Here are Steven and Caleb on our old swing set. Kevin is trying to fix it so it's usable.
*****************************************************************************************************Here's my idea for raising awareness for Ruslan. I put his pictures on a Word document, made four side-by-side copies, and wrote "Pray for Ruslan . . he needs a family" on each one.
On the back I printed both the email and mailing addresses for Reece's Rainbow. This way people can contribute to the "older boys" fund and thus improve the chances for Ruslan to be adopted.
I cut the strips apart and laminated them using clear Contac paper--making a nice durable bookmark. Next I used a hole punch to make a hole in the end of each bookmark, doubled the bookmark over with Ruslan's picture turned outward and put red, white, or green Christmas ribbon through the hole. Then I tied the pictures to branches of the little scraggly Christmas tree I bought at WinCo for $2.95
I added miniature red velvet bows from the Dollar Tree and topped the whole thing off with a lacy Angel purchased at the Mustard Seed for 25 cents.
Finally I took the tree down to our church to be displayed at our Orphan/Adoption Awareness Workshop. The idea is for all the participants to pray for Ruslan collectively and then for each one to take a bookmark home to remind them to continue to pray until we hear he has a family.
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As Ruslan's prayer warrior, I have the great opportunity to advocate for him: Someone, somewhere out there in Blogland--please consider adding this sweet little boy to your family. He is listed with Reece's Rainbow under Older Boys. He turns 7 this month. This little guy has a special place in my heart. I first heard about him when we traveled in Jan 2008 to adopt Caleb. Honestly at that time I was frightened away by his Hep B diagnosis. Then when we traveled in Dec 2008 for Steven's SDA appointment, I got to meet Ruslan--he was in the same group as Steven and I was told they had both been transferred to the institution at the same time and were friends. Steven's worker encouraged us to adopt Ruslan as well. At the time, I don't think I responded with much more than a laugh and a question about his Hep B status. I did get to look at pictures in a book with this little darling and he seemed to really eat up the attention. Unfortunately I never got permission to photograph him. Well, as more and more time lapsed between the SDA appointment and our adoption hearing I began to wonder if maybe we could go ahead and grab Ruslan as well. After all we did have USCIS and home study approval for 2. However, when I asked our case worker about an amendment to our home study to accommodate Ruslan's age, she didn't want to do it. She felt it best to get Steven's adoption finished and get him settled into our home first--before adding another child to the mix. And many of you well remember just how wild and crazy our visits with Steven were. I really cannot imagine how we would have managed TWO little boys when Steven was so intent on spending the whole time running away, throwing toys out the window, hiding, knocking things on the floor, etc. Besides that, my husband had never really wanted to adopt 2 at a time--we had gotten approved for 2 that time without even asking!
So obviously Ruslan still needs a Mommy and Daddy of his own. And he desperately needs people to contribute to the "Older boys" fund at http://www.reecesrainbow.org/ Because of the high cost of international adoption, children with higher grants have much more chance of being adopted.
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