Waiting Wednesday: Jacob

Today, I want to show you a little boy who has stolen my heart.

Is he not adorable??

His name is Jacob. He turned 3 this month.

He is in a country in Asia, and was abandoned because he most likely has Down syndrome. He also has a heart defect.

A little more about him:
"Jacob can roll but has poor muscle tone. He is unable to sit or crawl. He can hold objects and throw them and his eyes will follow objects. Jacob does well playing alone but also gets along well with other children.

He is not speaking yet but does understand the word “no”. He is restless and stubborn. He does not like baths and cries during them but can be comforted with food or being held.

Jacob is a very lovable little boy. All of us like him very much. We hope that he can find a home which loves him very much early in which he can enjoy the love of parents and owns a happy childhood, nice future. We believe he will bring much happiness to your family."

This precious boy so deserves a family.

Can you help??

Donate a little to his fund? (It's only at $5.85!) Share his picture? Adopt him maybe??

Read more about him and donate here: Jacob

GOOGLE READER users | Don't stop reading!

**This is post is only for those of you who use GOOGLE READER to read blogs. For anyone else who has a different way of following here, you can skip this post! :)

So, for some crazy reason, Google has decided to close down Google Reader (GR).

If you use Google Reader to read blogs, it's time to find a new blog reader.

Google Reader closes down on June 30th. In other words, you have 5 days.

I don't want to lose you, my faithful followers, so here are some alternatives for blog reading.

• Bloglovin' - This is the reader that I use. It is similar to GR, the difference is that you can't read blogs from your iGoogle homepage, you have to click on the title and go to the blog to read it. (Though, iGoogle is ending Nov 1st, so that doesn't do you much good anyways.) Yes, that takes some getting used to, but it's really not as bad as it seems, and the benefit is it's easier to comment and see what the rest of a blog looks like, not just the post. You can import your GR/Google Friend Connect subscriptions easily into Bloglovin'.
• Networked Blogs - Follow with Facebook. Sign up with Facebook, and get emailed daily digest from the blogs your following. If you are a blog writer you can also add this to your blog and have Networked Blogs post to your friends whenever you publish a post.
• By Email - Just enter your email on my sidebar, and you will get an email of every post of mine.

I have buttons for the above three on my sidebar. Other possible readers I do not have follow buttons for are:

• Feedly
• Pulse
• Flipboard
• NetVibes
• NewsBlur
• Skimr

I have not looked further into any of these or checked into how they work, but you can read more about some of them here. You may have to play around with several different ones to find one that you like.

For most readers, (with the exception of the email one), a blogger does not have to have the follow button on their blog, you just have to enter the blog address into the reader.

Please contact me if you have any questions or want help getting things set up, whether to read blogs, or added to your blog.

Also feel free to share this post.

I hope you all will stay connected here and to your other favorite blogs. It's no fun for a blogger when no one reads their blog!

He is worth more.

He doesn't deserve to sit in an orphanage alone.

He doesn't deserve to fight leukemia alone.

He is not a forgotten child tucked away in an orphanage anymore.

He is worth more that.

He deserves a family.

And he has one!!

I am completely overwhelmed by God's goodness!! To know that a family loves him so very much and is working hard to bring him home, brings a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus!

Keep the party going!

Do you remember Joseph? Who was aging out the same time as Sebastian??

Sebastian found a family in time, but Joseph didn't. His only hope was if a family had already had their paperwork into USCIS before his birthday.

God did miracles friends. Why did we doubt?

JOSEPH HAS A FAMILY!!!!

A family was working to get another aged out boy, but things weren't coming together for them to go get him. So now they are getting Joseph instead!! (Don't worry, the other boy still has a family working to get him that also had their paperwork in on time.)

And not only are they getting Joseph, they are getting 3 other kids who would age out soon!!!

"Isaac"

"Mariah"

"Tobias"

They listened God's calling to saving 4 children who would otherwise probably live lives as prostitutes and drug addicts on the streets!

Go show this family some love, and help them raise the funds to bring their kids home, by donating to their FSP - The Hommel Family



Oh and Sebastian's family??? They are now bring home 3 boys who have aged out or will soon! And they need help raising money to bring them home too! Visit their FSP here, and their blog here.


God sure is GOOD, isn't He??

Let's CELEBRATE!

Guess who has a family!!

IRIS!!!!

Guess who else has a family!!

SIMON!!!!

Guess who else will no longer be an orphan!!

CASEY!!!!

THANK YOU JESUS!!!

I'm so glad these three and so many other older children are being chosen! They are no less deserving than the young ones! ♥

Waiting Wednesday: Greta

This beautiful girl is a couple months younger than me.

She is the size, an developmentally the age of a 3-4 yo.

That makes me sick. It isn't right.

No, she probably wouldn't be the size or mental level I am due to her Ds, but she certainly wouldn't be that tiny.

She should have had proper care, nutrition, therapy, and LOVE from the day she was born. There should have been people to believe in her, to tell her to reach for the stars.

But no.

Instead there was and is nannies, doing the bare minimum of basic care. Other kids, each in the same situation she is.

Helpless, voiceless, existing but not living, not knowing what love is. No one to hug her, to kiss her goodnight.

It's been that way for too long. It's not fair. She didn't ask for it.

I'm in tears tonight begging for her.

Let's find her a family. Please.

Read more about her here - Greta

Oh, did I mention she has a FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLAR GRANT?!?!? He adoption is almost paid for!

Grace's Benefit!

On Saturday night, our church held a benefit for us to help bring Grace home! We had such a fun time, and it went very well!

Ticket Table as you come in the door!

Raffle Baskets

A lot more raffle baskets

Going into the "dining room"

We told them to keep it simple. This look simple to you?? :)

There were about 4 6-foot tables jam packed full of baked sale items!

Handiwork for Orphans! We sold about $250 worth from our stuff alone!

The tshirt lady and the Handiwork girls - Ashley, Rachel and I

Time to eat!

Guest appearance by Toni Calzoni to draw the raffle tickets!

Grace's family and Toni! :)

The total raised as of Sunday morning was between $7000-$8000!!!! And over 50 tshirts were ordered from our t-shirt fundraiser!! THANK YOU JESUS!

Thank you so very much to everyone who made this event possible, and to everyone who came and donated! And to everyone who bought t-shirts! You helped bring my little sister home, and I am grateful!! ♥

Saturday Night and T-shirts!

On Saturday night, our amazing church is holding another benefit for our family, this time to help us bring Grace home!

It will be a spaghetti dinner, and along with that, there will be a bake sale, auction items, and Rachel and I will be selling our items from Handiwork for Maria!

I know this is only for local people, but if you are not local (or even if you are!), you can still help! We have a t-shirt fundraiser going on right now as well selling these awesome t-shirts designed the talented Ashley Gibson!

Find all the details here - Love Makes a Family T-Shirt Fundraiser

Oh, and one more thing... :)

What is Lyme: The Controversy

There is much, much controversy in the medical community regarding Lyme disease. I'm going to to my best to explain it you briefly.

**Please know this is just my understanding, which mainly comes from the Lyme documentary, Under Our Skin (info at end of post). I may have mistaken details as I am writing from memory (I did just rewatch it yesterday to write this post).

+++++++++++++++

Many Lyme patients are misdiagnosed many times. Many have seen doctor after doctor after doctor trying to get a diagnosis.

Many doctors are not aware (or choose not to be) of Lyme symptoms, treatment, etc. You would think since it's so widespread it should be a requirement for every doctor to be. So why isn't it?

Shortly after Lyme was discovered, it became legal to patent and profit from living organisms. So the focus of most of the main researchers of Lyme changed, from gaining knowledge for public health and scientific reasons to profit. They stopped sharing the results of their research so treatment and better tests stopped being approved.

I mentioned in my last Lyme post that the current test for Lyme is only 50% accurate. That test it the original test for testing for Lyme. It has not been improved or changed at all. Everyone agrees it's bad, but no new tests are being approved. Another reason people are misdiagnosed.

Chronic Lyme disease. That's really the main argument of this mess. Does it exist or doesn't it? Any person with late stage Lyme, including me, will tell you that YES, it does exist. According to the IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America) guidelines, it doesn't.

Basically, according to anyone anti-chronic Lyme, Lyme is cured with a single round of antibiotics. That's possible, if the antibiotics are started right after the bite. Most times they aren't. After you have had that round, you are cured and no longer have Lyme. Apparently any symptoms after that are post-Lyme syndrome, and are either your body still recovering, are symptoms you will have forever from damage done, or are pains from everyday living.

Insurance companies are a big part of why the IDSA guidelines are this way. Antibiotics are expensive, esp when they are long term for Lyme treatment. In order to cut down the money, they got the Lyme research board, or whatever it's called to rewrite the IDSA guidelines in a way to state chronic Lyme disease doesn't exist so that they can deny coverage for treatment.

Back to the doctors. Most follow the IDSA guidelines, which also doesn't provide info on how recognize symptoms of Lyme. Those who do are called LLMD or Lyme Literate Medical Doctor in the Lyme community. If you suspect you have Lyme, you need to see LLMD. Please do not decide not get treatment or find out if you have Lyme just because of the controversy.

Doctors who treat Lyme are under attack, some have even had their license suspended or taken away. This of course sends the message to other doctors that Lyme is not safe to treat. So many avoid the subject or possibility all together. I've heard of people who know they have Lyme and end up in the hospital for it, doctors will tell them it's not Lyme and Lyme doesn't do that.

It's so sad. They fight over it, and those with Lyme suffer because they can't get the right treatment and get better. Can't we just focus on making people better?


+++++++++++++++

Finally, I highly recommend watching Under Our Skin. It's documentary about Lyme disease and can explain everything so much better than I can in a blog post. Yes, it's a little bit long, but so worth it.

You can watch it:
Free with Amazon Prime Instant Video
Free on Hulu
Free on Netflix
More on Demand Options
Rent or Buy on Amazon Instant Video

If you're gonna be stubborn, and not watch it, at least please watch the trailer. Even just the trailer explains a LOT, including some of what I tried to above.

+++++++++++++++

This is the final What is Lyme post. Thank you for reading and I hope you learned a lot!