Tiana (Tina) Having a BLAST in Colorado

Tiana is doing so well. She has a great appetite, sleeps through the night and and is growing too. She is up to 20 lbs. She has adjusted so easily; it is really amazing. I think she adjusted easily because she felt secure because you both loved her so well.

 

I think she loves having a mommy all to herself. We do lots of fun things such as swimming in our pool, feeding the ducks at the lake, and playing on the local playground. She loves it when we dance to music with scarves -- she thinks it's hilarious. We also go to a Mommy-and-Me gymnastics class. She loves to tumble! I have several friends with dogs and she now loves dogs and gets very excited whenever she sees one. I plan on getting her a dog when she gets a little older.

 

I go to the office 3 days a week and she goes to a day care center. She loves the teachers there and they love her. It seems to be good for her to socialize with the other children. At first, I could not really interest her in books, but since she has attended day care, she now brings me books to read to her.

 

That's all for now,

 

Lissa

 -- 

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 46 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest 8 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and a third in Spain and a fifth in Holland.  We also have six more babies in the US.  We currently have 43 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. 

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Starfish Alumni 2010

Adoption 36: Virginia to West Virginia

We were contacted by a church group that offered to sponsor the heart surgery for a baby and so we went to the orphanage in November 2008 to go and find a baby.  That day we found two babies:  One heart baby, who has then named Virginia because the church was in Virginia and the other was a double cleft preemie, whom we named Sophia.

Virginia was very well taken care of.  She was not your average orphanage baby and I knew immediately she was some nanny's favorite.  Besides all the other things they face at the orphanage, it can really help them when someone takes a special interest in them.  In the beginning Virginia was not the most beautiful child, but boy did she turn out to be a stunner. She looked very much like Breanna, who was adopted to France and people often commented on the resemblance.  Right from the beginning she was attached to our famous Xiao Liu and she did not take to any one else.  She would allow herself to be held for a short while and then she wanted Xiao Liu.  When she began to get teeth , she had this mega watt smile.  As per the doctors instructions we waited for a long while before the heart surgery took place. That only happened earlier this year. 

We were all eager to see where she would go and we got no news for a long time.  I thought that it was going to be a family in Europe...........but I was wrong.  Virginia was adopted to West Virginia, 5 minutes from the state line with Virginia.  I thought it was very apropos, she went where her name said she would go. So in July after being at Starfish for 21 months,  her family came to get her. The family named her Zoey and I am not exactly sure how many older brother and sisters she has but I know there is at least one.  She has already had a birthday with her new family and we received pictures. She seems to have adapted very well but I cannot imagine those early weeks were easy at all.  We are in touch with the family and so there will be some updates coming.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 46 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest 8 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and a third in Spain and a fifth in Holland.  We also have six more babies in the US.  We currently have 43 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. 

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Adoption 35: Justin to Holland

On July 19th we got three babies from the orphanage.  Justin, Josie and Joseph.  As I mentioned before, the three J babies.  Justin weighed a whopping 5 and a 1/4 pounds or 2.35 kg. There were two very obvious things about him besides his size.  He was missing his hand below his elbow and he had a big mouth.  He remember he ate a lot and slept even more.  I tried to take Chinese New Year pictures of him and I just wrapped him in a red cloth and took some pictures.

He slept in the window on one of your bassinets and for the first few months he was hardly out of that area because he was asleep. Slowly but sure he started to leave his corner and out popped this boy with the best smile you have ever seen.  He was so friendly and easy going from the beginning and would let any one hold him. It was really interesting to see him use his little arm.  The hand was spontaneously amputated in the womb and from what I understand it is a result of malnourishment.  These strings form and once it get caught around a limb it is strong enough to cut it off.  He was not deterred! His one hand would hold his bottle and his little arm would stabilize it on the other side.  His answer to crawling was to scoot along the floor and boy could he move.  As he started walking he would hold out both his arms for balance.  Soon he was walking well and he would tuck things under his arm. I loved the fact that he has no stresses by not having a hand.  It was just so normal to him.  Kids are simply amazing in their ability to adapt.

That big mouth soon became a cause for a Colgate toothpaste commercial. Stunning is the only word I could use.

Soon all his paperwork was in Beijing and we got the news that he had a family but we had no idea where.  One day the Big O asked me to fill in some paperwork about Justin and I saw at the end of the page the name of the Dutch adoption services and I knew he was going to the Netherlands. I am sure his parents must have been so surprised at the load of information that arrived.  We had a whole lot of Dutch volunteers here.  So Justin's nanny  got the reputation for sending her babies to the Netherlands.  It was Starfish's fourth baby in Holland and Xiao Liu was the nanny to three of them.

Justin became Youp which is part of his Chinese name with an added P.  He is also the younger brother of a sister who also comes from China.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 45 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest 5 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and in Spain.  We also have three more babies in the US.  We currently have 45 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. 

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Adoption 34: Josie Update

Dear Amanda,

Josie has been home for 6 weeks and is doing beautifully!  She was sad and scared on that first day when she met our family at the Civil Affairs Office, but she was very brave and her tears soon turned to smiles.  By day two she was dancing and singing with her sister, Hannah, who really has been a huge source of support for Josie as she went through this transition.  In between the fun and play, the giggles and smiles, it was obvious during the first few weeks that Josie was grieving all she had lost.  When she got sad, we would watch Starfish videos together and talk about all the people there.  It always cheered her up and brought a big smile to her face.

Josie is an amazing little girl.  She has adjusted so well to all of the changes and to joining a big family with 5 siblings.  She has a very easy-going, fun-loving personality.  She loves all of her sisters and brothers and they all adore her as well; she gets lots of attention.  Josie has a very special bond with Hannah and Christopher who both traveled to China to bring her home and she lights up when they come home.  Josie kind of hit the ground running (literally and figuratively) and has had no problem keeping up with our two youngest daughters, both adopted from China, who are 7 and 4 years old.  They love to play together, especially "house", "dress-up" and making forts with furniture and blankets.  Josie spends much of the day singing and has learned many new songs. She still loves shoes and pocketbooks; one of the Starfish volunteers said that she'd have to stand up in her shoes to keep Josie from taking off with them...it is the same here!  She enjoys being outdoors riding on her new tricycle and playing with the neighborhood children (there now six little Chinese girls on our street).  After a few days of being terrified by our three dogs, she is now the first one in the morning to pull out their leases to take them out for a walk and she often shares her food with them (so they love her, too). 

 

Josie is healthy and strong.  She loves to eat!  Often you will hear her singing "nummy, nummy, nummy, num" (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) when she is eating a good snack. I think "cookie" was the first English word I heard from her :).  Without a doubt, of all our six children, she is by far the best sleeper we have ever had!  Josie is sharp as a tack and learning so many new things everyday.  She watches very closesly and picks up on things right away.  She copies everything we say, can follow directions in English (it is astonishing what she understands) and speaks quite a bit in English already.  Emma, age 4, thinks it is very cool to have a baby sister who copies everything you say and do even if "it gets kind of annoying sometimes."  Our Chinese neighbors speak only Chinese to Josie; they say that she is able to carry on conversations with them, speaking 3-4 word sentences as well.  We are hoping they can help her maintain some of her native language.

 

She seems to be bonding well with all of us.  It's been interesting to watch the relationships grow (especially since some traveled and some didn't).  Attachment is such a complex process but I'm very impressed with her understanding of relationships and her ability to give and take; she's great with listening, cooperating, sharing, has lots of empathy for others, etc.  It is obvious that she received very good care in many regards and for that we are most grateful to you and the everyone at Starfish who helped her grow up so healthy, happy and strong. 

 

The best news is that Josie saw the cardiologist at Children's Hospital in Boston last week for her ASD and VSD.  He thinks that Josie doing beautifully and that her heart, at this point, is doing just fine and needs no treatment.  They will just keep on eye on her but she doesn't even need to go back for follow-up until her third birthday (next fall).  We were thrilled with the news!

 

Please share our happy news and deep appreciation to all those who knew and helped Josie at Starfish.  We feel very blessed and honored to have her home with us. 

 

We will keep in touch.

 

Peter and Wendy

 

 

Adoption 32: Tina to Colorado

I was not paying attention and I missed posting about Tina's adoption. Sorry about that.

Tina was one of the 9 babies that arrived on February 5th.  She was so small, 2.65 kg which is 5 and a 1/2 pounds.  She looked so extremely fragile and few people wanted to even touch her.  She drank 1/4 oz in the beginning and it took a long time before she put on weight.  We were feeding her every hour and it was hard work because she was not drinking well at all. As with all things when you are consistent she started to do much better and soon she was ready for her orthodontic mold.  That is a brace like device that helps to align they gums.  The second job is to close the actual cleft so there is not such a huge gap and then lastly it provides a fake palate which helps the babies to drink and have something to push against until the palate can get fixed.  This also helps in speech development.

Tina was lucky because there were some volunteers that took a great interest in her.  Elsie from Holland was one of those volunteers and after being in China she went home and started a foundation called Care4Tina.  She and her partner Tineke started fund raising.  They had a benefit evening and did all sort of activities in order to get a medical team from Holland to China in April 2010.

In the meantime, Tina was putting on weight but was never a big baby.  She was determined as every one else to do things and watched the older babies and then tried to copy them. I loved her petite frame trying to walk.  She was one determined cookie.  In November 2009 we flew to Beijing and had surgery with some of the other children.  Elsie and Tineke flew from Holland to help take care of Tina and River.  Dr Lisa Buckmiller and her medical team where there and was able to fix her double cleft palate and eight other Starfish babies.  We are so grateful to them and the wonderful work that they do.

By April everything was in place and the Dutch medical team arrived with Dr Johan Vehof and his team and Elsie and Tineke.  They did eight surgeries, with only one cleft palate surgery.  Tina was one of them.  In another interesting side note. One of the babies was just recently adopted and you want to know where she was adopted to?  The Netherlands would be the right answer.

Soon after her cleft lip surgery Tina had her adoption medical and her papers went off to Beijing. We started to hear that she was matched with a family.  When the news was finally confirmed we knew that she was going to a single mom who lived in Colorado and had no idea where her daughter was.  You can imagine the surprise she got on adoption day.  I think it must have been overwhelming to get so much information. The idea if I remember correctly was to name Tina Anna.  I thought the mom did a great job of melding the name and coming up with Tiana.  It was a great idea.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 45 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest 5 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and in Spain.  We also have three more babies in the US.  We currently have 45 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. 

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Our Five Year Anniversary

Today we get to celebrate the five year anniversary of STARFISH.  I can remember that crazy morning when the first six babies were carried into my life and this ride began which has never stopped.  It has never been boring since then and there are days that I am exhausted from all the "excitement".  Each of the 118 babies have had a story to tell and how wondrous that has been.  Some of the endings have been really sad and my heart has broken and others have brought such joy to me. I have watched their lives unfold with their families, and we have now done 46 adoptions. I am here to testify of God's love for the orphans and for the people He has sent to help them.  I have had a front seat to this miracle.  Everyday my sole purpose is to help the children and how grateful I am for this opportunity to be of service to the most weak and defenseless.

Of course, I do not get to do this alone and I would never claim that.  It takes a cast of thousands, who offer anonymous, selfless acts of service and love.   Thank you everyone that has played a part in this miracle.  I am so grateful to the nannies, the volunteers, the donors and everyone else who is part of the story. Hopefully I will get to write a book and have some one beautiful and thin do the movie version. (Sandra Bullock or some one equally fabulous!).

I am sharing with you some of most favorite random photos from the last few years. I only had about 70 000 to choose from.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 45 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest 5 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and in Spain.  We also have three more babies in the US.  We currently have 45 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. 

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847