 chromosomes at fertilization but somewhere during early cell division the chromosome 21 cell pairs failed to split creating a cell with 47 chromosomes and a cell with 45 chromosomes. The cell with 45 chromosomes can not survive but the cell with 47 chromosomes will continue to divide. All cells that come from this cell will contain 47 chromosomes. b) The person received 47 chromosomes at fertilization but later during cell division the extra chromosome is lost. Mosaicism occurs in 2% to 5% of cases of Down syndrome. A person with Mosaic Down syndrome may exhibit all, some, or none of the characteristics of Down syndrome depending on the percent of cells carrying the extra chromosome and where these cells are located.
On a side note, please go join Jane and link up over at Flight Living Platform for her Sharing Sunday. Jane is the same awesome person who does the Forget Me Not Friday link-ups! She was soo sweet to me this week and posted about me for her SS post! Thanks soo much Jane! ♥♥♥ You are such an encouragement to me! If you are here from her post, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Be sure to comment and let me know you visited! :)
Today I want to introduce you to a family I love so very much!! - The Burman Family!!
(All pictures in this post used with permission)
So everybody knows who Carrington is, right?? I've posted about her a time or two before...
Isn't she GORGEOUS?? You can visit her blog here - Carrington's Courage. Sweet Carrington when from a 11 pound forgotten orphan on the other side of the world, to a VERY loved little girl with ever growing chub! From Orphan to Princess, it's miraculous what a FAMILY, and some LOVE can do!
Her family, the amazing Burman's, have been called to rescue more precious little ones yet again!! They committed to sweet Teagan Chance awhile back, and I happily helped Mrs. Burman design Teagan's blog - A Torch for Teagan! And because the Burman's have a habit of bringing home multiples, they just recently committed to Kelten Drake as well! :)
Teagan Chance - 4 years old
Kelten Drake - 12 years old
Kelten looks like chubby two year old, but he is actually 12 years old! Yes, no typo, he is TWELVE YEARS OLD, and weighs just 26 pounds. The boys are in an orphanage where the children are EXTREMELY tiny and malnourished. We're talking about 11 year-old's that come out of this orphanage with the circumference of their upper arm measuring 3 inches. Can you see their urgency in getting these boys home??
Right now they have an AWESOME giveaway going on! A brand new 32GB Ipad2 can be yours for the taking!! With Christmas coming up, this gift would make anyone happy! It's a wonderful giveaway for two wonderful little boys!!
To enter, just go to this post on Teagan's blog - Donate to the chip-in on the sidebar, and leave Shelly a comment with how much you donated so she can get you entered. $10 gets you one chance at it, $20 gets you two chances, $30 gets you three, you get the picture! :)
PLEASE go donate and enter... these boys NEED you to help get them home and this family GREATLY appreciates all and any help you can give!!!
Nathanael has a life-threatening condition called hydorcephalus. If Nathanael would have been born in the USA, he would have had surgery to place a shunt to drain the excess fluid on his brain. He most likely would have lived a fairly normal life. But...he was not born here. Many attempts were made from this side of the ocean to get him the life-saving surgery he needed, but these attempts were in vain as he was not "allowed" to have surgery.
His potential adoptive family sped through the dossier prep process to get their paperwork over to his country ASAP. They were then slowed down by the infamous "special needs list". Hydrocephalus wasn't on there. (STILL haven't heard anything about that stinkin list!!) Now, his country is changing things (again) so they face yet another delay.
But recently, his family found out his birth mother has been visiting him. She has already relinquished her rights, but has said she would contest his adoption. WHAT?!?! So, basically, she will not give him the treatment he needs and won't allow a family to adopt him to give him the surgery he SO desperately needs. He WILL die if he does not have surgery.
Ok, here's where you come in. PLEASE PRAY for the softening of his mother's heart to allow this adoption to happen!!! PLEASE PRAY for his family to be able to get over there ASAP!!! And finally, PLEASE PRAY for Nathanael's health...that he would hang on long enough for his family to get him home safely. Thank you so much. I believe God can and will save his life.
Girl, born in February 2010
1ay6v-15
Brothers and sisters: no
Eyes: Grey
Hair: blond
Character is calm, smiling
Sweet little Jessa has rickets, and a mild umbilical hernia (not uncommon for children with Down syndrome). She also has some heart issues, ventricular septum defect, and an atrial septum defect. She is listed as having a development delay as well, due to her Down syndrome.
$135.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!
Like the 3 other sweeties, Jessa is such a little sweetheart! She's almost two years old, and needs a family now so she never has to know that she is an orphan and feel like no one loves her! She needs you to come get her, and even if you can't get her 3 "sisters", she'll be happy to come HOME just the same!! But boy, oh boy, if a family got all 4 of them.... I don't know if I'd even be willing to come stay with you and help you! That would be a CUTE OVERLOAD!!!! I LOVE cute babies, but I don't that I'd be able to handle that much! :)
There are some things that I never want to post about, and this post is one of them. I should have posted this quite awhile ago, because I've know for quite some time about the 11 horrific little letters that are on my sweet boy's profile (and no, I'm not talking about Logan!). I hope you will take the time to read to the end of this post, and I pray it will inspire you to ACT.
What "TRANSFERRED" Means
By Sarah B
As Julia paused to decide what to add to her almost complete
essay, she thought about her life so far. She didn’t remember much of her early
years, but she did remember the day her life changed forever.
Her nannies woke her up much earlier than normal, which
surprised her since she was normally on a VERY strict schedule. They fed her
extra that morning which also surprised her since normally there was no food to
spare, and it was divided equally. Around mid-morning some strange men came in
to her grouppa’s room. Some of her nannies started crying and she wondered why.
She got several long hugs from the nannies before the strange men hustled her
out the door. They took her and several other children, who were waiting
outside her door, down the steps. Instead of going down the hallway like she
normally did to go outside, they went straight out the front door. The men
piled them into the back of a big van, and off they went. She begged the
strange men to tell her where they were going, but received no reply. She asked
some of the other children, but they just gave her a sad look and turned away.
Finally, she gave up and turned to watch the fields of sunflowers roll by.
Several hours later, she woke to find the van pulling up in
front of a building. As they got out the sounds of moaning and crying could be
heard. She soon found out why. She had been transferred to an institution. A
place of no hope. A place of no return. No way out, or so she thought. She sat
in a crib all day long with nothing to do. Once a day, maybe twice if she was
lucky, a nanny would come and shove a bowl of mush laced with sawdust, down her
throat. Night was the same except with no food. With no bathroom, her crib soon
reeked, like all the other ones around her already did. She lost weight rapidly
and started a common institutional behavior – head banging. She had discovered
that if she banged her head against her crib bars that if felt good, so she did
it again and again since she had only one other thing to do for stimulation.
The other thing was scratching herself. She discovered her favorite place to
scratch was behind her ears, and she soon rubbed them raw.
Her crib was in a big room with about 20 other cribs. Each
crib was filled with someone older than herself, but some tinier. They all
received the same care as her. It scared her that some had no teeth and were
old and wrinkled. Would she be stuck here the rest of her life? She often cried
silent tears as she thought about the stimulation. She wondered if she would be
able to survive until she was old and grey. If only someone would come and
rescue her. If only…
She regressed more and more each day and just when she
thought things couldn’t get any worse, something she dreaded happened. They got
her out of her crib and brought her into a small, damp room with little light.
As soon as she saw the hair on the floor she knew what they wanted her for. At
the orphanage, she had the longest, most beautiful hair in her grouppa. The
nannies had loved it and always had hair pretties and bows in it. She loved it
too, and now she cringed as it got shaven off. It was all her had left that was
hers, how could she part with it? But she had no say in it, and it was useless
to fight back.
Several months later she woke up knowing something big would
happen today. She has a feeling deep down inside something exciting would
happen. She wasn’t sure, but she thought the sun was shining brighter than
usual. The morning passed and nothing happened. Shortly after midday she began
to lose hope. Today is no different from other days she told herself. As soon
as she thought that, the door opened. A nanny came in but she didn’t have the
usual bowl of mush with her. She came over to Julia’s crib, and lifted her out
by one arm, and carried her out of the room. The nanny brought her into a room,
which she later learned was the director’s office. Seated in the office were
the director and several nannies. In addition, there was a man and woman who
dressed funny and spoke a silly sounding language. They brought a lady with
them, who spoke Julia’s language, and the silly language.
The nanny put her on the couch between the two strange
people. They spoke to her in her funny language, which frightened her at first,
but two words she understood – mama and papa. The lady held her and rocked her
back and forth. Then the man did. Love! That was something she hadn’t known
since she left the orphanage. The following days were filled with visit from
the strange people, and Julia enjoyed every second of it!
Pretty soon a day came when they used words like “daughter”,
“forever”, “ours”, and “home”. She later learned that was the day they had
court. Then they didn’t come again for what seemed like forever. Julia was
heartbroken. The nanny told her mama and papa would come back, but she didn’t
believe her.
Then one day the nanny came in and dressed her in some
pretty cloths she had never seen before. Then the nanny brought her into the
director’s office and who else was waiting for her but Mama and Papa! She was
overjoyed! Papa carried her outside, but instead of going to their usual play
spot, he brought her straight to a car! He and Mama climbed in with her, and
the driver drove away. The thrills of the following days included all she
wanted to eat, new pretty clothes, a potty, lots of baths, cars, trains, and
airplanes! Not to mention lots of people! Then they finally made it home. Julia
remembers that she had a hard time adjusting to her new life. Papa, Mama, and
all her new siblings had a hard time adjusting to her being there too. But
eventually everybody got into their new groove.
And now! Here she is, finishing up her exams in
college and living the life God created her to live! But she can’t help
remember the millions who still live in institutions today who won’t have the
same happy ending she had. And that is why she is going over to her birth
country to become a full time missionary serving in the institution. She’s
planning on living her life to serve the least of these who have no hope.
--------
That's why I don't like to post that children are transferred, esp children, I love. While this story is about a little girl named Julia, sweet Ryan has gone through the same thing.... The eleven horrific little letters - TRANSFERRED. Sweet Ryan has been transferred to a place of NO HOPE!
Please share this video and post, or anything about Ryan. And PRAY... PRAY PRAY PRAY for him, PLEASE! He needs a family DESPERATELY!!!! ♥
**I've really been struggling to find kids to post about, despite the fact there are soo many! Because October in DS Awareness month, I've been trying to keep them to kids that have DS, but I have 2 that don't have DS lined up for November. Let me know if you have any suggestions for a kiddo that has DS that I haven't already done! Just need one more for next week! :) Thanks!!
Julia NOW - with a family of her own and that loves her unconditionally!
And Julia is also the little sister of Caleb from Speaking for the Silent who I have talked about on this blog before! :) Julia, Caleb, and their daddy met my mom, Auntie Deb, and Elijah when they were all in Ukraine finishing up the adoption process of Elijah and Julia!
Caleb, we need to set up another date to Skype so I can meet her!! :)
