A new home is planned to accommodate a Utah family that has adopted six handicapped children from China and is working to get the seventh.

But whether the home goes up in Herriman or not is dependent on how much can be raised in donations. Raising enough money to start digging the basement by the end of this month could be a Herculean challenge. Some $200,000 is needed and thus far only $25,000 has been raised, said Realtor Jeanette Suker, who heads up the Community Affairs Committee under the Utah County Association of Realtors banner.

“At this point we don’t know where it’s going,” said Christianne Green, who with her husband, Jeremy, adopted the handicapped kids.

Materials and labor have also been donated. Building the home for the local Parade of Homes in August will give the builder and the trades that have donated materials and labor a showcase.

The Realtor committee partnered with a Herriman neighborhood group, Puzzle Them Home, which pulled in the Salt Lake Utah Home Builders Association and Heart 2 Home to help the Greens and their soon-to-be-10 children get into a home designed especially for their adopted kids’ special needs. Three of the children are biological.

The Chinese children were all abandoned by their parents, said Chrissy Probst, who started the neighborhood group with four other neighbors a year ago when she learned of the Green’s intentions to give the children a loving home. The adopted children range from 4 to 14.

“We started small, and we’ve been getting bigger and bigger,” said Lauren Hardcastle, one of the group.

The children’s handicaps range from autism to missing limbs to spinal and heart issues, one requiring a wheelchair. All told, their split-level, 2,600-square-foot home doesn’t work any more. So they’re planning a new home with some 7,000 square feet, including a bonus room over the garage, Probst said.

“We’ve been just completely overwhelmed,” Christianne Green said.

The couple had three children of their own, but when the babies five and six were stillborn, the mother learned she was at risk from blood clotting disorder from having more. So they turned to adoption and were drawn to Chinese children where the country has one-child-per-couple policy. After adopting an autistic child, they went back for more.

“We kept going back once we saw the conditions over there,” she said. “They’re just kids, just amazing, beautiful kids. They’re better off here than in an orphanage.”

The Greens put together a musical video about their first adoptions, which they posted to www.youtube.com. The neighbors saw it and the rest, as they say, is history.

The neighborhood group arranged for architect Jamie Walker with Walker Home Designs and builder Bret Wright with Huish Construction to donate their time for the project, Hardcastle said. The plans and lot, which the Greens purchased, are both ready.

Suker is asking that each member of the Association of Realtors and their clients kick in $50 or more by this Friday, March 15, so that construction can start by the end of March. The Realtor contest ends March 15, but donations can continue after that.

The Realtor who raises the most by the deadline stands to get a Cancun vacation, air travel not included, Hardcastle said. Each donation becomes a piece of the puzzle, she said, thus the name of the committee and the website, www.puzzlethemhome.org which has a Paypal link where donations can be made. Realtors are to include their brokerage as a way to track the donations. The progress can be followed on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PuzzleThemHome.

Names of the donors will be displayed as puzzle pieces to frame a picture of the Greens displayed at the Parade of Homes once the project is complete, Hardcastle said.

Rodger L. Hardy is a Realtor affiliated with Prudential Utah Real Estate and a former real estate editor. For answers to your real estate questions please call 801-360-9133 or email him at rhardy@utahresidentialEteam.com.