A Day For Olga!!

**a beautiful post written by another blogger, Patti**

Dear friends,
So many of you already know this beautiful little face....



Olga turned five last month. She has spent the last five years in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, without the love of a mommy and daddy- simply because she arrived in life exactly as God designed her. One chromosome too many, and her fate was sealed from birth.





Sealed, because in Eastern Europe, babies who are born with Down syndrome are deemed unacceptable at birth. They are discarded as cast-offs of society, and when they turn five they leave the only home they've ever known...




And I wish I could say that for most of these children, leaving that home meant going to a place of safety, a place of happiness, a place where they would finally know the love of a family...know what it meant to be cuddled or sung to or read to, tucked in at night, prayed for, loved.

Instead, they are taken to a place that most people wouldn't leave their family pet.


A place of living hell, where they will never know the tenderness of a parent, never know the security of being raised in a family, and there they will stay, one ugly, pain-filled day at a time...until they die.






I read a post last December that stayed with me to this day. It was called from baby dolls to bedstraps.

The blog author wrote about Elizabeth, an orphan on Reece's Rainbow who had been transferred to a mental institution, waiting for a family to step forward for her. Her words still haunt me.

I wonder where she thought she was going as they led her out of the orphanage that day. Did she think that maybe it was finally her turn? That they were taking her to her forever Mommy and Daddy?

And when they instead took her inside that dreadful place, when they shaved her head and tied her to a too-small metal crib

when they turned their backs and

walked

away…



when they left her confused, terrified,

in a room where the wails of schizophrenic adults echo through the cold air

what was going through her young mind?



Did she wonder if she was being punished?



How long did she hold out hope that this was only temporary?

That any minute, they would come and take her back to the baby house

to her baby dolls and teddy bear,

to her best friend, Angelina?


Did she long to free her arms from the restraints

to cover her head with her hands to drown out

the scary noises

the scary sights

the scary smells?



That could be my Lily….


It could be your child.

And what if it were?

What if you woke up one morning

and by some hellish, twilight-zone twist of fate

your child wasn’t still tucked into that warm bed down the hall,

what if your child was trapped

across the dark sea

in that nightmare that is

the institution?

What

would

you

DO?

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. Proverbs 24:11

Elizabeth is being rescued today, thanks to the efforts of that blogging mama, and others like her.

Olga is being rescued today, thanks to so many of you...you gave so much and created such a large grant that a family was able to step forward and start the process of adoption.

The Abells have done so much already, towards rescuing Olga. I can't even imagine all the paperwork and prayer and emotion and finances that goes into an international adoption. They have done numerous fundraisers, and will continue to do so until they can bring Olga home.

Through the help of so many, a grant of over $13,000 has been raised for Olga's adoption. That grant is set aside for the final travel costs and fees that it will take to bring Olga home. It will take every penny of that and then some.

Right now the Abells are in need of raising the $7,000 that is needed to submit their dossier for Olga. Without that dossier we don't even know if Olga has been transferred yet. Here in America you just pick up the phone and ask these questions. But here in America we don't tie five year old girls to cribs to keep them from climbing out.

The Abells need to submit that dossier as soon as possible- at the very least to find out if she has been transferred already- because I know an army of prayer warriors who is going to want to know that piece of information as well. And at the very most, it could be able to hold Olga at the baby house until the Abells can rescue her. I wish I could say with certainty that she won't be transferred- truthfully we just don't know that.

Olga has been so heavy on my heart for months- friends, I want you to know that I DO trust that God has a plan here.

I prayed like crazy for a way to help the Abells. I truly believe that there is a network of people who love Olga here in blogland...a net that is woven by God and is stretching out across this blessed country we live in, and even beyond to generous hearts in other nations. I really cannot express enough how thankful I am to be a small part of what God has already done for Olga, Peter and Kareen. But I don't think our job is done.

Olga needs us.

I don't want her to spend one more forsaken day in that place than she has to.

We're not doing a giveaway here today. I don't even think we need to do one- I know so many just have a heart to help and to give, and prizes were never the real reason we all gave anyway.

So I'm just asking- for one day- for you to do whatever you could to help Olga. Whether that's $10 or $20 or even a hundred...if you are able to help raise this money for the dossier, please do so HERE...

This is the link for the Family Sponsorship Page on Reece's Rainbow...every single dollar goes to the Abell's adoption fund, and every single dollar will help.

We're calling this A Day to Save Olga, because there are about 17 of us blogging mamas who have set aside this day to blog, post on Facebook, pray, give and spread the word to SAVE OLGA.

Will you help us?

I know you will:)

Ella's Mirror Performance

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Surgery Update

Well, I am happy to report that Ella is officially Central Line free!!! We arrived at Loma Linda hospital at 8:15 where they promptly tried to tell me that I had a 10% copay of $365 dollars. I told them that I had an HMO which was making me come to this hospital and therefore I shouldn't have any copay. If I wanted to pay 10% of the procedure, I would have used my PPO which requires me to pay 10% and I would have stayed with CHOC like I would have preferred. Of course she deferred to the billing office and sent us on our way with an envelope to send the payment in later. I called our insurance to figure out if we should be paying 10% and they said absolutely not!! But no one in registration was available to take the time to call them to clarify this so.......looks like it is up to me to get it straightened out. I guess that sometimes having good insurance that allows us to use either our HMO or PPO can be a bad thing because there can be confusion, but I hate it when people are too lazy to do THEIR job!! Anyway, so then the gal at registration gives me some paperwork and says to go to the 2nd floor to the 2800 unit. So we go upstairs and to a nurses station. After standing there waiting for a few employees to finish their own personal chats, someone finally asks me if they can help me. I said I was told to come to the 2800 unit. She says "This whole floor is the 2800 unit, where are you going" Uughh!! Just ask me what we are here for and direct me, don't play games!! Of course I was in the right place and they checked us in. Once we got back to the observation/recovery room, people finally seemed to start acting normal and nice, thank goodness!! Don't take that to mean that everything was fast and efficient though. Yesterday I mentioned that Ella has had an ongoing runny nose and we weren't sure if they would be willing to put her under anesthestic or not. So the nurse checks her out and then the nurse practicitioner who will be doing the procedure. Of course due to her crying whenever anyone touches her now (yes, she has finally had enough of medical people!!) she was quite full of nasal congestion and proceeding to throw in quite a few coughs in front of people. Anesthesiologists don't like coughing so I was really worried that they would cancel her. But on the advice of Heather, I just kept saying how we think she has allergies and she only coughs when her nose gets stuffy etc. etc. THREE AND A HALF HOURS after arriving there, the anesthesiologist finally looks at her and decides that they will proceed. Can you imagine how upset I would have been if we spent all that time there for NOTHING!! So finally after another hour passed, they took her in and did the procedure easily. She was tired the rest of the day but got back to herself fairly quickly. When I tried to feed her for the first time that evening, she threw it all back up but at bedtime I gave her just a small amount of formula and some water and she seemed to hold that all down and she isn't awake yet this morning so hopefully all will be well today. Thanks for all your prayers and support once again!!

The Brown Outfit (and a quick prayer, please)

I truly believe that next to my own kids, I am in love with Ukrainian Princesses more than anyone else. These little girls (and boys) who are made to live in an orphanage simply because they were born with Ds just breaks my heart. I am so thankful for the families that step out in faith and do WHATEVER it takes to bring them home to a family. Someday maybe our family will be able to bring one home but until then, I do what I can to donate and love on them. When the ones that I first fell in love with (Dasha and Sofia) started to come home, I couldn't help but want to send gifts. I found this cute little brown outfit at Costco and started buying them for all the little ones that were on their way home. Thankfully all of their nice Mommies were kind enough to send me pictures of them wearing their outfit. Of course I had to buy one for Ella too since they are all her special friends. In fact, we have been lucky enough to meet them all in person except for Dasha but I guarantee that it will happen in the near future!! Ella has a picture that Dasha sent her wearing the outfit that she carries around with her and says "Asha". Makes me melt every time!! So, of course, the inventory of these outfits at Costco is long gone so I can no longer purchase them for all of the new Princesses who are coming home. So we have all decided that these outfits should be passed along so that we can get a picture of them all in these outfits :)

Sofia was the first one home (since I started following)

and what a gem she is. Her family was definitely blessed

when they found her!!

We call Dasha, Ella's soul sister, they are only 8 days apart!!

She was my first love!! I have made it my mission to get

her and Ella together soon!!

Darya has quite a little story. Hers was the first of,

what I hope is many, amazing fundraising stories. An

11 year old girl raised the entire amount needed to
bring her home (and then some) in just 8 days!! So

many people fell in love with little girl from afar!!

And then there was Arina. Her forever family found

her hidden among the many faces on Reeces Rainbow and

I don't think many people had noticed her before. But, let

me tell you, this is one beautiful little girl!!! We are hoping that her family

will be moving near us very soon and we look forward to getting lots of loving

on her!!

And of course, here is my Sweet Ella. The inspiration

for my love of these Ukrainian Princesses!!

Okay...so here is the next Princess that needs to come home!! Her family will be traveling in less than a couple of weeks and they are still $4000 short. Please try to give a little something if you can. Every little bit will help and poor Lera has been waiting for sooooo very long!!! Please go to this site to donate...it is tax deductible! http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorhigbie

And finally, a quick prayer. Ella is scheduled to get her central line removed tomorrow morning. I am so anxious to get it out so that we can stop worrying about infection but I am a little worried that they won't want to put her under since she has had a runny nose (forever!!) We talked about it over the phone and they said they can't make the final decision until they see her in person. I guess it depends on the amount of congestion or something. So please pray that (1) she can actually have it done and (2) that there will be no complications. We feel that this will be one step closer to normalcy for us. And besides...don't you think she needs a few less tubes hanging out of her body????

Updates and Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I cannot believe how neglectful I have been of this blog lately. I think it is because life has been soooo wonderfully boring, that I don't even know what to write. We have been home from the hospital for almost 2 months now and I just can't believe how nice it is. I find myself not wanting to venture away very much because I appreciate being here so much. Ella has just been in heaven being able to spend her days cruising around the house freely. I literally cannot keep up with her CONSTANT mess making and you know what...I don't mind. She is doing great and feeling great and rarely will we find her without a smile on her face!!! We had our monthly follow up at the oncology clinic last week and her blood counts looked awesome. I find myself questioning that her numbers are too high now because I was so used to them being so low all of her life. I guess this is what things look like when the bone marrow is working like it should. For example, her platelets were rarely over 100 before and now they are 400!! Keep up the good work Ella. I will admit that the day we went in to get results, I found myself very nervous to hear what the results were. I don't think that this feeling will ever go away but at least for another month, we can relax.

And in other good news....in my last post, I made a plea for the Plummer family who are very close to bringing little Barbara home from EE but they still needed $17,000. Well, I am happy to report that they are now only in need of about $1,500. Unbelievably, a complete stranger to them sent a check for $13,000!! Can you believe that!! So between that and many other people giving what they could, they are very close. If you are still able to help them out, please see my previous post for the link. And thank you to those who have already donated.

Ella's birthday party/celebration of life is going to be on March 19th. Anyone who is going to happen to be in Southern California on that day, please let me know so you can come :) We already have some special visitors flying in and we would love to have more.

Here are some random pics from the last couple of weeks since I have posted.

Ella is practicing for preschool in a couple months

A crayon in her mouth but no food...hmmm!!

Check out all this new hair!!

Pretty in blue

Giving the horse a kiss

Still not interested in riding the horse though!!

Barbara's Family Needs Our Help Now!!!

Sweet Barbara is sitting in an orphanage in Eastern Europe waiting for her family to come and get her. Her family is VERY close to traveling and still have quite a bit of money to raise. Some of their back up plans are falling through so they are literally relying on the generosity of others to bring this precious girl home. I know everyone has been so wonderful to donate so that kids with no families yet can have a large grant but I feel so strongly that we can't abandon these families that have already committed to bring a child home either. PLEASE consider donating something, anything will help. Just click here and on the right hand side of the blog, you will see a donate button. Thank you so much!!!

Heartbroken!

Sweet Lois earned her Angel wings today. She fought a tough battle with leukemia and is finally at peace. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers!!