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.

the CCCWA and Waiting Child Quilt

On our long trip to China, my luggage was always over weight. It seems everyone carried something for me. Orphanage gifts, sensory brushes, three hundred lollipops, the list goes on. I take similar items on each trip. What I do not take is an almost Queen size Quilt in my luggage. As you can imagine it added considerable weight. I have posted pictures of the Quilt before. The Quilt was made to say thank you to the CCCWA and to remember all the children who still wait for forever families. We started the Quilt in New York city on the Autumn moon festival boat ride during the CCCWA visit last fall. Many children adopted from China drew beautiful pictures and contributed to the Quilt. We continued the project at the Gladney center Chinese New year party in Ft Worth and the GFA Houston party as well. The final squares were completed at the New York CNY party.

Personally, this was so special to me because I was able to work on the pictures and assist the kiddos. Some of the children I had met in their orphanages in China. To see a child there and now here with their forever family made my heart sing. To have an opportunity to color and draw with those children, was truly amazing. I assembled the Quilt and had it professionally quilted.

After our last orphanage day in ChangSha, we traveled via fast train to Beijing still carrying the Quilt. We met with the director of the CCCWA and presented the Quilt to him. He was amazed, pleased and called the Quilt a beautiful work of art and a gift from all the children. The Quilt will hang in an exhibition in the lobby of the headquarters. We were all so pleased at the reaction. Here are some pictures of the presentation.

 The director of the CCCWA admiring all the beautiful drawings on the squares

One last look at the Quilt.  I hope to get back to see it hanging in the exhibition. 

 

 

Children are a gift

As my friend, and fellow Superkids volunteer, Erin Martin says  "going through 12 different time zones and crossing the international dateline can really mess with your system".  I am having difficulty focusing on anything but the Children we met in China.  The fact we are at home with our families and they are not.  We all feel a great urgency that they should have the same joy we have, a home and a family.  The Superkids team spent so much time with these children.  We were able to do Medical and Developmental assessments.   The team was able to get to know them and take literally, thousands of pictures to document their journey. It is amazing how quickly we formed a bond with the kiddos.  They are in our hearts until they are adopted.  We hope every child will find that forever family.  We saw children from three months of age up to 14 years old.  These children had minimal medical issues up to life threatening issues.  They are all beautiful unique and, oh by the way, not at all defined by any medical or developmental need they may have.  They are not "the child with birth marks" or "the child with Spina Bifida", they are the cute 2 year old who likes to play with the bubbles or the four year old who likes to yell when he is happy.

So here are some cuties.  Come on over and meet these children who are just waiting to be your kiddos.

                             " I don't know what this is, but it looks fun to play with"

                                                       "wow, I might like that."

                                                      look at who I made laugh! 

                                                             I like to be tickled

                                                                  IPads are universal

                                                               These kiddos Rock!!!!