Running A Half Marathon...The 15 for 50 Team!

Myself and some special friends are working our butts off...literally! 

We are in training, pounding pavements in one of the wettest UK Summers ever! 

We are running the Birmingham half marathon in October. We are on a journey from couch to finish-line glory and we're doing it all for the kiddies at Kalinovka! The beautiful kiddies who live there, social orphans, warehoused till death just because they have special needs. We are aiming our support, our love, our heart-pounding effort at the very front-line of need. We are doing it all for these kids who are the victims of  a world that would prefer not to see. 

I have seen and know that a difference can be made for these kiddies and what's more I have a WONDERFUL TEAM WITH ME WHO AGREE...the 15 for 50 running team!

Introducing our running team so far...a team committing to running a half marathon dressed like rainbows and raising funds for the building of a second happy home out at Kalinovka! (let me know if you would like to join the team...we have room for more!)

Jane George...that's me!

Jade Palmer

Paige Palmer

Sally Palmer

Clare Barker

Evan Barker

Georgina Matthews

Abbey Campbell

Becky Heptinstall

Marissa Berhorst

Vicky Mcleod Wilson

Karen Slack

We are all committed to running a half marathon in October...whilst wearing rainbow gear and raising funds for  Kalinovka. We need $20,000 to build this! The second happy home...four walls that are literally the hopes and dreams of kids currently rotting in hell!

The approved building plan for the second happy home.

These beautiful girls could escape a tiny room with putrid air into this beautiful home environment. 

 

Just $20,000 between hell and dreams! We have already raised over $1000 that's only $19,000 left! These girls could finally get a chance at a life beyond mind-numbing boredom and loneliness!

Can it be done? Is it a pipe-dream? The Ukraine is a long way away, who would check our hard earned donations are being used in the correct way?

Well I have visited Kalinovka, I have seen the first happy home in action! I have seen its success, the dreams brought to reality, the kids with new lives, a shocked society beginning to realise that these forgotten kids can be educated... can shine! I have been there and have heard the winds of change on the air as these happy homes become reality!

THIS IS NO PIPE-DREAM!

THIS IS NO RUDDERLESS BOAT WITHOUT A CAPTAIN!

 I have spent time with the people who will be bringing this dream to fruition, bring birth to hope and ensure every single dollar of the donations will be spent wisely! I have seen their passion, felt their fire, seen their ability to prove they can when the whole world is saying they cannot!

Albert Pavlov
President of the Happy Child fun.   

The Happy Child Foundation.
Visit them here and see their amazing work.
Here is a link to the first happy home project!

I was there when the second building,  ripe for conversion, was found! I watched Albert leaping with excitement, I witnessed his mind beginning to dream a new dream... that dream was tangible on the freezing air! I saw those walls waiting to be filled with children's laughter and peeped through those cracked windows at the possibility within.

Albert discovering the building in Feb 2012!

Me peeping inside!

The only thing needed to make this dream reality is money...$20,000! It's not even a vast amount beyond the realms of all possibility, heck it's small change for many! Let's make it happen....sponsor the team running the Birmingham Half Marathon on October 21st 2012 and let's help birth this dream!

You can sponsor us here on the 50 for 50 give-away post (the running efforts are all part of this same fundraiser)...every dollar donated gets you a chance to receive one of these give-away thank you prizes! There are 2 links for donations... one is for this house build and the other is for Bobby's adoption fund held at Reece's Rainbow. Bobby lives out at Kalinovka and I am his fundraising warrior. If you would like to donate to Bobby as well then I would love you forever! Also find us on facebook here.

All the team is committing to raise at least $100 each but I know we can smash this! How awesome would it be if we could raise all $20,000! Every dollar and every share and every blog post does make a difference!

Here are a couple of final reasons to help...things I have seen and can never forget.

Firstly the shallow graves at Kalinovka for the children who fade away! It doesn't have to be like this!

And lastly the power of love, your love, my love, our love! We are not helpless voyeuristic by-standers in this nightmare, our love can bring change! Look at Sasha, the only child ever to be adopted out of Kalinovka, at death's door... but look what love can do!

Let's transform some more kiddies at Kalinovka with our love and action!

 Sponsor our running team here and lets build a happy home!

(any prize donations gratefully received!)

The Inside-Out Linkup: Don't Mess With This Mama Bear!

                                   

REASONS YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE MESSING WITH A SPECIAL NEEDS MOM. 

1. Some of us have given up on social skills and don't care what we say or do.


2. We're not afraid to have a "serious meltdown" of our own. 

3. We are tired and all the patience we have is for our kids. 

4. We have a far shorter fuse for nonsense as a result of our responsibilities but a FAR thicker skin. 

5. We can get you in a hold/lockdown position in less than 3.5 secs. 

6. We can shoot you a look that would make a linebacker tremble in his boots.


7.Chances are it's been awhile since we've had a full night of sleep and that will give us a reason to plead insanity. 

8. Our tolerance and patience is for our kids who didn't choose to have special needs, not for someone who CHOOSES to behave inappropriately ...and is ABLE to control their actions. 

9. We're probably already on edge and it would be stupid to push us over.

10. We are sleep deprived and already defensive, and we spend all of our patience on our children, doctors, therapists, social workers and teachers, why would we waste an ounce of it on a total stranger?

11. We've had to fight from the moment of our child's birth so by the time you piss us off we're seasoned battlers and could win a war.

12.We devote our lives to our children and don't need more stress and people who don't understand our life.

13. Wherever there is a cub, there is a mama bear...We're always watching! ♥♥♥

 Stolen from a fellow SPECIAL NEEDS Mom,

................................................................................................................................................................

It's time for the 

Inside-Out Link Up!

Grab the button 

and then link up your posts! 

                                               

                                                                     </p><p class="separator" style="clear: both; "><a border="0" href=" http://textgeorge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/janeandtilly/dolls2.jpg"/></a></p><p class="separator" style="clear: both; ">

Post about LOVE, CHILDREN, BLESSINGS, THE ORDINARY OR NOT SO ORDINARY THAT HOLDS MAGIC IN YOUR LIFE! 

POST ABOUT WHAT'S IMPORTANT TO YOU, WHAT YOUR HEART HOLDS DEAR!

SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS...WHATEVER THEY MAY BE!

LET'S CELEBRATE WHAT'S ON THE INSIDE AND

THE RAINBOW COLOURS OF LIFE!

WE ALL HAVE A HEART FULL OF MAGIC TO SHARE!

( This link-up is inspired by my current fundraising/giveaway weight-loss journey, raising funds loosing 50 pounds for orphanage 50 at Reece's Rainbow. It is a journey to health celebrating the me that is me at any size...it's what's inside that counts! Do feel free to join in and use the linky to share your own progress if you are on a journey to health...but any weight loss links MUST focus on 'you' and not just a number on the scale! You are wonderful no matter what that number is!)

The Forget-Me-Not Friday Linkup.

It's Forget-Me-Not Friday and time to link up any posts you have about the wonderful children at Reece's Rainbow. Try to visit as many links as you can and leave some comment love...we all need support in this warrior family!








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Here is the Forget-Me-Not Friday gallery, a tiny portion of all the beautiful, extra-special children on Reece's Rainbow, each one desperate for a family to love them and save them from the terrible fate of transfer at around 4-5 years old into an adult mental institution, where many children will remain cot-bound forever!

Do please link-up your posts about these children of our hearts. Link up as many times as you like and remember grab the button for your blog to help these children find their forever families!

Click on their name links to visit their individual Reece's Rainbow profile page to find out more or to donate. By donating into a child's adoption fund you help an adoptive family raise the huge ransom it takes to save these children...currently $25,000- $50,000! These children really are on the 'frontline' of need, they need us to help, to sacrifice for them and to care!

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You do not need to adopt to help. Become a prayer or fundraising warrior for a child,  re-post their faces or add my Forget-Me-Not Friday button to your blog and join in the link up. If you are a warrior already then please come and link here weekly on Fridays, let me know beforehand so I can add your child's face to the gallery. Link any post or write using an ongoing writing prompt of 'Forgotten'.

 Or perhaps you could adopt? Perhaps you could be blessed by opening up your heart to one of these children? Is your child here?

Bobby

Emmitt

Victoria

Katrina

Evan



Randall

Reid

Tabitha

                                     

Elden

Carina

Penelope

          

Simon

Brody

Aiden

  \

      

Cora-Lynne

Celine

Shannon

   

    

Benji

Janna

John Mark

   

         

Lilly

Brandi

Marcia

Carissa

Bethany

                                                                 

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I am thrilled to be linking up every Friday with 4 awesome ladies who also have big hearts for these children. Go visit Mandy over at, 'Our Adoption Story'. And then visit the amazing Andrea at 'Taking God's Love To The Ends Of The Earth'. and then go give some blogworld love to Julia over at Micah Six Eight. Finally go visit Sarah at 'What it Means To Love'.