The money......
Here is where Orka the whale meets "Evan"
Notice how she hides his face AFTER she has plastered his photo
not only online but in the Savannah Newspaper.
Photo of "Evan" (fake name) on Orka the whale's website
Robin sure finds these fat ass evangelicals that want to save the world.
IS ARMENIA EUROPE? No Robin it's not its Caucaus area of Asia Minor
mother's calling: Savannah family nears end of journey to adopt special-needs child
Posted: May 9, 2015 - 10:49pm | Updated: May 10, 2015 - 7:54am
Back | Next ![<p node="media-caption"><span>Ian Maule/Savannah Morning News</span></p><p node="media-caption"><span>Christie Orta helps her daughter, Laura, 8, fill up a tablespoon with water while her husband, Raymundo, prepares dinner at their home in Pooler on Thursday. The Ortas are in the process of adopting an Armenian boy to add to their family. </span></p> Savannah Morning News](http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/14371987.jpg "<p node="media-caption"><span>Ian Maule/Savannah Morning News</span></p><p node="media-caption"><span>Christie Orta helps her daughter, Laura, 8, fill up a tablespoon with water while her husband, Raymundo, prepares dinner at their home in Pooler on Thursday. The Ortas are in the process of adopting an Armenian boy to add to their family. </span></p> Savannah Morning News")
Ian Maule/Savannah Morning News
Christie Orta helps her daughter, Laura, 8, fill up a tablespoon with water while her husband, Raymundo, prepares dinner at their home in Pooler on Thursday. The Ortas are in the process of adopting an Armenian boy to add to their family.
![<p node="media-caption"><span>A painting done by Raymoundo Orta hangs above photos of his daughter, Laura, 8, at their home in Pooler.</span></p> Savannah Morning News](http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/14371990.jpg "<p node="media-caption"><span>A painting done by Raymoundo Orta hangs above photos of his daughter, Laura, 8, at their home in Pooler.</span></p> Savannah Morning News")
The first time Christie Orta saw a picture of Evan, a little boy with big brown eyes and dark hair, she sensed an instant connection.
“The moment I saw that sweet picture — in that moment, I knew,” she said of finding Evan on Reece’s Rainbow, an adoption advocacy website.
Since 2013, Christie and her husband, Raymundo, have been on a mission to adopt 3-year-old Evan, an. Armenian boy with Down syndrome, and although the journey has been a long and often stressful one, Christie said she believes it’s her calling
“I truly believe that’s who God put in our path, and if it takes us a little bit longer and we have to work a little bit harder to raise the funds, then that’s what we need to do,” she said.
Christie, who’s a special education teacher, was inspired to adopt a special-needs child after teaching students who were adopted under similar circumstances. The Ortas tried to foster to adopt within the United States through the Department of Family and Children’s Services, but after their plan fell through, Christie began online research and found Reece’s Rainbow.
The organization began in Atlanta in 2004 as an outreach program for families with babies with Down syndrome. In 2006, the program expanded to promote international adoption of children with Down syndrome.
“Reece’s Rainbow is an amazing advocacy resource for children, adoptive families, potential adoptive families and those who have hearts for children and want to help out,” she said of the program, which offers various grants and programs for people to make donations.
A lot of those donations, Christie said, come from families like hers that are in the process of adopting a child.
“That is one of the beautiful things about Reece’s Rainbow. Even though a lot of the families are in the process of adoption and are working hard to fundraise for themselves, they still donate and cheer on the adoption of others.”
Through fundraisers, raffles, parties and grants the Ortas have raised $21,000 of the $35,000 they need to bring Evan home: $16,000 from fundraisers and $5,000 from a Show Hope grant, a nonprofit organization founded by singer Steven Curtis Chapman.
The process of faith
Armenia’s adoption process is one of the most expensive and longest programs available, and the total cost is more than Christie makes in a year. (and more than Armenians make in a lifetime)
“I was concerned about the money and how we were going to do it... Christie was so excited and I was more realistic,” Raymundo said.
“... At first I wasn’t going for it, but she was very passionate about it, so after we talked I knew that’s what she was meant to do. ... But for Christie, from the very first time she saw the picture she was attached.”
Through the ups and downs of fundraising and the adoption process, faith has played a major role for the family.
“Faith is a huge part of it. If this is something God has put into our path, then he’ll lead us to make it happen,” she said. “He was like this shining star of a baby, and I couldn’t figure out why someone hadn’t committed to him, so I was in a rush to get him. And we’ve met some families through Facebook who had actually pulled (Evan’s) file before committing to other children, so now I know that he was meant for us.”
Christie said it’s easy to romanticize what they’re doing, but, in reality, since Evan isn’t walking, he will need complete care much like an infant. But that’s an adjustment that she, Raymundo and their biological daughter, Laura, 8, are prepared for.
Laura admits she’s a little worried about getting a brother, but she’s more than ready to take on the role of big sister. She hopes to be able to help teach Evan to walk, talk and has already called the top bunk on the bunk beds she hopes to get once he arrives.
She’s got big plans for the rest of the bedroom, too, which she hopes to paint baby blue and fill with lots of boy stuff, like dinosaurs.
“I’ve never had a baby brother before, and now I can play with him... And I want to teach him to be like us two,” Laura said, grinning at her dad.
“We don’t like cheese, peanut butter or blue cheese... And I’m not changing any diapers — (mom and dad) can do that.”
Laura’s anxiety and excitement are mutual feelings in the Orta household as they wait for an email to let them know Evan is ready to meet them. Their first visit to Armenia, which they hope to take in June, will last a week and they plan to make the trip as a family.
After they return home, it will take four to six months to finalize the process and then the Ortas will bring their new son home after a monthlong trip back to Armenia. Christie hopes the new family of four will be together and settled in by Christmas, which, to her, would be the best present of all.
“I’ve already bought him a stocking at the day after Christmas sale. ... It’ll be a new normal once we get him home,” she said.
“We’re just anxious to have him home.”
HOW TO HELP
A tax deductible donation to the Ortas can be made online at reecesrainbow.org/76395/sponsororta. Donations can also be made to the Christie Orta Adoption Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.
ON THE WEB
To follow the Ortas’ adoption journey, go to their blog at evan4theortas.weebly.com
“The moment I saw that sweet picture — in that moment, I knew,” she said of finding Evan on Reece’s Rainbow, an adoption advocacy website.
Since 2013, Christie and her husband, Raymundo, have been on a mission to adopt 3-year-old Evan, an. Armenian boy with Down syndrome, and although the journey has been a long and often stressful one, Christie said she believes it’s her calling
“I truly believe that’s who God put in our path, and if it takes us a little bit longer and we have to work a little bit harder to raise the funds, then that’s what we need to do,” she said.
Christie, who’s a special education teacher, was inspired to adopt a special-needs child after teaching students who were adopted under similar circumstances. The Ortas tried to foster to adopt within the United States through the Department of Family and Children’s Services, but after their plan fell through, Christie began online research and found Reece’s Rainbow.
The organization began in Atlanta in 2004 as an outreach program for families with babies with Down syndrome. In 2006, the program expanded to promote international adoption of children with Down syndrome.
“Reece’s Rainbow is an amazing advocacy resource for children, adoptive families, potential adoptive families and those who have hearts for children and want to help out,” she said of the program, which offers various grants and programs for people to make donations.
A lot of those donations, Christie said, come from families like hers that are in the process of adopting a child.
“That is one of the beautiful things about Reece’s Rainbow. Even though a lot of the families are in the process of adoption and are working hard to fundraise for themselves, they still donate and cheer on the adoption of others.”
Through fundraisers, raffles, parties and grants the Ortas have raised $21,000 of the $35,000 they need to bring Evan home: $16,000 from fundraisers and $5,000 from a Show Hope grant, a nonprofit organization founded by singer Steven Curtis Chapman.
The process of faith
Armenia’s adoption process is one of the most expensive and longest programs available, and the total cost is more than Christie makes in a year. (and more than Armenians make in a lifetime)
“I was concerned about the money and how we were going to do it... Christie was so excited and I was more realistic,” Raymundo said.
“... At first I wasn’t going for it, but she was very passionate about it, so after we talked I knew that’s what she was meant to do. ... But for Christie, from the very first time she saw the picture she was attached.”
Through the ups and downs of fundraising and the adoption process, faith has played a major role for the family.
“Faith is a huge part of it. If this is something God has put into our path, then he’ll lead us to make it happen,” she said. “He was like this shining star of a baby, and I couldn’t figure out why someone hadn’t committed to him, so I was in a rush to get him. And we’ve met some families through Facebook who had actually pulled (Evan’s) file before committing to other children, so now I know that he was meant for us.”
Christie said it’s easy to romanticize what they’re doing, but, in reality, since Evan isn’t walking, he will need complete care much like an infant. But that’s an adjustment that she, Raymundo and their biological daughter, Laura, 8, are prepared for.
Laura admits she’s a little worried about getting a brother, but she’s more than ready to take on the role of big sister. She hopes to be able to help teach Evan to walk, talk and has already called the top bunk on the bunk beds she hopes to get once he arrives.
She’s got big plans for the rest of the bedroom, too, which she hopes to paint baby blue and fill with lots of boy stuff, like dinosaurs.
“I’ve never had a baby brother before, and now I can play with him... And I want to teach him to be like us two,” Laura said, grinning at her dad.
“We don’t like cheese, peanut butter or blue cheese... And I’m not changing any diapers — (mom and dad) can do that.”
Laura’s anxiety and excitement are mutual feelings in the Orta household as they wait for an email to let them know Evan is ready to meet them. Their first visit to Armenia, which they hope to take in June, will last a week and they plan to make the trip as a family.
After they return home, it will take four to six months to finalize the process and then the Ortas will bring their new son home after a monthlong trip back to Armenia. Christie hopes the new family of four will be together and settled in by Christmas, which, to her, would be the best present of all.
“I’ve already bought him a stocking at the day after Christmas sale. ... It’ll be a new normal once we get him home,” she said.
“We’re just anxious to have him home.”
HOW TO HELP
A tax deductible donation to the Ortas can be made online at reecesrainbow.org/76395/sponsororta. Donations can also be made to the Christie Orta Adoption Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank branch.
ON THE WEB
To follow the Ortas’ adoption journey, go to their blog at evan4theortas.weebly.com
This Holtsville, NY - Sag Harbor resident continues
to troll my websites. He still feels he owes the person who purchased his daughter from
a poor woman in Armenia, in the days of open adoptions- where if he had any connections could have
negotiated his own adoption. Even after Robin's firing from Carolina Adoption Services he remains a
loyal minion to the false savior of children. Reduced to saving overpriced severely disabled children of Armenia
and of those other obscure countries where Robin's nonsense flies under the radar. He is a short midget lawyer who plays
in a rock band and praises Robin for adoption of muslims kids from Morocco to fake christian clients via Kefala ceremony. What this manipulated midget doesn't understand is the damage one time BFF Jeannie Sobie has done and Bennet Kelley Yes a few remaining loyalists pseudo Armenians remain, but the old Yahoo group .......keeps it's distance after your true colors came out - Hope the reunion was a success.
As international adoptions drop to under 5,000 a year to the USA from a high of 22,000 (2005) what obscure country is next ?
