My Jacob print arrived today!!!

Yesterday, was Resurrection Sunday and my husband was baptized!!! We had a great day, exhausting but great. I had spent the day before cleaning my house, each and every room. Can you say, "Old woman, achy joints?" LOL

Today, I checked my mail and my print Jacob Warner made to help the adoption fund for his brother, Joshua (click the link to see their FSP and donate to Cliff on Reece's Rainbow), arrived!!! I LOVE IT!!


I will admit it, I cried when I opened it and I cried again when I read the letter from the Warner family that came with it as well. Forgive me, Lisa, this picture does not do the print justice at all. But the print is lying on Alexander's bed and soon as I can get a frame for it--it will hang on his wall.

At the bottom of the artwork there is an excerpt from the poem The Down syndrome Creed it could not be more fitting to hang in any child's room but especially if you have a child with Down syndrome. A portion of the proceeds from the gallery will go to the Warner for Cliff family adoption fund. It does not get any cooler than that.

Why not purchase one today? As you see, I already have mine and LOVE IT!

You can click here JACOB'S ART and purchase any size print to cherish forever. I know I will. You see, Lisa, played a very integral part in our finding Alexander.

Here is exactly how it started:

Lisa Aspin Warner February 7 at 7:58pm

I have a favor to ask. I know you are in the midst of fund raising for Peter and am totally psyched for Julie. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with her and she is a wonderful person and mother. There is a little boy on RR that will be turning 6 in 2 months and he has already been transferred. There is a group raising funds for him so that is not what I am asking. He needs to find a forever family before April 13, 2011 (his birthday) or his grant which is just over 7,000 is taken from him basically ensuring he will not be saved from the institution. I tried to see if we could get him when we got Cliff but Andrea said they are in entirely different regions but I have to try and find some family to commit to me.. his little face and the video of him haunt me. I do not have the clout to get his story out there but was hoping you could advocate for him to find parents.. not funds just a momma and daddy. Here is my blog post that deals with him http://buildingourvillage.blogspot.com/2011/02/are-you-his-forever-family.html I can send you the video via email if you do choose to maybe ask around. Thanks, Lisa

Christie Young Taylor February 7 at 9:10pm

Lisa, I most certainly will help!! My heart just sank. I did not realize he nearly six...

Christie Young Taylor February 7 at 9:30pm

Lisa, send me the video link to (my email was here)

Christie Young Taylor February 7 at 9:50pm

Nevermind, Lisa, I managed to steal your video and make my own to put on my blog. Thank you.

Lisa Aspin Warner February 7 at 10:04pm Report

thanks Christie!!

Christie Young Taylor February 7 at 10:05pm

No problem, Lisa. :) He is beautiful.

Christie Young Taylor February 8 at 12:48am

Lisa, may I ask who is fundraising for him?

Lisa Aspin Warner February 8 at 7:04am Report

one of them is Corbett Burick.. there are a few of them

Christie Young Taylor February 8 at 8:19am

ok, thank you Lisa.

Within hours, I knew in my heart Alexander was ours. I asked my husband to make the decision for our family and our journey began. Can you help this family out? I would love to see their fund explode with the financial provision they need. They will be submitting their dossier soon and I DO NOT want money standing between them and Joshua's homecoming. Please, do what you can. If you cannot buy a print. Will you donate a dollar? How about five? Ten? Twenty? PRAY???? Most of all pray and share their story. PLEASE!! You'll thank yourself for it, I thank you for it and you will be blessed because of your compassion.

DONATION BOX

For regular visitors of our blog, you will see our Donation Link Box is gone. For a while you will not be able to access the totals directly on our blog. Please, if you are donating you can now click on Alexander's picture right over here---------> and donate that way.  **YOU MAY NEED TO CLEAR YOUR BROWSER HISTORY OR CACHE FIRST BEFORE YOU CAN GET BACK ON THE SITE**

You can also click here: SPONSOR TAYLOR FAMILY


Thank you!! Hopefully, in the near future, Reece's Rainbow will have new direct tally donation boxes ready for us families again. In the mean time, just use the link above, click on Alexander's picture or mail a check with "Alexander for the Taylor Family" in the memo line and send it to:

Reece's Rainbow

P.O. Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Be sure and leave a comment if you are wanting to get in on our iPad2 giveaway!!!

iPad2 (choice of white or black)

16 GB with Wi-Fi

Your color choice of polyurethane sleep cover for the iPad2 (gray, blue, green, orange or pink)

Apple iPad2 Dock

THIS PACKAGE WILL NOT BE PURCHASED UNTIL AFTER THE GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON APRIL 17, 2010. WE WILL RUN THIS FUNDRAISER FOR ONE FULL MONTH. DRAWING WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 21, 2011. THE iPad2 WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO THE SELECTED DONOR. APPROXIMATE SHIPPING TIMES (RIGHT NOW) ARE 4-5 WEEKS.  

The person selected as the giveaway champion will receive an electronic receipt of the purchase and delivery information as soon as we have communication as to where to send the information. 

Now, how do you receive an option for this package? First donate at least $10 to our Family Sponsorship Page by clicking on Alexander's picture in the sidebar of my blog at the top. If you do not have a paypal account you can mail a check to Reece's Rainbow with "Alexander for the Taylor Family" in the memo line and send it to:

Reece's Rainbow

P.O. Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Then you can come here to my blog and leave a comment, your name and entries will be tallied and added to our bucket to select the winners. This fundraiser will be live ONLINE and we will also be doing direct-face-to-face donations as well. What that means is this, my husband will be gathering entries through donations to Reece's Rainbow as well around town. 

For $10 you will get 1 drop in the giveaway  (& 1 option for a freebie)

For $25 you will get 3 drop ins to the giveaway ( & up to 3 options for freebie entries)

How do you earn a freebie option?

Once you have made a monetary donation, PLEASE share this blogpost for another option. If you donate enough for one option, you can only earn one freebie option by reposting. BUT if you donate enough for 3 options you can earn 3 freebies too. Facebook it for another option. Tweet it for another . Blog it for another too. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Momma said it was good to share, right? Come back here and let me know that you shared it and we will add to your entries for this giveaway. If you donate money multiple times over the weeks this giveaway runs--you will get options for that too.  YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR NAME and, please, do not post just anonymously because I won't be able to find you if you are the selected donor.

So keep coming back to see how many options are going in the "bucket" and watch the blessings unfold!!

Thank you!!!!!! You are BLESSING AJ and BLESSING our family too!!!!!

Amazing....

WOW!!!  As of 9:34 p.m. March 24, 2011 our FSP and personal savings combined have grown to a total of $5,000.60!!!!  When we started this journey into iPad2 giveaway-land, we had $1,347.60 in our account. God's graces have been amazing over the past 7 days. The support from the community at large from here and far is AMAZING.

I have families who have pledged to give GENEROUSLY in April, our iPad2 fundraiser runs through mid-April, our Thirty-one Fundraiser begins April 1st and Sonia will wrap up our AVON fundraiser on the 4th of April. On April 30th, we will round out the month with our Scrapbooking Crop too.

March has been awesome so far, and we aren't done yet. Tomorrow, March 26th, my dad will be 57 years old, a little girl of a friend of mine will be 3 and Amy V. is holding a charity yard sale fundraiser in Walla Walla, Washington--she is donating those profits to our fund.

I will be absent today from blogland and fundraising. My oldest is having his left eye operated on (again) in an attempt, yet again, to re-align his eyes. Jared has struggled with strabismus his whole life. This is an easy surgery, but surgery just the same. He does not like going in for surgery and complains about the drunken side-effects left behind from anesthesia. Good thing is I am well versed when it comes to strabismus, which will come in handy for Alexander. I believe he will need both of his eyes repaired also. Jared has had both eyes operated on once before, his right eye has been done twice and now his left eye will be done again. Here's praying this time sticks...and here's praying he is up for his Pinewood Derby Race tomorrow evening. He is so excited about his hotdog derby car Shawn made for him!!  I love it too, the car cracks me up every time I see it!!  LOL

 

If this is your first time here, scroll down to the post before this one and check out our iPad2 giveaway information....if you have been here before, will share our story and pray for us? And, please, donate if you can.

3-21 World Down Syndrome Awareness Day!!!!

So, March 21st has rolled around again. For those of you who don't know (4 years ago, I had no clue) today is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day. March 21st or 3-21 is the chosen day to celebrate awareness for individuals born with Down syndrome because people like my son, Joseph, have 3 copies of the 21st chromosome. People like me (and probably you too) only have 2 copies of the 21st chromosome.

Celebrating awareness, celebrating World Down syndrome Awareness Day is a remarkable thing. Today is one special day we get to show the world how NOT SCARY Down syndrome really is. Down syndrome is not my son. Down syndrome is not a disease. Down syndrome is not a horrible curse. Down syndrome is a genetic anomaly resulting in extra genetic material that IS compatible with life.

My son is Joseph, and he happens to have Down syndrome. Down syndrome does not have him; Down syndrome does not have our life. Down syndrome cannot be cured. There is nothing you can do to make Down syndrome happen. AND there nothing you cannot do (besides NOT getting pregnant) to not make Down syndrome happen.

I am so blessed to have birthed my son in the United States of America. We may face obstacles and receive ignorant comments or unwanted, unnecessary pity---BUT my son was born at time and place where I was encouraged to take him home with us and LOVE him and RAISE him among his brothers. I have been encouraged to challenge him and encouraged to set the bar high and allow my son to AMAZE ME.

Sadly, Alexander--my son across the seas waiting for me--was not born in the USA, he was born in an Eastern European country. Maybe he was born to a mother who was so in love with him, maybe she sang to him during her pregnancy, maybe she wanted him more than life itself. Surely, she had no idea how he would be born carrying extra genetic material and doomed from the start in her society. I imagine Alexander was born, diagnosed, and abandoned. Left alone in the hospital nursery and denied love from his mother. No breast to suckle. No heartbeat to calm him. The protection his birth mother provided him was washed away as soon as she learned of his defect. I wonder if she thinks of him, thinks of him like I do. I wonder if she longs for him, longs for him the way I do.

I wonder if she lived here in the states, would she have kept him? Would she love him? I love him and I feel pity for her. I am on a mission to take her child from her---FOREVER. I want him, our family needs him. I cannot explain my connection to this child other than a simple calling to love him and care for him.

Money is not something my husband and I are blessed with. Sure, Shawn has a good job and we are good stewards with what has been given us--still we aren't rolling in the dough. I must admit, asking for financial help from strangers is humbling. VERY HUMBLING. If we had planned to adopt, we would have been prepared for this financial burden--truth is; we did NOT plan to adopt. God dropped this on our hearts like a bomb. We are praying God blesses us through the donations of those who are willing to support. We are working diligently to raise funds and this is our first BIG fundraiser. Will you help us? Will you help Alexander? If you cannot donate and you came this far...will you SHARE OUR STORY? Please? Alexander is already in an institution, he needs to come home.


So here is what our giveaway will offer:

iPad2 (choice of white or black)

16 GB with Wi-Fi

Your color choice of polyurethane sleep cover for the iPad2 (gray, blue, green, orange or pink)

Apple iPad2 Dock

THIS PACKAGE WILL NOT BE PURCHASED UNTIL AFTER THE GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON APRIL 17, 2010. WE WILL RUN THIS FUNDRAISER FOR ONE FULL MONTH. DRAWING WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 21, 2011. THE iPad2 WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO THE SELECTED DONOR. APPROXIMATE SHIPPING TIMES (RIGHT NOW) ARE 4-5 WEEKS.  

The person selected as the giveaway champion will receive an electronic receipt of the purchase and delivery information as soon as we have communication as to where to send the information. 

Now, how do you get your option for this package? First donate at least $10 to our Family Sponsorship Page by clicking on Alexander's picture in the sidebar of my blog at the top. If you do not have a paypal account you can mail a check to Reece's Rainbow with "Alexander for the Taylor Family" in the memo line and send it to:

Reece's Rainbow

P.O. Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Then you can come here to my blog and leave a comment, your name and entries will be tallied and added to our bucket to select the winners. This fundraiser will be live ONLINE and we will also be doing direct-face-to-face donations as well. What that means is this, my husband will be gathering entries through donations to Reece's Rainbow as well around town. 

For $10 you will get 1 drop in the giveaway  (& 1 option for a freebie)

For $25 you will get 3 drop ins to the giveaway ( & up to 3 options for freebie entries)

How do you earn a freebie option?

Once you have made a monetary donation, PLEASE share this blogpost for another option. If you donate enough for one option, you can only earn one freebie option by reposting. BUT if you donate enough for 3 options you can earn 3 freebies too. Facebook it for another option. Tweet it for another . Blog it for another too. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Momma said it was good to share, right? Come back here and let me know that you shared it and we will add to your entries for this giveaway. If you donate money multiple times over the weeks this giveaway runs--you will get options for that too.  YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR NAME and, please, do not post just anonymously because I won't be able to find you if you are the selected donor.

So keep coming back to see how many options are going in the "bucket" and watch the blessings unfold!!

Thank you!!!!!! You are BLESSING AJ and BLESSING our family too!!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!

Have I got your attention?  LOL

Our iPad Giveaway is headed into day three. We have been so blessed by the support we are receiving and the blessing given by His hand through each and every one of you. Please share, share, share our blog and our fundraiser. In doing so, you will help change the life of an orphan--our son, Alexander Jacob. His birthday is coming up next month, he will be 6 years old. Can you imagine being 6 years old and not knowing where your parents are? Wondering what love is? Longing to be held and comforted from the shouts you hear at night from the strangers among you in the cold, dark room that envelopes you? Can you imagine living in an institution? Can you imagine the fear he must experience?

YOU can help change all that by blessing him with your donation to our Family Sponsorship Page and receive an option for our iPad2 giveaway. So, do you have $10 to spare? If $10 is just too much today will you please, please just share our story? Time is of the essence, we must be ready to travel soon. I am praying for a July travel date, I would love for it to be even sooner (are you listening God?).

So here is what our giveaway will offer:

iPad2 (choice of white or black)

16 GB with Wi-Fi

Your color choice of polyurethane sleep cover for the iPad2 (gray, blue, green, orange or pink)

Apple iPad2 Dock

THIS PACKAGE WILL NOT BE PURCHASED UNTIL AFTER THE GIVEAWAY CLOSES ON APRIL 17, 2010. WE WILL RUN THIS FUNDRAISER FOR ONE FULL MONTH. DRAWING WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 21, 2011. THE iPad2 WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO THE SELECTED DONOR. APPROXIMATE SHIPPING TIMES (RIGHT NOW) ARE 4-5 WEEKS.  

The person selected as the giveaway champion will receive an electronic receipt of the purchase and delivery information as soon as we have communication as to where to send the information. 

Now, how do you receive your option for this package? First donate at least $10 to our Family Sponsorship Page by clicking on Alexander's picture in the sidebar of my blog at the top. If you do not have a paypal account you can mail a check to Reece's Rainbow with "Alexander for the Taylor Family" in the memo line and send it to:

Reece's Rainbow

P.O. Box 4024

Gaithersburg, MD 20885

Then you can come here to my blog and leave a comment, your name and entries will be tallied and added to our bucket to select the winners. This fundraiser will be live ONLINE and we will also be doing direct-face-to-face donations as well. What that means is this, my husband will be gathering entries through donations to Reece's Rainbow as well around town. 

For $10 you will get 1 drop in the giveaway  (& 1 option for a freebie)

For $25 you will get 3 drop ins to the giveaway ( & up to 3 options for freebie entries)

How do you earn a freebie option?

Once you have made a monetary donation, PLEASE share this blogpost for another option. If you donate enough for one option, you can only earn one freebie option by reposting. BUT if you donate enough for 3 options you can earn 3 freebies too. Facebook it for another option. Tweet it for another . Blog it for another too. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. Momma said it was good to share, right? Come back here and let me know that you shared it and we will add to your entries for this giveaway. If you donate money multiple times over the weeks this giveaway runs--you will get options for that too.  YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR NAME and, please, do not post just anonymously because I won't be able to find you if you are the selected donor.

So keep coming back to see how many options are going in the "bucket" and watch the blessings unfold!!

Thank you!!!!!! You are BLESSING AJ and BLESSING our family too!!!!!