Sunday Spoptlight

It's always hard to post these pictures.
How to choose a handful of faces from a list that is constantly growing.
To be honest, I get overwhelmed and disappear for a bit to regroup, returning when time or a familiar face like Mandy and Victoria make their way over to the my family found me page.

So I'm back with a new little group to shout for this week and today's post will be different because each of these children are summed up by a single line. Please see them, see the potential behind the name and diagnosis and help get these kids seen and home!

Chelsea - born 2009, mild intellectual delays

Christina - born 2010, blind.

Harlowe- born 2008, Cerebral palsy, focal symptomatic epileptic syndrome, complex local convulsions; rough delay of psychological and speech development

MaryAnn- born 2008, Cerebral Palsy, hydrocephalus

Skyler - born 2003 - Cerebral Palsy, eligible for 10 000 older child grant

See past the line and shout for these kiddo's who deserve so much more.

I love you

Three little words.

They mean so many things to so many people.

Our oldest turns 3 in a week and a half.

This week he said I love you.

It's the second time he's said it to me.

It's funny the things that go through your mind when your child receives a diagnosis. What will this mean? How do I help my child? If your nerdy like me - Where's the nearest literature? The questions keep coming as you navigate  raising your child in a world that has charts, averages, and progression lines and your child's taken the box and is spinning in the kitchen with it on his head.

After awhile things start to even out. You learn terms like OT, PT, Speech path. You start your own experiential master class in sensory needs, therapy techniques, and how to feed a child who's brain literally makes most common food textures public enemy number 1.
You even start learning to ignore the stares and glares when your child melts down because the lights and to bright and the noise echoing hurts in the stores but you go because life goes on.

You find the joys as the grow, like any child, like every child, just on their own pace.

In our house:
We've cuddled over trains, laughed over tickles, and blown bubbles til our cheeks hurt.
We've painted pictures to give away because even in his own world he likes to share smiles and boy do his grandparents smile when they get a picture. We've bakes cupcakes because he loves to pour and sprinkle sprinkles. We snuggle every day and get lost in books because that's who our little guy is and so much more.

But there are still challenges and even though the big ones remain in varying forms, we're far enough in that new variations have come to light.

Like speaking.

Autism and speech delay seem to go hand in hand. A terrible twosome that helps keep kiddo's in their own world. Those first words come with such work and for some never come.

We took our techniques and lessons, our speech path and OT's, our self regulation and started small: bubbles, Dada, Mama.
Slowly jabbering came and turned into words.
We've moved to jabbering and small sentences. He just learned No :) For us each emphatic "No" is a slightly exasperating victory. We also have entered the realm of echolalia, a world that makes me wish all those autism books I uncovered months ago had a chapter on cryptography.

It's two steps forward and 1 step back (with a few spins, flips, and a little breakdance thrown in for good measure).

This week we snuggled and like every other day I told him I loved him and in his little voice he parroted right back.

Somedays you make your victories out of the scraps, others they're given to you on a silver platter if you have your eyes open to see them.

Sunday Spotlight

Another week has passed and that means it's time for some more faces.

It can be hard to choose so few when the number to draw from is so large. So many children and each needing and deserving their own home.

If you manage to stumble across this blog, I beg you take 5 minutes and look at these children, go to Reece's and look at the faces. If you want to see the power of sharing a single story I urge you to go and check out Micah 6:8's post from this week. The power of sharing and sacrificial love is amazing.

Now onto this week's faces.

First up is Penny

Penny will be 5 years old this year and look at this sweetheart! Penny has been diagnosed with CP and crossed eyes, but is also listed as being able to walk independently. Some therapy and a family would do this little girlie wonders.

Annie's a face that has become all too familiar on RR due to the amount of time she's been listed

Annie just celebrated her 10th birthday and was transferred to an institution over a year ago which coincides with her last update :(

She was noted as having delays at that time but also noted for being an affectionate girl who sought attention and had a willingness to learn. 

Merida

is another sweetheart who's been listed too long and dear to my heart as we featured her at our wedding (another sign of how long she's been listed.)
This little sweetie breaks my heart every time I check in on her. Her grant hasn't grown since July of 2012 and her profile hasn't been update since before that. If you only have time to share one this week, please, share this girlie for me.


Finally we have Tracy and Bart

These older siblings NEED to be adopted together.
Tracy is reported to be healthy and a top student in her class. Bart has a cleft lip (in the picture it appears corrected?) and like so many is reported to love soccer.
Siblings are so much harder to place and are even considered special placements in domestic adoptions due to the added difficulty. Do you know someone ready to take a leap for these two?

Sunday Spotlight

Another week has come and gone and I'm sleepy.

It's the time of year that brings a lot of illness which translates to late nights for moms, dads, and kiddos alike. The good thing is that everyone seems to be on the mend as I write this and lots of hugs and snuggles were doled out alongside good food and some good old cough syrup and vicks depending on the day and person who was down.

Everyone once in awhile it hits me that for each face on Reece's in a child who doesn't have someone to sit up with them until the wee hours of the morning when they're sick or scared. There just isn't the resources in some places despite the amount of care and in others there isn't even that. So we keep sharing, and shouting, and praying, and hoping that one day each of these precious kiddos will find a family.


First up is Mila

So young to be listed which is such a blessing. Mila has been diagnosed with Arthrogryposis a condition affecting the joints. Both A White River and Micah 6:8 talk about their amazing kiddos who live with this condition for those who are unfamiliar with it.

Next is Byron

Byron is a  sweet little guy who is facing transfer soon as his current facility is transitioning roles. This is sad as the staff sound very involved and pro-adoption where he was not to mention his home and friends. It would be wonderful for him to find a forever home.

Stacey

Look at the life in those eyes. Stacey has some delays but is also in a space where therapy is available and she is quite determined in her efforts. Stacey is reported to be a friendly little girl who loves playing with her friends.

Finally we have Sophia

Sophia goes to school and can communicate. However she does struggle with more in depth communicating. She is listed as having scoliosis and mental delay.

Waiting

Life in the first few months after a diagnosis with autism is like some weird race that isn't sure what it's doing.

When you're first starting out it can be fast or slow as you make appointments and chase down evaluations.

Then you wait.

Then there are more evaluations.

Then you wait.

Then maybe a diagnosis. Yay, things can happen now.

Like waiting or allowing time to pass before the next thing happens (a.k.a. more waiting).

You wait for phone calls, return calls, paperwork that makes you apologize to the trees and give thanks for computers.
 You get put on wait lists where people are apologetic for the 1-2 year wait while reasserting how important early intervention is.
You wait for the (seemingly crazy) lady on another line to stop telling you how it's impossible to have a diagnosis at 2 so that you can tell reaffirm your child's diagnosis well reminding them how nice it is that you can "start" on that early intervention.

You see more people  so you can wait some more.

I don't actually like waiting because what waiting doesn't show is the life that still has to happen while you and your family wait for the next appointment or the next strategy or the next idea that may or may not help. Yeah, that's the other thing sometimes after all that waiting the appointment doesn't actually offer any help and you wait for the next one.
It's hard because life already seems a bit like a one step forward, two steps back, three to the side, with a pirouette thrown in for a good measure.
Sometimes this process feels like it was designed by one of the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance (and believe me I am well aware of how uncoordinated I can be depending on the day).

Waiting is hard.

Sunday Spotlight

I've been meaning to write the last two Sundays but I've had the most wonderful problem. Every time I found a child to highlight they moved right on over to the My Family Found Me. So, here we go again (and cross our fingers this trend continues!)


First up is Victoria

Victoria appears to be a sweet young girl who has had adoption explained to her and would like a family. However, Victoria is getting close to aging out in her country (december 2016) and needs a family to step up soon. Her diagnosis affects her mobility and families should be open to a different diagnosis with further examinations. She loves to sing, draw, the colour pink, and cats (girl after my own heart here)

Next is Waniya, a face who's been on RR long enough to be familiar.

8 years old and a new picture with a beautiful smile and she's sitting up! Waniya has CP, vision issues, and mixed developmental disorders. She looks like a fun addition to the right family.

Last up is Nikkita

Nikkita just celebrated her birthday in January and has been waiting for a family a long time. She has CP and developmental delay including speech issues (speech paths are lovely people to work with though). Quiet, she loves playing with dolls and learning lots.

Each of these girls are unique and precious. All of them are looking for their families. If you have a minute please share these girls. Even if you aren't their family maybe your share could be the one that starts the ball so that next year their birthdays will be around family tables instead of another day of waiting.

Sometimes you're tired

I told my husband at Christmas time that I was done.

I was tired of cheering on orphans in the background and when I had time on here. I was tired of watching kids wait year after year. I was tired of watching kids move to "In Loving Memory". I was tired of watching the faces of little girls I would love to be a Mama too and can't. Sometimes the pain is too much and besides I'm only one little voice that's barely a whisper who will notice if I fade back into the vastness of the internet.

But the someone wrote this and then people on social media started sharing too,

Things like

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9

 And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 2 Thess, 3:13

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, unmovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that the work that you do for the Lord isn't wasted. 1 Cor 15:58

It was relentless, Eventually, even I can take a hint, so I stayed. I saw the faces, I prayed, we finished out Angel Tree but I refused to blog. I'm funny that way I can be so stubborn and refuse to do what I know I should. I know these kids need shared, I know these kids need loved and shouted for, prayed for and shared.

Writing scares me though. I'm an introvert and I'd rather have a root canal than face a barrage of conversations, writing is my strongest form of communication, it's a natural extension of myself. This means sometimes my heart slips through in ways I don't want to share because it's scary and vulnerable. So, when I'm low I avoid it or, at least, I avoid sharing lest pieces of my heart slip through into the scary world.

So why am I writing? My heart still aches for all the reasons it did when I said I was done. I still grieve the children I knew only through pictures who did not make it. I grieve the lost potential of the children who sit and wait.

But I know it is far better to be obedient and write even if it hurts because the pain of doing nothing in disobedience is far worse and the risk is worth it.

If a try and fail at least I've tried. If I try and reveal my heart even in brokenness it is a chance to grow. If I try and am not heard I may not yet know where this leads.

In the end I've tried and surely these kids are worth trying for.

Ginny

Tarsha

Merida

Tara

Kirk