Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Our 8th adoption: Sarah/Lily

We have successfully completed our 8th adoption. Sarah/Lily's family will be leaving today for Guangzhou, the next step for Sarah/Lily on the road to becoming an American citizen. I am so grateful to Kelly and Craig who have been so eager to do what is best for her and have gone with the flow. Luke, Sarah/Lily's 15 year old brother also came to China with them and he has wanted to spend as much time as he could here at Starfish. As for Sarah/Lily, she had a melt down yesterday afternoon but other than that I think she has adapted really well to her family.

We now have three kids for sure waiting for their families: Gabriel, Benjamin and Jasmine. I am not sure who is going to be next but Jasmine and Benjamin's families have both gotten their letters of acceptance and are waiting for dates to travel. It would seem that Jade is at an agency but I still have no idea what is going on with her file and her adoption could just be a surprise.

I think Rose's finding Ad should be finished by now and then we can prepare her adoption dossier. We heard yesterday that there are another six babies who will have their Finding Ads placed in the newspaper soon: Cailean, Christopher, Kaitlyn, Breanna, Jack and Callum. For those who do not know, posting the Finding Ad is the first step to the adoption. The ad is placed for two months to announce that a baby has been found and it gives the parents an opportunity to claim their babies. It also makes sure the babies have not been sold. We wanted to add Erica's name to that, and in a surprise development we found out that the Finding Ad was already done, and that the adoption medical was needed to get the dossier on the way to the provincial government and then to the CCAA in Beijing. Rebecca and Danielle's adoption dossiers were finally sent to the provincial government for their review.

I am on my way to Shanghai this weekend to a fundraiser that is going to benefit the babies of Starfish. I even got a new frock for the occasion but I still have no other shoes except my crocs :-( I can just see how stylish that is going to look!!! I am thinking I should just to the presentation in my usual gear. Jeans, a T-shirt and crocs. There are 70 students who are going to be doing an auction and all the money will then be used for surgeries in Shanghai. I had to prepare a slide show and came up will 600 photos. This photography archiving is beginning to be a job in and of itself: trying to keep track of all the pictures that have been taken, naming them, putting them in files and making sure you have not forgotten any one of the 20 odd babies you have!!! Then I have to choose some for a scrapbook when they get adopted. So coming up with 600 photos, I had to go through all the files that I have, looking for appropriate pictures of all the babies. That meant that I looked through almost 12 000 files or in other words 15GB filled with photos. I think there is no doubt about it: I am crazy by any one's standards. I had to buy a 120GB exterior hard drive just to back all of this up. I am so grateful in spite of all the work, that I have this chance to help the children. Having the money to be able to do surgeries is just awesome. I will also prepare a short speech about Starfish. It is hard for me to be brief about something that I care so deeply about and for something I have devoted so much of my time to. I could talk for hours about my experiences here. Next week I will let you know how it all went.

Life, Love and Laughter,


Amanda

Starfish Foster Home


4 comments:

Fliss and Mike Adventures said...

I just love seeing the photos of the kids with their families... makes the job worth it I am sure... take care

Paula said...

Yea for Sara/Lily. Sounds like a really nice family for her to join.
I can't imagine keeping track of all those photos. thats a job in itself.

Cynthia said...

That Jade just melts my heart! She speaks to me!

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