Thursday, January 8, 2009

Help!


Hi Everyone,
Diana's brother & sister-in-law Jared & Rebeccah Mildenstein are trying to adopt a little girl and they need help coming up with the legal fees and such. They have had such struggles over the last few years and could really use the help. Every little bit counts. Here is a letter from Jared to explain what is going on:

I am Jared Mildenstein. I am in the U. S. Coast Guard. My wife, Rebeccah, and I are proud parents of four boys— that’s right— four. We have gotten pretty familiar with the ways of boys and all the energy that comes with them. For some reason or another the girls name we had picked out since our first pregnancy seemed destined not to be used. Also, with each successive pregnancy my wife’s medical troubles with Ulcerative Colitis, Endometriosis, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome increased, and with the last pregnancy our ability to have children naturally went with it. We decided that we couldn’t risk any more major medical issues or hospitalizations and called it quits at boy #4.
We had always dreamed of having a little girl…to balance things out a little and make the family complete. We have had dreams about her and looked forward to meeting her since our first pregnancy. We knew, based on our situation, that adoption was going to be the solution. We started planning things out and looking into adoption and foster-to-adoption programs before boy #4 came along. We planned on the possibility of adoption when our youngest was around 3 or 4 years old, which would give us time to save money (military members aren’t exactly swimming in cash!) and meet all of the legal requirements on our time frame until we felt we were adequately prepared. God often has other ideas!
Rebeccah’s cousin is pregnant and expecting a little one soon. We hadn’t been in frequent contact with her for a couple of years, and we had assumed everything was well and the situation would be OK for mother and baby. We found out, however, just before Christmas that she was placing the baby for adoption, and that it was a little girl! We sent emails to her saying we were interested, but also that we would support her in any way we could, regardless of the outcome. It turns out that right around the time we expressed interest in adopting, the family she had picked to adopt her baby withdrew from consideration because it didn’t feel right to them. Rebeccah’s cousin was very panicked because her baby is due February 16th! She was very concerned that another family couldn’t be chosen in that short of a time frame. When she saw our email she was ecstatic and immediately called and asked us to be the adoptive parents. Of course we said yes!
The problem that we face is all of the legal requirements, home studies, and fees we had been anticipating a few years down the road are necessary NOW. We are facing deadlines quickly, and we would like to keep this little one in the family, but there are so many things to pay for to make it happen that we are asking for your help. We would like to introduce a fundraiser to help adopt Avonlea Violet Mildenstein. We will be selling candy bars through family and friends and also accepting PayPal donations through their fabulous blogs. Please help support adoption… every step helps! And remember, Families are Forever, however they are formed.

You can go to their website: adopting-avonlea.blogspot.com

You can donate here:






0 comments: