Reece's Rainbow

While checking out blogs about Down syndrome, it didn't take long before I found some links to "Reece's Rainbow". 

"The mission of Reece's Rainbow is to rescue orphans with Down syndrome through the gift of adoption, to raise awareness for all of the children who are waiting in 25 countries around the world, and to raise funds as adoption grants that help adoptive families afford the high cost of adopting these beautiful children."

On their site, you can find so many little ones with Down syndrome in other countries, waiting to be adopted. 

It is heartbreaking to see and realize that the majority of these children ended up for adoption simply because they have Down syndrome.

I think, though hard, it is good to go to their site and see for yourself how many kids are waiting for a home.
And, like they say on their site:


"Even if you are not in a position to adopt or fund a child's adoption, there are countless ways to help these sweet children…."


Go HERE to see how.


I think that they are doing a great job, and have been following several blogs where people have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, one of these little ones. 
I might share some about that later this month.

Don't be surprised...

Source: nads.org

So cute

This picture is sort of blurry,

but just love the expression on her sweet little face, 

 love her chubby cheeks,

love the little spot with long hairs right in the middle of her head,

just love HER...


So just had to share this picture in spite of it being blurry.
Wish I'd used a real camera to capture this instead of a phone...

Some good advice

When we learned that the baby we were expecting had Down syndrome,

I felt pretty overwhelmed.

I am sort of a control freak, and I like to plan things as much as possible.

I don't like to feel like I have no control of a situation.

This was definitely a situation where I felt like I was totally out of control.


I felt so worried about our little girl and what her future would be like.

We talked to some other families who had little ones with Down syndrome.

One mom gave me some good advice.

She said: "I am the kind of person who likes to plan everything. 
So when we learned our baby had Down syndrome, I wanted to plan out her whole life. 
But I had to let go of that. We don't plan our other kids' life up till retirement, either."

That was an eye opener. It was like I heard myself.

And I realized I needed to let go more.

Not worry too much about the future.

Just taking it one day at a time.

There are still days when I do feel overwhelmed by it all.

But trying to just take it one day at a time and enjoying the good moments, does help a lot.

When I try to focus on the good things, 
I am definitely able to just enjoy our little family and feel so rich!

So my little girl taught me a big lesson!

What can people with Down syndrome do?

The answer is: A LOT

Probably a lot more than you would think :)

The blogger of Life is beautiful, who happens to have a sweet little girl with Down syndrome herself, made an awesome compilation of video clips and articles featuring some amazing people with Down syndrome.

It is really quite something to check out, so please go to the following link:

What can people with Down syndrome do?

They can be musicians, athletes, teachers, actors, too many things to list really.

So please check out the link, you'll be amazed. 


And while you are there, you may as well check out some of her other posts and see her adorable little girl!

Just perfect...

Weekly Planner Dry Erase Board - Tutorial

Just looking at my own blog during this first week of the 31 for 21 challenge, 

I realized something was sort of funny:

If you look at my blog and all these posts about Down syndrome,

it seems that it is the only thing I can think and talk about.

The reality?

It's not!

Mostly, we're just enjoying our little girl.

There are moments when we get reminded again that she has 

Down syndrome, but mostly, our life is just 'normal', 

whatever that is...

So to 'prove' that, here is another craft ;)

I needed something besides an ordinary calendar to keep track of my daughter's schedule. 

Since it would be hanging in our kitchen, I wanted it to be pretty, besides functional.

So I came up with this:

It's a dry erase board, that has her weekly schedule already printed on it, 
with things she needs to bring to school, and other things that happen every week.

I made sure I have plenty of room to fill out appointments, etc.

Now, every week, I can just add things that we need to remember that particular week.

Simple, but it works great.

Wanna make your own?

This is what you need:

* Picture frame

* Fabric, slightly larger than the glass in the frame

* Masking tape

* Cardstock (mine was just a standard 8.5x11), smaller than the glass in the frame

*Double sided tape

* A marker to write the schedule, or a computer and printer

1. Create the weekly schedule, by printing it or write it by hand.

Make sure you have enough room to write in extra things.

If you have more kids in school, you could make separate columns for each child, 
or even make a separate one for each child.

2. Take out the backing of the frame. 

3. Put the fabric on top of it, as if you were to frame it. 

4. Put some adhesive or double sided tape on the back of the schedule, and attach it to the center of the fabric.

5. Put the schedule and fabric, together with the backing of the frame, back in the frame.

(So it will be underneath the glass, that way you can write on the glass later.)

6. Fold over the extra fabric and stick it with masking tape to the back.

Not pretty, but who will see the back anyway?!

7. Grab a dry erase marker, and start using your new board!

And since this organizer thing (what do you call these?) is also hanging out in our kitchen, 
I might as well share it in this post, too...

I've had it for quite a while, but recently updated its look.

I gave it a fresh layer of spray paint and used some stencils to create this:

Since the cork board looked so plain, I stenciled part of that, too.

A fun, quick project, hardest thing for me was to wait till the spray paint was dry...

Shared at Blue Cricket Design.