Reece's Rainbow: Ways to Help

"I’ve said it before and I will say it again: this is not an issue just for adoptive families to take up. I met a gal this weekend who told me she was interested in advocating for orphans, but she felt she couldn’t because she hadn’t adopted herself. If there is one message I wish I could impart to everyone who reads here, it’s this: kids without family need advocates. ALL OF US should be advocating for them. Yes, even you." --Kristen Howerton

To the broke college students, broke college graduates, busy working parents, young teens without a driver's license, people paying off loans, and people who otherwise have very little time and money: 

I have good news for you.  Thanks to the internet, its now very easy to find some way, any way, to help orphans.  I've put some of those ways together in a list.  All of these ways involve Reece's Rainbow, but you can apply most of them to any organization that helps orphans.  



1) Donate to a waiting child or family.  Even $5 here and there can help.  It doesn't have to be much. 
2) Become a Prayer Warrior.  It's as easy as sending an email.  You simply commit to praying for a specific child every day until he or she comes home. 
3) Become a Guardian Angel.  It's like a prayer warrior but with the added commitment of fundraising and raising awareness.  It's basically what I'm doing with this blog.  If I can do it, anybody can.  
4) Use facebook and twitter.  Find a waiting child's profile, copy and paste the url into a facebook status, and you've officially found the easiest way in the world to raise awareness.  
5) Blog about different kids. 
6) Get some awareness materials. 
7) Do your searches through goodsearch.com.  Select Reece's Rainbow as your charity. 


And there you go.  Let me know if you come up with anything that I haven't mentioned.  Now let's get to helping children! 

Reece's Rainbow: Why I Love It

1) Because I'm a Christian who knows that God says over and over again  that His people should take care of orphans.  Reece's Rainbow is doing just that.

2) Because you don't have to be an adoptive parent to help.

3) Because you don't have to have any money to help.

4) Because you don't have to have a lot of spare time to help.

5) Because you don't have to have any extra resources to help.

6) Because you're never too young or too old to help. (Seeing a pattern here?)

7) Because it brings adoption grants both to families in process and to waiting orphans without committed families.  Several organizations exist that do one or the other, and and most of them are fantastic organizations, but I love that Reece's Rainbow accomplishes both.

8) Because it brings awareness to kids who have a smaller chance of getting adopted than the tiny babies with no special needs.

These girls are still waiting for a forever family...

....as are Ginger and Jamie, today's Teamwork Tuesday kids. 

9) Because the Reece's Rainbow community is full of wonderful people.  From the experienced adoptive parents to the teenaged advocates, everyone has a common goal.

12) Because it's about finding families for children, not finding children for families.

11) Because its one of the fastest and easiest ways to turn empathy into action.

Reece's Rainbow: Answering Some Questions

Reece's Rainbow has already answered quite a few of these questions on this page.  But I added some questions.  And some sarcasm.

Is Reece's Rainbow an adoption agency? 
No.  Reece's Rainbow is a nonprofit organization meant to raise awareness and money (as adoption grants) for waiting orphans around the world.  Adoptive parents may commit to adopting a Reece's Rainbow child and use Reece's Rainbow to fundraise for their adoption.  Reece's Rainbow may offer suggestions of good adoption agencies to use if you want a suggestion.  Or you're welcome to find your own agency.
*It is up to your adoption agency, homestudy worker, etc. to determine whether or not you meet a country's adoption requirements.*

When do parents get the adoption grant funds?
After they receive a travel date from the country they plan to adopt from.  This way the funds aren't wasted should an adoption fall through.

Are my donations tax deductible? 
Yeah they are!  You'll get a statement at the end of the year.

Can I donate if I don't use paypal? 
You can send checks to the address on the website.  Leave a memo if you want to donate to a specific child.

A kid had money his fund.  Now the family that committed to him doesn't have anything in their grant.  Where'd the money go? 
It's still there.  The money donated to the child and the money donated to the family are held in two separate funds.  If you do a search for the child you can still see his or her grant money.  As soon as the family gets an official travel date they'll receive the money from both funds for the child's adoption.

Why does adoption cost so much money?  Isn't that like buying a kid?
Nope.  Some people have it in their heads that adoptive parents just hand $30,000 over in exchange for a kid.  That's not the way it works.  You pay for homestudy fees, agency fees, paperwork, expediting paperwork (if you're adopting a child who's about to turn sixteen or is otherwise running out of time), medical exams, plane tickets, court fees, paying your facilitator and translator, travel within the country...and that list just keeps going.  Here's an example of the cost breakdown of adoption.

I'm a grumpy self-righteous rich person.  As such, I believe that if somebody can't afford to adopt without fundraising, they probably can't afford to raise a kid for eighteen years and therefore don't deserve any of my hard earned money.  Before I go back to muttering racist comments and yelling at the people who mow my lawn, do you think you can change my mind?
Eh, probably not.  But I can tell you that needing upwards of $50,000 in a very short amount of time just happens to be entirely different from being able to handle the long-term costs of raising a child over many years.  See above.

I'm still a grumpy self-righteous rich person.  I think it's stupid to adopt internationally when there are kids in America who need homes.  I say this in spite of the fact that I've never even thought about adopting an American kid.  Before I go to my very important Homeowner's Association meeting, can you change my mind? 
Again, I doubt it.  But I can tell you that all orphans matter, not just the American ones.  I can also direct you to this post.  And then I can tell you that I have very little patience for you, that if you're not doing anything to solve the problem you should quit trying to hinder those who are actually doing something, and that you should probably shut up and get out of my way.

Reece's Rainbow: What It Is

I've explained, at least in part, what Reece's Rainbow is on a few previous posts, but I thought it might be nice to give a full explanation of what exactly Reece's Rainbow is and what it does.  So here's my post explaining a bit of my favorite organization.

How It All Started 

Andrea Roberts' son Reece was born with Down Syndrome.  As she started researching Down Syndrome, Andrea learned that thousands of children with Down Syndrome all over the world are given up to orphanages.  Even worse, if they are not adopted into other families, children as young as four years old are sent away to adult mental institutions, places full of abuse, neglect, and starvation.  Often the inmates of these institutions are hidden away so that mainstream society doesn't have to deal with them.

Now, obviously we must do everything we can to provide the education and resources that will allow the world to see that individuals with special needs can (and do) function quite well within "normal" society.  In the meantime, though, there are at the very least 143 million orphans worldwide, and somebody has to take care of those kids now.  Instituions are no place for children.

And the odds don't look very good.  Most people who set out to adopt want to bring home a healthy infant, not a school-aged child with special needs.  As a result, so many kids wait until they day when they are either locked away forever or kicked out of the orphanage because they got too old to be adopted legally.

The Biggest Problems 

There are many issues that stack the odds against these orphans, but the two biggest ones are:

1) Lack of awareness.  You can't help a child if you don't know of his existence.

2) Lack of money.  A lot of families would love to adopt but don't have the $25,000 to $50,000 in agency fees, travel fees, homestudy fees, etc.

The Solution: Part One 

Reece's Rainbow's website  (named after Andrea's son) has a photolisting of different children from all over the world with special needs.  Though this organization started as a way to help orphans with Down Syndrome, it has since expanded to help children with other special needs such as HIV, Cerebral Palsy, and many others.  Being listed on Reece's Rainbow gives a child a better chance of being seen by potential adoptive parents, thus increasing that child's chances of getting adopted.  

Furthermore, most children have a "donate" button next to their profiles.  People can donate money to a child's adoption grant.  All of this money will go toward the various fees that come with adoption.  These funds, combined with increased awareness, encourage parents who want to adopt but don't think they could afford the travel and other expenses.  A full adoption grant could be just what a parent needs to take that leap of faith and say yes to adoption.  

The Solution: Part Two 

Reece's Rainbow doesn't stop at raising funds for waiting children, though.  Parents who adopt through Reece's Rainbow have the option of setting up a Family Sponsorship Page.  Donors can give money to families that have already committed to a specific child.  

Since its beginning, Reece's Rainbow has helped more than 9000 children go from orphanages and institutions to loving homes and families.  Please feel free to explore the website for some easy ways to help even more deserving children come home.  

Their Turn

This month our Teamwork Tuesday posts are dedicated to siblings, and today just happens to be "my" girls' day.

          

So please, please feel free to join in the advocating for these wonderful sisters.  Remember that Karen and Chrystyna  absolutely must be adopted together if Karen is going to get adopted at all. You don't have to be a Teamwork Tuesday blogger to help raise a bit of awareness.  Hey, feel free to use this post if you want to.  Use copy and paste, I don't care.  Or just share on facebook.  It doesn't matter.  The point is to get these lovely faces out there to increase their chances of a forever family seeing them.  

And speaking of orphans who are about the age out...

Do you remember Casey?  

He's the size of a three-year-old, but in reality he's fifteen.  In fact, he's about to turn sixteen.  This boy has less than one month before his chances of adoption are gone.  He will live in a mental institution for the rest of his life, never having the chance to grow beyond the size of a toddler, play outside, or know the arms of loving parents.  

All three of the kids that I've just written about desperately need your help.  So please pray, donate, pray, share, pray, advocate and pray some more.  

Please do something to help get these kids home.  

They deserve it.  They've waited too long for it.  Lets help them get the love and acceptance they need. 

Autism Awareness

I am a Teamwork Tuesday slacker.  But I'm back.  And I want to introduce you to Hayden.  

This beautiful boy has autism.  

He needs a patient family who will love him dearly and be his advocate.  

Could you be his mama?  Or his papa?  Or his advocate until the day that his parents find him?  Click the link above for more information.  Let's try to get this sweet boy home.  

Twenty-Two Days

Click here to meet Joseph.   Joseph is an orphan in Eastern Europe.  He wants a family.  The problem is that he's fifteen years old.  He turns sixteen on April 25th.  That gives him just twenty two days to find a family.  Twenty-two days for somebody to finish the USCIS paperwork.  He doesn't have a donate button, so we can't help him out that way.  What we can do, though, is pray and share.  Seriously, please do a liberal amount of both.  Pray as often as you can, and plaster this kid's profile all over facebook, twitter, your blog, and whatever other form of social networking you happen to use.  Let's hope that his future family sees him quickly.