Grandparents' grief over twin with Down syndrome who was given up for adoption - while her sister now attends top private school

by Julian Robinson from The Daily Mail:

A couple have told of their grief after their weeks-old grandchild, born with Downs Syndrome, was given up for adoption and separated from her twin sister.

The grandparents, who have chosen not to be identified, have described how the tiny baby was handed over to social services while the parents decided to keep the healthy twin.

Now seven, the girls live completely different lifestyles with one living overseas and attending an international private school and the other receiving state primary education and living with her new family in a terraced house in England.

The case has similarities to that of Gammy, a Down’s syndrome baby born to a Thai surrogate.

The child was at the centre of an international outcry after his Australian parents were accused of leaving him in Thailand with his surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, and taking home the healthy twin. 

The couple, David and Wendy Farnell later denied this was the case insisting that the Thai mother would not hand over Gammy and have said they want to get the seven-month-old baby back.

Fraternity sponsors annual charity Christmas concert

by Clayton Leuba from the Utah Statesman:

Starry Night, a benefit concert presented by USU’s Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, will return to campus for its second year on Friday.

Featuring Christmas music in a variety of musical styles, the proceeds from the event will be donated to Racing for Orphans with Down Syndrome, a local nonprofit organization which aims to raise money to aid in the adoption of children who have Down syndrome.

“We hope this can be something people can come to to take a break from the hustle and bustle and spending of the holiday season to come out, listen to some good music and really remember what Christmas is all about,” said Joe Hill, the vice president of Alpha Tau Omega and the event chairman for Starry Night.

Last year’s concert, which Hill said raised $300 in donations for the Sub For Santa program despite not being a sanctioned fundraising event, lead Hill to the idea of using the concert as a philanthropic opportunity.

Tickets for the event, which requires semiformal attire for entry, are $7. Hill said Alpha Tau Omega hopes to raise more than $2,000 for RODS through the event, which will begin at 7 p.m. in USU’s Performance Hall.

Nicole Scherzinger wants to adopt child with Down syndrome

from Business Standard:
Nicole Scherzinger has said that she has wondered if God would bless her with a child with Down's syndrome and if that doesn't happen then she is considering adopting one.
The former Pussycat Doll, who became a Special Olympics ambassador because she grew up with an aunt who has the disability, said that her aunt is a positive influence and inspiration for her, Metro.co.uk reported.
The former girlfriend of Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton said that people get caught up in everyday little problems and in their own vanity, but her aunt Keziah Frederick is always happy and ready to give people love and hug no matter what.
Scherzinger said that her aunt is a big walking ball of love and has opened up her eyes and her heart to these special people like her.

Lizzy Cundy talks to Alan Cumming, whose latest film is set to warm hearts

by Lizzy Cundy from Daily Express:

INSPIRED by a true story from the late 1970s concerning an abandonned teenager with Down syndrome taken on by a gay couple and their legal fight to keep him, Any Day Now isn't going to be packing in the masses when it opens around the country.

However, it's a powerful tale of love that touches on legal and social issues that are as relevant today as they were 35 years ago.

Did Facebook Save an Unborn Child?

by Daniel Burke from CNN:
(CNN) – On Monday morning, a Catholic parish in Virginia posted an urgent message from its priest on Facebook.
A couple was pregnant with a child diagnosed with Down syndrome, said the Rev. Thomas Vander Woude of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, Virginia.
If they didn't find a couple willing to adopt the unborn child by the end of day, they would abort it, according to the priest.
Within hours, hundreds of couples had contacted the church with adoption offers, according to Holy Trinity staffers.
The parish had to bring in extra staff to field the phone calls flooding in from around the world, including the Netherlands, Puerto Rico and Canada, said Martha Drennan, the parish's director of Adult Faith Formation & Liturgy.
In addition, Vander Woude received upwards of 600 e-mails, Drennan said. "It has to be well over 1,000 couples who were interested in adopting the baby," she said.

Surrogate Mother Flees Halfway Across US to Save Baby From Intended Parents

by Kevin Dolak from ABC News:
The travails of carrying a baby for another couple took an emotional turn for a Connecticut surrogate whose ultrasound showed a fetus with birth defects. Her life was turned upside-down as she coped with pleas and even a monetary offer from the intended parents to abort while discovering that legally she had no rights over the pregnancy in her state, leading to a secret flight halfway across the U.S.
Crystal Kelley was a single mother of two girls when she decided to become a surrogate. In late 2011 Kelley, 30, wanted to help a couple conceive and she could use the surrogacy fee – often upwards of $20,000 -- to supplement her income as she raised her girls. Kelley outlined her experiences on her blog, Surrogate Insanity.
Through a surrogacy agency, Kelley was able to find an established family in New York with three other children who wanted to conceive. According to her blog, the couple, who have not been named, said they had two frozen embryos, which were transferred to Kelley in October 2011. Soon, she was pregnant.
The pregnancy started off fine. Kelley said that she received not only the financial support that she had expected from the intended parents of the baby, but emotional support as well. The intended mother called her frequently to check in and even bought Kelley's daughters Christmas presents.
But everything changed with her surrogacy on the day of her 21-week anatomy scan.
As Kelley explained in her blog, she saw flickers of concern come across the technician's face during the scan. Then she starting getting alarming messages from the intended mom, Kelley wrote.
"This is not good, this is a problem," a frantic series of texts from the intended mother read, according to Kelly. "We have to do something right away."
The scan showed that the fetus, which they had discovered was female, had a cleft palette. The unborn baby also had a cyst on her brain, Kelley wrote. They suspected that the baby had Down syndrome.
As Kelley explains it, after she went for a maternal blood screening test to check the fetus for Down syndrome, the intended mother called her and said she wanted her to abort, saying that the couple "do not intend to bring a child into the world that has a significant disability and will require several surgeries to survive," according to Kelley.
She realized that the midwives, who had contacted the facility, told the intended mother of the baby that there was cause for concern, Kelley wrote.
Kelley wrote that she was shocked. She didn't think the couple were the "'baby's not perfect, let's terminate type." She checked the contract she signed with the couple, which stated that for an abortion/reduction, there must be a "severe fetal abnormality," she wrote.

family welcomes girl with Down syndrome before Russian ban

from Daily Herald by Danny Crivello:
An American Fork family reportedly adopted a 4-year-old Russian girl with Down syndrome just days before Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children -- presumably making the girl, Hazel, one of the last of those now-banned adoptions.
Heather and Jeremy Fillmore welcomed Hazel into their American Fork home only an hour before Christmas began, the Deseret News reports. It took about 11 months for the Fillmores to bring the girl home from Russia prior to her arrival at Salt Lake City International Airport.
“It’s been tough, but worth it, and to have her here and be part of our family, it’s now great,” Jeremy Fillmore told the newspaper. “We feel like we’re complete and we’re excited to have her.”
The Fillmores will be among the last of more than 60,000 American families to bring up a Russian child as their own as Russia signed a bill this week outlawing the process. President Vladimir Putin's approval of the adoption ban will leave nearly 50 Russian children on the verge of adoption by U.S. families now stranded.
The Fillmores found Hazel through a website that advocates for children with special needs called Reece’s Rainbow Down Syndrome Adoption Ministry. She was the family’s second girl they adopted from Russia via the website. Anya, now 7, was adopted in March 2011, the newspaper reports.
Putin on Friday signed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators, the Associated Press reported.
Although some top Russian officials including the foreign minister openly opposed the bill and Putin himself had been noncommittal about it last week, he signed it less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament, where both houses passed it overwhelmingly.
Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for U.S. adoption would remain in Russia.
The bill has angered Americans and Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point, cutting off a route out of frequently dismal orphanages for thousands.

S.A. couple gives adopted kids greatest gift of all

from My S.A. by Elaine Ayala:

Stephanie and David Barnett didn't plan to adopt. The San Antonians weren't even sure they'd have children.

“I loved little kids, my nieces and nephews,” said Stephanie Barnett, 37. “But at the end of the day, I was ready to give them back.”

God, as she often says, had other plans, which slowly emerged over their 15-year marriage. “For years at a time, we got pieces of the puzzle,” she said.

Five major parts of it are named Copeland, Silas, Teague, Trenton and Maclayne.

Four of them have Down syndrome and of those, three were adopted from an Eastern European orphanage last year.

The Barnetts — members of Shearer Hills Baptist Church; she a former teacher, he an accountant — believe God assembled their family.

They didn't jump headlong into adopting special-needs children. They reflected. They prayed. Stephanie Barnett got past lifelong dreams of becoming a missionary. She suffered a miscarriage. They prayed some more.

Copeland Shane Barnett was the first. At 10, he's a fifth-grader in the North East Independent School District. He's also their only non-Down syndrome child. Born in Texas in 2002, he arrived at age 6 weeks by way of a relative and attorney helping place the child.

After Copeland, the couple knew they'd adopt again, but it would take six years to decide on a Down child.

Stephanie Barnett, a former high school English teacher who also taught reading to special-education students, gained perspective on the challenges such children face and the resources that would be needed.

Her husband struggled with it.

“I wanted to make sure it wasn't an impulse,” said David Barnett, 44.

By mid-2008, he was ready and texted his wife “out of the blue,” she recalled. “I called the Down syndrome association and asked about adoption agencies.”

Silas Eli Barnett, 41/2, arrived that same year. The handsome fellow came to them via an adoption agency. He, too, was born in Texas.

Family resistance brought heartache. The relatives who helped with their first adoption wouldn't serve as references for the second.

Stephanie Barnett handled criticism by saying, “'You're either with us, or without us.'” That family situation is a work in progress.

Then she read an article in People magazine about Andrea Roberts, founder of Reece's Rainbow, a nonprofit that assists international adoptions of special-needs children.

Getting their next three kids adopted and to the United States was expensive. God provided, the couple said. Stephanie Barnett quit her job and pulled out her retirement pay. David Barnett received a small inheritance.

Their five adoptions cost about $100,000.

“God gave us this call, specifically the last four,” she said. “If we did not adopt, to us, it would be our sin.”

It took only nine months to adopt Teague Josiah Barnett, 6; Trenton James Barnett, 4; and Maclayne Faith Barnett, 41/2.

Maclayne is the only girl and the only Barnett child not in school yet because of her medical condition. Nicknamed “Mackie,” some of her brothers also call her “Mac Attack.”

She weighs 21 pounds, has hypertension and is recovering from surgery that repaired holes in her heart. Her journey may have been the toughest but that can't be detected in her deliberate, bear-like hugs. Delicate she is not.

Mackie doesn't speak. A year ago she didn't even make noises. She couldn't sit up and was kept on the floor caged in by slats resembling a make-shift crib.

Mackie had sores on her shaved head. “She was self-injurious. She would pick at herself,” Stephanie Barnett said. “She was abused in the orphanage.”

David Barnett is a little uneasy with that assessment but acknowledges Mackie was fed a “gray gruel.”

“They poured a bottle down her throat,” he said, and used one better suited for feeding young livestock.

Mackie is now fed through a nasal-gastric tube, because she resists eating. That's another work in progress.

Those who treated Mackie at Methodist Children's Hospital consider her a miracle child.

“When they adopted Mackie she was 31/2 years old but weighed only 12.1 pounds,” JoAnn King, a spokeswoman for Methodist Healthcare, said in an email.

Born to a prostitute and alcoholic, Mackie also has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

“When her mother gave birth to her, she put her in a closet to die,” King said. “But neighbors heard noises and thought maybe a cat was stuck in the closet.”

She was found three days later.

“It also appears surgery was done on Mackie,” King said, noting the scar on her chest. “No one would tell the Barnetts about the surgery or scar.”

Had they not been adopted, all three children from that country would have been placed in a mental institution by age 4.

“Socially, they are unaccepted,” said Terri Mauldin, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of South Texas, which serves 900 families with in the San Antonio area. “They're considered inhuman.”

The Barnetts are soundly anti-abortion.

“Here's where I have to get on my soapbox,” Stephanie Barnett said, then added, through tears, “In the United States, 90 percent of women have abortions when they find out (about a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis). ... I have four children not worth life?”

Mauldin said the 90 percent statistic was true several years ago. Today, through education and awareness, it's down to 70 percent.

David Barnett wants people considering adoption of special-needs kids to know that children with Down syndrome are “regular kids.”

“Sure, your life changes,” Stephanie Barnett said. “But it will change with any child. We've been living in a Downs' world for 41/2 years now. We have become better human beings in the last 41/2 years than in our entire lives.”

Mauldin, the mother of a Down child, added those children can grow to hold jobs, learn in school and be successful.

They also fill a role society desperately needs, she said.

“They're nonjudgmental. They don't hold a grudge. They're kind to everyone. They are exactly what we as humans should be.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/S-A-couple-adopted-five-kids-four-of-them-4144415.php#ixzz2GSWaECkC

Russia's lower house approves bill to ban U.S. adoption

from CNN:
Lawmakers in Moscow moved to ban Americans from adopting Russian children Friday, as they passed a bill that imposes a series of sanctions on U.S. interests, state media reported.

Russia is one of the top sources of international adoptions to the United States.

The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, adopted the bill on its third reading, the state-run RAPSI news agency reported.

The measure will now move to the Federation Council and, if approved there, will go to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law, the news agency said.

The legislation could affect hundreds of American families seeking to adopt Russian children.

It also bars any political activities by nongovernmental organizations receiving funding from the United States, if such activities may affect Russian interests, the news agency said, and imposes sanctions against U.S. officials thought to have violated human rights.

The move by Russian politicians is widely seen as retaliation to a law that U.S. President Barack Obama signed on December 14. That bill, called the Magnitsky Act, imposes U.S. travel and financial restrictions on human rights abusers in Russia. It was criticized by Russian leaders.

The U.S. act is named after a Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky who uncovered the largest tax fraud in the country's history in the form of rebates claimed by government officials who stole money from the state. After Magnitsky died in a Moscow detention center in 2009, his name became the basis of Washington's list of Russian officials who were involved in the tax fraud and in the deceased lawyer's detention.

The bill passed by the State Duma is named in turn after Dima Yakovlev, a 2-year-old boy who died while in the care of a U.S. adoptive family, RAPSI said.

Its implementation would nullify an agreement between the United States and Russia, in which the countries agreed to additional safeguards to protect children and parties involved in intercountry adoptions.

From 1999 to 2011, there were 45,112 adoptions to the United States from Russia, second to only China, according to the U.S. State Department statistics. However, the number of adoptions from Russia has waned in recent years after a peak in 2005.

Backers of the Russian bill said American adoptive parents have been abusive, citing 19 deaths of Russian children by their foster parents since the 1990s, according to local media.

In 2010, an American woman sent her adopted son back to Russia, saying that the then-7-year-old boy had violent episodes that made the family fear for its safety.

Amnesty International called Thursday on Russian lawmakers to reject a measure it said would "have a chilling effect on human rights defenders and civil society," as well as ending U.S. adoptions.

"There is a huge risk that the vaguely worded provisions in this bill will be used to clamp down on government critics and exposers of abuses. Indeed this would appear to be its real purpose," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia program director.

"This bill is frankly a childish response to the Magnitsky Act. The Duma should be focusing its efforts on how it can strengthen Russian civil society and not weaken it."

"Any Day Now" true story film about a gay man adopting a boy with Down syndrome in 1979

by Gregg Shapiro from GA Voice:
This year ends on an especially high note for LGBT film with “Any Day Now” (Music Box Films), starring out actor Alan Cumming as Rudy, a gay West Hollywood man who must deal with a prejudicial and antiquated court system as he attempts to adopt a boy with Down syndrome in 1979.
Cumming gives the performance of his career and even has the opportunity to sing a couple of numbers in the movie.
“Any Day Now” is written and directed by straight filmmaker Travis Fine, an Atlanta native, based on an original screenplay by George Arthur Bloom.
“There was something that drew me to this notion of this outsider trying to raise this child, trying to save this child — the Rudy character and the young boy being outsiders,” Fine says, noting that he added the character of Paul, Rudy’s closeted partner, who was not in the original script.
“There was also something in the situation that moved me as a parent,” he says. “I wasn’t exactly quite sure why it spoke to me, but it did in a deep profound way.”
The film is set in 1979 West Hollywood, but could just as easily have taken place in 1989 or 1999. Fine said he chose to keep the earlier time period because the original screenplay was based on a true story, and to explore “the gritty, character-driven” style of 1970s cinema.
“From a political point of view, the story would be different, certainly in Los Angeles in 2009 or 2012,” Fine says. “But as we all know, there are still certain places, even within this country, where the story wouldn’t be that much different. There would be some of the same challenges and hurdles and obstacles.”
Fine says he was thrilled to have openly gay actor Alan Cuming in the lead role.
“As a straight filmmaker who had the honor of telling an important, profound and moving story about a chapter in the late ‘70s of the LGBT movement, it was incredibly important to have Alan take on that role,” Fine says.
“Not only is Alan a sensational actor, an incredible talent and a wonderful human being, but he’s an OBE, an Order of the British Empire, knighted by  the Queen for his work on LGBT rights and equality,” he says. “He is not just giving lip service to equality. He has fought that fight and been a vocal champion and proponent of equality and LGB T rights.”
Rudy begins carrying for Marco, a teen with Down Syndrome, after he visits a neighboring apartment to complain about noise and finds the young man abandoned by his mother. Isaac Levya’s performance as Marco is “brilliant,” Fine says, noting that he edited the character to fit the actor.
“We put out a nationwide search for the kid, both through traditional agents and managers and casting directors around the country and also through the Down Syndrome Associations all  around the country,” Fine says.
“We saw people as young as 12 and 13 and some that were  as old as their mid-20s. Isaac, from his very first reading which I saw on my computer, his first audition tape, there was something so charming, so sweet and honest about his performance,” he says. “It didn’t feel like acting.”
“Any Day Now” has won several awards at film festivals, has crossover appeal and the potential to be remembered fondly at Oscar time. As the film heads to wider release this month, “I hope the audiences find it,” Fine says.
“While it can be challenging to sit through at times, and it certainly covers some heavy political and emotional and personal issues, it is ultimately a crowd pleaser.”
The movie opens December 21.

Top photo: ‘Any Day Now’ stars Alan Cumming (right) as Rudy, a gay man who wants to adopt Marco, a boy with Down Syndrome, played by Isaac Levya (center). Garret Dillahunt (left) is Rudy’s closeted partner, Paul. (Publicity photo via Facebook)

Andrea Roberts Helps Orphans With Down Syndrome Find Homes

By Alicia Dennis and Christina Tapper from People:

Andrea Faris Roberts figured her new son, born in 2002, got his almond-shaped eyes from her husband, Rich.

But when doctors confirmed that Reece had Down syndrome, "I couldn't stop crying," says Andrea, whose prenatal tests were normal. "I thought, 'What's tomorrow going to be like?' "

The answer: Reece has not only enriched his parents' lives but inspired his mom to save kids with Down syndrome around the world. Researching her son's condition, Andrea learned that in many countries, babies born with the disorder are often abandoned and left in orphanages.

Launching Reece's Rainbow in 2004, the former account manager wrote grant applications and networked with adoption agencies, ultimately dispersing over $4 million to fund adoptions of more than 850 children from Russia, China, Mexico and elsewhere.

Parents like John and Charissa Urban of Owasso, Okla., wouldn't know the love of Ava, now 8, adopted from Ukraine in 2008 without the help of Reece's Rainbow. They turned to the organization to help with funds to bring home little Ava – who weighed only 19 lbs. and was unable to roll over at age 3.

Though she initially had to use a walker to get around, Ava is now running, jumping and playing with her six siblings, including two who are adopted also (one of whom also has Down syndrome). "She's the center of our family," Charissa says. "We're so grateful."

Andrea says that families are being built every day.

"What is wonderful about Reece's Rainbow, is that families can go and see children's photos on the website and know that money is being raised to help with the adoption costs," says Andrea. "They see that it is a better possibility for them to be able to afford to adopt without the years of painful heartbreak in waiting to try to raise funds."

Today, 10-year-old Reece is in the 5th grade and loves playing basketball with his little brother, Owen, 7, in the family's yard in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He's also challenging his father at golf.

"He's got a better golf game than my husband any day of the week," laughs Andrea, 40. "He's got a wonderful swing."

Andrea insists that children with Down syndrome in institutions around the world are not forgotten and would be adopted if more families could afford the typical $25,000 fee (which includes home study costs, travel and adoption expenses).

"After six and a half years, all I can say to the world is, 'I told you so. I told you these kids were wanted,' " says Andrea. "Today, 850 children are not hidden away in institutions anymore. We have new connections every single day."

She adds: "If we had a full grant for every child on our website, we would have no children on our website. The cost is what is hard for people but every life is worth it. If we had more sponsors who could write a check for each of these kids and they would all have families. All of them."

And the proud mother says that her son Reece continues to be an inspiration.

"Reece," she says, "has helped so many families begin."

Reece's Rainbow is in the running to win a $50,000 grant

 

If you are new to Reece's Rainbow, we are a 501c3 charity with advocates and fundraises for the international adoption of children with Down syndrome and other special needs exclusively.   In only 6 years, we have found adoptive families for more than 850+ children around the world, and disbursed more than $4 million in adoption grant funding to save them!

Reece's Rainbow is in the running to win a $50,000 grant from Cultivate Wines.  IF we should win, (10) waiting orphans with Down syndrome in (10) different countries will each recieve a $5000 grant towards the cost of their adoption.  (list of children will be revealed at the end!)  Money is the ONLY thing standing in the way for these children to be FOUND and to come home to loving "forever families".

The voting period is between September 19-October 31.  We need EACH OF YOU to vote ONCE A DAY!   Every vote helps, and we can't make up for votes at the last minute like some other contests.

Restrictions:  this contest is open only to voters over the age of 21, and you must have a Facebook account to vote.  (contest rules) 

PLEASE visit this link every day, vote, and share on your Facebook, blog, yahoo groups, Twitter, with your friends and family.   This is an important opportunity for the children and the ministry as a whole for greater visibility as we go into our Angel Tree! (starting November 1)  

Any questions can be directed to me personally at andrea@reecesrainbow.org 

Thank you for your support!

http://www.cultivatewines.com/cause/49260/

Andrea Roberts, Founder & Executive Director
Reece's Rainbow Down Syndrome Adoption Ministry
www.reecesrainbow.org

E-mail:  andrea@reecesrainbow.org

Yahoo Messenger:  luvbama93

Skype:  reecesrainbow

Facebook:  Andrea Faris Roberts

Twitter:  @momtoreece and @reecesrainbow

Dad becomes Ironman for son, orphans with Down syndrome

from KSL.com by Stephanie Grimes:
One of the greatest blessings in Brady Murray's life is having a son with Down syndrome.
It was his 4-year-old son, Nash, who inspired him to tackle the stereotypes surrounding Down syndrome and the challenges faced by those trying to adopt the children.
"Down syndrome in society in most cases is seen as a negative," Murray said. "But these are very special children. They light up a room, and they do things that others aren't able to do. They're able to help individuals feel unconditional love in a way I've never seen other people be able to do."
And some of the worst off of these children — those sent to orphanages shortly after birth due to the condition — are often found in eastern Europe, where they spend their first five to six years in an orphanage before being sent to spend the remainder of their lives in an adult mental institution.
Adoption costs for these children can be upwards of $30,000, unattainable for many who hope to be parents. And that is where Racing for Orphans with Down syndrome comes in.
Murray started the organization after looking at Reece's Rainbow, an organization dedicated to
finding homes for orphaned children with Down syndrome. Murray learned in November that what was stopping the children from finding a home was not a lack of interested adoptive parents, but rather, a lack of funding.
"I said, ‘If money is the only thing keeping these kids from being adopted, we can do something about that,'" Murray said.
He and his wife, Andrea, started off simply. They donated to Reece's Rainbow that year for Christmas instead of buying gifts for friends and family. They told their story at family gatherings and to their friends who had children with Down syndrome. Gradually, the money came in, but Murray said it was a miracle at Christmastime that really got things started.

The Ironman was a challenge — perhaps one of the hardest he had faced — but Murray said it was well worth it, partly because of the opportunities it created.

This year, the Ironman World Championship decided to hold a contest that will allow eight people the chance to compete in the event without qualifying. Hopefuls had to enter a short video showing what inspired them to compete, and Murray chose to highlight RODS Racing. He hopes by competing, he will raise more awareness for the cause.
"I firmly believe that when an individual hears the story, if it's supposed to be, then in their heart of hearts they know they want to help," he said. "So it's simply a matter of creating awareness." Murray hopes others can come to see Down syndrome as he sees it: a blessing that allows people to learn to love and accept others.
"Having Nash has allowed me to see people how we should see them: as people, as children of God," he said. "And to recognize that every single person is very, very special, and that every person has talents and abilities, and has potential."
"Regardless of their background, education or perceived disabilities, they have a divine potential," he continued. "I didn't know that before I had Nash, and that's something he has taught me."
Doug Brasher, at Brasher's Auto Auction, knows Murray and what he was trying to do. So for the company's annual Christmas car auction — the proceeds from which go to charity — Brasher decided to donate the proceeds to Reece's Rainbow to help fund the adoption of a child named Eli, whom the Murrays had chosen as the first child they would help.
"The first dealer bought it, then he donated it back," Murray said. "Then another dealer bought it, and donated it back. This happened eight times. In the end, $13,000 was generated."
Very quickly, the $13,000 in Eli's account became $20,000, and Murray began to think about how else he could raise money for the children on Reece's Rainbow. He had been thinking about participating in an Ironman triathlon for some time, and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to raise awareness for his cause.
"All of those fears and anxieties and doubts for me, thinking whether or not I could do a full Ironman went out the door," he said. "I was going to do it for these kids."
He signed up for the St. George Ironman, at which point he founded Racing for Orphans with Down syndrome, or RODS Racing. The organization focuses on finding funding for one child at a time, raising enough money — usually $15,000-$20,000 — to cover the majority of adoption costs.

Daunting problems, undaunted parents

from the Philadelphia Inquirer by Tom Avril:

Reduced to bare numbers, the story of Katie seems impossible.
Age: 9 1/2 years.
Height: 29 inches.
Weight: Less than 11 pounds.
Yet that is how she was, lying in a crib in a Bulgarian orphanage, when Susanna Musser showed up to become her mom.
The little girl was alive, more or less. Her legs looked thin as broomsticks. Her skin was colorless, her brown eyes empty. She looked as if she might break.
Thousands of miles away, physicians at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reviewed her records and struggled to understand. Katie had Down syndrome, but that would not explain why, at the age most children enter fourth grade, she weighed little more than a baby.
The doctors eventually agreed with Susanna and her husband, Joe, that this was a case of horrific neglect - that Katie, along with more than a dozen other disabled children at the orphanage, was simply a victim of long-term starvation.
What Katie needed, in careful doses, was healthy food. Once she left the orphanage for her trip back to Pennsylvania, however, the hollow-faced child had other ideas.
Finally in the arms of parents who had waited months to hold her fragile body, Katie suddenly refused to eat.

A blessing

It began, as so much else does these days, with the Internet.
Joe and Susanna Musser had a large, happy bunch of kids in their cozy, gray-shingled house, at the end of a gravel driveway in Lancaster County. Joe, a former pastor, earned a living as a carpenter, while Susanna taught their nine children at home.
Then came Verity. The Mussers' 10th child, whose name means truth, was born with Down syndrome. Though they knew almost nothing about children with disabilities, they saw her as a blessing from God.
So when Susanna started a blog, she named it "The Blessing of Verity," and it quickly drew an avid group of followers.
One of them e-mailed Susanna to ask about adopting children with Down syndrome, so Susanna did some research. She came across a Today show video from 2007, with wrenching images of emaciated children, confined to cribs in a Serbian mental institution. Some, like Verity, had Down syndrome.
Devout Christians, Susanna and Joe couldn't imagine that someone like their daughter would be discarded that way.
They looked at each other and realized that they, too, wanted to adopt.

Read the full story here.

a family welcomes a second adopted daughter with Down syndrome

from The Oregonian by Tom Hallman Jr.:

The Christmas gift arrived unexpectedly in the heat of summer when a woman in rural Washington County picked up the phone and was confronted with a choice that she knew would ultimately alter the course of a life.

What if she hadn't been home? Or had declined, saying the timing wasn't right? Both haunting questions that get to the core of love, sacrifice and family -- concepts people focus on so intently during this time of year.

With one little word -- "yes" -- a journey began.

Though it may have started out of desperation, it ended in joy Friday afternoon -- just two days before Christmas -- when a family gathered in a courtroom for a simple ceremony that couldn't begin to do justice to all that had taken transpired during the past five months.

The call came on July 13 when Sandi Brannock's husband was at work and the couple's six kids were busy playing in another part of the house. At her desk, she glanced at the caller identification and read Cincinnati. Brannock knew only one person there. And, sure enough, when she picked up it was Robin Steele, coordinator for the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network. Five days earlier, a mother had given birth in Washington state to twin girls. One was healthy. The other had a heart defect and Down syndrome, both a complete surprise. The parents had decided they were going to take one twin home and leave the other behind. Called boarder babies, these children become wards of the state, which places them in foster care. Steele, who 35 years ago adopted such a child, had been searching her organization's database to find someone who might take this child.

The parents were checking out of the hospital in two days.

She needed to find a family who not only had an interest in adopting a special needs child, but who had also completed a detailed home study, the first step in the adoption process. The computer came up with Sandi and Kirk Brannock. Eighteen months earlier, the couple -- both 46 and married for 17 years -- had adopted Amira, a two-week-old Washington baby girl who had Down syndrome. Steele had an important question for Sandi: Were they interested in adopting again?

Brannock asked if any other families had expressed interest.

No.

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The circumstances touched a nerve with Brannock, a registered nurse who had worked in a hospital's postpartum and neonatal unit before quitting to raise her children. She knew of a single mother who planned to put her unborn child up for adoption, but the adoptive family backed out when the child was born with cerebral palsy. The birth mother also walked away, and the child was institutionalized. The story hit close to home because one of the Brannocks' sons, Cole, 12, has cerebral palsy.

Brannock told Steele she had to talk with her husband, who works in the high tech field. After a quick phone conversation, she got back to Steele and said yes.

That evening, the couple gathered their five sons, ages 6 to 16. Before they had adopted Amira -- who now walked around the living room during the discussion -- they talked with their boys about what it would mean for their lives. Once again, they wanted their boys to weigh in. One day, when their parents were gone, the responsibility of having sisters with special needs would fall to the boys, they told them. The answer was unanimous. They were gaining another sister, one they would love as much as they loved Amira.

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The next morning, the family climbed into their 10-seat bus and set out to bring another little girl home. On the way, the adoption caseworker called on a cellphone and told the Brannocks to go to the hospital where paperwork giving them legal permission to see the baby would be waiting.

They arrived at the hospital early in the evening. The boys and their sister stayed in the neonatal waiting room. Their parents were each given a wristband that read "Baby A." On the band was the date the unnamed girl was born. Brannock studied the band, trying to remember what she'd been doing the day the girl she now considered her daughter was born. A nurse led the way to a room with a sliding glass door. She passed a crib where a healthy baby girl slept and stopped in front of a crib near the back of the room. She picked up a bundle and placed it in Sandi Brannock's arms. Brannock scooted over so her husband could sit next to her. She pulled back the blanket to look at the little face.

The baby was small and pale, more fragile than Brannock had expected, and she said a silent prayer asking for strength.

Kirk Brannock took pictures of baby on his cellphone, then went to show the kids her image. Nurses told Sandi Brannock the baby had heart problems and had undergone blood transfusions, which was why she was so pale. Brannock handed the baby back to a nurse. She said she and her husband would return Friday, and the family checked in to a nearby motel.

Sandi Brannock didn't want this newborn girl to leave the hospital without a name. She researched names online, studying the meaning of each one. None felt right.

Then she found Elyana -- God has answers.

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The next morning, the Brannocks drove to the adoption agency to complete the paperwork and to meet the parents who decided to give up one of their daughters.

At 11:30 a.m., the parents walked into the room with Elyana's sister in a baby carrier. Sandi Brannock expected a drug-addicted mother, or maybe a young girl. Instead, she found an attractive couple who appeared to be at least middle class. The parents were too nervous to sit, and they stood in the middle of the room. At one point, Brannock studied Elyana's sister. She saw the clear resemblance between the two girls, save for the distinctive facial features that indicated Down syndrome. The couple told the Brannocks they had a 3-year-old son who knew his mother had given birth to twins. The parents said they planned to tell him one of his sisters had gone to live with a family who would care for her.

As gently as possible, Kirk Brannock asked why they'd decided to give up one daughter. When the Brannocks had decided to adopt Amira, some people couldn't understand why. Even though it felt right to them, they approached it analytically, listing the pros and cons. The only "con" was fear. And that was not enough to stop them from going ahead.

Fighting tears, the woman said she and her husband were their parents' only children. They had no family in the area to help them raise a special-needs child. They both had demanding careers. They said they wanted the baby girl to live with a family who could do a better job than they could. The birth mother, clearly hurting, began crying. She said she loved the little girl.

The Brannocks would never judge this woman and her husband, a couple so full of fear and doubt. Better than anyone else, they knew what they were going through and would never want them to feel guilty. A little baby -- made the way Sandi believes God intended her -- would soon be joining a family eagerly awaitng her arrival. But it was impossible to say it just then. All the Brannocks could do was wrap their arms around this couple and hug them tightly.

When the meeting ended, the Brannocks returned to the hospital, where they filled out more paperwork and scheduled appointments in Portland with a pediatrician and a heart specialist.

Then they carried Elyana Brannock to meet her brothers and sister.

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Elyana was so small and fragile that doctors had to wait three months before she'd gained enough weight to fix the hole in her heart. She was eventually released from the hospital and sent home, but the recovery took more than a month. It wasn't until late November that their little girl was clearly healing.

A date -- what the family called "the day" -- was set to make the adoption official.

Two days before Christmas they all gathered in the Washington County Courthouse, waiting to be brought in to a courtroom where Circuit Court Judge Rita Batz Cobb  would sign the adoption papers. All the Brannock kids, their parents, grandparents and family friends packed the hallway, waiting for the signal that it was time.

He reached for his cellphone, tapped the picture icon up popped a photo of Elyana.

"The rough patch in her life is over," Brannock said. "She smiled for the first time two days ago. We got it on film."

traveled halfway around the world to find their son

from The Northwestern by Patricia Wolff:

New father Jake Gibson can barely take his eyes off his beautiful blued-eyed boy, the one he and wife Ashley traveled halfway around the world to find.

The Gibsons, both 27, used the services of Reece’s Rainbow Down Syndrome Ministry, an adoption agency, to find Carter, 3, and bring him back from Ukraine a little more than one month ago.

The last month has been one of pure joy for the couple who sought out a special needs child to be their first. Carter has Down syndrome. It’s that extra chromosome that the Gibsons love so well, Ashley said.

Some people who have babies with Down syndrome grieve the loss of their dream from the perfect child. Not the Gibsons. They volunteered for the job.

These two are joyful; there could be no disguising the level of joy they obviously possess. Jake said he can hardly wait to get home from his sales job at supper time and is ecstatic to arrive home from church youth leadership events to find Carter waiting for him. After than it’s snuggle time on the couch, he said.

“Coming home at night and having a little boy run into my arms is so wonderful,” Jake said. “Fatherhood is different than what I expected, but it’s a better different.”

Where some people see challenge, they see potential. Where some see extra work, they see service to another and obedience to God.

“We’re not special people. We are not these big saviors,” Ashley said. “God just said ‘do this,’ and we said ‘yes.’ It’s as simple as that.”

The couple met at Valley Christian High School and began dating as seniors. They married five years ago. There is no medical reason standing in the way of biological children. They anticipate perhaps having two children that way and adopting at least one more special needs child.

But for now they are concentrating on establishing bonds with Carter, who at 3 and a half is normal on the Down syndrome growth chart but is similar in size and development to a normal 2-year-old.

He loves bath time, is a good eater and likes to explore his world. He recently discovered how fun it is to flip a plastic container of powered sugar around to see it fall and feel its heft as it hits the sides of the container.

At first frightened of Moses, the family’s Springer spaniel, Carter has learned to enjoy his company. “They’re best buds,” Jake said.

He has learned to walk in their care. They are teaching him sign language because they realize children with Down syndrome have trouble with muscle control and learning to talk is more challenging for them.

But, that will come in due time. As will potty training, Ashley said.

Because they said yes to God’s urging them to adopt a special needs child the Gibsons believe God has blessed them with a loving, easy-going child. Ashley, who left her teaching job to be a stay-at-home mother, can’t believe how easy caring for Carter has been so far.

“He sleeps 11 hours at night and takes a three-hour nap during the day,” she said.
The Gibsons are Christians and take the teachings of the Bible to heart.

“God tells us to go help widows and orphans. This world would be a better place if more people would help out,” Jake said.

The Gibsons found that out first hand when their church, Winneconne Christian Fellowship, held a benefit for them in the summer. It raised $24,000 to defray the $30,000 it cost to adopt Carter.

Lisa Gander, a member of the small church, is continually amazed at the generosity of the congregation that numbers right around 100. That the Gibsons are such a loving couple and their mission so pure made it all the more understandable that people rallied around them, she said. “The Gospel, the Bible, we believe it and we believe in following through on the commandments of God. Being generous is one of them.”

But, the Gibsons are human. They had their doubts. In fact when Ashley first suggested they adopt a child with Down syndrome through Reece’s Rainbow, Jake was very skeptical.

“I said absolutely not. Look at the price tag. I don’t have the capabilities,” he told her.

Ashley had already fallen for the little boy she saw on the Reece’s Rainbow site. It turned out to be Carter. Unbeknownst to Ashley, Jake had looked at the site and by chance saw Carter, too. “I fell in love with him,” Jake said.

After that, they never looked back. They immediately began the huge task of applying to adopt him. A mountain a paperwork later and with two trips to Ukraine under their belts, the Gibsons brought their boy home.

They are under no illusions about the work that lay ahead. Parenthood is a huge job. Their immediate goal is to bond with Carter and make sure he feels safe, they said.

His birth parents took him home from the hospital following his birth determined to care for him. The mother had suffered complications in childbirth that would make more children impossible.

Several months later they admitted they were not up for the job and handed him over to the orphanage. They continued to visit him regularly until they adopted another, healthy child.

That breaks the Gibsons hearts. They understand the damage that would have been done to Carter’s psyche. He lost his mother and father and was cared for by a staff.

Orphanages in Ukraine are far from deluxe accommodations, the Gibsons said.

“He has not had one mom; he’s had five nannies a day,” Ashley said.

Carter didn’t stand a chance in Ukraine where Down syndrome is considered a curse. Children born with it are almost always left at the hospital and then go to orphanages. If no one adopts them by age 6, they go to mental institutions. “Some don’t last a year,” Ashley said.

In the Central and Eastern European countries including Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania, some 1.5 million children have been abandoned by their families.

The Gibsons’ plan for Carter is that he grow up feeling loved and safe. They realize he will face limitations. He may not know the joy of marriage or fatherhood. But he can lead a fulfilling life. He can hold a job. They expect that one day he may be able to live on his own with minor assistance.

“He is going to know he is different,” Ashley said. “Our job is to teach him there is no weakness in being different.”