Ode to Darin’s Tummy Mama

My son, Darin, was born to me by adoption. (read about that here & here)

His birth mother was Lonnie Sue Talbot.
She loved him so much.
I know this because we have an open adoption & she spent lots of time with us. Darin was her pride & joy.

Darin was Lonnie’s first & only child. She was a single, unemployed mom, and she knew she didn’t have the resources to care for a child with Down syndrome.

But placing Darin for adoption was not easy for her. Darin was a premie & had to spend 25 days in the NICU. Lonnie continued to visit him & form a strong attachment to him during those 25 days, even though that only made their separation harder.

With our agency, there is a 6-month break between placement & a visit. During those first 6 months, Darin was in the hospital about 2 months, and Lonnie kept track of him by his baby-website. She worried about him & ached for him.

After we were reunited & began to develop our family-relationship, Lonnie was always willing to put herself out there, attending gatherings of our families & friends, to share in the joy that is Darin.

Over the past 6 years, Lonnie became our family too. We experienced the melding of families not by blood, but by love.

But last night, Lonnie died.

I miss her.

Fully fund an international Down syndrome adoption EVERY month for $10? Why yes, I will do that!

Oh my gosh! I am so excited!

Have you ever wondered, “How can (this problem) be solved?”?

Over & over, I am learning the answer: One simple step at a time!

——————
I was invited to be a part of HUGE but simple solution yesterday, and I am spinning with joy today!

Problem:
International adoption is expensive! In addition to travel cost, the government & social work costs are very high.

Solutions:

• For kids with Down syndrome, a partial solution has existed for several years called Reece’s Rainbow. It is a website that helps people work together to adopt kids with Down syndrome by creating an adoption account that people can donate or fundraise to before & while the child is waiting to be found by their forever family.
  This system helps families to enter the adoption process with a much lower personal cost.

If the adoption account has donations…

That’s why it is a partial solution.

Here’s the AMAZING idea that was started yesterday!

• A Facebook group called Ransoming Angels!
  This group will unite 2500 people to fully fund 1 Reece’s Rainbow child per month. By each person contributing $10/month, we can clear the financial barriers to international adoption for a specific child each month!

With the combined efforts of Reece’s Rainbow & Ransoming Angels, we can open doors!

Ransoming Angels has 461 members in 2 days… Consider joining us to get 2500 members & fully fund our first adoption!

Gotcha day! One 5-year old orphan is with his forever family!

The Kehm’s, mentioned in several other posts, celebrated “Gotcha Day” today!
After 1 month in Ukraine & a 10-day waiting period after court, they are the permanent parents of Peter Julian Kehm!

We can change the world, one child at a time!

More adoption updates!

1. The Foster’s baby boy was due… but he is holding out til tomorrow! Read more here to see about their long wait and heartbreaks along the way… This week, the Foster’s spent 1 day with baby Matthew, then his birthmother decided not to place him for adoption. This is a very sad , hard loss for them. After 8 days, birthmother called the Foster’s and signed Matthew over to them. Please pray for her broken loving heart.
2. The Kehm’s are finally in the Ukraine to pick up Ty & Peter from an orphanage! Hopefully, they will see the boys tomorrow (for the first time in person!) but they may still be away from home (& 2 more kids) for 3-6 weeks. Lots of prayers! Julie & Cameron have made it to Ukraine to meet the boys… But have been informed Ty cannot be adopted. So sad. There are still 2 weeks of formalities before they bring Peter home. Please pray! Continue to pray for the Kehm’s… They’ve been away from home 13 days already… & are hoping for a court date this Wednesday. Then they will have a 10 day waiting period before they can bring Peter home. That’s a long time away from their other kids… & they will miss Christmas here.

Adoptions today, tomorrow, this month!

Today has been a joyful, anxious, prayerful day on behalf of several friends. Adoption is an exercise in NO CONTROL!

Maybe I can let them steal your heart too, so you will pray:

1. The Foster’s baby boy was due… but he is holding out til tomorrow! Read more here to see about their long wait and heartbreaks along the way…
2. The Williston’s waited today for a tummy mama to sign over her rights, so they can begin parenting tiny baby Levi Nicholas tomorrow.
3. The Kehm’s are finally in the Ukraine to pick up Ty & Peter from an orphanage! Hopefully, they will see the boys tomorrow (for the first time in person!) but they may still be away from home (& 2 more kids) for 3-6 weeks. Lots of prayers!

Adoption is a long process requiring enduring faith.
We need people that will hold us up as we get tired!

I have 3 others who are not so close to the finish line!
Please beg our Father to bring their babies home:

1. The Puckett’s have been working on adopting Peterson since Summer 2010. He still lives in Haiti, far from home.
2. The Barlow’s are praying for the next step in their approval process to be completed this month. They are trying to get to Bulgaria to pick up Heaven as soon as possible!
3. The Clarkson’s are praying for a little girl in Ukraine, that God will make a way for her to join their family.

The one that got away

You may be wondering, as I do several posts in a row about other people’s adoptions, how this all relates to me:

1. The obvious: Darin, my precious present, God brought us by adoption.

2. The memory: Jean-Roni, the one that got away.
Last summer in Haiti, Karen, Amanda, & I took care of Jean-Roni. He was a tiny, malnourished baby boy who came into the Real Hope for Haiti clinic while we were visiting.
We cared for him day & night for the majority of our trip.
We were told that he would not live at the size, age, and progression of his malnourishment.
And so don’t get attached.

That didn’t work.

So we dreamed & calculated how to bring him home with us.

But when we left, he stayed.
And 35 days later, while my arms still ached for him, Jean-Roni died.

We must fight everyday to save AS MANY CHILDREN AS WE CAN.
Our humanity requires this.

Bring Heaven home!

There’s another Houston family working on adopting a child with Down syndrome!

I met Nancy at a recent DSAH conference & learned about Heaven!

They are in the early fundraising & approval stages but already have a giveaway that ends 11/30/11.
Donate $10+ & you will be entered to win!

Go here!

Urgent!!! Help save 2 boys with Down Syndrome from life in an orphanage

Listen to this amazing story!

A Houston mom, Julie Kehm, has 2 biological children… Lilah and Kai, who has Down syndrome & attends the Rise School with my son Darin.
Through Reece’s Rainbow, they found Peter, who has Down syndrome and is waiting to be adopted in an orphanage on the other side of the world. He will be their 3rd child, and 2nd child with Down syndrome. They have been planning for his adoption for months.
They also met Ty on Reece’s Rainbow – he lives in the same orphanage as Peter, and also has Down syndrome. They have been donating toward Ty’s potential adoption, and watching to see if a family picked him the whole time they have prepared to adopt Peter.
Last week, as they waited to get a travel date to pick up Peter, they decided they will be bring Ty home, too.

Summary: (Kai + Lilah) + (Peter + Ty) = 4 kids, 3 with Down syndrome!
Read Julie’s full version of this story on Around the World in Seven Months!

These people are God’s hands for these boys!

So let’s back them up! They need an extra $4,000 to bring both boys home… they just (on 11/25) received notice they need to be in eastern Europe on December 6, so they will travel on 12/3.

CAN YOU GIVE $10?
1. Donate here with Paypal.
2. Leave a comment on A Perfect Lily to enter a raffle for donating to bring Ty & Peter home to the Kehm family!

Adoption has a cost

Adoption is a huge passion of mine.

First of all, I was adopted in God’s family as a daughter.
Second, God brought my Darin to me by another mother’s womb.

Adoption always comes with a cost. Just as birth comes through the cost of labor, adoption had a cost. Maybe that’s because nothing of value is free.
My adoption by God cost Jesus his life.
My adoption of Darin cost Lonnie (tummy mama) a piece of her heart & cost us money & faith. $5,000 & faith that God would knit 2 families into 1.

Right now, 3 friends of mine are waiting to welcome a new baby into their home through adoption.
And all three have paid $5,000. But the cost doubled – social work & ministry to tummy moms takes time & money.

Can we carry some of this cost?
I would love to tell the stories of each family but family-mergers are delicate things with tiny hearts that need protecting.

If you will consider helping, I will send you a private message with a story of each family. (Email me)

Consider $25

Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center: Kids in need of adoption

While the Rescue Center usually takes on children whose family members brought them into the clinic, and takes care of the 3-9 months just to address the malnutrition, there are around 6 kids who do not have family to return to.
These kids will either go to an orphanage, be placed for private adoption and/or stay at the Rescue Center for a really long time. (more on agencies here…)
If you think God might be leading you to adopt a child, consider these:

Denny: super-smart kid, hydrocephalus with a shunt… he has been at the Rescue Center about 3 years.

Jenny: very alert & smiley girl, abandoned at the clinic, Cerebral Palsy mostly affecting her legs (read more…)