The Twentieth Day of Giving - Ryan and Melissa AND The Olivet's

Hi, we are Ryan and Melissa.  My husband and I adopted our son last November. I had always wanted to adopt and my husband, being the laid back man that he is, was all for it. We came home last November with our son who has been nothing but a dream come true, if not for a bit of sassiness now and again. What 4year old isn't ?!? Anyway, we were not going to adopt again. It was just not a feasible thing for us financially.

Well, a few weeks ago I was on a woman's blog I follow on occasion who volunteers for an orphanage in Eastern Europe and she cares for a child with the same skin condition as my son. It is a very rare condition, ranging for minor to severe in severity. I clicked on this site now and again to check in. The other day I did so and I clicked on the author's profile. I then noticed that she had another blog and I clicked on that to find it was for children waiting for families in China. I scrolled through and stopped at a child that looked like my son. The same ears that stick out. I thought, Mmmm....funny.

I scrolled down further and saw that this child had the same skin condition as my son. I thought, "NO WAY!" I e-mailed the author and a few days later received the little boy's file. I opened up a couple of pictures and they looked remarkably like my son. I told myself I wouldn't start to freak out until I saw where the boy was from. I was pleased to see there were English translations included in the e-mail and found that the little boy was in the same orphanage as my son.

To give some perspective, of the 18 million people in this city, only about 360would have this condition. How many would be in the same orphanage? How many would have the same skin condition? How many would look like my son? I e-mailed friends and family thinking that I was going over the deep end but was told time and time again that yes, this child looked strikingly like my son. How could we ignore this? We were not looking to adopt again. In fact, we were thinking of trying to have a baby biologically. However, how could we ignore a child that could be our son's biological sibling? We did not have a choice. There was no option to look at this child's picture and in the end say no.

So after much thought, we are moving forward. I believe in what is meant to be will be but we were not prepared for this adoption financially. Like many families, it is a huge leap for us to take without having the financial backing up front. To be honest it is scary but I know it will all work out in the end. I know families will help, I know we will raise money and I know that we will bring our son home. This has all happened for a reason and I wanted to get our story out there mainly because I think it is something special regardless of whether or not this little guy is related to our son.

To donate or follow our journey, please visit our blog at redthreadserendipity.blogspot.com 
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We are David and Heather Olivet and we have 4 children (soon to be 5.) Our youngest two sons were adopted from China in 2007 and 2009 and we are in the process of adopting a 3 year old little girl in China with severe heart disease. We have not had the money for any of our adoptions, but have walked out on faith knowing that a precious child is much more important than living lavishly (or without any debt.) I recently got a part-time job to help pay for this adoption and it feels good to be helping.

You can see our family and donate (and pictures of our daughter in China) on my blog at http://www.dragonsandelephants.blogspot.com/


If you don't know what this is all about, please go read this post here http://afamilyofsix.blogspot.com/2010/11/giving-season.html