Adoption 43: Joseph to Sweden

On January 19th, 2009 we brought three babies home,  Justin, Josie and Joseph.  We affectionately called it our J day.  All the babies names started with J's and it was not planned.  Joseph was three months old and had a wide cleft lip (CL/CP).  From the beginning he did well and I could see why he survived the orphanage:  He could suck well. That innate ability that every one should have, turns out to be a huge problem for cleft palate babies. I know from personal experience just how much work it is to feed CL/CP and if you are in the orphanage you cannot get that much personal attention.

Joseph grew so well but always remained a little guy.  He was in the first group of babies to get his NAM.  We were often in the taxi together going to the dentist and so I had time to take pictures of him.  So the taxi is my favorite studio.  He developed the cutest way of crawling and would scoot on his bum and did not crawl on his hands and knees. He showed great athletic ability and became a great climber.  He was also one of the babies on the 55 hour trip on the train when we went to Hangzhou and got stuck in the floods which made out 22 hour train trip into a marathon ride.

One day the call came from the orphanage Joseph was being adopted.  We had no idea where he was going.  The day of  the adoption we found out that his mom and dad were from Sweden and he was to be the first .  So Joseph's new name became Milo and he joined Tim (Bryan at Starfish) who is already there. From what I hear he is doing well and has adjusted to his new life.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

At Starfish, we have taken care of 124 children to date, arranged more than 130 surgeries and had 52 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our next adoption is Alice who will be joining her three siblings in Kansas, with their mom and dad in 10 days. We currently have 42 babies under the age of 3.  Preparing to move to our new "castle"soon.

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

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