Calling Volunteers for Our Next Program!

We have exciting news to share! We will be launching our next program in the next couple of months! It will take place at Changsha #1 Social Welfare Institute in Hunan Province--the spicy kids:-) We think we will have around 35 kids to visit and we hope to do a short program with them, and then go around and visit them each individually to get a better idea of who they are and what their special needs may be. We will be taking LOTS of pictures and videos this time and we can't wait to share more information about the program when we have it!

We will be visiting at the end of May for a couple of weeks and we are looking for a volunteer that may be an OT or PT, or perhaps a Developmental Psychologist, willing to share their skills and join us on the trip for all or part of the time. Last time we had a wonderful Occupational Therapist that joined us --thank you to her! We are currently building our team, so if you have skills you think would be helpful to us and you wish to go or you would like more details, please email Marci: marcisk@asiadopt.org

Happy News, Sad News and the like

It has been a while since I have reported happy news for kiddos as well as reporting on who is still waiting. My happiest news to report is that Jason will be coming home to his family next month! He needs lots of folks to keep him in your thoughts and/or prayers so that he makes the trip safely and smoothly. The ASIA staff is very confident that Jason is and will be in good hands.

For more happy news, following are all of the kiddos that have families pursuing them: Tacy, Shaylee, Josh, Jasmyn, Penny, Jeb and Jocelyn! We are thrilled for those children and their future families!

 See what I can do?

 I'm not trying to escape, really!

 Where is my family?

 Here, I'll share this with you if you'll be mine:

 Yummy...I like you!

 There's more to me than meets the eyes.

 Is my family out there?

 I can learn to use the phone!

 I may be an older boy, but I still have dimples!

Surely a family out there wants my pinchable cheeks!

Now for the not so happy news...the news that I hope you will help me to change. Following are the children who still wait: Joyous Jaci, Sneaky Shane, Earnest Evan, Hilarious Hogan, Smiley Sherman, Shy Simon, Silly Seely, Cute Caroline, Brave Balin, Rowdy Rayna, Leader Lewis, Yearning Yuna as well as the new little babies Landon, Zoe, Lorelai, Faith, Hardy, Jessie, Ricky, Bryan, BJ and Dylan. Some of these kiddos I believe will find families once some of our families finish their dossiers. However, for the rest of these kiddos, they need some help. Please share this post with others and help these kids to connect their red thread to the family that is meant to be theirs.

Shane Again

We put a video of adorable little Shane up on our password-protected website. Shane is a 1 1/2 year old little boy with a limb difference. Take a look at his video and let me know if you would be interested in his file. He's a cute little dude with a captivating personality that doesn't let his special need slow him down!

Reminiscent of the Olden Days

Ah to think of the Olden Days, back when adoptive families just completed dossiers with an agency who submitted the dossier to China for them, and then were assigned a child........sigh. The wait was short and the children were young.....

  Things have gotten much more complicated since then! Now the children are older, with more special needs and most families try to choose a child before beginning the process. The downside to this, I have to say as a child advocate, is that the children are waiting longer to be adopted. They are waiting for their adoptive parents to finish paperwork, and for our government to process the many steps they require to adopt internationally. Of course it's still an option to complete dossiers first and then identify a child, and some families do it that way still. Those families, generally, don't wait long after the dossier process to find their child, at least with ASIA. Now, here ASIA sits with a bunch of gorgeous, young boys who have minor special needs and we need some folks with dossiers completed who will consider a boy! Consider Hardy, who earned the nickname of Captain:-) Or BJ with his adorable chubby cheeks! Boys are lovable, too. If you ask anyone who has adopted or parented a boy, they will tell you that. So take a look at our waiting child list and consider one of those lovable boys! At least take a look and see where your heart leads you....

Just a Kid Who Needs a Family

We got updated photos of Jaci and they are quite cute! I got a wonderful email from one of our families who adopted a child with similar needs to Jaci's. She said: "It's funny how adoption changes you.  With each adoption, I feel more comfortable with more serious special needs.  I guess I've learned that no matter what the special need, once they are home they are just our kids.  The need is secondary.  I look at Jaci and I see [my daughter].  I see the little one that we took a chance on that is such an important part of our family now.  I am so glad that we stepped out of our comfort zone to bring her home.  I keep praying that someone will do that for Jaci."