Starfish Adoption 30: Antonia, now called KARINE

As you might remember I wrote about the way that we expanded in February 2009 with the orphanage calling me and asking if I could take some more babies.  Five days later, Antonia and eight other cleft lip and palate babies arrived at Starfish. Antonia was the oldest of them  at 11 months.  I was so amazed that she was not able to roll over, hold her bottle or do anything.  She also weighed 5 kg (11 pounds) which was so small.  Like Bryan and Tim she started to drink the milk and would drink so much.  Some days it was more than 60 ounces of milk. Between the three of them they ate me out of house and home but I was so delighted to see how well they picked up weight.  They were neck and neck in the race to get to 10kg and finally Antonia won that race.  She was the" first" one to roll over, hold her bottle, crawl, the first one to walk and so it went. The one thing I remember is the kids all getting chicken pox soon after they got here.  I have the best picture of Antonia with calamine lotion on her face.

Soon she was well enough to get lip surgery.  I took her to a famous plastic surgeon in Xian for her lip surgery that had been recommended. He did a good job, but taped her face like a face lift patient.  I was so stunned to see her face.  She looked like she had been in a bar fight. In April this year we arranged for her to go to the Operations Smile Hospital in Hangzhou where she had her palate repaired.

We were so delighted to hear that she was going to Canada and that she was going to have two older brothers. Her family came to get her on May 10th.  Her new name is now Karine and from what I hear things are going well with her new family.  

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Antonia kissing Bryan

Nick, Bryan and Antonia

Antonia and her nanny

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 112 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 35 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 four adoptions took place in two weeks and we now babies in three new US states:  Massachusetts, Colorado and Missouri.  We also added another baby to our count in Holland.  We currently have 47 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have eleven babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

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

From Our Man Kristian in Denmark

Hi Amanda

I would like to write to you,  from a sunny and warm Denmark. I hope you are doing good in China with all the new babiesJ

I am doing so good! I already understand a lot of the Danish language and I can also say a lot of Danish words. I can say cars, no, more, thank you etc. (all, of course, in Danish) I love to dance to music, I can set the table and help my mom to do the dishwasher (sometimes it helps and sometime it does notJ) I also help my daddy cutting the grass. But most of the time I LOVE to play with LEGO® and I have a lot of it!

We have been to a local fun-park two times, and I really love the roller coaster, the more the better.

When my daddy is at work, my mom and I often go for a walk or we go by bike. We live not far away from the ocean (2 kilometers), and I think it is very funny to throw stones in the water and to build sandcastles. Sometimes I get totally wet, but it is so FUN!

I have been to the hairdresser twice, I have been to the doctor for check and vaccination. I have also had my ears checked, and the doctor found out, that I have a hole in my ear drum. Do you by any chance remember if I had any kind of drain in my ears when I was at Starfish? Oh by the way my mother thinks that I also can say “starfish” and we found one at the beach the other day.

I sleep from 8.00 pm to 8.00am and I get a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. I eat almost everything I am offered. The other day I learned to eat ice creme, and I got a big one. In the beginning of my time I Denmark I did not like rice, but the other day my mom tried again, and now I like it.

Now I will finish my email. Give all my love to everyone that I know at “Starfish”, and please tell the new babies not to cry, because I now they are in good hands!! Also a great hug to you from my mom and dad!!

All my love to you

Kristian (your Tim)

Shae Rose, Adoption 29

As some of you might now I spent most of June in New York.  I am behind in almost everything including the updates on all of the adoptions.  We did 3 adoptions on Sunday and Monday, but first let me tell you about Rose.

I found Rose in the orphanage in November 2006 while we were there with Jeanie Butler and her daughter Hailey, who named her.  She had a very visible hemangioma on her nose and I offered to take her.  At that time the orphanage said no.  I did not forget about Rose and continued to ask for her.  She was already a one year old when we were able to get her and I remember talking to them about an American doctor Lisa Buckmiller who was coming to Shanghai and could help Rose.  Her nose had become about the size of a golf ball and the hemangioma had begun to destroy her right nostril.  Dr Lisa was able to help with surgery and some steroid injections it stopped the growth. So this is how Rose came to live at Starfish.

I just loved seeing her grow. I discovered over time that she was extremely verbal.  She started talking at a very young age and also started to learn the Shaanxi dialect.  She knew which of the nannies spoke the dialect and to whom she could speak Mandarin.  The nannies told me that her Mandarin diction was just beautiful.  Just before she left she had the biggest vocab and there were times I could not understand her. Interesting enough she would never speak English, but I knew she understood because she would give me answers in Mandarin.  She also learned things really fast and remember things for days after you told her. Se was very tenacious about learning to eat with chopsticks. She also became my assistant photographer.  She could use the point and shoot  camera better than the nannies.  She loved taking photos of her world.  It was really interesting to see.

I could not understand why her adoption papers took so long. Rose herself asked for a family.  She knew that she did not have a mom and a dad she was so aware of this at three.  During this time she watched her friend Ellie (Heather) get a family and she was sad and asked when her family was coming. As with many children who survive the orphanage, Rose had a really strong personality.There were times you could not reason with her when she got an idea in her head.  She continued to talk about her family often. We waited and waited and finally the news came.  She was matched with a family from Georgia in the US.  She was going to a family who had been waiting for 4 years for a child.  Rose was to have an older nine year old brother and a mom and a dad.

So in the beginning of May her family came to get her. From what I hear she adores her older brother, likes to go swimming and is picking up English really fast.  I am so glad that she doing well and having a great time with her new family. 

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 112 children to date, arranged more than 80 surgeries and had 31 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China.  Our latest four adoptions took place in two weeks and we now have babies in three new places: Sweden, Denmark and Canada and a new US state, Georgia.  We currently have 52 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have eleven babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

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

JACK'S Gift

Jack

I just got back from New York and on the same day Tineke flew in from Amsterdam.  She brought with her a child's sized wheelchair for Jack, that had been donated to Care4Tina, the Dutch Foundation that she and Elise manage.  I was so amazed at Jack.  Within a few minutes he was wheeling himself forward and then he figured out how to go backwards and by the afternoon he was spinning in circles.  The other kids, well mostly Lucas, were fighting with him to get into the chair after the nannies took Jack out for lunch. Jack screamed until Lucas got out, and he has taken full ownership of his chair.  This morning everyone wanted to have a go in the wheelchair.  I was overcome by emotion at Jack's exuberance at being able to move on his own. What a truly wonderful gift!  My most sincere thanks to every one involved.

Life, love and laughter,  
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 112 children to date, arranged more than 80 surgeries and had 31 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China.  Our latest four adoptions took place in two weeks and we now have babies in three new places: Sweden, Denmark and Canada and a new US state, Georgia.  We currently have 52 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have eleven babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

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

Lucas

Hosea

Alice