Moms who rock

My friend Jolene O'Dell is advocating for two of the sweeties we met on her blog.  Hop on over and see more about these two kiddos and the story of Jolene's family.  She has a heart for Children with Spina Bifida and these two children are very special!  Here is the link to her blog.

www.homespunheritage.net 

And because I cannot help myself, a few more pics of the kiddos she is advocating for.  They are so cute. 

Jo is a mom who can really advocate for this special need because she understands it so well.     Read the post, learn more about these two kiddos.  If you want to hear even more you can contact me at patriciamarcuspt@gmail.com 

Lets find these kids forever families. 

Steven, a very special self advocater

In the JiangXi province we met a very amazing group of children.  These kiddos told us, we want a forever family.  One by one.  Orphanage by orphanage.  We heard the same words.  These were special children who were searching for the love of a family.  This special boy was one of our self advocaters.

 Stephen is 11 years old.  he is currently in foster care.  He was initially placed with an older couple who has passed on.  We are not sure whether he was adopted or whether he was just in what everyone thought was a permanent foster placement.  He is in foster care again.  But he really wants a family of his own and forever

Here are his own words. "  very much want to have a happy family.  With a family, i can experience the love from a father and a mother.  If I have an opportunity to be adopted, I will be very happy and very much want to go to the new family."

 

All of us were impressed by this handsome boy.  To be 11 years old and able to advocate, ask for something so enormous, really takes your breath away when you think about it.  There are plenty of other facts about Steven that you can read in his profile or hear about this boy by contacting the Superkids team. 

 

The most important thing to know is there is a sweet, handsome, boy in China who is waiting for his forever family to find him.  If you could be his family and want to learn more you can contact April.Uduhiri@gladney.org  or patriciamarcuspt@gmail.com

 

Wordless Wednesday

How about almost wordless Wednesday.  I am starting this on this blog and may feature an individual child or a theme.  Can you guess todays theme? 

JiangXi province

The Superkids team was in the JiangXi province for 4 days.  We traveled from Shanghai to Nanchung, the capital of the province via plane.  We were met by provincial officials.    We drove to the first orphanage which was approximately three hours away. We saw a number of children there and also had a chance to meet a matched child.  This was on very limited sleep.  Just to mention, JiangXi and Hunan are called the "hot pots" of China due to the excessive heat.  In JiangXi, no breeze, very high humidity and over 90 every day.

The travel in the province  may be difficult but the scenery and the kids were beautiful.  JiangXi has beautiful mountains and is considered the porcelain capital of China. There are beautiful lakes and lovely mountains that we saw while riding along. 

 This is our trusty van.

  These are beautiful mountains we saw at a park in Ping Xiang.

Most beautiful of all were the kiddos.  We were exhausted, sleep deprived and hot but the kids just pulled us right in and brightened our moods.  We loved the children of the JiangXi province.  Hear more about these cuties on our webinair. 

Click below for:

Superkids Webinar Part 2

Falling in Love all over again

We have been waiting on a very important bit of information from China that has not come.  I email and no response as yet.  Waiting to tell you the story until I have confirmation.  Still we continue to move forward and wait.  So...here is a story about how we feel.  Each one of us expresses this sentiment separately and together.  We all communicate frequently, via Email, text, facebook and lengthy phone calls.  We look at pictures, review profiles, research diagnosis, laugh and cry over kids stories.  We are hoping for potential adoptive parents to feel called to the kiddos we met.

At every orphanage we ask, how can we help?  Sometimes its developmental training, sometimes its seeing more kids who have difficult medical conditions.  The orphanage asking, can you help this child find a home.  They have been waiting a long time. A long long time.  That breaks my heart. 

So coming together as a team is very important.  When we look at pictures, review notes and talk on the phone, we fall in love with the kids all over again.  Darla said exactly yesterday.  Can't tell you how special every child we met is. We are going to talk about some of the children from Jiangxi province this week on a webinair.  Darla will be on the webinair too.  So get ready to fall in love with these kids.

  Falling in love with the kids in JiangXi all over again.

Shanghai kiddos

Its time to talk about the kids we met in Shanghai.  We will be advocating for some beautiful designated children tonight on our Webinair.  Link is provided below.  These children are from the Shanghai Childrens home.  It is an orphanage that we have been visiting since 2007 and Gladney has a partnership with this orphanage.  I have worked with the rehab staff, been in the orphanage rooms and have had dinners and lunches with the staff.  It is a very large orphanage.  There may be up to 600 to 800 children on the campus.  Here are a few pictures.

 Here we are walking past the rehab center.

This is the main orphanage building.

These are some of the Nannies and I am showing them pictures of Children they know.  They just viewed the video Erin created of Shanghai kiddos. 

 

So now some beautiful photos of a couple of kiddos.  Tune in tonight to see more pictures and hear their stories. 

 

 

 

So tonight at 7 PM tune in to hear and see more about the kids we met in Shanghai.  Here is the link.

Superkids webinair: Shanghai kiddos 

 

webinair

A Problem just Waiting to be Solved

Moments of this trip keep floating around in my brain.  This is one that showed up recently.  In the JiangXi province, we met a beautiful girl.  She conveyed to us to Please, Please help her find a family.  She did not do this through the translator.  She hugged us all.  She took Chelsea to  pictures posted on a bulletin board of children who were already adopted.  Pointing to the pictures and to herself. Chelsea did not know what to say.  No one would.  She wanted to leave with us.  Chelsea found the translator, said yes she did understand and we would try to find a family for her. 

Self advocacy is a powerful thing.  There are many critics of international adoption who I would like to experience this exact moment.  What can you say to a child who is asking you to find a family for them because they need one?  Of course they need a family!  The fact that many of these children will age out and never know the love of a family is a sad truth.  These moments are heart breaking and have changed all of us forever.  This scene was repeated in many different orphanages throughout our trip.  A boy in ChangSha told me he really wanted a family, he said some kids talk about it but he needs a family more than anyone.  Please can he be adopted.   We were asked this question at least 5 times on this trip.  I remember each one because it kind of takes your breath away.   I ask these children what they would want a forever family to know.  Sometimes they tell me something about themselves that they feel makes them special.  Like I can run faster than anyone.  Or, I will be a good son or daughter and help my Mom and Dad.   They show me cartwheels.  Lastly, will you find me patient parents who will love me?

So I want to ask everyone to participate in helping these kiddos advocate for themselves.  Tell everyone you know there are beautiful older kids available for adoption too.  I really feel this is a problem we can solve.  Share, tell and retell their stories.  Open your heart to an older child.