I cannot say I found him. Alexander found me through Lisa, who found Alexander through Corbett, who found Alexander through Gretchen, who loved Alexander enough to NEVER quit praying for him and it was she who shared the video (originally) that stole my heart.
So, lets take a step back for a moment. Just before Valentine's Day, Patti held her Pure Love Giveaway to help three orphans, Olga, Kareen and Peter. I found this blog and instantly became impassioned to work for Peter who, at the time, did not have a forever family---and no one had ever even asked about him. I began blogging, emailing (from all of my email accounts), and sharing like a crazy woman on Facebook.
I prayed; oh man! did I pray!! I had never prayed so hard in all my life as I did for Peter the night of February 4th. I prayed I would wake in the morning and SOMEONE would have come to claim him as their child. IT WORKED. MY PRAYER WAS ANSWERED!!!!
The next day, I got a message on Facebook from Lisa asking me if I would help find a family for Alexander. She knew of people willing to raise funds for him, but did not know of a family willing to bring him home, FOREVER. I read her blog, I watched the video and I KNEW in that moment, I had to ask Patti to see if Alexander would be the next child she would be raising awareness for on her blog. I was sad to hear he wasn't, but so very thrilled that Patti would share his story. She agreed to help.
I should have been happy with that, but I wasn't. I was haunted. HAUNTED. The video of Alexander playing the yard with a ball and wanting so very badly to please the man behind the video camera and charm him into playing ball with him. The video closes on a shot of Alexander's smile that, in one second, stole my heart away.
I came back to blog for him, to find him a family. Lo and behold, halfway through that blogpost, I realized we might be his family.
Shawn was already in bed for the night. What was I supposed to do? I HAD to tell him about Alexander. I had to! So, what would any loving wife do who is fanatically trying to claim her son? I left my husband an email of course! LOL
A letter to my husband:
"Alexander is nearly 6 years old. I know I am fanatical right now with this adoption stuff. So, I need you to make the call here.
Read my blog, watch the video and think about it. Let me know if he is our son. I mean it. I don't want you to say "yes" just because I am asking. I want you to search your soul and tell me if he is ours. It doesn't have to be today, and I won't ask again until you tell me "yes" or "no".
Look, I know there is so much we need to do to the house; but the truth is if we wait until we are financially ready or whatever then we will never be ready. We weren't at all ready for the twins but look where we are now.
I can't say I won't be disappointed if you say he isn't for our family. I will continue to pray he finds his family before it is too late.
I love you."
Now for those of you that "know" me, you have to know how hard it was for me to turn this over to Shawn and God. I don't like not being in control. I admit it. But I did. I asked everyone I knew for prayer for the both of us, not just him and not just me--but both of us. We needed it. We needed discernment for us and our family and for Alexander.
He went to work that morning while our whole house was still sleeping. At work, he mentioned it to his best friend, Terry and, another Christian at work, Brent. They both agreed to pray for us too. A while later, Shawn texted me to tell me he wasn't saying "yes" but that he wasn't saying "no" either. He also told me we needed to talk first.
Apparently, God did all the talking and at 2:40 in the afternoon, February 5, 2010, Shawn texted me to tell me to contact Andrea at Reece's Rainbow.
I contacted her immediately! And, then, I waited...4 agonizing hours to hear back from Andrea. In the days to come, we filled out our paperwork, spoke to a social worker, started a homestudy contract, got our passport, and waited for Andrea to let me know we could share our news and begin raising funds. And so, here we are, just 10 days later sharing with the world our journey to bring Alexander home, FOREVER!!!!
We cannot do this alone, we are praying for God's safety over Alexander in the institution until we can get to him and bring him home. Please join us in that prayer. We also must raise just a wee bit more than $12,000 to fund his grants fully. We need God's blessing in this part too, we cannot raise that kind of money alone. I am humbly asking you to share what you can, even if it is just $1.00. We will be forever grateful.
All donations are tax deductible next year.
You can donate two ways:
Click here: http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsortaylor-2
and donate via PayPal
Or you can send a check with a note saying, "Alexander for the Taylor Family" to:
Reece's Rainbow
P.O. Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885
