for:Hanson

A little boy named Hanson passed away alone and I am remembering him today.   A Mass is being said for him today in a Russian Orthodox Mass which was arranged by his advocate for adoption.   

Tony/Ziva ~ Every day is a start of something beautiful

for: Bill

Update on Bill! 

Bill has a family! I am so happy that another child with arthrogryposis has been chosen to be a son! no longer an orphan. 

This is his original post:

here

Update on Toby!

Toby: from orphan to son

before: this little boy was an orphan in China.  

after: this is the same little boy! He has been adopted and is living with his family in America. Meet Toby Shaw.   He is also receiving treatment for his arthrogryposis.  

The real blessing for me is that I got to see him recently because he lives a couple hours away from me. And yes he is this cute! I absolutely love updates.

Update on Raymond

                              Here are Raymond's photos again. 
               
                   I wish these were better. Raymond is now five.                                           

                  He now has $3000 in his account for his adoption!!
          
                                He needs parents now.  

                      He is listed on the Reese's Rainbow website.      
                    
                            on the significant grant page here.

for: Bradyn and Steven

This is Bradyn, who is the featured child for the month of May on Bringing Hope to 12 in 2013.   He also has arthrogryposis as do all the children on their blog.  His family is also adopting a second child.  They have until tomorrow to raise  $230 to receive a matching grant.  Please donate to their adoption here.

Brayden- 3 years old.

and his brother Steven
Bringing Hope to 12 in 2013: 
Read more about Bradyn here

for: MULLIGAN STEW: MICAH SIX EIGHT!

Julia Nalle at Micah Six Eight has made her amazing Mulligan Stew 2013.  She has put brought many orphans, families and Lost Boys to the "table". They are all so needy and we need donors to fulfill their wishes, dreams and hope.  It is a give-away with many awesome items. Please, please, please go to her site and your donations make you eligible for the prizes.  

Anthony has a family!

This handsome young man has a family who is committed to bring him into their family. Congratulations Anthony.  I am so happy to be a part of a marvelous group advocated for him.  You can change lives through adoption, the child and yours. God bless you for praying for Anthony.  His family's blog is here

for Raymond

This is the newest post at Bringing Hope to 12 in 2013.  Their link is here.

There are new highlights for this little boy, Raymond.  There  are updates for him especially this:

Raymond

a much better picture of sweet Raymond.  How do I know he is sweet? Because every person I know who has arthrogryposis is an amazing person and each one is sweet, loving and precious.   The pictures that are available of Raymond are not of the best quality as you can see here

Raymond has not had an updated photo for a long time, which is very unfortunate for him.  But that doesn't stop me from loving him and sharing his story and picture.   A good friend was able to have an artist paint a portrait of Raymond which is better than any current photos of him.  We believe he deserves this chance to share this new portrait and hope and pray that someone will adopt him. 

Raymond's portrait.

I poured my heart out for this cutie

and this beautiful girl

and this beautiful girl

and this little sweetie pie

and this wonderful young lady

and this beauty

and this cute fella 

and this precious little boy 

All of these children have families and were featured on this blog and also here at Bringing Hope to 12 in 2013.

Please look at Raymond carefully and imagine him in a family.  Please pray, share and donate. 

Drake's family

Drake's family!
HERE

for Drake!

This is Drake, he is the featured child this month at Bringing Hope to 12. His post is HERE.

His family has found him, in his featured month!!! That is phenomenal.  I didn't even get to post about him before his family committed to him. Yes he has arthrogryposis also.
This is the link to the post announcing his family and also a post from his new mommy. Click HERE!

Igor has been adopted!

Before and After: from "Igor" to Joseph Igor Patterson.  

My very first post on this blog was last year on March 20 and I was compelled to write about "Igor".  You can go here to read my first post about adoption and Igor was the first child I advocated for.  The picture above was the only picture I had of him for two years.  Finally Igor has been adopted into a very loving family who looked at that picture and knew he was their son.  His name now is Joseph Igor Patterson.

Joseph Patterson

Joseph Patterson

for: Toby's family!

Toby, a little boy from China who has arthrogryposis is one step closer to coming home.  His family is fully funded! Click HERE to read his family's blog.

For Anthony!!!!!!!

Anthony still has his matching grant, which means anything you donate will be dollar for dollar.  Thanks to everyone who donated to Anthony. I hope I can have a following for Anthony, who is 13 and needs to have a family.  I hope that if you see that I have posted from my blog or from this link that you will share, share, share! The number of hits to my blog were amazing when  I asked you to share. usually my blog gets a few hits a day, but on Monday I had 50 !!!! this is the power of changing the world one person at a time. I want to change Anthony's world! he has arthrogryposis, which is what my amazing daughter Tracey has. arthrogryposis is not scary. There are really good services for these kids.  thank you for sharing and also praying.  I am requesting also a donation to his adoption fund.  Any and all donation will help change the life of this one child.  please share again from my blog or this link http://www.eliproject.org/children/anthony/ Thank you I

for a matching grant for Anthony!

This is Anthony. He is 13-years old. He has Arthrogryposis is all limbs. He is an orphan living in Eastern Europe. He needs to be adopted ASAP. In order for this to happen he needs donations made to his adoption fund so when his family finds him they do not have to fundraise as much. Do you have just $5? Right now you could turn that $5 into $10 because someone will be matching your donation! http://arthrogryposisadoption.blogspot.com/2013/01/anthony-has-matching-grant.html Bring Hope to 12

Like ·  · Share · 2 hours ago · 

for Anthony!

From Arthrogryposis Adoption: Anthony

http://arthrogryposisadoption.blogspot.com/

Our focus child for January has ZERO dollars toward the cost of his adoption! 

Lets change that! 

Remember it will cost around $20,000 to complete the adoption process for Anthony. 

I've had adoptive parents tell me that they were able to commit to their child because they knew a significant portion of the money it would cost to complete the paperwork had already been fundraised. 

So lets help lessen the financial barrier to Anthony getting a committed family! 

For every dollar donated between now and February 15th will be matched up to $1500 total!  

So $1 becomes $2

$5 becomes $10 

$12 becomes $24 

$50 becomes $100

Every.Single.Dollar WILL help!! 

He has waited for THIRTEEN YEARS 

He Turns 14 on February 15th so lets get $3,000 into his account by that time! 

Lets ensure he doesn't have to wait in 2014 too! 

Click here to donate to his adoption fund! 

http://arthrogryposisadoption.blogspot.com/

for international adoption

These are grim statistics about what is happening in the orphan crisis.  Fewer children are being allowed to be adopted out of orphanages where care is substandard.  Please read this article.  It is vital that willing parents are able to adopt these children.  share, donate, pray



Intercountry Adoption Numbers Continue to Decline 

January 25, 2013 – Alexandria, VA – This week the U.S. Department of State released its FY 2012 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption. According to the report, American families adopted 8,668 foreign-born children in 2012, a decline from the 9,319 that they adopted in 2011 – making 2012 the eighth straight year in which intercountry adoptions have decreased since the peak year of 2004, when close to 23,000 children were adopted from other countries.

Intercountry adoptions by American families began in the 1950s, when Harry and Bertha Holt appealed to Congress to change existing law and allow Americans to adopt children from other countries. Although the numbers were relatively low in those early years, intercountry adoptions to the U.S. began to rise sharply in the 1990s, following the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania. It was learned that tens of thousands of children had been orphaned or abandoned, and were living in orphanages in Romania. Americans responded by adopting thousands of these orphaned and vulnerable children.

In 2008, the U.S. implemented The Hague Adoption Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption (The Hague Convention), an international agreement established to provide universal protections and regulations for the adoption of children and promote cooperation among signatories of the agreement. 

Many advocates believed that The Hague Convention would result in increased opportunities for orphaned and abandoned children to find safe, permanent, loving families through intercountry adoption, but that has not occurred. No new countries have opened intercountry adoption programs under The Hague Convention since the treaty was implemented by the U.S., and several countries have closed to address issues within their adoption programs and reorganize under a new Hague Convention-compliant system.

The number of intercountry adoptions will likely continue to decline as adoption programs in both Hague and non-Hague nations slow or shut down. American families adopted nearly 1,000 Russian-born orphans in 2011, but Russia recently banned Americans from adopting Russian orphans as a result of the U.S. passage of the Magnitsky Act in December 2012. Two Countries, Vietnam and Cambodia, have recently announced their succession to the Hague Convention and readiness to resume intercountry adoption with the U.S. but as yet the U.S. has not agreed to work with them on behalf of children in need of a family.

"The decline in the number of intercountry adoptions has occurred at a time when the global orphan population has increased dramatically," notes Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of National Council For Adoption. "There are millions upon millions of children living outside of permanent family care – and for many, their best chance at securing a loving and permanent family is through intercountry adoption. The continued decline in intercountry adoptions is not good for children, and it is a disgrace and a travesty that more isn't being done to offer children the hope of a family through intercountry adoption."

NCFA continues to support The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, which requires much stronger oversight and greater transparency in the intercountry adoption process. "The Hague Convention is a foundation for transparent, ethical, and lawful adoption practices, and now that it is in place we must use it," says Chuck Johnson. "We must do more to expand opportunities for children in need of families to be adopted by those qualified and eager to adopt. We call upon children's advocates, child welfare officials, and government stakeholders in all nations to work together more effectively on behalf of orphaned and abandoned children, with the sense of compassion and urgency they deserve."

# # #


Adria Anderson
Development and Communications Associate
National Council For Adoption
225 N. Washington Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
T: 703.299.6633 | F: 703.299.6004
aanderson@adoptioncouncil.org
www.adoptioncouncil.org

for international adoption

Duval Quiver: The sad statistics :(: Intercountry Adoption Numbers Continue to Decline January 25, 2013 – Alexandria, VA – This week the U.S. Department of State released i...

ruminations

This is me when I first started this blog.

Jesus says: what so ever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.

What can I do for the least of these, these children of God, my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I fell in love with this little boy and was moved to start to do something even if it was just this little blog.

, 

And this is me now

I have figured out what I have to do for the orphans of Eastern Europe.  The words came to me when I was pondering (see photo above).  I took the words right off of Julia's blog.  and decided I was going to SCREAM and YELL for these ophans.  Igor was my first post.  He has a family now.

Here is Victoria who I blogged about here and here.  It took a lot of screaming and yelling and she also has a family now.  I am not taking credit for that, because so many other people were also blogging and fundraising for her.  

Then from many friends I found out that this 15 year old girl needed to be adopted quickly because on her 16th birthday she would be transferred to a mental institution.  She has a family now also.

She is now Alexandra Harlan and she has six brothers and sisters.

I have started to share these orphan stories with my 7th grade students who I teach in a Bible study.   Their eyes have been opened and their hearts also.  They asked to do a fundraiser for the orphans.   I found out that I can do small deeds and make a difference to one of these.

Read, donate, pray

for JOSEPH IGOR PATTERSON!!!

Remember this charming little guy? He was listed on Reece's Rainbow Adoption Ministry website as "Igor" Many people prayed for him and rallied together to find a family for him.  His new family traveled recently to Ukraine and adopted him and now he is Joseph Igor Patterson.

for Eva Claire

Anastasia is living in Arkansas now with her loving parents.  The isolation she experienced in the Ukrainian orphanage is over.   There are hardly words to describe the incredible change of fortune this means for her.   Loving arms, cuddles, laughs, warm bed, good food, a clean bed - all the things that are the most basic are the simple comforts she didn't have.  Here is "Anastasia" as the daughter she has become - she is Eva Claire