Ruben and JoAnn are married 20 years and are no strangers to International Adoption. They have a large quiver full of 11 children, biological and adopted, five of which have Down Syndrome. They had a desire to adopt early in their marriage but the idea was put on the back burner while they had their six biological children. Their fifth daughter Amelia was born with Down Syndrome. Adoption was reintroduced to the Torres family through friends in their church. In 2005 after searching the adoption websites, the child that grabbed their hearts was a little girl from Russia named Yulia. She was 2 ½ and had Down Syndrome. It became clear to the Torres family that God was preparing them for a calling to care for special needs children. A couple of years later in 2009 they found Reeces Rainbow and adopted 3 little girls with Down syndrome, Masha, Milena & Luda, from the same orphanage in Ukraine. In 2010, they returned to Ukraine to adopt a teenage boy, Marco.

Please help the Torres family through prayers and donations bring home another 14 year old girl with Down Syndrome &  Alopecia who will soon age out of the system. Stephie will end up in an institution if not adopted soon.  The Torres family believes that adoption is true religion as stated in James 1 :27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

The Boy and the Starfish

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water.
Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.

As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.

The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,"I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference."
The boy looked down, frowning for a moment; then bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied,

"I made a huge difference to that one!" 

~Author Unknown~

Thank You to those who have already donated to "Stephie's' fund through Reecesraibow.org. If you are not able to make our fundraisers, but would like to join our journey to get this child home...please go to reecesrainbow.org and click Sponsor a family...then New Commitments and scroll down to Torres Family! Your donations are tax deductible through Reecesrainbow and will receive a receipt for your taxes. 
I need to get busy with the paper work soon..One of the first steps is applying to Immigration...Then our Social Worker comes for a visit to start our home study...Then a 10 hour online class for Hague Country adoptions..then the paper work begins! AHHHHHHHH and what a stack it is! Here we go again!  Thanks to all who want to follow our adoption journey..

Please help us bring Stella home...

Please help us bring Stella home....


Our mission is saving special needs children from countries who look upon them as a curse or tabu on their family or culture. To us this is nonsense.. We believe all of God's children are worth loving and He has called us to care for orphans with special needs. Many say to us.."oh you are crazy!" Well to us James 1:27 strikes a cord in our hearts and we hear God's calling.. It's not something we would expect everyone to do, but we are willing and to sacrifice for a child who is in need....Please join us with prayer and donating to our chip in to help bring Stella home..

Another way you can help if you are loacl is to come to our Hair Cut a Thon for back to school haircuts for the whole family! This will be held at BeautyWorks at 296 Washington Street East Stroudsburg, PA Date TBA soon!..Haircuts will be $10 for each..Men, women & children!

SAVING STELLA...

Well... we are back in the race! The Adoption Race! Meet Stella...She is 14 and will age out of the adoption system if not adopted...Our hearts are heavy and we will do what we have to and bring her home.. Stella also suffers from alopecia and is wearing a wig in this picture so the kids at her school do not tease her. The kids in Eastern Europe are usually not too nice to kids with a disability. They are already taught that these kids are a curse or taboo on the family they were born into..It is heartbreaking to us having hosted a girl with Downs last summer and she was abused by the kids in her boarding school. She went to school with typical kids and we could tell she had been through a lot there. My son translated the things she said to us showing she had been teased & called  those very names herself...It broke my heart we could not adopt her due to her combative behaviors. I had to make the decision to protect my children here at home.

Stella comes with a good report and a calm disposition. We are very excited to bring her into our family and  give her the love she deserves...Please join us by praying for God to meet all the needs to make this happen! Safety & health  for Stella and our family, and financial needs as well.

Please follow our adoption journey and follow our blog to find out what's happening!

SAVING STELLA...