What I Do Know

On the Reece's Rainbow site, it's really easy to fall in love with a picture and a story. Some of the children are lucky enough to have listings complete with detailed narratives - accounts written by volunteers or parents who visited the orphanage in the process of adopting other children.

Poor Constantine doesn't have a captivating story posted online, at least not that I can find. He only has these few scraps of description: "Gray eyes. The nature of close, calm [a lot of the translated descriptions of temperament from Russia and Eastern Europe appear to read like this]. Constantine is paralyzed on one side of his body; he is a beautiful child!"

It's better than nothing, but not something that would necessarily catch the eyes of most people, especially when there are plenty of orphans on RR with more detail (like John Mark!) I'm afraid the one-sentence summary on his page is going to hurt Constantine's chances of finding a family and attracting donations. In the six months or so that I've been following "Other Angels" on RR, Constantine's grant has had virtually no contributions, not even at Christmas. Aside from a dollar or two (maybe) I have donated all the money that's currently in his grant account.

So I'm trying to find out more about Constantine, by looking for someone who has been to 15H recently or is planning to go. On the RR Facebook forum, one user thought that he might be in the same baby house as her "Guardian Angel" child, but then said that he is not, so I'm back to square one. Apparently there are more than 10 baby houses, orphanages and other institutions in Region 15. I've still got feelers out, and if I find out any more information, I'll post it here in hopes that if anyone does a Google search for Constantine, they might find this page.

Meanwhile, here is some updated information about John Mark, including a new picture!

Andrea's post also featured the picture below, which looks older but that I haven't seen before.

What a cutie!

I'm going to try to come up with some tangible fundraising ideas in the very near future. I need something that's not too labor-intensive or time-consuming, at least until the semester ends. I'm not sure what fits that description ... but if there is something, I'll find it.

John Mark, who has a wonderful story, already has over $300 in his grant fund, so my efforts will concentrate mostly on Constantine. But if you're interested in donating to John Mark, PLEASE don't hesitate to do so! He still has a long way to go before he's fully funded.

Both these boys are still so young ... they could truly flourish if they find families soon.