Solomon Is Aging Out!

Aging out is when a child becomes legally unadoptable due to their age and the laws of either the child's country or the country of the adoptive parents. Today's child is in the same country our family has adopted from. They require married couples with at least one parent more than 15 years older than the child. You need to send in immigration paperwork and fees before this child turns 16. The rest of the adoption process can begin after that, if necessary. If you have any questions about this process, today's child, other aging out children, or how to adopt children with special needs internationally, email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information. See other aging out children who have been shared recently HERE. All of the aging out kids I post here have at least a $10,000 grant to assist with adoption expenses. Some have even larger grants! Please share all of these kids to help them find families! It helps!

Those older child grants are pretty amazing. The funds were pooled for the older children to allow the grant money to help any older child with special needs listed on Reece's Rainbow have available funding. It is already harder to find families for older kids, and having funds available to help families who feel prepared to adopt these kids is a huge help! Right now there are 15 remaining older child grants for children with special needs other than Down syndrome. If you would like to donate to that older child grant fund you can click on the donate button on their page HERE. There are also 50 remaining older child grants for children with Down syndrome. You can donate to that fund by clicking on the donate button on their page HERE.

Solomon is the first child this week. I will be writing a more detailed update about Vance later this week after my husband has seen and spent time with him.


Solomon http://reecesrainbow.org/59316/solomon-2 needs paperwork and fees sent in by March 2017

This is a recent photo. Solomon is walking and holding someone's hand.

Solomon also used to live at the same institution as some of my boys. He was moved with other boys in 2013 to the facility where he is now. They are also a more closed facility where it is difficult to get updated photos and videos of the children.

Solomon is a quiet boy. He seems sad and scared a lot of the time. His life is probably scary for him. He has been seen with bruising in the past. He usually sits and rocks by himself. He loves to have his head gently rubbed. It makes him smile. Gentle touch like that is rare in his typical day.

A family was recently adopting from Solomon's orphanage. They saw him while they were there. They were surprised to hear how old he is. They said he looks like he is only 6 years old. But he isn't 6. He will actually be 16 in March 2017.

He is a very tiny boy. In his older photos he was even smaller and thinner. There are a lot of reasons why children don't grow while they are living in orphanages. Sometimes there are medical conditions. More often it is lack of nutrition. Usually the budget for food is provided by the state, but it assumes each child will need the same amount of food. Food offered is typically what is available and easy to prepare in large quantities and inexpensive. At one point these kids were being fed semolina porridge exclusively. A lot of the kids were having trouble digesting it due to previous malnutrition. It also clearly isn't a balanced diet. But it is what the orphanage can afford to provide. The amount of food allocated by the state also doesn't take into account that kids with special needs might need more calories. Everyone gets what it is allotted in most places, and that is it.

Lack of human contact and interaction can also keep kids from growing. It is called psychosocial short stature or psychosocial dwarfism. It can occur in kids who are in stressful environments without loving care. Even when appropriate food IS provided, these kids can't grow because of hormone levels and stress responses.

This is an older photo when Solomon was even smaller.

I don't know why Solomon is so small, but his size for his age is not unusual for children with special needs in institutional care.

Solomon has cerebral palsy. From what I have heard and what his profile says, he was born without special needs, but was very ill as a small child. The illness caused the cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Sadly I assume that means he lived with his family before he got sick, but was not able to return home afterward. Solomon needs a family who will take him home and love him even if he isn't the same child he was before that illness.

Solomon's orphanage is pro-adoption even though they are closed to charities and visitors. A few families have adopted there over the last few years. There are many available kids who could be adopted at the same time. Many of them are also older and close to aging out. Some are younger and were recently transferred from the baby house. Mario, Morris, Elijah, Jason, Jonathon, Fabio, Athens,  Wylie, and Vijay are all there. There are other adoptable kids not listed on Reece's Rainbow also.  

Solomon is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant to assist with adoption expenses. You can view his profile HERE or email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information.

Meeting Lee and Violet

EDIT: PHOTOS ADDED AFTER COURT

My husband has selected files, visited, and accepted referrals for our two children in the first orphanage. They are absolutely perfect.

He was able to visit Lee first. His condition is about the same as in the recent photos we had seen. He now cries softly anytime he is touched, another new development from a couple years ago.

He is never out of his crib, so being placed laying down in a stroller and wheeled out into the main room took him a little time to recover from. He did give one smile, when my husband kissed his forehead. He grabbed my husband's finger tightly in his hand.

Medically we are waiting to get more information. We are cautiously optimistic about what we have heard so far, but we don't know much until he has seen doctors here.

Then my husband met Violet. She is amazing. She is absolutely incredible. She is sweet and gentle. She is breathtakingly beautiful. She was so happy to meet her new papa, even though she called him mama the whole time. (Heehee.)

They looked through the photo book together. He brought a Masha doll that plays music, and she had a great time playing with that. They did a puzzle together and played games on a tablet he brought.

We are both so surprised that she waited for so long. And we cannot wait to get both her and Lee home! Documents for this orphanage have all been notarized, so now we are just waiting to get a court date for these two.

I will be updating these posts with photos after we pass court. I cannot wait to share them with you all! 

PHOTOS ADDED!

It Is Travel Time!

Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point! I have been in awe over the last couple weeks at the way everything has come together. Thank you. It has been amazing. We are getting ready to do some incredible, super fun, super hard work. You have all helped us to be able to do it. You have given these kids a chance for a new life. You have given us the chance to love them. Thank you!

My husband is now officially on his way to meet the kids! We are all so, so excited. This will be his first trip to get referrals and meet all of the children. He will be coming home after that until court. It should be a whirlwind to travel back and forth all over the country and head back home as quickly as possible.

Side note: Yes, my husband is traveling alone for most of this adoption. This isn't something every family can do for this country, but some families qualify to adopt as married individuals. It adds a bit of extra paperwork and expense at the end, but it is the best option for some families like ours. You do need a reason to adopt as a married individual. Families who have kids with special needs at home already can qualify. Families where only one parent meets the guideline of being at least 15 years older than the child also qualify.

As we have signed documents and packed bags, we have also prepared our kids here at home for what will be happening over the coming weeks. The more we talk, the more it is obvious to me how crucial adoption is. Kids belong in families.

We talk about how we did this whole process just a few years ago to bring them home. We talk about the children we hope to bring home to our family. My kids ask hard questions, and I try my best to explain truthfully at their developmental level. I have held my great, big boys as they cry in my arms about their waiting friends. I have watched their faces fall in disappointment when they ask about friends who still don't have families. I have listened to them talk about being scared when they were transferred to new orphanages, and how their friends were scared too.

This life we have chosen is not always easy. Sometimes it is very, very hard. Our lives are messier in a lot of ways. That is okay. Messy lives sound like a decent trade off for kids to have a chance to have lives of their own. These kids are worth that much, and more. Plus, most of the time our lives are pretty spectacular. I am surrounded by the most fascinating, strong, gentle, loving, caring, silly and sweet group of kids I could ever imagine. And they are mine! How unbelievable is that!

This is an amazing, hard, incredible journey. We need more families, and fewer kids waiting in orphanages. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and allowed us to make this happen. You are playing a huge, awesome role in this story with your support. Thank you!

Andrew Is Aging Out!

Aging out is when a child becomes unadoptable due to their age and the legal process in either the child's country or the country of an adopting parent. There are many aging out children listed HERE. You can also see the children we have shared in past weeks HERE. There is still time for some of the children we have shared before to be adopted if families act quickly! They are all eligible for at least $10,000 older child grants to assist with adoption expenses. Some grants are over $20,000! You can email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information about any of these children!

Those older child grants are pretty amazing. The funds were pooled for the older children to allow the grant money to help any older child with special needs listed on Reece's Rainbow have available funding. It is already harder to find families for older kids, and having funds available to help families who feel prepared to adopt these kids is a huge help! Right now there are 17 remaining older child grants for children with special needs other than Down syndrome. If you would like to donate to that older child grant fund you can click on the donate button on their page HERE. There are also 50 remaining older child grants for children with Down syndrome. You can donate to that fund by clicking on the donate button on their page HERE.

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Andrew is this week's aging out child. His country allows married couples or single mothers. Many of their requirements can be waived for aging out children, with the exception of parents needing to be over 30. Andrew will need his adoption to be completed before he turns 14 in August 2017. A family could start from scratch and complete his adoption in time, or he could be added onto a current adoption. He is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant to assist with adoption expenses. Visit his profile HERE or email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information! The other child who was going to be posted has a committed family! Awesome!

Andrew's special need is albinism. He is a typically developing kid. Andrew has spent most of his life in a foster family. Andrew sounds like he is in a very caring foster home, from his description. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma attached to albinism in his country. As an adult employment, relationships, and other areas can be more difficult.

Andrew sounds like a very kind and caring boy. He has seen one of his friends adopted. It seems like he does want to be adopted but he also feels the loss that can come with that.

There is a lot of loss in older child adoption. It is difficult, because in a lot of cases it is the best situation for the child. Foster families in this country typically can't afford to continue caring for children when they are adults, even when they love them and wish they could. In a perfect world international adoption would not be the best choice. Adoption in the child's country, programs supporting families to continue caring for foster children or to help families keep their children to begin with, all of these would be much easier transitions for the children.

The problem is that even while working toward better options, there are kids waiting. These kids need something now. They need families now. Cultural shifts toward inclusiveness of those with differences are great, big, amazing things. They are what turn the tide. Cultural acceptance is great, and in the long run it will make the biggest difference to the most children.

At the same time all of these kids are already waiting for families. They need help NOW. That is why we are here. We are fighting for the kids who would be left behind. We are going to bat for each individual child, because none of them deserve to be sacrificed while they wait for bigger changes to happen. I hope Andrew will be able to find a family who will help him reach his potential without being limited by a minor special need.

Older Child Adoption: The Hard Stuff. Plus Jennie and Evelyn Are Aging Out!

Aging out is when a child becomes unadoptable due to their age and the legal process in either the child's country or the country of an adopting parent. There are many aging out children listed HERE. You can also see the children we have shared in past weeks HERE. There is still time for some of the children we have shared before to be adopted if families act quickly! They are all eligible for at least $10,000 older child grants to assist with adoption expenses. Some grants are over $20,000! You can email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information about any of these children!

Those older child grants are pretty amazing. The funds were pooled for the older children to allow the grant money to help any older child with special needs listed on Reece's Rainbow have available funding. It is already harder to find families for older kids, and having funds available to help families who feel prepared to adopt these kids is a huge help! Right now there are 15 remaining older child grants for children with special needs other than Down syndrome. If you would like to donate to that older child grant fund you can click on the donate button on their page HERE. There are also 50 remaining older child grants for children with Down syndrome. You can donate to that fund by clicking on the donate button on their page HERE.

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Before I talk about today's aging out kids, I am going to talk about one of the realities of older child adoption. All of the aging out kids we post here are older kids.


An older child trying to adjust to a new and different place can exhibit behaviors described in one of today's profiles. Those behaviors that are described are not unique to older kids. I have heard just as many stories about 3 year olds with these reactions. Probably more, because more 3 year olds are adopted. Some of these things are the risks of adoption.

The harder part is to decide if you can do these same difficult behaviors from a teenager that you could with a 3 year old. A temper tantrum from a 3 year old is different from the same temper tantrum from a 13 year old. This can be SO hard. I have said before, one of our kids came home the size of an 8 year old. He was my size within a year. He didn't understand how much he had grown. He really didn't.

A child can have very different, much more difficult behaviors when they are in a new environment. It can require time to adjust or it can require more than that. It isn't always easy. I feel like our kids have been easy, but I often find that I had different expectations going into our adoption than other people. I do want to say that all kids are tremendously worth it, even when it is hard. It takes more than love, and that is no one's fault. Not the kids. Not the parents.

No matter what age you adopt, you have a good chance of bringing home a child who is grieving and wants to tear the world apart because they just don't understand it. It is new and it is scary. Love is scary! Being safe can be scary for kids who haven't had that. It is new. A new place, with new sounds and smells, a new language, new people, everything. With a 3 year old you have time. You have time to teach.Your child has time to learn to express and process all of that deep grief. You have time for a child to move toward healing. You could have the ability to pick that child up and move them, even if there is kicking and screaming!

It makes things so much easier to decide ahead of time what you can handle and what you will do in different situations. Talk with your family and talk with your social worker. If this behavior happens, what will your response be? What about that behavior? Make plans, even if you never need them. Hopefully you won't! But you will be prepared if you do. I highly recommend doing this whether you are adopting older kids or younger ones.

There are no guarantees. A child's reactions in one environment are not the same that you will see in a different environment. And this goes both ways! For better or worse!

I have seen kids who gave as good as they got in an orphanage environment come into other families with consistent behavioral expectations, and have zero problems ever! For some of our kids, they were WILD in the orphanage. Feral, didn't listen, had never been made to listen! Even with the best caregivers, a caregiver isn't going to care as much as a mother if a kid is picking on or bullying another. A caregiver can't correct every single behavior while watching thirty other kids with varying special needs. A mother can. A father can.

One of our kids was into everything. Mini blinds destroyed out of curiosity. Light switches flipped on and off. Closing each and every door out of nervous anxiety. Pressing the button on the smoke detector because it had a flashing light, then being a bit shocked by the noise it made! Touching, touching, touching all the things. There hadn't been so many things to touch before! A family was a hard mix of freedom and boundaries to figure out for a child who spent his life in an institution. Our kids did learn though! They are still learning!

Adoption is worth it. Older child adoption is worth it. We considered all of the possibilities with all of our kids. We made plans. We made sure we were prepared, but we didn't panic. Some of the best advice for parenting and life that I have heard is to make decisions from a place of calm rather than fear. That is what we try our best to do.

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Now the kids! Both of these girls will need their adoptions completed before they turn 14. Their country is open to single mothers and older parents! They do require parents to be over 30, but they have waivers available for almost all of their other requirements. There is time for a family to start the process from scratch right now and bring these girls home in time. An in-process family could also add them to an adoption! Email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information.

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Jennie http://reecesrainbow.org/57164/jennie adoption must be completed by August 2017

Jennie's profile is so short. It says she has Down syndrome and malnutrition. Her last update what when she was 8. It says she is walking but not talking, 7 years ago.  That is it. That is her whole profile.

Half of her lifetime. That is what has passed since Jennie's file has been updated with current information. What has she done? What has she missed out on? In the absence of actual information on kids, my mind always wanders into the "What-Ifs?" territory. I hope she is safe and fed and warm, even though I know that statistically she might not be.

This picture of Jennie took my breath away when I first saw it. She reminds me of another girl, a girl who lived in the bedridden ward with our kids. (Side note, as I am sure you all know, there is NO reason for kids with Down syndrome to be confined to cribs. NONE.) The other girl was listed as Velia. She was transferred with Lee and the others, and then thankfully adopted. She is in an amazing family now, learning to walk and explore and experience everything she missed.

Jennie can already walk. Is she talking yet? I don't know. 7 years is a long time. A friend of mine posted photos of two younger girls with Down syndrome in the same country as Jennie. The girls were tied to their chairs to keep them contained all day. (Please pray with me that they will be listed for adoption soon!) Is Jennie tied to a chair? Does she still stay in a crib like the one she was photographed in? I can dream that she has been spending her time in a foster family, but I would expect her file would have more recent updates if she had.

Here is another fact about adoption in Jennie's country. It takes money and energy and paperwork to list kids for adoption. A lot of orphanages don't list kids because they don't see them having a chance to be adopted. They don't want to throw that money away. That is why the little girls my friend posted weren't automatically listed for adoption. They needed to PROVE their likelihood of being adopted. They needed prove their worth. It is heartbreaking. They are worthy. Every child is.

Someone, at some point, saw Jennie's worth. Someone worked to get her listed, even though we don't have an update on her. I want a family to come and show that her being listed was not throwing money away. That it wasn't a waste to list her for adoption. That it isn't a waste for little girls tied to chairs to be given the chance for a family. They all deserve a chance for a family and a real life.

Jennie is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant. You can visit her profile HERE or email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information.

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Evelyn http://reecesrainbow.org/65630/evelyn adoption must be completed by August 2017

Evelyn has developmental delays. Evelyn has two descriptions in her profile. The first is from the center where she has been living. The second is a report from her being hosted in America. I am thankful for the second report especially, because I would write something much different based on the first description alone.

Evelyn's first description talks about how she is a favorite in the center and stays in a small group. It talks about how she visits the homes of nannies. She is shy with strangers. She can count to 100 and writes very nicely. She loves to sing.

Her second description talks about the time she spent with a family in America during a hosting trip. It was not an easy time for her or her family. She cried, had extreme tantrums, and was very demanding. The last part is not too unusual for "favorites" in the orphanage system. Kids belong in families. Institutional care is so hard on kids, even the ones who are "favored" over the others. It was recommended that she needs a patient and experienced family who is familiar with older child trauma and possible attachment issues. Evelyn still deserves a chance to have a family.

Both of the descriptions can be found at her profile HERE. You can also email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information. Evelyn is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant to assist with adoption expenses.

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Last thing. I don't usually include our own info on these posts. I like to focus on the kids! I am making an exception right now. We travel in 10 days to bring home 4 kids. One of them aged out 10 months ago. We are currently $11,617 short of being fully funded. We have two matching grants right now. We will receive $1000 when our account reads $24,149. We will receive $2500 when our account reads $27,649. Those two grants will get us within about $5000 of being fully funded. Our family is ready and willing to do the amazing, hard, incredible work of adopting older kids all over again. If you would like to help us, tax deductible donations can be made HERE.

Chantelle-Ann and Angela Are Aging Out!

Aging out is when a child becomes legally unadoptable due to their age and the laws of either the child's country or the country of the adoptive parents. Today's children are in the same country our family has adopted from. They require married couples with at least one parent more than 15 years older than the child. You need to send in immigration paperwork and fees before these children turn 16. The rest of the adoption process can begin after that, if necessary.

If you have any questions about this process, today's children, other aging out children, or how to adopt children with special needs internationally, email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information. See other aging out children who have been shared recently HERE. All of the aging out kids I post here have at least a $10,000 grant to assist with adoption expenses. Some have grants of over $20,000! Please share all of these kids to help them find families! It helps!

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Chantelle-Ann http://reecesrainbow.org/103300/chantelle-ann needs paperwork and fees sent before she turns 16 in 2017

Chantelle-Ann is the first aging out child. She recently had a committed family who met her but did not feel they would be able to provide for her needs within their family. I think it was a really heartbreaking decision for them to make. They so badly want her to find the right family where she can thrive, and I admire SO much the openness and honesty they are sharing.

"She is very smart and curious. She likes technology as she kept trying to figure out the tv and loved our phones, except my husband's phone wasn't too crazy about her, haha. She is adorable and tries so hard to communicate. She has a lot of potential if the smallest child in the family."

They clearly love her very much. She wants a mama of her own so badly. She sounds like she has the ability and desire to learn so much.

Right now Chantelle-Ann is the size of a 10 year old although she is 15. I would bet she has the potential to grow in a proper family setting with good nutrition! One of our teenage boys came home the size of an 8 year old and was my height within a year! She does express toddler-like behaviors that due to her size can be harmful to small animals. It is also recommended that a family only have older teenager or adult siblings in the home with her. She is large and strong, and has waited in an institutional setting without the loving guidance of a family for too long.

This is the sad part of older child adoption. This is why I am a very strong advocate for adoption of kids of all ages. Kids belong in families. Families can teach children. Families can model correct behavior. Families can put an immediate stop to less desirable behaviors. But in an orphanage or institution? Even the best caretakers can't watch everywhere and correct everything. Unfortunately there are also caretakers who don't have the best interests of the children at heart. There are caretakers who abuse and model that behavior. None of this is the child's fault. They are blameless in this. This is something terrible and unfair for them, that they have been placed in this situation.

It is tragic for the children. Chantelle-Ann has SO much potential. This family has raved about how clever she is. She is a very smart girl who could do so much more if she was given a life outside of an institution. She will need the right family. She still deserves a family! Please share her so that the right family can find her.

Chantelle-Ann has a $10,000 older child grant available for assistance with adoption expenses. Email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org or view her profile HERE for more information.

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Angela http://reecesrainbow.org/33135/angela120  needs paperwork and fees sent in before she turns 16 in February 2017

Angela is the second child today.  She was in a bedridden room the last time a family saw her. I have been trying to find numbers on how many kids over the age of 10 have been adopted from bedridden wards in this country. I can tell you that it isn't very many. There are the kids I know of who have been adopted or have families in process in the region we last adopted from. I have heard of a couple kids here and there in other regions. There haven't been very many kids, but the numbers are going up over time.

As it becomes more common and more kids come home and more kids make progress and improve, I am hoping it begins to send a message. I am hoping the photos of the transformation of these kids will show their potential. I am hoping it will show their worth and value. We love and value our children. Their condition in these bedridden wards is NOT caused by their diagnosis. It is caused by the care and treatment and lack thereof. Yes, even when kids come home to families their underlying medical issues remain. But look at the difference in our kids.

Angela will be beating the odds to find a family in time. The odds are, in her country, that she will spend the rest of her life in a crib or bed. The odds are that a family showing up at her orphanage would be met with at best mild shock. I want Angela to win. I want all of the kids to win. Angela is deserves so much more than a life in a crib or a bed.

I LOVE the updated photo from a few years ago. She is absolutely beautiful. She is blind but she can follow the sound of your voice and she loves the attention of someone talking to her. There are so many resources in the US for blindness! Her profile also lists hydrocephalus. There is a diagnosis of a heart defect, but the profile doesn't list the severity. It may be mild or it may not.

There are many kids who were previously listed as being in the same orphanage, and may or may not still be with Angela and able to be adopted with her. Many of them are also over 10 and would also be eligible for an older child grant like Angela! Angela is eligible for a $10,000 grant to assist with adoption expenses. You can email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org or visit her profile HERE for more information.

New Travel Dates, New Fully Funded Amount and Auction Is Posted!

I have never heard of this happening before, but our travel dates have now been changed twice! We are thankful that they will be sooner than we first anticipated, but we have had an exciting time changing flights and work schedules for each change in the date. Our new appointment will be October 27. That is less than 3 weeks away! Our account has been getting closer to where it needs to be. Thank you so much to everyone who has been helping us!

We are also going to subtract $1500 from our current needed total. We based our travel expenses on what they were during our last adoption. At this point flights are looking to be much cheaper than they were two years ago, despite the likelihood that we will be traveling during the holiday season. Our new fully funded total is $36,000. We need this account HERE to read $35,239.

Our latest auction has been posted HERE! It will run from October 7 to October 16 at 11:59 PM EST. Please come check it out! We are still accepting donations!

We are also working on our giveaway this weekend and that should begin at the beginning of the week. Donations for that are welcome as well!

Thank you all so much!

Moment of Truth

Moment of truth. Travel dates are 3.5 weeks away. We are about $15,000 from fully funded right now. That is how much it costs to add an adoption from an orphanage in a different region. Due to circumstances beyond our control we are needing to go to 3 separate orphanages when we planned for 2. $36,739 is what we need this page to read HERE.

My husband asked me with tears in his eyes how we could leave one of them behind. A lot of you read and shared his "Papas Wanted" post about our last adoption from his perspective. He loves our kids and the kids we have met SO much that he has even talked with me about MOVING to this country to fill a need that exists. He is an incredible husband and father. His heart is breaking over this situation right now.

Because the truth is we can't leave any of them behind. I am flooding this post with photos.

Amos aged out in December of LAST year. He turns 17 soon. We need to file an I600 for him immediately upon accepting his referral so that he can still be adopted. We sent the I600A LAST YEAR to be eligible to save him, even though we were about to move across the country and it was crazy. He was Barton's friend. Barton who we adopted after he aged out. No one was coming for Amos. We saved Barton from that cage of adult men. That is the same place Amos needs to be saved from. His court has been one of the most difficult I have ever heard of in this country. We went through it last time and we still said YES to Amos.

This is the adult facility in Amos's region.

Here is adorable little Amos when he was younger.

Here is Amos, bigger now, but still adorable to us.

We put Violet at the end of the list sometimes. We committed to her and Lee last, but I also feel selfish saying "We just really like this girl and think she is awesome and want to be her family." We think that about all of our kids, but Violet isn't urgent life or death like the others. Yep, I feel selfish to say we want to adopt a 13 year old girl with special needs who has spent her life in an institution. Orphanages and institutions are bad places. Children are abused, even in front of visitors. That is what happens when the caretakers are being watched and on their best behavior. Violet has waited so long. No one has come for her. She deserves to be safe and loved too.

These are both photos of beautiful Violet, one with her head shaved and one without.

This gentle girl deserves to be safe.

Lee is with Violet, but he is in the bedridden wing. These children are being abused also. Bedridden kids who can barely move are covered with bruises. Then there is neglect. Kids are starving. He is starving. He turns 13 in November, and he is a wisp of what he was when we met him two years ago. His file has a terminal diagnosis in it. We had to decide when we learned about it whether or not we could bring him home, knowing we might have a very short time with him. We said we would be brave. We said we would bring him home and love him, no matter how long he had left. But now I am afraid the orphanage will starve him to death before we come. I HAVE NOT and WILL NOT come to terms with that. He can die here in my arms and it will break me completely but he will know he is loved. He cannot die there alone. Not this boy I love so much.

Emaciated and bruised in the bedridden ward, this is one of the formerly healthy girls we met two years ago.

Here is Lee two years ago and now. His arms are so skinny.

He was once so alive. Now I am afraid he is losing hope.

And sweet little Daisy, we expected her to be transferred in with Lee. I am glad she isn't starving too. She is still waiting at the group home because the change to fostercare has been delayed. This fostercare arrangement makes kids unavailable for adoption. At 18 in this case they will be sent back to the same places they were originally destined. Her fate would be sealed. She would starve in those rooms later, but it would still happen. We are coming for her, that noisy little girl who has spent her life tied into a crib for lack of supervision. Our sweet little Daisy.

There is a set of tights tied around her waist and tethered to the crib to keep her in.

Our lovely little Daisy is waiting for a family to give her the chance to explore the world.

Who could we pick? Which child is not worth $15,000? The answer is of course that they all are. Every child is. These children we have chosen are worth it. We won't leave them behind, but right now the money isn't there. We are working on it. You have ALL been amazing in your support of us. Offering fundraisers, sharing, donating, praying. Thank you. We are rolling out a couple more fundraisers tomorrow. We have tried loans, no go there. We have a very small amount set aside to hospitalize Lee immediately when he gets home. I don't think we can safely touch that money, with what he will need.

We have done this before. We have brought home older kids with special needs. They have thrived. We have worked through institutional behavior. We are ready to do this. We can't wait! We need to get our newest kids home too.

Theo, Barton, Orion and Evan. They have grown more in the last two years than anyone dreamed. They can't wait to help their new brothers and sisters grow also.

Bailey And Rebecca Are Aging Out!

Aging out is when a child becomes unadoptable due to their age and the legal process in either the child's country or the country of an adopting parent. There are many aging out children listed HERE. You can also see the children we have shared in past weeks HERE. There is still time for some of the children we have shared before to be adopted if families act quickly! They are all eligible for at least $10,000 older child grants to assist with adoption expenses. Some grants are over $20,000! You can email childinquiry@reecesrainbow.org for more information about any of these children!

Those older child grants are pretty amazing. The funds were pooled for the older children to allow the grant money to help any older child with special needs listed on Reece's Rainbow have available funding. It is already harder to find families for older kids, and having funds available to help families who feel prepared to adopt these kids is a huge help! Right now there are 17 remaining older child grants for children with special needs other than Down syndrome. If you would like to donate to that older child grant fund you can click on the donate button on their page HERE. There are also 50 remaining older child grants for children with Down syndrome. You can donate to that fund by clicking on the donate button on their page HERE.

We are sharing two children this week who were lost in the shuffle and not originally on the aging out page. They have less time and they both need families! Their country requires their adoptions to be completed before they turn 14. Their country is open to adoption by single mothers and married couples. They require parents to be over 30. They have additional requirements, but almost all of them have waivers available for children who are aging out or have special needs. PLEASE ask! You won't know if you don't try. These kids need someone to try for them!



Bailey http://reecesrainbow.org/57060/bailey needs her adoption completed by January 2017

Bailey needs her adoption completed before she turns 14 in January. An in-process family is her best chance. She is on the shared list right now.  She is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant to assist with adoption expenses. In addition to her profile HERE, here is a lot of additional information on her HERE.

A friend of Bailey who was adopted had a lot to say about her. She described Bailey as a very nice girl. It sounds like they were very good friends, and Bailey was very sad to see her friend go. Her friend said she helped her with schoolwork. Bailey can read and write, but she has trouble holding a pencil to write neatly. Bailey's profile says she has low strength in her arms. Sometimes she needs assistance with fasteners, but she is otherwise able to take care of her needs according to her profile.

Bailey sounds like a very sweet girl with very mild needs. I hope she is able to find a family in time.

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Rebecca http://reecesrainbow.org/96524/rebecca-3 needs her adoption completed by summer 2017

Rebecca will turn 14 at some time during the summer of 2017. She has Down syndrome and is eligible for a $10,000 older child grant to assist with adoption expenses. A family hosted her two years ago, so there is a lot of information about her available if an interested family contacts them! Her profile is HERE.

Rebecca has a lot of personality! It sounds like she is super sweet and also has some spunk! Her profile talks about how she likes to "mother" and even shows her pretending to care for a doll. She loves to go swimming too! A friend of mine has a son with Down syndrome who is on a swim team at his YMCA. I would love for Rebecca to have that same opportunity.

If I read between the lines correctly, Rebecca might also have a little bit of a stubborn streak! I mean that in the best possible way. She sounds like an awesome girl who knows what she wants, even though sometimes what she wants is not having to wear her glasses. (More alike than different, anyone?)

Rebecca sounds like she made a lot of progress in the care of a family during her hosting trip. I really hope she is given the chance to have a family forever, where she can achieve so much more.