ASIA Says Goodbye

It is with the deepest regret that we announce our board's decision to close the agency as of March 1st, 2013. This decision was made due to the financial difficulties that ASIA has been facing in light of the constantly evolving and increasingly restrictive regulations in the adoption industry over the last couple of years. The ASIA team has worked extremely hard to pull the agency through these challenges.We remain committed to ensuring that our current adoptions in process continue with the greatest care and the least amount of interruption possible.

Please know that this was an extremely difficult decision, about which the entire ASIA team is very sad.We are proud of ASIA's 18 year history of serving orphaned children, as well as the families who have welcomed them into their lives. We have enjoyed working with all of our families and volunteers and are so grateful to the many in the adoption community who have helped to find forever families for the children of China. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to all of you who have continued to follow ASIA and our waiting children. We wish you all the best in your journeys ahead.

Sadly,

The ASIA Team

Carry

An extremely warm hearted (pun intended) cardiologist from Boston Children's Hospital, Puja Banka, MD has been reviewing the files of our waiting children with relevant conditions. Thanks in part to Dr. Banka, I"m thrilled to say that Liam has found a family! Congratulations to Liam and his new family!

Tillie, Jed and Carry haven't been so lucky, unfortunately. Tillie and Jed are both Special Focus. Tillie and Carry's outcomes both look pretty good, although we're trying to get some clarification on some of the unknowns with Carry's situation. These kiddos need families to heal their broken hearts and get the the treatment they need.

Quinn Thrives!

I want to tell you about Quinn. We did not get a chance to meet Quinn in China, but we have found that he has been a part of the Butterfly Home in China and now he is at a new school for the blind! Please see his details at the Butterfly Home website. He is named Jesse: Butterfly Home

He is adorable and you can tell he is thriving there! He loves outdoor activities and is even smiling in the pictures!

China's Orphans

Love Without Boundaries always has some great articles on their blog, so today I'm giving them another plug.

Often people ask why it seems that there are fewer healthy infants available for adoption from China, and why so many more boys and older children are available now.  Amy Eldridge has some great perspective on that and wrote about: The Changing Population of China's Orphans:

Read the article for some interesting information about the China Special Needs Adoption Program and the population in China.

National Day of Service, Saturday the 19th

The National Day of Service is Saturday, January 19th (this Saturday). President Obama is asking everyone to find a way to serve their community. Just imagine what would happen if everyone took a few hours to make a contribution towards their community?

We are offering you some options to participate in the National Day  of Service by helping the community of China's Waiting Children:

Write your local newspaper about your Positive adoption experience. So often, all the news agencies pick up are negative adoption stories. Tell them why adoption is beautiful--both for the child and the family. Or pick a special need and discuss your experience with it. Talk about how adoption from China has changed and there are more boys with special needs waiting for families than girls. Tell them why adopting a boy is a wonderful experience!

Send ASIA a copy of your article or send it to Rainbowkids.org or Precious.org to share with their communities.

Advocate for some waiting children at your church, rec center, host a party or social event and advocate for waiting children. ASIA would be happy to provide you with resource materials! Just email: staff@asiadopt.org

Set up a hot chocolate stand in your driveway or at a park with your child and let them become involved in the National Day of Service and raise money to help children from China. With these temperatures lately, you're sure to earn some money to donate!

Donate to ASIA's Gift of Family Fund that helps families adopting older or special needs children to afford the costs of adoption when they may not otherwise be able to do so. Help a child to have a family that may not otherwise have one.

These are the faces you can work to help on The National Day of Service, or every day!

June

Heather

Callum

Miles

Brooke

These little faces thank you for your service!

We make a difference one child at a time. You have made a difference for Cade, Ruby, Colin, Taryn, Brett and Leo.















Now there are more children needing the love of a forever family, a Mom or Dad to tuck them in at night, to feel safe learning how to swim or to ride a bike, to teach them how to catch a ball or make a basket. They need a parent to help them with homework and give them the love and self esteem to grow up to be healthy, lovable and productive adults.


These are the faces of tomorrow needing your help today.

Sweet Taryn Gets a Family!!!

I am so thrilled to share this exciting news--sweet, nurturing, Taryn, who is busy taking care of all of the other children, will finally have a Mommy and Daddy of her own! She will have an incredible family to teach her how to be loved and nurtured and how to be a kid! She will have parents to tuck her in at night, teach her how to swim, and siblings to help teach her English and how to be goofy. I am so excited for her and for her family! She has waited too long already, but at last we can see an end to her waiting. Congratulations to Taryn and her new family!

Sad For Those Who Went Back

We had several files go back to the shared list: Francesca, Grayson, Logan and Leeann's files all went back to the shared list. So if you're logged in with a different agency and want to pursue one of them, please see the shared list! There are so many Non-Special Focus kiddos waiting for their families on the shared list right now. It makes me wonder what is going on? I have never seen so many before! We really need families to start with their home studies and dossiers so they become eligible for Non-Special Focus kiddos instead of waiting to find their child before signing up with an agency. Your child will find you! There are plenty of Special Focus kiddos out there, too. I don't want to discourage families from adopting them either! They are all precious and deserving! 

So now to feature one of our precious and deserving kiddos:

Corey

Corey's file will be going back towards the end of the month. Isn't he a cutie pie? Corey is a happy, outgoing little guy who loves to explore outside. Is that something your family likes as well? Maybe Corey is a good fit for you! Contact me right away for more information about him. Don't let him wait a day longer--he is already 3 years old and needs parent/s who will tuck him in at night and kiss his cheek and let him know that that he is theirs forever and ever.

Children's Files Going Back!!!

Happy New Year! THE TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN MADE PERMANENT!!!!!!!! What a great way to start off 2013!! Let's celebrate by advocating for adoption! This should enable more families to afford adoption:-)

The not so good news is that at the end of the week we have 6 kiddos whose files we must return to CCCWA if we don't have any interested families. Those kiddos are: 5-Year-old Carry, 1.5-Year-old Waverly, Almost 2-Year-old Logan, 1.5-Year-old Lucy, 1.5-Year-old Grayson and 1.5-Year-old Francesca. They are Non-Special Focus, meaning they require families to have completed dossiers now (or within the next month), however, if you have interest, please don't let that stop you from inquiring!

I cannot believe that sweet Waverly, Logan and Grayson have not found families! Waverly's special need has already been repaired! If I could show you these kids' pictures, they would NOT still be waiting! These kids are so sweet and are from our previous partner orphanage, which has a Half The Sky program for the infants and toddlers, so they are getting great care! These kiddos are precious and should have families pursuing them. Why don't they? I cannot answer that question--it baffles me!

Please, if you're interested in these kids, contact me today before we have to send their files back.

If you're interested in any of our Special Focus kiddos, and you don't think you qualify, contact me anyway. Waivers are available for Special Focus kiddos! It's a new year with all sorts of new possibilities! Is this the year you complete your family?

Happy Holidays!

May all of your holidays be Merry and Bright! 

There are several kids who just want a family to call their own for the holidays. Could you or someone you know be a family for any of these children?

Callum

Jed

Leeann

Miles

Brooke

And let's not forget the Non-Special Focus kiddos who still need families: Rose, Liam, Corey and Holly! It's the season of giving, so if you are dedicated to waiting children, please give them a chance by spreading the word about them, share the blog with your friends and family or post an email about them to a group or community you're a member of. If none of that is your cup of tea, than please donate to ASIA's gift of family fund to help those who can't afford the great costs of adoption to give a child a home and family and to know the true meaning of love. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Those Who Wait...

We still have QUITE A FEW WAITING CHILDREN who are not even being considered right now. We have a lot of children on our waiting list and these kiddos need families! They are young, adorable kiddos who should not be waiting! If you have not already checked our waiting kiddos, please consider:
Lucy, Waverly, Francesca, Carry, Grayson and Logan who are all Non-Special Focus and need families who either already have completed dossiers or are very close! Contact me about these cuties who are mostly between the ages of 1 1/2 years to 5 years with minor special needs.

Mathias, Jack and Charlie are Special Focus and are available to anyone who qualifies or possibly those who need waivers. Contact me for more information:

Matthias

 Matthias is outgoing and talkative; no matter what he is doing, he always talks to his foster mother.

Jack

 We had a cardiologist review Jack's information and have that available and she is willing to speak with anyone else about Jack!

Charlie

We have many more from our Changsha program as well! I will post about them tomorrow, but contact me for more information: marcisk@asiadopt.org

A Rose By Any Other Name....

If you haven't taken a look at our waiting children yet, please go take a look at sweet Rose! I can't believe no one has snatched her up yet! She is Non-Special Focus, so she needs a dossiered family.  Anyone? Contact me for more information about sweet Rose or any of the other waiting children. It looks like May and Ruby from our last list as well as Cassie and Yvette from this latest list all have families. Congratulations to them! However, the rest are still ready and waiting for their forever families to find them! I wish I could post their sweet faces, but you can go back and see them on my blog post here:

http://asiahope.blogspot.com/2012/05/after-22-grueling-hours-of-travel-and.html

She is the girl chewing on the cracker...precious, isn't she?

Exciting Precious New Kiddos Arrived!!!

Exciting news! As expected, ASIA received 10 new files of waiting children from our partner orphanage in Hunan Province! They are adorable kiddos and many of them were the children we met while on our trip last June. You can see them back on our blog posts from the end of May/early June. However, most are Non-Special Focus, so we cannot post their adorable little faces here:-( However, we did get several special focus among the group:

Heather is 5 years old:

 She was the one who was super interested in my Ipad and caught onto it quick! She was a bit shy at first, but after she got comfortable with us, she came out of her shell and began to talk more. What a cutie! Heather is Special Focus.

Quinn is 3 Years old:

We didn't get to meet Quinn on our trip, unfortunately. 

Callum is 3.5 years old:

We didn't get to meet Callum, either, but look at that face!!! Isn't he adorable??? He lives with an American foster family and speaks English! Someone has got to snatch this little boy up!

Zayna is 3.5 years old:

We did meet Zayna. She is very happy to sit and observe what is going on around her. She smiles sweetly when the nannies tease her or say nice things to her.

To get a gander at the cute little girls and boys, ranging in age from 1.5 years to 3 years with minor special needs, that are Non-Special Focus, you will have to get pre-qualified to view our waiting child list on our website. Please see the link at the top of this page or contact me for details: marcisk@asiadopt.org

New Kiddos Expected!

I am back with exciting news! We are still recruiting 20 new families to get going on their dossiers, as we have more cute little kiddos from our partner orphanage coming to our individual waiting child list soon and we need families to have completed dossiers, or close to it, in order to be eligible for many of the kids! Don't let the holidays slow you down! These kids still need families!

We also received two little heart kiddos today who are just adorable, but have pretty serious conditions. If you are one of those special families who is willing to consider a child with a serious heart condition, please contact me: marcisk@asiadopt.org

Here are the kiddos: please meet Tillie and Jed:

These little ones are Special Focus and they need a family to get them the treatment they most certainly need for their heart conditions. If you would like to consider them, please contact me! You can apply for them before having a completed dossier.

8 Little Ones Need Families

ASIA still has 8 little ones out of the 12 that we got that don't have families considering them right now. Only a few of those are Special Focus. But we do have 2 precious little Non-Special Focus toddler boys and 3 girls who have no dossiered families considering them. If you are open to considering one of these adorable kiddos, and you have a completed dossier, or close to complete dossier, please contact me right away!

We also have 3 Special Focus kiddos who are not being considered. Both Mathias and Jack and not being considered. They are pictured in a post from last week, but here are their cute little faces again for you:

Jack

Mathias

Here is the other little dude that is Special Focus:

Charlie

Aren't they cute? Just look at those cheeks on Jack and Charlie! Charlie is only a year and a half old, all cute and pudgy still with bright eyes and a smile that shines! Wavers may be available for Special Focus kiddos, so contact me for more information. 

 Unfortunately I can't picture the Non-Special Focus kiddos we have available, but we have 3 girls--Francesca, May and Carry. Francesca and May are both a year and a half old and Carry is 5 years old. Please contact me if you are close to completing a dossier or have a completed dossier and are interested in these little ones: marcisk@asiadopt.org 

Feeling Forgotten

Today I was looking back at the blog from our trip to our partner orphanage last May/June, feeling sad for all of the older children who still sit waiting for a family. Most of these kids have been in the orphanage for a very long time and they long for a family. None were hesitant about their desire for a family. We have had instances before where it seemed that a child was being persuaded to say they want to be adopted, but that didn't seem to be the case here with the kids we met. We have their files yet again, but unfortunately most people are distracted by the adorable young toddlers we have on our list now. Of course they are just as deserving of families and we do want the right fit for each family.

 I hope that families still take the time to go through the whole list to see the rest of the children who wait. There are a few who really grabbed me. The one I will speak of today is one who gathered a lot of attention when I initially posted about her, yet since that time, she has had little interest. No one is reviewing her file currently and she still waits.....

Isn't Taryn a lovely young lady? This young lady needs a mother to give her the motherly love she has blessed the more disabled children at her orphanage with through her nurturing personality. Taryn impressed me with the way she took care of the other children without being asked. She has a truly giving personality. She is confident, outgoing and friendly. She likes to chat, dance and go shopping (a typical tween!). She is quite independent, well liked, mellow and happy. Although there is one thing that weighs on her. She really wants a family, even though she knows that she will miss her friends at the orphanage. She would love to have a a Mom and Dad and siblings of any age. Do you know anyone who could be interested in Taryn? She just turned 13 so Taryn doesn't have much time anymore. She has been waiting for too long already! 

Are You an Advocate?

You know you're an adoption advocate when:

1.) You see waiting children and want to take them all home!
2.) You talk about waiting children to your social networking groups and spread the word about the children who need families.
3.) You tell your friends and family about waiting children that tug at your heart.
4.) You tell the folks on yahoo groups about waiting children that tug at your heart.

5.) You talk to your church or other community about waiting children and ways they can help, including adoption, donations or advocating.
6.) You collect money to help waiting children without families.

7.) You contact Marci to find out which children need advocates the most.
8.) You host a blog or submit guest posts to other blogs about waiting children.
9.) You share your experience of adopting a waiting child and become an adoption ambassador.

10.) You are such a good advocate that your adopted child wants to do something to contribute, so they make something to sell and donate the money to one of ASIA's Programs to give back to orphanages and orphans. 

We got a call recently from one of the members of our ASIA family whose daughter, along with her friends' daughter, were making friendship bracelets to sell and donate the money to ASIA's Program to give back to orphans. What a great idea! Lots of our families have kids that are getting older these days and this sounds like such a wonderful opportunity for them to contribute!

.....any other suggestions?

Let Me Tell You About...

Let me tell you about Jack and Mathais. These two boys were specifically selected by CCCWA to take part in the Little Hearts Medical Team's evaluations, so they will both end up with treatment plans completed by Dr. Armsby's team from Doernbecher, OR! We are sure that will help families considering these two boys for adoption:-) If you want to know more about the Little Hearts Medical Team, you can take a look at my blog post about it, or ASIA's Facebook page.

But back to Jack, who just melts your heart when you look at him!

He is a big, bright-eyed four-year-old boy who is adored by everyone he meets. You can tell from the picture that he has one of those personalities that lights up a room and draws everyone to him. The nannies all dote over him and take extremely good care of him, as they are sensitive to his special need. He loves to play outdoors, and learn children's songs and counting from his nannies. The nannies have carefully potty trained him and they let him eat several small meals per day, instead of fewer larger ones, due to his condition. Jack has a sweet tooth! Could you be the family for this precious little boy? Contact Marci to find out more about him: marcisk@asiadopt.org


Now don't forget Mathias! This little character is an active, lovely and polite boy.

Mathias likes to play outside and play games with other children. He is quick to smile and is extremely outgoing and welcoming when guests arrive at his foster home; he says hello to them, invites them to sit down and he is always talkative to his foster mother. He is very helpful, and volunteers to make the bed and set the table. He is a very adaptable boy and doesn't let his special need slow him down one bit. He is very self sufficient.Could this six year old boy be the one for you? Contact Marci to find out more about him: Marcisk@asiadopt.org

Adoption Fair

ASIA is participating in another Adoption Fair in honor of National Adoption Month! This one is at Microsoft in Washington State. So if you live in Washington and are around tomorrow, come say Hi to Pattie at the Microsoft Adoption Fair:

Microsoft Conference Center (Building 33) on the Main Campus in Redmond

Building address: 16070 NE 36th Way   Redmond, WA 98052

The Fair is from 9:30am until 3:00pm, Friday November 9th. There will be seminars taking place from 10:30 until 2:30. Pattie will be speaking at 12:50pm about Waiting Children from China. Come stop by!

New Waiting Children!!!

Exciting News! ASIA received 10 new waiting children yesterday! Nine of them are Non-Special Focus, so we cannot advocate for them publicly, but if you have a dossier completed or almost completed and want to see the adorable little kiddos (toddler age up to 5 Years, 5 girls and 4 boys with minor special needs), email me for the password: marcisk@asiadopt.org

The Little boy who is Special Focus that we received is only 18 months old! He's a cutie:

Isn't that an adorable face? What a smiley little guy:-) Do you see all of those toys in the background...he's at our previous partner orphanage from last year in their Half The Sky Program;-) So if you're open to a boy, contact me before he gets snatched up!

In Honor of National Adoption Month

As the ASIA staff busy's itself getting ready for various adoption fairs and finding new ways to advocate for our 24 waiting children from China, we are reaching out to ask YOU to be a part of National Adoption Month. Can you be an Adoption Ambassador this month? How many people can you educate about adoption this month? Do you have a blog? Hop on there, and post about any of the 24 waiting children you've seen on this blog and link your blog back to ASIA's so people can see the pictures!

We have Trevor, who is aging out in May and we have not had any interest in him. His only special need is that he is a boy! Trevor is an intelligent, kind and polite child. He is curious and helpful; he enjoys playing with other children and is very kind. He is very determined, pursuing things that are challenging for him until he is able to conquer them. He receives praises for his singing and dancing and is a sensitive and friendly boy.   Please spread the word far and wide about Trevor before it's too late for him. Ideally, we would like a dossiered family, but if someone is willing to work quickly, we will take all inquiries!

 

Could you be the family for this handsome boy?

 Or how about for Polly? Polly is an optimistic 8 year old girl who always has a smile on her face.

 She can walk independently, but slowly due to her right leg. She has a very strong memory and remembers what she is taught easily. She speaks clearly and gets along with others well. She likes singing and dancing and has a strong respect and obedience. She studies at the institute and has strong consciousness of the class rules and studies seriously. She can write her own name and recite poems and count numbers. Isn't she cute?  She needs a Mommy or Daddy to tuck her in at night and let her know that she is loved forever and ever. 

If older child adoption is not your cup of tea, how about one of the cuddly little guys in our Changsha program? Their files are working their way to us! Apply to ASIA today and get your dossier done so you will be eligible for these cuties! 

National Adoption Awareness month is the perfect time to begin your adoption journey or to become an adoption ambassador and help all of these children who don't have Mommy's and Daddy's to get the families that they deserve. Everyone can do something this month! Join the movement!