Christmas Warrior for Quinton

I am excited & proud to have signed up to be a christmas warrior to Quinton for Reeces Rainbow Angel Tree. The goal is to raise $1,000 or more for your childs grant fund! I would love to raise a full grant for Quinton. When you donate $35 or more for a child, you will recieve a beautiful photo ornament (WHEN DONATION MADE BEFORE DECEMBER 15!) of your sponsored child to hang on your tree! This is a very special way to "share Christmas" with an orphaned child, and to make it possible for other American and Canadian families to afford the high cost of rescuing them from orphanages and mental institutions around the world!
So if you would like to donate to Quintons grant fund & receive a lovely ornament with his picture on it (the picture shown to the right)i will have a way to on here tomorrow as thats when the angel tree starts! If you are unable to donate then please keep these children in your prayers!
Thanks!

Its Down Syndrome awareness month!

What is it truely like to have someone special like that in your family whether it be sister, brother, aunt, uncle, etc.?
It is an Honor to have them in your family. I know as I was blessed with an older sister with this extra chromosome! Yes, we siblings do have our struggles as well as parents do but we manage! Can they live a normal life? They most certainly can! My sister loves to dance with my other sister & they perform in front of family, friends, & complete strangers! Did you know that here in the USA their is (or was a few yrs ago-not sure if its changed!) a waiting list for families that want to adopt a child with this extra chromosome?? Yep, Their are those that want to love on these precious kids! Sadly Prenatal testing & misguided information to women plus doctors advice presures them into abortion especially with any type of special needs diagnosis. Overseas in Eastern Europe kids with this chromosome are blessed to be born, but due to it not being socially acceptable & with limited resources they are mostly put into orphanages & if not adopted by age 4 they will be institutionalized & most will live their the rest of their days. Reeces Rainbow helps orphans blessed to be born to find them families as well as their ultimate goal of finding ways to help these families be able to one day accept these kiddos. Please consider helping me in my mission to find Celine a family by donating to her grant fund in honor of down syndrome awareness month! click on her picture to the right or check out my new blog for her http://smiles4celine.blogspot.com/ for the latest contest I am doing to raise funds for her!

Better understanding

I wanted to write this since a lot of the time people keep asking me if I am okay when they see my hands shake or ask questions.
Yes, I was born with a rare thing that makes my hands shake at times. Sometimes its nerves as well but most of the time its not. I do take magneisum supplements to help. I know what its like for special needs kids in a way as I too get asked questions about it & it does get tiring answering questions at times but i learn to live with it. I don't remember the exact name of what its called but just wanted to post about it.

Being Joyful

I have heard about being joyful a lot recently including being inspired by my favorite author Karen Kingsbury & fellow friend from church to be more joyful. Well, since this I have become inspired to start my own organzation that will be used as a service project/charity.

PRAISE!!!!!

Celines fund has been raised praise God! This precious little girl has touched 1 or more peoples life now to donate to her fund! Looking forward to seeing how much more I can do to help her find her forever family! Please continue to pray for Celine to find a family! I so wish I could meet her, maybe i will someday!

my camp testimony

It was a god thing that I was able to be in a sibling cabin as a CIA which stands for Christians in action. For volunteers its 1:1 ratio for special needs campers & 1:2 or 3 ratio for sibling campers. I had 2 girls I was technically in charge of but it was more like we watched over & hung out with all the girls than anything. I was in a cabin with older sibling girls 2 of which were in my cabin as sib campers when I was a sib camper. It felt a little weird at first with being in charge of them & one of them keep thinking I was a camper.
It felt like I was more of their friend then CIA watching over them. I enjoyed getting to know the girls. We did have 1 girl who her grandma volunteered as a nurse & she came with her but does not have a sibling with special needs. We bonded so well together & she helped me even with certain activities that it felt like I was her camper & she was the CIA. I always feel for the kids that don’t have a sib that its hard for them to feel like they fit in or relate to the sibling discussions we have but I know they still have a great time at camp.
I had a cabin with 8 girls, 3 other CIAs beside myself, 2 staffers, & a cabin mom. Cabin moms sleep elsewhere but they hang out with a cabin & help out where needed. At first I was feeling overwhelmed as originally we would have had 10 girls. I felt God pulling at my heart about the daily struggles siblings do have to face. I was glad to be able to relate to the girls about being a sib. It breaks my heart to see other siblings have struggles just like me. God defiantly was using me this week.
Even though I was disappointed that I did not get a camper with special needs or down syndrome like I thought I would God put me in a sibling cabin for a reason to be able to use my experience not only for the girls but to show the other CIAs & staff there what I went through as a previous sib camper. He wanted me in that cabin & knew what I could handle. I felt like I was a blessing to the girls by the end of the week. I got a lot closer to the girls & formed great relationships with them as well as all the CIAs & staff. They were so kind to me throughout the week & prayed for me when I needed it.
I Learned a lot at camp spiritually & emotionally. I did have some struggles during some of the days. Due to internet issues at camp I did not get some of the emails people sent so I got feeling down & started to worry when I was not getting any emails as I wanted to hear from home mainly. I prayed about it & reread the emails I did receive. I felt like I should be focusing more on the girls & the other people around me more than getting emails. I knew people were praying for me but I guess I just wanted to know by email that they were. I had a night where I just prayed for a lot of different things. It was a very emotional night after everyone went to sleep but by morning I was all energized & ready to stay focused on the girls in my cabin as well as to try to be patient with everybody.
By the last day I was crying cause I did not want to leave all these precious friends I had made & camp itself. God touched my heart & changed me for the good through camp this year! I even wanted to stay when I learned that a church group had dropped out of term 9 & they were looking for volunteers for that week. I hope to go next year as a CIA again but this time for 2 weeks possibly terms 7 & 8. Its my mission until barnabas comes to CA that I try to go back every year. I love camp & all it stands for! If you ever get a chance to go volunteer there I encourage you to go as it will change your heart forever! I am so blessed to have such great support from my family & friends otherwise I would have not gotten to bless these 8 girls. Thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to go & thanks for all the prayers! I hope to help more campers be able to experience the same one I have gotten to enjoy the 6 years I have gone to camp. Pray I will be able to raise funds for next year!

Fundraising & JBF sale

Fundraising is fun but hard work let me tell you that! I am trying to work hard as I know it will help but coming up with the funds is so hard. I am doing the jbf sale in sac & its always a sucess but I wish i could do the other 2 jbf sales to fundraise more but its hard when usually most of my stuff sells & whats left i usually donate to the pregnancy center i volunteer at or donate to their charity the sale donates to. I am trying so hard to collect items so I can be able to help others like Celine who is waiting for her forever family but its hard in this down ecconomy where people save their stuff incase of having another child or sell it themselves.