First Blog - A Call to Action!

We met Vinnie last month (well, we sat in the car while Elena went inside the orphanage with our camera since we did not have permission). We were given the opportunity to adopt him at the same time as we adopt our son Jordan. You see, our first referral, James, passed away on June 10th and there was a great hole in our lives. But Vinnie is not going to come home with us.

And we grieve for him.

We grieve that he has lost these years without a family. We rejoice that God has a plan for him and we cling to the belief that Vinnie has a Mommy and Daddy that are out there looking for him. Our job? Our job is to help as much as we can to take away the financial mountain that stands between him and his family.


Vinnie is 3 1/2 years old. He lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Why? Because he was born with Down Syndrome. He is less than 20 pounds and he desperately needs a family to call him son and then dote on him as the title requires. He doesn’t have his whole life to wait. He will only be in his current orphanage for another year or two and then he will be moved to a poorer home… either an orphanage for older children or a mental institution. No child deserves the conditions there.

But there is hope! Help us raise money for his adoption grant. We would like to hold an online fundraiser… an auction or a “virtual yard sale” and also a giveaway where people purchase chances to win. Later, we will have a bake sale.

All proceeds will go directly to his tax-deductible adoption grant.

Would you consider donating items with a craigslist/resale value of $10 or more to the sale? Items that ship well are the ideal. (books, movies, jewelry, crocheted clothing, boxed games, unwanted gift cards… anything!) 

(You can also do what a sweet friend is doing if you have something to donate, but it's too big to ship. Solution: Sell the item yourself (on craigslist?) and donate the proceeds to his grant.)

Please contact us with questions or to donate items.

Please share this invitation with anybody who might be interested in participating! We will need enough people participating to pull this off!

To view Vinnie’s adoption grant, click here: http://reecesrainbow.org/v​innie-21-6

Please Note: You do NOT have to be local. Email me a photo and description of the item you would like to donate and we will ship the item directly from your home to the purchaser. All profits of the sales go to Vinnie’s grant. Shipping will be paid by Brian and I or by you, if you choose to support the fundraiser in that way.

Contributions so far:

• $100 gift card to Best Buy
• Custom Hole Drilling service
• A personal Photo session
• New, unopened board game
• Gorgeous purse/tote by Tote-Ally Blessed
• I will also be approaching some local businesses to see if anybody is willing to donate other products or gift cards. If you have a business or… work somewhere… do you have a product or service you can donate to help Vinnie’s mommy and daddy bring him home?