$7500+

Hooray!  The grant in Oliver's account is now matched!  Feel free to continue adding if led!

And now the most important part ever... finding him a family.  He needs someone to hold him, love him, heal those poor wounds, and feed him a proper meal...

Please don't hesitate to show his precious face to anyone you think may have a place for him.  Below is a quote I found from another family.  They fell in love with a sweet 12 year old boy by just seeing him on someone else's blog and are in the process of fundraising to bring him home.

"You may be saying, “heck no, adoption is not for us, sayonara!” But this fight isn’t an all or nothing game.  There are many ways you can make a true difference, at varying commitment levels.  You can yell, really loud all over the internet, advocating for a particular waiting orphan you feel a connection with.  It works, it gets these kids noticed.  We are living proof of this – it’s how we learned of our son." - http://1000lovingjack.com/

So yelling and fussing and praying can work.  Even if it isn't Oliver, have you seen another child you've connected with?  Do you feel the need to do something about it?  Spread the word!

If any of our hollering has pushed Oliver to a new family, the reward of knowing we all were a small piece of his journey will be much greater than we'd expect.

New Picture of Oliver!

Isn't he beautiful?  Don't you wish you could just could scoop him up, smooch on those perfect cheeks and cuddle him tons?  I do.  Such a sweetheart.  I really hate to see those sores on his face though...  He desperately needs a momma.

RR still hasn't cashed that darn check yet.  Hopefully soon...

We did it!

YAY!  His grant has met the full match amount!  You all are AMAZING!  I can't even begin to say how thankful we are!!

Our matching $2000 check (to avoid paypal fees) will go out today and RR should be cashing it for Oliver next week.  Stay tuned!

http://reecesrainbow.org/32923/oliver

4 days to go

This is a reminder that there are only four days left to double your donation to Oliver.  At this time, he is only $518 away from receiving his full match.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying, spreading the word, and especially to the ones who are giving their own pennies away.  The greatest gift is giving something to someone who may never know who you are and will never have the ability to repay you.  It's amazing to see that much good in people.

The money given will go into Oliver's account and will stay until his future family starts the adoption, does their home study, gets approval, completes their dossier, and finally receives a committed travel date.  Only then will the money be released to Oliver's new family.

So if you were holding off on donating your dollar, then please consider that now is the time!  Any amount is perfect and appreciated.

Keep spreading the news

In case you are a new viewer and don't have a lot of time, make sure you read the post below called: Oliver.  He's most likely the reason why you clicked onto this page.

So far all of you and your friends have raised almost $900 for Oliver.  Incredible job.  We have a little over a week left and he still is lying in wait, so let's do our best to keep it going.

We'll try to keep you updated on his situation.  It is so good to see how passionate some of you are about this.  And please continue to share his story.  Until he's safe and home, I feel we're not off the hook.

Grateful

796 people have visited this blog since it was posted 3 days ago.  We are humbled and grateful for all our friends and complete strangers that have been donating and spreading the word about this little guy.  We pray it continues strong!

I was sent another link of a family who adopted a super cute boy from Oliver's orphanage (below).  It was heartbreaking to read.  We're so glad his family found him: http://www.allarepreciousinhissight.com/2012/01/day-14-livid.html

In (much!) greater news, we received a comment from a family currently visiting Oliver's orphanage.  They are adopting their own sweet girl and have said that Oliver was spotted outside!  And was held!  And he's beautiful.  I pray and hope this means his facility is taking greater strides to nurture these orphans.  It makes me slightly comforted that there may be at least a few nannies who care.

But Oliver still needs a home to be loved and safe everyday.  He is still very much at risk for being sent to an institution.  Carla (momma to Henry) has generously offered an incentive to anyone that donates $100 to Oliver's grant.  Her two girls will custom make them a beautiful beaded bracelet, with blown glass and semi-precious stones.  To take advantage of this wonderful offer, visit her link here:

http://bringinghenryhome.blogspot.com/2012/08/all-oliverall-time.html

Please continue to share Oliver's story, and thank you again for your contribution.  You all are truly helping this boy get adopted.

Oliver

Oliver is an adorable 5 year-old boy living in an Ukra*nian orphanage.  Just look at those lips!  He has lived his whole life confined to a crib and everyday he waits alone in this same position.  Soon Oliver will be sent to an institution where he'll most certainly be bedridden indefinitely.

Several familes have witnessed that this precious boy isn't held or shown affection.  The nannies who look after the children will lean over the crib railing to feed him a bottle so they won't have to hold him close.  I've heard that he doesn't get to play, or have a bath, or go outside, or even make noise.  And some parents believed the children are kept silent by fear of being hit or thrown so I can see why he'd be quiet.  One mother who saw Oliver said:

"This little boy is available for adoption on Reecesrainbow. He was in Victoria's room. He has a form of dwarfism. He was never let out of his crib. His postion was never changed. They kept him covered up with a blanket so no one would have to see him."
  

  

Covered up!  Because he has dwarfism?  I can't even stand it.  It's so heartbreaking and the more we read, the more we regretted.  But it ended up motivating us.

So Ronnie and I prayed for what we needed to do.  In the end it unfortunately looks like Oliver may not be meant for us, but we still couldn't let go of him.

As I mentioned below, we shortly came across Leila's site (who is helping us spread the word here!) and she gave us a brilliant idea.

From now until August 19th, we are fully committed to match any donations to Oliver's Reece's fund, dollar for dollar, up to $2000.  This way your $10 will become $20, your $100 will turn into $200, and so on.

How fantastic would it be to help make adopting this boy a little easier?  Some families adopting special needs children may eventually receive a partial tax refund, but bringing home one of these cuties can cost around $26,000 - $30,000 upfront.  Reece's Rainbow is a 501(c)3 non profit charity (tax ID# 20-5466141) so your donations are tax deductible and it could very well be the push his forever family needs to go out there and get him!

If you happen to be in the position where you are unable to donate money, please share this information with anyone you can.  Your sharing just might be the ticket for a brand new family to see him and fall in love.

It says on Oliver's Profile that he has Achondroplasia, though a few of us believe this was mistaken for Diastrophic Dysplasia. Many of our wonderful friends have this type of dwarfism and are out there walking, dancing, and getting crazy!  Oliver could have had so much potential if this place gave him a little therapy - and we still believe he has so much more. He truly deserves a life, cuddles, and tons of love.
 

  

More information about the conditions of Oliver's orphanage can be found on the blogs below. These amazing families are doing some great things!:
  
   

http://adozenreasonsandmore.blogspot.com/2012/07/family-can-make-difference.html

http://wronginalltherightways-travcat.blogspot.com/2012/07/9192-hours-of-hope.html

 

Thank you so much for reading this, and please donate here if you can (our goal is to reach $5546.80 in two weeks!), and/or share, and pray for these kids!

      

How it started.

In a nutshell, I have dwarfism.  My family doesn't and my husband's family doesn't, but he and our son also have it.  Our type is called Achondroplasia which means the bones in our arms and legs are short, we need step-stools (or a talent for climbing) to reach things, and will have a few people stare at us for the rest of our lives.  It really isn't that big of a deal.

In the midst of raising our 1 year old, Ronnie and I stumbled across the world of much needed adoption advocacy - little person adoptions, specifically.  We had tossed around the idea of adopting before since I had severe hyperemesis my entire pregnancy, and would frequently look at the adorable faces on the LPA Adoptions page and others - even though we knew we weren't in the position to adopt anytime soon.  We would feel so sad to see some of the same children who hadn't found their family yet and would usually pray for them and go on with our day.

Then a few months ago, a wonderful lady wrote me.  She had adopted a beautiful boy internationally who had Achondroplasia and left me the link to her blog to look at.  This little boy was so easy to fall for!  He was thriving and smiling and fitting into the family perfectly.  Reading further, we became horrified by the conditions some of these international orphanages were in and neglect some of these kids would go through.  We were so ignorant.  I couldn't believe the way the nannies would treat the children they were supposed to protect.

More research led us to Oliver.



And that was it.  We fell in love with him and were hooked.  We've seen his photo before but never knew his story, and after a lot of prayer we felt led to do something.  If we couldn't take him, we needed to help whatever family could.

This is when I truly believe the Lord led us to Leila's blog.  She had previously been advocating so hard for Oliver and did a matching grant to get his adoption funds from $13 to over $3000!  What heart!  Genius!  This is what we would do.  A matching grant.  A matching grant to kick-start his funds again and draw more interest in his adoption.  And that's how it started.