This is Ruslana,(hopefully soon to be Sophie Ruslana). She is living in an orphanage in Eastern Europe and has down syndrome. For those of you who don't know me I am Katie (Coponen) and my husband is Cliff Rajala Jr. We have four teenage children. Sonya 16, Cody 15, Samantha 14, and Corey 13(I was unable to have any more children because of medical complications)
One day I was led to view a website called Reece's Rainbow. Cliff and I have always thought we would adopt, but the subject of special needs children just hadn't come up. When I saw this little girl on the site, I fell in love and just KNEW that she belongs in our family. I showed her to Cliff and the kids and they felt in love with her too.
I contacted the lady on the site to inquire about her, and was told almost immediately that if we were interested in adopting her, we would have to act quickly because she is scheduled to go to an institution in January. They needed to know if they had a committed family so she could be held where she is until her forever family could come and get her. We as a family truly believe that God has led us here. There is such a peace about making her part of our family that could only come from Him.
It is very expensive to adopt from these countries, mainly because of mountains of paperwork and travel (twice). The first time, is to go where she is and spend two weeks with her. We need to cover the cost of the trip and where we will stay while spending time with this little angel. They then set a court date approximately two weeks later, and we will be able to pick her up.
God is so good to have blessed us with this miracle but, we do need your help. If you are so led, you could make a donation towards the cost of the adoption:) There is a Rajala family page at www.reecesrainbow.org (go to support an adopting family, then new commitments).You could also donate directly to us. All donations will be confidential. We also have a Sophie adoption fund at Eastside Apostolic Lutheran Church(please make checks payable to EALC. The donations to either of these places will be tax deductible. If we receive more money than we need to cover our costs, it will be donated to more children with disabilities on the Reece's Rainbow website. Please make sure you earmark checks to Sophie's adoption fund. All checks can be mailed directly to this address Sophies Adoption Fund 127 Plantation Dr. Greer, SC 29651. If you are unable to help at this time, PLEASE remember Sophie and us in your thoughts and prayers. Also please pray for all the orphans that will be institutionalized. Once they are in an institution (which is 4 yrs.) many of them don't survive.
If you can, please help us to bring our new little girl home as soon as possible.
Thank you and God's Peace
The Cliff Rajala Family
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