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We are home with Amos, Daisy, Lee and Violet! Meanwhile we have jumped in again for one last very special girl. If you would like to help with that, you can make a non-tax-deductible donation HERE that we can access immediately. You can also make a tax-deductible donation HERE that we can use once we receive travel dates. Or by donating HERE you can help provide her and other children at her orphanage the care and nutrition they desperately need. See all of our current fundraisers HERE. We are thankful for any support you can offer!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Are You Scared to Go? How is Fundraising?

We have been getting the same two questions - a lot.

I am going to start with the thing we are getting the most questions about. With the current events in Eastern Europe do we still plan to travel? YES. We would walk through fire to get to these boys, although we don't think it will come to that. I don't want to minimize the effects these events will have on the future of the country. I also don't want to minimize the things that different people are seeing. Families who are there now are experiencing different things, but mostly just temporary inconveniences.

If we were to get a phone call saying to catch a flight tomorrow, we would do it. First you would need to revive me though because we aren't even packed yet! We aren't expecting any long term shut downs at present. These boys have been waiting long enough. We won't make them wait any longer.



Now on to the next most frequently asked question - how is fundraising going?

We have met our $1000 matching grant! Many thanks to the generous donor and everyone who helped us meet it! After we receive the match, we will need about $2500 to be funded for our second child, Orion!  We are really hopeful that our auction will be able to meet that need.



So let's talk about THE AUCTION! I have a bunch more items that will be added for week 2, but there are some things we are SUPER excited about. Two of them are already listed - autographed guitars signed by Disturbed and Flogging Molly! We don't have time to get them authenticated (or even stop to breathe) with everything we are doing to finish our fundraising and get ready to travel, but my husband is the original owner for both.


 
And, does everyone remember our vacation giveaways and auction? Well now we will be auctioning TWO timeshares. The whole thing, not just a single stay! They are at the same resort and the same type of room that we did for our other fundraisers. Right near Disney in Florida, 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom suite with a full kitchen, dining and living room. If you are interested in bidding on either of these, I do ask that you contact me ahead of time so that we can discuss all the details and the closing process. You may also bid privately if you don't want to post a bid on Facebook. Here are the basics. Timeshare 1 is for odd years, the 8th week of the year. In 2015 the dates will be 2/21-2/28. Timeshare 2 is for even years, the 6th week of the year. In 2016 the dates will be 2/6-2/13. For both of these, you can also choose to use a smaller room every year.



Our most recent Superman shirt order will go out in tomorrow's mail. I have a listing HERE of what we have in stock ready to ship for any interested buyers. We have plenty of shirts on hand in red, sapphire, and royal blue if you missed our open ordering period. I can collect special orders for another batch, but we won't be placing that order until we have sold most of what we have now.



We have been so busy, busy, busy between fundraising and getting the house ready, but I will keep everyone updated on our progress!

Monday, February 17, 2014

The Auction Is Up!

First up: fundraising! Thank you to everyone who has been helping us meet our $1000 matching grant! We are almost half-way there. It's amazing!


Orion says it is amazing too! 

Our auction has kicked off! I will still be posting more items and we are still accepting donations. Right now we have a lot of books and holiday items posted.  My husband is even parting with his extensive Star Wars collection that he accumulated over many, many years. If you know my husband that will tell you how much he wants to go get these boys! Come see what we have and make sure you LIKE the page so you can see when new items are added!

Auction Page

Our family warrior has been working hard to help us too! She is almost sold out of hard candy right now. Check out the Reece's Rainbow group to see if there is any left!



Theo says candy is pretty sweet!

Now, what are we working on at home? We are getting all of our things ready for travel.  It turns out there aren't a lot of people submitted before us, so we anticipate traveling within 2 months.  That's a pretty quick timeline since we aren't being expedited.  Only certain diagnoses are eligible and we don't know for sure if these boys have the medical codes they require. It's just as well, because I would panic if we needed to travel any sooner!

We are also getting the house set up for the boys. I decided we needed a few more stock pots since teenage boys can eat a lot.  These were only $35 for a set of 3, so we picked them. I've been using them all week and I really like them so far.

Excelsteel Set Of 3 Stainless Steel Stockpot With Lids


We cook a lot of less expensive, healthy, whole foods but I'm still expecting shock at our first grocery bills. We will also be trying out a lot of new recipes! My husband is quite the chef and I am sure he will be taking notes on all the food the boys are used to. 

We know a lot about where Theo and Orion are and we have an idea of what kinds of food they are used to.  Sadly, we don't know as much about where Barton is.  He is in a different region than the other boys and he has been transferred to a new institution at least a year ago. We hope he is getting nutritious food and enough of it.  We hope he has gentle caregivers who give him a chance to learn new things.

It will be such a relief to have all of them here, as much as it will pain us to know there are so many others who will be left behind. We are trying to take comfort in the hope that our adoption from Barton's new institution may open doors for many other children to be listed and adopted. We are also hoping that more people will adopt from Theo and Orion's institution, especially because most of the children there are older and will age out within a few years. I would be more than happy to keep an eye out for any children we might see and let people know how they are doing!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Matching Grant!

I just found out we have a $1000 MATCHING GRANT! When our FSP reads $3243.53 we will have met the grant. Go HERE if you would like to donate!


I am in awe.  This is HUGE for us. We were just submitted on the 13th, but there are only a couple families ahead of us waiting for dates. We may end up needing to travel sooner than expected. This is amazing. Thank you SO MUCH, both to the person offering the grant and everyone helping us meet it.


I've always said we are coming as fast as we can! Now that I see how quickly things are moving, I can barely believe it. We are coming so soon boys!


My Heart is Overflowing

Where to even begin?

Our papers are officially submitted! We won't know travel dates for a little while, but we can estimate mid-April to May.

I am overwhelmed with the outpouring of love I have seen as people discover that Barton has a family coming. Thank you, every one of you. So many people have been holding him in their hearts.



We have had people ask us how much more money we will need.  We are guessing that we will need $12,000 more after taking his grant into account. We still need about $5000 for adding Orion as well. Our FSP will need to read $18,887.

If you would like to help, we have a full list of our current fundraisers HERE.  Read about our Superman shirts HERE - TODAY is the last day for this order!  We are also accepting donations for an auction beginning Monday - see that HERE!


Our expenses for Theo are now fully covered! I promised we would share a video of him when that happened. I am so excited to show everyone the awesome music this sweet boy makes.



We have made no secret of our focus on older children who have waited without families for so long. Salome is one of those children.  Her 16th birthday will be March 13th.  A family needs to send in their i600a form and fees before that date.  Getting our form in BEFORE Barton's birthday is the reason we are able to adopt him. If you looked at her even once and wondered if you might be her mama, PLEASE send your form in.  


I don't want her to wait for months after her birthday, left in limbo, waiting to see if a family will commit.  I want a family to step forward for her NOW.  Have you seen her grant?! More importantly, have you seen her? She deserves a chance to be a treasured daughter. She has such a strong, gentle spirit to survive the life she has lived and still melt into giggles over attention.


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There is a boy who has already turned 16 that lives with two of our boys.  He has a family coming! They are traveling very soon. Read more about them and consider helping get him home. They have a few fundraisers listed on their blog. They need their FSP to read $9995. 




Simon

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I am still offering two gift cards for an equal donation to the Stolz family, adopting Andrei! You can have a $50 gift card to Montgomery Inn or a $25 card for Honey Baked Ham if you make an equal donation to their account.  Contact me if you donate so I can send you your card! The boy they are adopting used to live at the same place as Theo and Orion.  He aged out during the fall.



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The Jenks family has a matching grant right now.  Their FSP needs to read $8420 to meet it! They are adopting two older girls who have been waiting for a very long time.



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The Smith family is adopting Sutter, an aging out teen. Please consider supporting them!


Sutter

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Exciting News - Part 3!

Have you guessed the news yet? Here you go! Barton, who turned 16 way back in December, will have a home! He will NOT be left behind.

barton-1




We are making a leap of faith for an incredible young man. We are so excited for his future here!

He is in a different region than our other two boys, so we will need to raise an additional $12,000. The village helped find him a home so I know we can all work together to get him home! PLEASE share our fundraisers and consider donating to our auction!

New Announcement - Coming Soon!

We have an announcement coming soon! We can't wait to share it with everyone. You can start guessing now but you will need to check back to find out what it is!

I am happy to say that Salome met her $1500 matching grant! Her grant will be almost $11,000! If you are thinking about adopting her but aren't sure, PLEASE send in your i600a now so that it arrives before her birthday on March 13th.

Watch her NEW video! 2 minutes isn't too much to give. If you feel moved, share it!


We are really hoping that our papers will be submitted tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed for us! After that it is usually 2-3 months to travel.

Our $50 donation match is still going on. We have received $20 toward it, so only $30 to go! We need less than $200 to completely cover the costs for Theo's adoption. That is amazing! We will be sharing a video of Theo making music to celebrate when we have funded his portion of the adoption expenses.



We have quite a bit of fundraising that we need to do. Our next Superman shirt order will be submitted on Friday, February 14th. Get your orders in now if you are interested!

Superman Shirt Page



We are also selling handmade wooden knitting needles if you or someone you know would like a set. I can customize the length and I have a variety of colors for beads on the single points.




If you have made a donation in payment for one of our fundraisers, please make sure you forward your receipts and order information to kayleighbloom@gmail.com so I can send you your items!

Our auction is starting next week! I still need to sort and photograph a lot of items. Donations are also welcome if anyone has something they would like to offer. I would really like to raise half of the cost to add Orion to our adoption. Do you think we can raise $2500? It is a high goal, but I think we have a shot if we get more donations and have lots of people sharing the auction.

Empty the Shed Auction Page



If you are local to us you can also take part in our shoe drive. We are collecting gently used shoes as another fundraiser. Other people can use the same program to collect for their own families or sponsored children, so let me know if you are interested in taking part!

Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping us! You have been a huge part of the process for us!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Help People See Salome

The new video for Salome is finished! I am excited that this will give us a way to introduce her to even more people.  Please watch it and share it with your friends.





She also has a $1500 matching grant until Valentine's Day. Her grant will be over $10,000 when that has been met, almost half the cost for her adoption! It would cover the cost to add her to an adoption from the same orphanage or region, and most of the cost if you are adopting from another region.

http://reecesrainbow.org/59327/salome

Can you help her find her family? Is it yours?

Friday, February 7, 2014

Latest Update!

I will start with some exciting news! We have a $50 matching grant! The next $50 we receive in donations will be doubled!

We are almost submitted. We hoped yesterday would be the day, but now we are hoping for Thursday the 13th.  We haven't gotten back official information about either of the boys yet.  We are hoping to hear about Theo soon, but Orion's papers were only turned in this week so we won't have his results until around the same time we get our travel dates. There *shouldn't* be any problems, but it would be good to know that the official paperwork says it too!


Speaking of traveling - we still have no idea when we will travel. (Sorry about that!) We can guess it will be 8 to 12 weeks from now. Some people travel in as little as 4 or 5 weeks, but we can't submit our dossier for the faster process because we don't know for sure if our boys qualify.



When our FSP reads $1887 we will be fully-funded for Theo's adoption costs. I have an awesome video of him playing a xylophone that I can't wait to share! At this moment we are at $1201.  We have a check for $527 that should be added any time now, which would bring us up to $1728.  We have a bunch of fundraisers that you can check out HERE! $159 and his costs will be covered so we can start working on Orion's!
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Here are some other fundraising needs:

Salome has a $1500 matching grant that ends on February 14th. Her grant needs to read $8711 for her to receive the match. Her total grant will be over $10,000 at that point!

Her birthday is March 13th so we really need to help her find a family. A family ONLY needs to mail in form i600a before her birthday. (Homestudy can be done later!) It takes a few days for paperwork to get through the internal mail system for USCIS, so it needs to happen in less than a month!  Please tell people about her. You never know who might be her mama.

http://reecesrainbow.org/59327/salome



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There is a t-shirt fundraiser for the Kunkle family, adopting Jenni.

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/just-for-jenni

http://reecesrainbow.org/69451/sponsorkunkle
  Just for Jenni        Jenni


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Sutter's family could use some support!

http://reecesrainbow.org/69643/sponsorsutter
Sutter

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The auction for the Novit family ends TODAY! Check it out!

http://treasuresinhiddenplaces.blogspot.com/



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I am still offering two gift cards for an equal donation to the Stolz family, adopting Andrei! You can have a $50 gift card to Montgomery Inn or a $25 card for Honey Baked Ham if you make an equal donation to their account.  Contact me if you donate so I can send you your card! The boy they are adopting used to live at the same place as Theo and Orion.  He aged out during the fall.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/andrei-s-turn/93874





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The Jenks family has a matching grant right now.  They still need $993 to meet it! They are adopting two older girls who have been waiting for a very long time.

http://reecesrainbow.org/62945/sponsorjenks-2



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I am very happy to say that Casey and Iggy's family is now funded!

            

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Knitting Needles

We have another fundraising item! I am taking orders for handmade wooden knitting needles.



Our main diameters are approximately 4.7mm (7.5), 6.3mm (10), and 8mm (11).


I can make single or double pointed sets in any length. Single pointed sets start at $15 plus shipping. Double pointed sets with 5 needles start at $20 plus shipping. I can combine shipping for multiple orders.



These are our bead choices.  The clear beads are only available with the smallest needles.

Displaying image.jpeg


I have two color options for the wood in the 6.3mm and 8mm sizes. The darker wood is oak and adds $2 to each set.


You can send an email to kayleighbloom@gmail.com to place an order.

I will make larger gauge needles for novelty yarns soon too!