We have committed to adopting "Randall" on the Reece's Rainbow site! He is 15 years old and has Down Syndrome. He is amazing! We can not wait to get him home!
Our paperwork is very close to being submitted! We have very little time to raise the remaining funds and we hope o add a second child, but want to be fully funded for "Randall" first.
We have several fundraisers happening right now:
We are selling "Kalinovka Love" t shirts with this logo:
We also have a weight loss fundraiser that will be wrapping up in 2 weeks. But we hope to repeat it. In this fundraiser, YOU can actually win cash prizes! If you are interested, you can join he FB group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/285309588295185/
We would also like to ask for your prayers as we have lots of things going on at home. Surgery coming up for both Silas and Andre, school placement issues for Silas & other issues. Many prayers are appreciated!
This adoption has been very draining. I thought the second time would be easier, boy was I wrong! We have had several delays and wrenches thrown in.
For one, the FBI seems to be unable to read my fingerprints on a card. They have been sent back twice and now I am being told I will need to pay again to have my check done even though I have never received the background check. It delayed our home study to the point that I paid to just have an electronic check to finish the home study. That is fine for the home study but IF the country we are adopting from implements a mandatory FBI check I am unsure what I will do. Because I will need a hard copy that is apostilled, not an electronic copy.
Fundraising has been difficult and we have had several failed fundraisers. We will have an "Upcycle" fundraiser that just started today that we hope will be successful. It is recycling your old cell phones. I will blog more in detail later but if you want to check it out the link is here https://www.causesinternational.com/upcycle/feinland
We have also had some bigger issues regarding the children that we have chosen to adopt. WE will not be bringing either girl home, each for a different reason.
"Della" previously had a family committed to her. A beautiful family; a mother a father and two young boys. I am actually good friends with Jenny, the mother, and they helped us financially start the adoption process for her because they wanted so badly for her to have a family even though they were unable to be that family. The circumstances that forced them to back out of the adoption process are no longer there and they decided they wanted to resume international adoption.
The first time this family was in the process to adopt "Della," they were asked by members of their church to take in a family from Haiti that had been living in a bus. The couple had two young girls. The couple asked them to adopt these girls and left them with the family. The social worker that was completing their home study told them that they did, in fact, have to choose between the two girls in their home and "Della," that they simply could not adopt the girls and "Della." They chose the girls that were in their home, as how could they do anything otherwise? The parents returned two months later and took the girls back for a day then brought them back only to return to take them back. There were other things that happened that prompted this mother to call Child Protection Services. The birth father did not take to this lightly. He threatened to kill this woman, her children and proceeded to go the girls school and threatened to kill the teachers and students because of the on-going investigation. This man is now in jail and the birth mother has custody of the children. This would have been enough to break many of us. But this family is determined to adopt and after grieving for some time, decided to resume adopting internationally.
When I initially found out they intended to resume the process, deep down I knew what the right thing to do would be. But I ignored it. I continued to talk to my friend Jenny and we would even discuss what child she may commit to adopting. I finally started discussing with my husband about if we should offer this family the chance to resume adopting "Della." We discussed. We prayed. We discussed more. I consulted with a few other adoptive mommas who I trust and of course my wonderful facilitator, Nancy. We did decide to offer them the chance for us to step aside to resume the process and of course they accepted. We are happy for them and very at peace with this decision. After all, we know that we will meet this sweet girl and follow her journey coming home and beyond. We will still be able to follow her as she blossoms in a loving family. This was decided some time ago and we were just waiting on them to obtain the proper paperwork that would allow them to commit to her through Reece's Rainbow.
How we lost "Kree" is a completely different story. We received a call from Nancy on Monday that another family that is in country now is adopting her. I cried. I knew that this was possible and had even suspected it a while ago. It has been happening to a lot of families lately.
So now we are feeling a bit lost and are unsure who we will be bringing home. We will take our time with this decision. We appreciate your prayers and support
Yesterday (April 9) was our 8 year wedding anniversary. Thanks to our awesome family warrior, Chelsea, have a fundraiser going on to try to get as many $8 donations as possible to our adoption in honor of our 8 years together. Our You Caring Account can be found on this page or you can make a tax deductible donation to our Reece's Rainbow FSP :) http://reecesrainbow.org/70811/sponsorfeinland-2
Silas has a condition called Tardive Dyskenesia/Dystonia in addition to his Cerebral Palsy. It is a result of the immense amount of drugs that he was given in the orphanage in Ukraine. His case is so severe, the doctors that have seen him have NEVER seen anything like it. It is a subject that I have not talked a lot about, because it is heartbreaking and affects our lives and his every minute of every day. I will share videos and pictures in this post, that I warn you, are not easy to see.
I have decided to share more about his condition, because I do not feel that my words are enough for others to realize how serious this is. And I feel that awareness needs to be brought to this condition. Dystonia is the involuntary movement of muscles. In Silas, it comes in a few different ways.
Our first experiences with Silas' dystonia were in the form of drug withdrawals the night we took him out of the orphanage. As the days went on, these got worse. During our last layover in Chicago on the trip home, Silas actually turned blue because he was in such pain. With dystonia, anytime Silas' body is under ANY kind of stress, the result is dystonic episodes that cause painful opistotonic posturing. These can best be described as strong muscle spasms that cause his body to arch backwards. Here are some videos from his hospitalization in December 2012. Doctors had no sense of urgency to relieve his pain, so I started video recording the episodes.
He has hypertonic extensor muscles because his body is constantly extending (think a plank position.) He has strong pelvic thrusts that are constant. This really creates a problem in his wheel chair because His heals will rub the footrests causing his heels to have bruises and skin breakdown. We have duct taped pool noodles around his chair, but his tone is so strong he just kicks it off. We have been fighting with the wheel chair rep to get a dynamic chair and he was finally fitted for one about a month ago. This chair will move with him instead of him rubbing against it.
This video is an example of the constant extension of his legs:
His Chair with the pool noodles both zip tied and duct taped:
In his wheel chair, he can have so much pain that he actually breaks out in a sweat as seen in the following pictures:
Silas can not endure long car rides. We have yet to figure out why but more that 45 minutes in a car causes dystonic episodes, as seen in this video.
As I said ANY time his body is under ANY stress, it triggers his dystonic episodes. If he is getting a cold, is over tired, is constipated,upset because he wants to be held etc. Last week he had a cold. He woke up at 4am screaming and thrashing around like a fish out of water. I tried extra muscle relaxers, holding him, nothing worked.It went on all day until he fell asleep that evening.
What is being done to help him?
We have been to several specialists over the last year and 4 months. It has taken many to figure out what exactly is wrong. Several medications have been tried. He is currently on 8 different medications. The next step is Deep Brain Stimulation surgery, which he is scheduled for in June. We were under the impression that he would be having this surgery much sooner, but that is the soonest he can get in. We may look into going out of state in order to have it done sooner, if we can. We hold him A LOT because it helps him with the pain.
Please pray for our Silas. He is in a lot of pain every day. And that this upcoming surgery will help.
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