More on Changsha Day 2 - Foster Homes

Hello! This is Pattie guest blogging for Marci, who is getting ready for Children's Day in China. Here at the ASIA office, we're really excited to see all the pictures coming in from Changsha and I know that our families are going to love them, too. I thought I'd post a few more pictures from Marci and Fei's visit to the foster homes on Day 2.

The first picture is Marci playing with "Jasper", one of the boys you can see currently on the waiting child section of our website. Jasper was crying a bit because he wasn't at home and is scared of strangers. But when Marci played music on her Ipad, he put his hand on it and calmed down. According to Marci, "It was pretty cool. Again, the Ipad conquers all. I should get paid by Apple for advertising".

Here is a picture of "Doug" being his cutie self. We posted a couple of pictures of Doug on the earlier Changsha Day Two post. What a cutie! If you want more information on Jasper, Doug, or any of our other kids and you don't have the current log-in information for our waiting children photo list, please email me at pattiec@asiadopt.org.

The last one is a picture of Steve, our volunteer R.N. and adoptive parent, who is helping us with the evaluations. Marci and Fei are there in the background, playing with the kids. I'm so jealous!

I hope that everyone is as excited as I am to see the photos from Children's Day! 

Day 3 in Changsha

This morning we went back to Changsha #1 to revisit some children we wanted to get more information on and let them get more comfortable with us. We were able to visit a Half the Sky classroom that had 4 kids from our program in it. Let me just say that it was awesome to see the kids in action! They were all so comfortable in their class, that they readily interacted with us and let us take photos. However, they don't want us to post the photos on our website, so those will, unfortunately, have to be saved for the kids' files.

One part of that, which was really neat for me was I was playing with a really cute and sweet child who was very personable with me. After I had played with her for a while, I asked her name and it turns out not only is she a child on our list, but she's one that I have tried to place with several of our families before. We haven't found the right family yet, but now I can allay many of their fears about her special need. It was not at all clear to me that she even had a special need.

She shared half of her cracker with me at snack time, grabbed my big nose and seemed to understand that I couldn't speak much Chinese, so she found other ways to communicate with me. It was really neat because I could just see how she would do with the adjustment to a family through those interactions.

Another child in our program kept giving me tiny pieces of his cracker:-) I really wish I could share photos, because the class was decorated, wall to wall, with the kids' art projects and creations. It was a bright, cheerful classroom and the teachers handled all the kids very well. The children we were a bit worried about really seemed to blossom in there.


We also took some time individually with some of the kids' that we got rushed through the other day, so I got photos to document each of their special needs. One girl, who cried the entire time on our first day, today came in calm and responsive and even smiled several times for me. I might share that smile with you.

FYI, tomorrow we have a day off so they can prepare for Children's day, so there is unlikely to be any updates tomorrow, but June 1st should bring wonderful photos of the Children's Day performance.

ASIA in China - Day Two! Foster Homes

Today we ventured out to a couple of the foster homes outside the city. When I say outside the city, I mean potholes the size of mac trucks, bumpy dirt roads, one way roads, our "van" driver (we rode in a modified ambulance) going through red lights repeatedly and regularly, and of course the usual nearly hitting other cars, motorcyclists and pedestrians. Thank goodness my stomach is still with me! It was a close one, though.

My Ipad was awesome for getting the kids to warm up. Being able to take their picture (of them screaming their heads off) and then show it to them helped to distract them. Three of the kids we saw today were pretty outgoing once they got over their fear of the big-nosed caucasian :-) I was able to keep one little boy in smiles and giggles most of the time we visited. All of the kids wanted to play with the Ipad. I really think it is a must for every trip.

ASIA in China - Day One!

After 22 grueling hours of travel and some adventure along the way with almost missing a flight and the mystery of the missing luggage, we have all made it safe, sound (and tired). Our team visited the orphanage this morning and were able to visit with 12 adorable babies and toddlers. We did brief evaluations on all of them, but will definitely be visiting with some of them again during our stay.

Let me just say that these kids are Adorable with a capital A! Once they warmed up to us, they were sweet and personable and very photogenic:-)

We also got some great video, and the older of the kiddos loved my Ipad! It was hard to pull it away:-)

There were half the sky nannies there as well for some of the kids and all of the nannies seemed to really know the kids and seek out age appropriate interactions with them. The kids all seemed to have attachments with someone there. One little girl even called Steve "Baba!"

Our Oregon staff will be posting pictures for me, so look for those a little later. We're having technical difficulties with doing that part from China. But I will continue to update the blog on our adventures from here. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Well, we are off to China! Hopefully we will be able to update the blog from China on the 28th or 29th with some precious news about the orphanage and children we meet! Stay tuned....

Here at ASIA we are all busy readying ourselves for this big trip to China--assigning duties to make sure everything is covered while Fei and I are away, preparing evaluations for the children, finalizing our itinerary with the orphanage, getting our props together for the mini-camps we'll do with groups of the kids as well as the general scurry that goes on around our agency to continue to process the adoptions that are already in process for our families.

The kids below are kids whose files may be coming our way--too cute!!! If you're interested in a Non-Special Focus child and qualify, apply now and get going on your dossier so you will be eligible.

Right now we have kids from the shared waiting child list from the same orphanage who are now on our individual list. They are quite adorable as well and are mostly Special Focus children by now. If you would like to see their adorable faces, please take a look at our password-protected waiting child list. These kids are definitely not defined by their special needs, they just happen to have some. Take a look~!

New Brighter Futures Kiddos

We are getting the most adorable pictures of children from Changsha and Zhuzhou! Don't they just melt your heart? Look at that incredible drawing the handsome boy above is doing--what talent!

The girl below with the beautiful braids seems like just what so many folks describe when they request girls! We've also gotten pictures of very young girls and boys, as well as older ones. I can't wait to go meet them! And these are just a trickle of the sweet pictures that have poured into our emails. Once we get there, we will start posting much more information about these kids, but for now, take a peek at the 26 new kids we have on our waiting child list from Changsha! If you don't have the passwords, please contact Pattie: Pattiec@asiadopt.org

Changsha and Zhuzhou Are Here!!!!

We still have 3 weeks before we leave for Changsha and we already received 26 files of children from the shared list that are from our partner orphanages, Changsha #1 and Zhuzhou, both in Hunan Province! We will be working our tails off to get their information and pictures posted on our waiting child list on our password protected website. In the meantime, our China Director already visited most of the kids, and has sent us pictures and videos! So we will be gradually posting those for your viewing pleasure, and of course to help them find families! If you are part of the the Hunan or Changsha yahoo groups, please let them know about ASIA's partnership!

New Waiting Children!

ASIA received 26 new waiting children from our newest partner orphanage that were waiting on the shared list. Meanwhile they are working on registering the other children they have for adoption. If you would like to see our password-protected waiting child list, please contact me: marcisk@asiadopt.org

 We have 2 weeks until we leave to go visit! Then we will be posting pictures, video and stories from Changsha about the kiddos we meet there, so stay tuned!!!