~Welcome to the story of our journey to save another Eastern European princess with down syndrome and an older child! In 2010, we traveled half way around the world to adopt a twenty month old (now three years old) precious girl with down syndrome, Gabby. Now, less than two years later, we are on a mission to adopt another precious little girl that is in the same orphanage Gabby was in, Ava. Not only Ava, but yes....one more "Elaine". That means we are trying to adopt two more children!!!! If you are unaware of the situation in most, if not all Eastern European countries, please continue to read. In these countries children with down syndrome and special needs are most often placed in orphanages and if not adopted by the age of four or five (depending on circumstance), they are transferred to institutions where the likely-hood of them ever seeing outside of the institution walls remain slim to none. Many will live very short lives due to lack of appropriate care. Please don't allow this to happen to our sweet Ava! "Elaine" was fortunate enough to escape a very bad institution but nonetheless is in an institution and is an older child whose chances of coming home if we can't adopt her are not good. Having adopted and fully funding ourselves the previous adoption such a short time ago, we will need all of the help we can get to reunite these two angels and bring their big sister home. We utilized all extra resources with our first adoption and so fundraising is essential with this adoption. Whether it be from your prayers, helping to fundraise, buying from fundraisers, donations, etc...your help is much appreciated and is very much needed in order to make this dream a reality. Thank you so much for following our journey~

Thursday, May 10, 2012

~How You Can Help~


I just wanted to do a post for all of you wondering what fundraisers we have going on currently or wondering how you can help. Let me first of all start off by saying thank you to all of you that have helped thus far. May God bless each and everyone of you and your families and we pray and hope that you will continue to remember us throughout this adoption and give us your support as we NEED it and Ava desperately needs it!

How can you help?

(1.)  PRAY! Please pray for sweet Ava. Pray that she stays healthy and safe until we can get to her. Pray for the adoption process, that everything goes as smoothly as it can possible go. Pray for funding, that people will see the urgency in bringing Ava home and will generously support us. Pray for us, that we can do everything timely and correctly as well as stay emotionally sane throughout the process.
(2.)  DONATE! Your donations are ESSENTIAL in Ava coming home. Having adopting and spent our life savings and more on Gabby’s adoption less than two years ago makes it hard to save a lot in such short amount of time. This adoption is going to cost between $20-25,000. Of course we have paid the commitment fee, homestudy fees, and some other small fees. We also continue to pay fees. However, the big fee (facilitation fee of $9,000) and the travel expenses (estimated $5-6,000) will not be possible without your help! Remember, you can donate by clicking the “Donate” button on the right side of my blog! These donations are tax deductible through Reece’s Rainbow, so if you need a tax break for having to pay to much back, this is the perfect way to get it.  Be sure after you donate to either contact me and tell me you donated or watch the grant for the increase. If you don’t not see the grant increase and don’t want to tell me you have donated, you can contact Reece’s Rainbow and tell them.  You can also donate by mailing donations. Contact me for further information at jsgamiddleton@gmail.com
(3.)  CHIP-IN! I just recently created the “chip-in” button which is listed under the “donation” button. The “chip-in” button is used for you to donate when you want the money to go directly to us (not through Reece’s Rainbow) for the costs we are having to pay now! These donations are not tax deductible as they are not through Reece’s Rainbow.  However, they are much needed and greatly appreciated.  It is by no means required but we ask that you add 2.9% of the amount you are donating to your donation as well as .30 cent due to pay pal charges. For example ($5 donation would only show up as $4.50 because the 2.9% and .30 cent will be taken by paypal). This is not a significant difference, I only mention it so you are aware when you see it on the chip-in). The chip-in button is also used for people to pay for fundraisers (please contact me for approval of this before doing so regarding fundraisers).
(4.)  PURCHASE FROM A FUNDRAISER! We have a few different fundraisers going on. Some that will have end but revolving dates and some that will just be short fundraisers. Any fundraiser that we are doing will have a link on the right side of my blog to take you to it.  Please read any and all instructions for fundraisers before purchasing.  If you are ever unsure of how to proceed please contact me.
(5.)  HELP US FUNDRAISE! We have a few different people that have come together to help us fundraise. You can help to sell products of fundraisers that we have going either online or with brochures. You can come up with your own fundraiser to help (please seek approval first). You can donate items for auctions, giveaways, etc. You can be crafty in donate some of your crafts for bidding or giveaways. If you have a business or know someone who has a business that could help by donating a product to auction or giveaway or giftcards, that would be helpful. You can have a yard sale for Ava. You can have a bake sale. You can blog, yep that’s right, start your own blog to support our efforts to bring home Ava. You will be surprised at how much this will help and how many people will respond, plus its FUN. You could do this primarily for purposes of advocating for Ava or have your own family blog and post some about Ava on it, or place her button on your blog.
(6.)  SPREAD THE WORD! Yes friends, spreading the word does wonders!!! Tell your family, friends, church members, pastors, co-workers, employers, etc about this. Spread the word on facebook and twitter. Spread the word on your blog or create a blog. You never know who might be reading what you are writing and be inspired to help.

As you can see there are many many ways to help. There is something for everybody to do so please don’t move on past this post with emailing, commenting, or messaging me asking how you can help! Remember, my email is jsgamiddleton@gmail.com Thank you all!

~Sylvia~
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