A few months after the Russian Adoption Ban happened, there was one girl on Reece's Rainbow who caught my eye.
She was a darling little girl from China with the advocacy name of Laura. It was the first child I saw that made me do a double take and really think that perhaps we could add a child from a country other than Russia to our family. I wasn't ready to commit to a different child at that time, but I checked on her every day. Eventually she made it to the MFFM page, meaning her family had found her. I was so excited for her! About seven months later and several months into our adoption of Milo, I found out who Laura's mom was going to be and I was ecstatic! We were on a similar adoption timelines and couldn't wait to get our China babies home! "Laura's" mama is named Jenifer, and Laura is MinLan. She's been home about a year and a half and seriously couldn't be cuter! She's absolutely thriving!
Jenifer lives across the country from me. I've never met her, but I feel like I have. She is a friend to everyone. She is considerate, thoughtful, kind, sweet, talented, bold, and brave. When we were adopting Milo and found out he hadn't gained weight in 9 months, she didn't just say she was praying for him, she really did. Her whole family was praying for him, in fact. She didn't stop there, though! She asked her whole church community to pray for Milo. Who does that!? When I found out there was a problem with Ewan's heart, she not only messaged me several times a day, she would also record videos of herself talking and send them to me when she just had too much to say to type it all out. Haha! I love this mama to pieces.
About three to four months after we committed to Ewan, Jenifer and her family made an announcement that they were committing to the child she'd been advocating for. His name is "Timothy" on Reece's Rainbow, but his name will be John Preston once he's home. Jenifer met him when she was adopting MinLan and they all fell in love with this sweet kid!
He's been waiting so, so long for a family, and Jenifer told me that she had a sinking feeling that if they didn't commit, he would likely end up an orphan for the rest of his life. Remember how I felt that same way about Ewan? There are just so many older boys waiting. Here is a link to their Reece's Rainbow page. It tells a bit about their journey to saying yes! They also have an adoption blog. You can find it here. They also have a family blog you can link to here. Jenifer has worked her fingers to the bone raising funds for this adoption. While they don't have the $30,000+ it takes to adopt, what they do have is faith, trust, and knowledge that this boy's life is much more important than money. They still have around $15,000 to raise before they can travel. They should be getting their Letter of Acceptance from China any day now, so they have about two months to make 15K. It's an overwhelming position to be in. They have several fundraisers planned, though, and they also have two different matching grants right now. One is through the Brittany's Hope Foundation. As soon as they receive $2,000 in donations for the Parris family, they send them a check for $4,000!! To help them meet their matching grant, send a check to 1160 North Market Street, Elizabethtown, PA 17022. If you send a check, please make sure to include the family name in the memo line so it goes to their account. This is a tax deductible donation! The next matching grant is through Reece's Rainbow. It's for $500. Donate to their account by clicking here. If you donate either of these places, your donation is effectively doubled! So great! If both matching grants are met, they'll be $5,000 closer to their goal!
I can't wait to see these faces all in the same photo together!
Please consider donating to this amazing family. I cannot think of a more worthy cause than helping a child go from orphan to beloved son.
No comments:
Post a Comment