There are times when something happens and it pushes you to a place you were not exactly planning to go. I had thought about starting a cleft house a few months ago and I had been writing trying to fund raise. Basically, I was trying to plan something. Often times life has a way of interfering when you are trying to plan and this is exactly what happened here. Last Sunday, I got a call from the director of the orphanage and she asked me if there was anyway that I could take on any more babies. They were being inundated with abandoned babies and had no more place to put them. We were doing really well at the foster home and were pretty comfortable, just cruising along. I thought it was time to expand and so I decided to start a cleft home much sooner than what I had planned.

Nine little cleft babies were delivered from the orphanage this morning. They are all so cute. The youngest Tina is 10 days and the oldest Antonia is 11 months old. We are now a franchise, we started a second apartment on the first floor of our building.

I am going to need some additional donations to keep these babies and if there is any way that you would like to make a tax free donation I would welcome it, no matter how small. I figured that if we got 80 people to donate US$25 a month each then we can take care of the children that we have. Should we get more commitments, I will increase the amount until we have 20 babies. I believe that the combined force of a group of people has an incredible effect for good and in this case I hope that there will be many people who would be moved by the plight of these babies. Maybe by looking at each one of them, it will make the orphans in China more real. As I write this they have eaten themselves until they are full and have fallen asleep. Today was a truly exceptional day for Starfish. I wish you could have shared in this day here with us. The feeling was just tremendous.

Starfish Children's Services has 501 (c) 3 status (20-4682916) and you can set up a recurring monthly donation or a one time donation at the following site:

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org and look under tab "YOU CAN HELP"

Please make sure you designate where the money is to go. The "original"Starfish, or the Cleft Home. Thanks so much for your support. I am sure there are many people who would agree that I am certifiably crazy. I would answer that I became crazy when nothing else seemed to work. You cannot accuse me of having a boring life. I am sure one day this is all going to turn into an interesting book. You can say that you lived with me through it.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda, with 30 little mouths to feed.

Starfish Foster Home
Xian, China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 67 children to date, arranged almost 50 surgeries and had a whopping 18 international adoptions, so our little alumni live all over the globe: the US (latest adoptions to Kentucky and New Jersey), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. Two children are matched at the moment waiting for their families. We currently have 30 babies under the age of 3 1/2 at the foster home.

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
chinesestarfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847