Celebrity couple Chip and Joanna Gaines, the openly Christian stars of the “Fixer Upper” for HGTV, helped a family adopt a 2-year-old boy from China diagnosed with Down syndrome.
According to LifeNews, the Gaines gave a Missouri family, Jason and Melinda Simmons, $16,203 to help them adopt the boy, whom they began seeking earlier this year.
“We want to tell the world that people with different needs and abilities are valued and deserving of life and love and what better way to do that, than to allow our lives to be forever changed for the better through the beauty of adoption!” said the Simmons family of their adoption.
The Simmons family previously applied for the Gaines’ Chipstarter contest, which provides money to help people achieve their dreams. They have now raised $36,000 to help adopt their son, Ezra James, from China.
“The adoption process is very long and very stressful and very expensive,” Melinda Simmons told Country Living. “The knowledge that Chip and Jo were providing the last large amount that we needed in order for our adoption to be fully funded was just unbelievable. It is such a weight off of our shoulders to know where the money is coming from for this final stretch. It’s such a gift.”
“It isn’t easy to fundraise,” she continued. “It’s a very humbling process to ask for help. But the staff at Magnolia made us feel like it was their pleasure to help us. They treated us with kindness and made us feel like family. We will be forever grateful.”
Children with Down syndrome are slowly being eliminated from the Western population. One need not look further than the crystal ball that is Europe to see that. In 2006, Denmark had just four babies born with Down syndrome. In the neighboring country of Iceland, abortion of Down syndrome babies has reached near 100%. France has gotten in on the race too; most recently, the country banned a television commercial featuring Down syndrome children because it upset mothers who previously aborted children with Down syndrome.
Here in the United States, efforts have been implemented to keep children with Down syndrome from becoming an endangered, if not extinct, people. Currently, only four states have laws banning their abortion: Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio and North Dakota.
Openly Christian Chip and Joanna Gaines have endured an onslaught of attacks from leftists over the years, many accusing them of homophobia, even though the couple has never expressed animosity toward LGBTQ people throughout either one of their careers. Earlier this year, when the couple announced they would be welcoming a baby of their own, The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported that leftist trolls poured out of the woodwork to insult them:
The pair announced their happy news on both Instagram and Facebook, and the posts were met, mostly, with words of congratulations and wishes for a safe and healthy pregnancy. But leftist trolls were quick to seize on the opportunity to remind Chip and JoJo that they were contributing to the demise of the entire planet by adding one more human to their family.
“Thank you for contributing to the over population of the planet. I hope this one will be your last and you will use wiser judgment,” read one post, apparently blaming the couple for environmental destruction.
Others accused the couple of emotionally abusing their four other children. “I like them ok but enough with the kids already. Their own children begged them not to have any more children on a previous episode already+overpopulation= [:/].” The emoji was apparently for good measure.
By helping the Simmons family adopt a child with Down syndrome, the Gaines family proved they will not be intimidated from their worldview by hateful trolls.