Our Road to You

Dear Victoria,

We are still waiting to get our background check back from the government inorder to finish our home study. We were hoping that it wouldn't take too long, but have been told they can take up to 30 days. So here's to hoping that it comes this week so we can get the ball rolling.

I want to share with you in a little more detail how we learned about Reece's Rainbow and the situation many children like you are faced with.

While your little sister Kaelyn was in the NICU we started a blog to keep family and friends updated on how she was doing. Shortly after, we were introduced to the "blog-world of children with Down syndrome". We met many families through blogs both here in our community, across the United States and even in other countries that were just like us. They too were blessed to have a child with Down syndrome. Many of them also faced serious medical circumstances like Kaelyn when they were born. We have all kept track of one another on our journey's and are blessed to be lifted and taught by each other. Early on, we had a mother of twin girls, one with Ds and one without leave a comment on our blog. She is also a NICU nurse and so she was extra interested in Kaelyn's story. She even wrote this really nice post about our family. They were the first ones to introduce us to Reece's Rainbow. They were trying to adopt a little girl from your country and so we followed along and learned about the need for families from the U.S. to adopt the children with Ds in your country, because quite literally they do not have a chance of being adopted in their country. Sadly, things did not work out and they were not able to adopt the little girl they fell in love with. It breaks my heart to think about the pain they endured not being about to bring her home. I know that there is always a possibility of something like this happening to us, and it does make it hard to put our whole heart into this, but I just remember that we are all in the Lord's hands. He has a plan and we will do EVERYTHING in our power to bring you home to our family, while trusting that God is at the helm. Though their story did not end how they had hoped, their journey opened the eyes of many to Reece's Rainbow, and planted a seed in my heart that we would one day adopt a child through RR.

Then there is our dear friend Stephanie, Emmie's mommy. Stephanie has been apart of our journey from the VERY beginning. She left us some very beautiful and inspiring comments starting even before Kaelyn was born. Her little girl Emilia is so cute!! Seeing her beautiful pictures and hearing her story brought peace into our hearts that having a child with Down syndrome really would be a blessing in our lives. Nothing to be afraid of, but something to be grateful for. Stephanie has spent A LOT of time and energy in the past few years advocating for the children on Reece's Rainbow and doing everything in her power to help these children find their families. A week hasn't gone by in the last while that she hasn't written a post about these children that just kept watering the seed in my heart. Her posts truly were constant reminders to me that we would do it someday, rescue one of those children that so desperately needs a family. Thank you Stephanie for never giving up, for continuing to advocate for these precious children.

Next in line is our buddy Jaxon and his amazing mommy Lacey. We were lucky enough to have them live minutes away from us for the past 2 1/2 years, but now they are in California where Jaxon is doing much better at the lower altitude. (I'm sure the sunshine and Disneyland don't hurt either) In 2010 they adopted Jaxon's beautiful little sister Arina from the Ukraine, and we were so blessed to follow their journey here. It has been so amazing to see the transformation that has taken place in this sweet little girl. Every time I read a post about her and see pictures of her I can't help think about the life that she has been rescued from and how lucky her and her family are to have each other. My favorite is when I see her playing with and loving on her big brother Jaxon.

And just in the past months as I watched and read the journey of the Cox family to Mia Kareen, thats when it happened. That's when I knew it was time to come for you. Its amazing to look back on the last couple years and see what Heavenly Father was putting together, without us really even knowing it. I am so grateful to be on this journey to you and of course its not happening quickly enough. I have to keep reminding myself that it has barely been a month since we started the homestudy, it feels like it is taking forever. Not a day goes by that I don't think about you and wonder what I can be doing right now to get to you and to be more prepared for bringing you home. I pray that you are being well taken care of and that angels are watching over you until we can scoop you up and bring you home.

Love Mommy