Thursday, July 24, 2014

Meet the Greenes



Final Family this month is the Greene family!! Hello! We are the Greene's! We have been married for over 7 years and up until now have been the happy parents of just Georgia and Jasper, but we look forward to bringing home a big brother for them soon! We are adopting from Latin America and our son is almost 6 years old, Deaf and Autistic. We started this process over a year ago and we are jumping through the final hoops to get our referral any time now! We appreciate so much everyone's support and we are very honored and excited to be one of 5/5/5's first families!!! We hope this grows into a HUGE BLESSING for all the families to come!

You can read more about them on their Reece's Rainbow page.  You can also follow their blog.  

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Meet the Kirks



The Kirk family is our fourth family benefitting this month!

 Hi! We are Steve, Brooke, and Nicholas Kirk, and we are adopting Ian from Bulgaria. I (Brooke) will leave on 7/29 to go back to Bulgaria and will come home with our son on August 13th!! We have been working hard to bring our son home for the past 18 months and are so excited that the time is finally near! I first became aware of the plight of orphans with special needs about 3.5 years ago when I joined a local homeschool group and met my friend Mandy who was in the process of adopting two little boys with Down Syndrome from Bulgaria. It was through following her journey that I found Reece's Rainbow and all the precious children waiting for families. It was Mandy who shared Ian's picture on her facebook page and I just knew that he was meant to be our son! We have been so blessed by the love and support shown to our family by the Reece's Rainbow community, our family, friends, church family and even total strangers.

You can read more about them on their Reece's Rainbow page.  You can also follow their blog.  

Incentives to Donate

First we would like to say a big thank you to all who have liked our Facebook page and who have donated to the 5/5/5 for Families fund. We are very excited to see that we are over $700 for the first month.

Some of our 5/5/5 families have incentives to help get our donations even higher. Below you will find the items and how much you would need to donate if you wish to receive them. All donations will need to go to the 5/5/5 Fund

Please comment on the FACEBOOK page that will be linked below each picture if you make a donation and want that specific item. The items will be on a first come basis. 

Also, if you contribute money towards an item it is for that one item. In other words, if you contribute $25 and there is a $25 item and a $15 item you will need to decide which one of those items you would like to receive. 

Again, we are grateful to all who have donated and to those who have set up recurring donations. We are already taking applications for next month's families. 

Most of our 5/5/5 families for this month will be traveling in August to either meet or bring home the children. So it is a very important fundraising time for them. We are hoping these incentives will help us reach our funding goals. 



Katrina Morriss will make a homemade doll baby carrier for the first person who donates at least $25 and leaves a comment on the FB page. This carrier fits up to size 6 year old and holds a large doll that can wear newborn size clothing. You can also turn the baby around and button the top part up so the baby's head does not flop around. This material is Matryoshka doll material. 





The Aschoff family has added some incentives to help us grow this month's donations too. 



For a $25 donation they also have this shirt available in an adult large.
Please comment on the FB Page.  


For a $25 donation this shirt is available in either an adult large or a youth small.
Please comment on the FB Page.  







They also have these beautiful bracelets for the first 
26 people to donate $15 to the 5/5/5 account and comment on the FB Page.










 And last they have these wonderful bumper stickers 
for the first 50 people who donate $10 to the 5/5/5 account and comment on the FB Page



If you don't see anything you need but can donate $5 that would still be a huge help. It all adds up and we are excited to soon be showing you these families once they come home so you can see what $5 can do in the life of a child. 

Thanks again for the support. Remember to share, share, share for us. 


Together, we will move mountains so love crosses oceans. 





Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Meet the Tiltons

Here is our third family!! The Tilton family! We are the Tilton family. Just when we thought retirement was around the corner, we took a leap of faith and we are thrilled to be adopting two children from China! Our son Oliver is five and our daughter Gracie is six. We found our daughter on Reece’s Rainbow and it was love at first sight. After a few months, we decided to add a brother and we were thrilled when we found Oliver. We will travel during the first part of August to make them part of our forever family. Thank you so much for your support and for supporting 5/5/5 and Reece’s Rainbow.

You can read more about them on their Reece's Rainbow page.  You can also follow their blog.  

Monday, July 21, 2014

Meet the Aschoffs



Here's our second 5/5/5 family. The Ashcoffs. 

Hello! We are Ted, Jodi and Kayella Aschoff. We will be bringing Leo home from Hong Kong this fall and have been working hard over the last year to get him home. We chose to grow our family through international adoption for many reasons but one of the main reasons was to give a child a safe home that needed one. We went through some heartache with domestic adoption (of a little boy with down syndrome also) and decided that International adoption was definitely our first choice in growing our family. Once Kayella came home from Colombia we decided she needed a brother (or sister) to play with. We saw Leo's picture and fell immediately in love with him and knew he was ours. Kayella (and us) are really excited to get Leo home and show the world that adoption is not scary! Thank you for helping our family as well as the other 5/5/5 families with their final stretch of adoption funding.


You can learn more about them on their Reece's Rainbow page.  You can also follow their blog.  

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Meet the VanHalles

Meet our first 5/5/5 family. The VanHalles. 

Angie and Jason never planned on adoption, but the more they learned about how much of a need there was, the more they felt called to act. Their first child, Claudia, came home on Valentine's Day 2013. 9 months later, they decided to change their plans to try to have biological children again, and committed to adopt 'Chance' who is almost 2, but as their home study was nearing completion they felt called to add an older child 'Callie', who is almost 11. Jason and Angie are very excited for Claudia to have a little brother to pick on and a big sister to look up to, and are hopeful that everyone will be home this time next year.


You can learn more about the VanHalles on their Reece's Rainbow page.  You can also follow their blog.  

Saturday, July 19, 2014

What is 5/5/5 for Families?

Here is the official answer:

Welcome to our new supporters, advocates, and adoptive families! So many of us have wanted to give to Reece's Rainbow families in ways that make an impact for a few families at a time. That's what 5/5/5 for Families is all about.

Each month, from a pool of nominees, 5 families will be featured. On the 5th of the following month, all the donations to our RR page will be divided evenly among those 5 families. That day, we'll also introduce you to the 5 new families for the next month. We'll share a little of each family's story, and hope you might even consider making a recurring donation to help us bring more love and support to families whose efforts might go unrecognized otherwise.

Here's How to Help:
Helping is easy. Donors are needed to donate $5, $25 or any other amount monthly (just click the "make this recurring" box at the paypal check out). You can also make a one-time gift. These small (and larger) donations really add up and help families who are close to traveling.


Who can be nominated (aka--our best attempt at fine print!):
There will be 5 featured countries each month. Each country will be rotated in alphabetical order) Nominated families must have Family Sponsorship Pages (FSP) set up through Reece's Rainbow. The families will be emailed a nomination form which must be returned by the last day of the month, so make sure you include their email address! 5/5/5 Families will be chosen based on previous fund raising attempts, financial need, and how soon their travel dates are. Families must have an open FSP on the 5th of the following month, as all monies are held and distributed through the 5/5/5 for Families link on the Reece's Rainbow main site. Strong candidates will show that they have tried to raise the money needed for their adoption. If they are selected, families must also be willing to make a $5 donation for 5/5/5 Families for 6 months.
5 families from the current pool of countries will be chosen, not necessarily one from each country. Families who are not chosen will be eligible again when their country comes back into the rotation. Families will remain eligible until their adoptions are complete.


In summary: 


Donors: Make your monthly donation here!  You can set it up as a recurring donation and you don't have to try to remember monthly!


Families: If your country is currently featured and you are getting close to travel, please let us know that you would like to be considered by messaging this page. We will announce the new families on the 5th of the month.


Donors and Families: Please share our facebook page, our blog, our twitter account, and encourage friends and family to donate!


The 5/5/5 committee is made up of 5 women who have been involved in adoptions in Russia, Latin America, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and China. Our goal is to give a little to make a big impact for RR families adopting from all over the world.

Here is the unofficial answer:



We are a group of moms who have adopted (or are adopting) internationally and know the struggles of fund raising while completing an adoption and maintaining a home and family.  We know how hard people work to bring their children home.  We want to help.  None of us are rich and none of us can do it on our own.  But, we all have at least $5 a month, right? 

Our goal is to help 5 families that have been working for months and are almost ready to bring their children home.  We want to help them get over that one last hurdle.

We also want to help people see the power in small donations.  Whether it's $5 a month, $1 a day, $5 a week, $5 a month to each family, $5 a day....whatever amount you have is not too small when we all join forces!