No more tolerance!!

During these last couple months, Lee and I have been so humbled by the love and support that we have received from our family and friends. What has surprised us the most is the outpouring of generosity and compassion that we have been blessed with by complete strangers. As with everything in the world there are a selected few that for some reason or another think that what we are doing is complete insanity. We have heard things like, "You are going to destroy the lives of your other children." Do these Children look to you like their lives are suffering because they having a baby sister with Down syndrome?

Just sayin!

Our children have more joy, love, peace and compassion filling their souls BECAUSE of "THE BURDEN"(yes, if you can imagine, I have actually had more than one person use that word to describe Chloe) than most adults will ever even come close to knowing in their lifetime. They honestly understand the lifelong responsibility that they have to Chloe and Olivia and they actually fight over who gets them for Christmas when Lee and I are too old to decorate the tree! Nice right? Not one day goes by that each one of the kids,(yes even Jack)doesn't ask when Olivia is coming home. They are the most wonderful kids and I take such inspiration from being their Mom! Not once have they complained and I've been so consumed with this whole process that their lives are literally turned upside down... All they care about is getting their baby sister home. It's so evident that they are all going to grow up and do great things for the world and I do believe that is a direct result of the "The Burdens" that they will so lovingly carry on their shoulders. I am so proud of them and I am so unbelievably excited to be a witness of the grand futures that they have in store!

Each passing day gets harder for me. Olivia is now 7 months old and she has never been rocked to sleep, she has never been told that she is loved beyond her wildest dreams, she's never been to a volleyball game and have the entire bleachers under her spell. I could go on and on and on believe me! These are all part of Chloe's daily life and she will feel equally as blessed when she can share her "All Star" moments with her sister.

We are getting closer by the day! We have raised over $8000 to date and our Home Study is almost complete. We are just waiting for the pool fence:) All of our efforts are now going towards our big fundraiser on October 14th. It's Oliviafest 2011! All the details will be up soon on our fundraising page. We are hoping that this night will completely fund the rest of Olivia's ransom!

I'm not one to show horrifying pictures to gain approval for what we are doing but these are a few that I need to share. I need to be honest with myself and not worry about offending people in the process. I have found myself having no tolerance individuals who question our mission. We are not asking anyone to understand why, but how dare someone interfere with saving the life of a child?!?! How can you live with yourselves? Just please know that we don't want your opinion. I'm saying this only because things are brewing in my head and this is my outlet. I'm not speaking to any one person but to the general disapproving public. It makes me so sad to think that everyone can't see the world through the eyes of children but I am so thankful that my glasses are firmly in place and sparkling clean and I owe that to my beautiful babies, Katie, LeeAnn. Abby, Jack and Chloe Bea. I love you all so much! These pictures are of a family over in Eastern Europe now meeting their baby girl for the first time. I want you people that tell us that we're crazy and let someone else save the world to put up a good fight after seeing these!

This is real! This is what happens to these babies just because they are born with Down syndrome, and this is what would have become of Olivia had Lee and I been too afraid of "disrupting" our perfect life!

Love to you all..