Raising eight children isn't easy, but Becki and Steve Rodriguez do it without complaints.  "I don't regret it for one moment.  Even when I'm up in my room pulling my hair out, I never regret it," says Becki.

The couple adopted these children one-by-one over the past 15 years. Their job made harder by the fact that everyone of these kids had been exposed to drugs and alcohol. "That's what we were supposed to do, take kids that no one else, most people, won't take and raise them."

The slumping economy has been tough for this family. Becki doesn't work and Steve is on disability. They say their savior has been in the Early Intervention Program which provides free physical and behavioral therapy for their children. "It's giving them the leg up to mediocricity. It gets them to the level that every child starts at."

However over the past few years, it's been tougher and tougher for the Rodriguez's to get their children the services they need. We took their concerns to Janelle Mulvenon, the bureau chief of Early Intervention Services in Reno. "Our budget has been at no growth in northern Nevada. We haven't been able to add any additional positions to address and serve those children."

Mulvenon said currently there are more than 100 children on a waiting list to get developmental services in northern Nevada.

With no new funding coming in, more families like the Rodriguez's won't get the help they need.

"Put the money at the beginning. I'm telling you, put the money in the front end and you'll have less issues at the back end," says Rodriguez.

Just last year alone nearly 4,000 children statewide got intervention services from this agency. Officials say the needs will only go up and they hope the money to fund this crucial program will do so as well.

Governor Gibbons released a statement in response to this story.  "Putting more funding into E.I.S. (Early Intervention Services) now would force us to take that money out of Medicaid, prisons, or some other necessary programs. Once Nevada gets through its current fiscal crisis, I hope we're able to restore funding reductions that have been made and address the backlog of potential clients."

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