Friday, May 11, 2012

URGENT Prayer & Support Needed!

This post is being made by friends of Diane and her family. We are heartbroken to announce that Diane and her husband are currently at their daughter's bedside in St. Mary's Hospital in the inpatient ward for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Their daughter, Lillian, who has Down Syndrome is deathly ill and is fighting for her life. Diane herself is also sick. Lillian is in critical, but stable condition in the PICU. Doctors are not sure what has caused the infection in her lungs. Please pray for healing for both Lillian and Diane, that Lillian's heart will not be affected, and that doctors will have wisdom to find out what has caused this infection. We would appreciate if all comments made while this is ongoing would be of a positive and supportive nature. If anyone is in the Rochester, MN area who could be supportive of the Higbie family in any way, please post in the comment section below and share your email address, and a friend of the family will contact you.

During this crisis, the Higbie family desperately needs your prayers, but they also need your support. Diane and her family have an urgent need to raise a minimum of $6,000 by the end of this weekend to cover the agency fee that is due at time of travel. They will also need additional funds to cover their travel costs. Any donations towards their adoption fund would be greatly appreciated. Project Hopeful, Grace Haven Ministries, and Ten for Orphans are coming together in support of this family.

For those of us who understand the situation, privately Diane and her family have been told that even with a referral for Lera, they will not receive the money that was previously raised through the other non-profit organization they were working with.  Diane and her family were accused of forging their home study, and then this organization began harassing their home study provider. Their home study provider is a highly respected professional who is known for his volunteer work and support of military families in assisting them to adopt. As Diane was previously in the military, he was able to provide their home study. The Higbies have provided all of the required documentation needed, but to no avail. Even if this were not the case, the organization will not provide funds for their first trip regardless of paperwork because a submitted dossier and travel date are required, but in this particular situation, their dossier must be submitted in person to be accepted. For now, the family needs to move forward because they have no expectation of receiving the funds that were previously donated for Lera.

As mentioned, they have an urgent deadline to raise at least $6,000 by the end of this weekend, but as they are currently facing a crisis with their daughter, they are unable to focus on anything else. If you can do anything to help alleviate this additional stress and burden by contributing towards their financial need, it would be a tremendous blessing.

All future funds raised will be dispersed from non-profit organizations to the appropriate agencies with no funds given directly to the family. Currently, there are two funds set up to receive donations for the Higbies. You can donate through Project Hopeful by clicking on the Donate button located on the upper right hand side of this blog. You can also donate towards a matching grant through Grace Haven Ministries. A family has offered a $500 matching grant (to double to $1,000) for the Higbie's adoption of Lera. Go to http://www.gracehavenhome.com and click on Donate. Please specify "Lera" when you make your donation.

Thank you for ministering to this family in their time of need! Messages of support and encouragement that are posted on this blog will be printed off and shared with the family. Above all, please keep this family in your prayers!

13 comments:

Leah Spring said...

I am not that far away. If they need ANYTHING please contact me at deanleah at comcast.net . I have three kids with DS and have done my share of ICU stays!

Anonymous said...

Praying for your little girl!

Sarah

Caren said...

Praying for healing and God's peace in this tough time.

Stephanie @ Ralphcrew said...

Praying for your beautiful daughters, here and abroad. May God give you peace and healing.

Charissa said...

Higby family, you are in our prayers.

Anna Theurer said...

Of course your family is in my prayers

Hansina said...

Praying for you all! Healing for Lillian and all the monies to come in!

Anonymous said...

In my state, both social workers and home study agencies must be licensed by the state (and it's really easy to check, as the information is available to the public). To adopt from Russia, the honestudy agency accredited to work in Russia, ie not on the Russia "blacklist". Again, this info is publicly available. Just google "Russia adoption blacklist".

There's gotta be more to this story.

Mark and Melanie said...

I work at Mayo and we live nearby. Will help in any way that we can. Please email at melrn784@gmail.com

Amanda said...

Praying for the Higbies! We're sharing your story to try and help on all our blogs and our facebook pages. Praying for all of you and Lera!

Amanda

Liz and Wock said...

We are praying for your family. Just an fyi, though.. We couldn't get the "donate" button on the top right hand corner to work. It's not a problem b/c we were able to donate through Grace Haven Ministries, but I thought you might want to know in case other people are having a problem accessing the donation page. We are praying for you all, especially Lera.

Anonymous said...

Their social worker and homestudy agency both check out. The organization they were fundraising through before just isn't happy that they aren't using the org's agency and coordinator. If they had seen any forward progress in the past 2 yrs they wouldn't have switched agencies. They switched because they had no choice.

Rochelle said...

Praying for this family!

Elk Grove, CA

 


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