Blessings

Ok, so here's the positive post I was PLANNING on writing today ;)

The indisputable blessings that God has put in motion for things to be like they are right now...

1) A mom cared enough about kids with Ds to start a ministry matching up kids with Ds with prospective parents across the globe and to help them collect donations through her nonprofit organization (aka tax deductable) so that people could afford to adopt.

2) Another mom cared enough about Aleksa to take her picture and find out info about her so that someone else might be able to adopt her.

3) When we chose Aleksa, a mom was in her country adopting from her orphanage (and even from her groupa!). We were able to learn so much more from conversations with this mom than we could have ever found out otherwise

4) The mom at that orphanage told the orphanage directors that Aleksa has a family coming for her! (this was VERY important later on!)

5) When we did our homestudy it took only 5-6 weeks to have a copy in our hands, not the typical 8-12 weeks.

6) When I was looking for Aleksa's full name, the director's computer was down so she couldn't access her file (this seems bad, but was a blessing!)

7) When I asked the other people we are working with for Aleksa's full name they asked our facilitator to find out exactly how she is registered (instead of just giving us what she had on file- yes, another hidden blessing).

8) When our facilitator went to the SDA to find out how Aleksa is registered he found out that she'd been moved (otherwise we would not have found out until we were over there and THAT would have been awful because nothing would have been expedited, we would be getting there probably months later, we wouldn't be prepared to stay the entire time, wouldn't have the extra money necessary for these changes, etc.).

9) When our facilitator checked on Aleksa he also found out that another little girl from her orphanage has moved (therefore letting her family know as well- she was placed in a boarding school which is WONDERFUL!)

10) When the person helping us state-side found out where Aleksa was moved she said that "Someone likely is pulling string here for these girls". And "This (the placements of the two girls) makes me think the workers at [their orphanage] went to some lengths to find good placements as they really should have both gone to a mental institution with openings in a nearby region. Thank God [the mom] got their info as there is no way you would have ever of known about the girls if she had not been there when she had, as they were soon moved and no one we have adopting would have ever seen them."

11) When Aleksa was moved she was placed in a facility that we believe we can still get her out of. Our state-side helper said: "Where they were moved sort of surprised me, they must know someone was coming and moved them to locations where they could still be accessed, this is very unusual for Downs children and I have a feeling the deputy director and orphanage doctor got them into some locations because they knew someone was coming for them."

12) When we quickly started pulling everything together to expedite everything our CIS paperwork was delivered into the hands of a mom that has a child with disabilities. When she saw that the petition for a child with Down syndrome she quickly approved it and send it out that day.

13) Prayer requests have brought so many people to their knees and the broken hearts of many are petitioning the Throne like never before- it's always a good thing for people to come to God.

14) A prayer chain specifically, but it was God none-the-less, led a church member to decide to write an article about our family, our adoption, and Down syndrome. This will hopefully help develop awareness not just about Down syndrome, but about the conditions that exist in other countries and the ministry that Reece's Rainbow is providing.

15)

16)

17)

18)

19)

20)

21)

No, those aren't blank. I just believe that God has many more blessings for us on this journey and I don't intend to sell him short. Why 21? Well, that number is what made us choose Aleksa. Trisomy 21 to be exact, so I'm sure there will be three-fold the blessings that we've written down.