Greetings from Ohio and Charlie, Adoption # 14

Hello Amanda and Nannies!  

We are typically overdue in our correspondence but wanted to write and let you know that we are doing fine.  Charlie (Gabriel) is growing into a fine young man full of curiosity, energy and boyish mischief.  We recall your asking long ago when we would finally travel to China to pick up Charlie because he had figured out how to move the sandal shelf at the old apartment over to the door and unlock the door.  Well that was a sign of things to come as he's always exploring new places and looking for new adventures.  Note the attached "warrior" picture…fits him to a T.  

He's doing well in kindergarten and becoming a great reader.  We've moved quickly from The Wiggles and Busytown on to Superman, Star Wars and anything dinosaur related.  We just started a small home renovation project and soon he'll have a room of his own…which he's very excited about.

We talk about you, the nannies and the babies quite often and are excitedly following the progress at the new home.  Looks like an incredible place and hopefully before too much more time passes we can return for a visit.  

All our love,

Steve, Karen, Lucy, Henry, Esme and Charlie

Merry Christmas from GRACE Adoption #47

Amanda, We just wanted to wish you and all the nannies and volunteers at Starfish a very Merry Christmas!  It has been a busy and wonderful year for us.  We have had so much fun with Grace (Clara) this year.  We went to Disney World this summer, and Grace loved it.  The highlight of the trip for Grace was when we had breakfast in Cinderella's castle with the princesses.    Grace started school this year in a class for 3 and 4 year-old hearing-impaired kids.  There are only 4 kids in the class with two full-time speech therapists.  Her language is developing so quickly.  She is the only girl in the class, so she still plays very roughly.  Of course she is also the sweetest girl ever.  She always says please and thank you and reminds her brother not to say "gimmee."  She gives tons of hugs and kisses and runs around announcing how much she loves "my whole family."  She was a flowergirl in a wedding in October, and she stole the show.      We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of baby dolls and accessories, a Barbie scooter, a Leapster Explorer and many other toys.  She was so excited about Santa and the reindeer.  She talks a lot about "my China," but she is very much at home here.  We can't thank you enough for giving her such a great start in life.  I know that her wonderful personality has so much to do with the love she received at Starfish.  We will always tell her about you and hope to someday return to Starfish to visit.  Merry Christmas!   Kyla, Carlos, Grace and Matthew

-- 
Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

At Starfish, we have taken care of 168 children to date, arranged more than 190 surgeries and had 72 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Australia and in China. Our latest adoption was Peter (Tristan), who will be living with his family in Colorado Springs, Colorado as the 11th child of his family.  Our next adoption is on January 3rd.  We currently have 53 babies under the age of  4 at the foster home. We added fourteen babies to our numbers in the last month of 2011.

Starfish Children's Services

US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

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

Starfish Alumni Celebrating Christmas All Over the World

Bai Lang

Jo Jo

Josiah James

Josie

Karine (Antonia)

Lauren Joan

Lia

Liya (Jasmine)

Olivia

Rebecca

Sophia

Tiana (Tina) Adoption 32

Dear Amanda, 

I've been very busy preparing to fly east tomorrow for Thanksgiving (an American holiday). It will be great to see my mother and other relatives.

 

Tiana has become quite an accomplished little hiker (picture attached). She loves to meet and greet all the dogs on the trail and to throw pebbles in the creek.

 

She is growing up a lot now. She loves to help me bake and loves to stir the ingredients together. Her drawings still look like scribbles, but she has begun to name the things she has drawn. She particularly likes to draw lollipops and guitars.

 

She made an adorable little flower for Halloween (picture attached).

 

 

Love and Hugs,

 

Lissa

Update on Lia (Sophia) Adoption #38

I found Lia in the orphanage while we were looking for a heart baby. I did not expect to bring any one else home but I was so moved by her plight. She was jaundiced, really small, premature and weak, and I knew if she stayed where she was she was not going to live.  The head nanny at the big O made that very clear with her comments.  I just said:  Give her to me I want to try.  Home she came to Starfish.  I took care of her when she came home after a few days in the hospital and soon she started to pick up weight. There was a definite chipmunk cheek stage and she got bigger and stronger.  She now lives happily with her family in Washington and I feel that this was one of our triumphs.  I guess I feel like this whenever I can get to help babies like this.

Hi Amanda,

It's been awhile since we sent an "official" update on Lia, and 2011 has been a busy year for us!

In May, Lia had her third surgery, this time to repair a couple of holes that popped open in her palate. She flew through the surgery with flying colors and was fully recovered in time for our court hearing to refinalize her adoption on May 20.

In August, we moved to a more rural setting outside the Seattle area. Lia loves our new house as it came complete with a swing in the backyard! She also enjoys seeing the variety of farm animals that live nearby! The best part about our move is that Lia now lives near her grandparents and gets to spend time with them regularly. At the end of summer, we also had the chance to meet up with another Starfish (River) and his family, who were visiting Seattle from Vancouver B.C. 

Lia is ALL girl and is very into princesses and ponies right now. Her favorite color is purple. She was Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) for Halloween. On any given day she may be found wearing a tutu, fairy wings, one or two tiaras and her purple rainboots! In the last couple of months, she has learned how to ride a tricycle, and went on her first merry-go-round ride at the state fair. 

Just two weeks ago we celebrated Lia's 3rd birthday! Some major milestones have been made in speech therapy over the past six months, so we were very proud to see Lia blow out all three candles on her birthday cake all by herself! She is also practicing redirecting airflow (from her nose to her mouth) by playing the harmonica for family and friends. She continues to love music and dancing. With eartubes now in place, she only has a very minor hearing impairment in her left ear.

Lia is amazingly smart and scores well ahead of most three year olds in many areas - including receptive language. She has learned all of her colors, is now learning to count, and can recognize the letters of her name. However, while Steve and I understand most of what she says, strangers still have a hard time understanding her speech, so now we are concentrating on helping her learn to use the muscles of her mouth, tongue, and lips to produce understandable speech. 

Our biggest news is that Lia started preschool last week! It is 3 days/week in the mornings and it is a special preschool that is communications-focused and integrates children with speech and hearing deficits into the same classroom with typically developing three year olds. It is great because they use both American Sign Language and English in the classroom, so Lia will be able to keep up on her signing along with her speech. She also receives speech therapy as part of her days at preschool. So far she is really enjoying school. Her favorite activities right now are painting and playing in the sandbox! 

Amanda, you have mentioned to me before that the nannies at the big orphanage believed that our little cleft preemie was "too weak, too dark, and too ugly" and was not worth saving... How I wish they could see our beautiful, kind, whip smart, girl today! Thank YOU Amanda, for believing in our daughter when nobody else would. As our extended family gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, we are thankful more than anything for our sweet girl and the love and care she received from you, the nannies, and volunteers at Starfish.

With Love & Gratitude,

Julie, Steve, & Lia 

Update on Jasmine (Liya) Adoption

Dear Amanda and Starfish staff,

I have sat down to write to you on many occasions but I never get very far before a certain little girl is tugging on my shirt and saying, "Mommy, read book to Liya".  She LOVES books and I LOVE her so everything else can wait.

Just last week Liya celebrated her 3rd birthday.  Can you believe it?  At this time last year she was recovering from her palate surgery.  She has made so much progress over this last year.  She is doing excellent in her speech therapy.  We are able to understand about 80% of what she says....and she has a lot to say.  She still has a long road ahead of her in articulation and speech clarity, but we are confident that she will conquer her speech delays.

In the first e-mail that I ever got from you, you described Jasmine as "quite a character".  At the time I didn't know what you meant by that statement.  Hmmm, that could mean a lot of things, some good, some not so good.  But now I know exactly what you mean.  She IS quite a character.  She is quirky and incredibly independent.  Her personality is full and intense.  She is also incredibly loving and fiercly protective of the people she loves.  On top of all that, she is wickedly mischevious, but so cute when she is doing it that it's hard to be mad. 

When we first came home from China I would have guessed that Liya was going to be a tomboy but she has turned into a real girly-girl.  When she gets home from pre-school the first thing she does is take off all her clothes and put on a tutu or fancy princess dress.  Most of the time she's also wearing a crown and a feather boa.  She is definitely all girl!

Liya is in pre-school three days a week and absolutely loves it.  She loves being around the other kids and will often come home and tell me about what she has learned.  Just the other day we were painting and she said to me, "Mommy, blue and yellow make green."  She is such a curious and very bright little girl.


Liya and her big sister Jada have a very special bond and a very typical sibling relationship.  They adore each other MOST of the time.  The rest of the time they are aggravating each other.  Last week Jada had to write an autobiography at school.  She wrote that the best day of her life is the day that she got her little sister, Liya.  I am so happy that they have each other.  Liya looks up to Jada and tries to imitate everything that she does.  Their favorite thing to do is put on a Taylor Swift CD and dance to the music.

Tomorrow we are leaving for a vacation at the beach.  This will be Liya's first time to see the ocean, walk on the sand, look for pretty seashells and build sandcastles.  I'm excited to share this new experience with her.  I think she is going to love it.


I have no doubt that Liya's relatively easy transition into our family was a result of the amazing care and special love she received at Starfish.  For that, I am forever grateful to you and the nannies.  Everytime I hear about you going to the "Big O" and bringing home more babies, it warms my heart.  I know each baby you bring to Starfish is on their way to finding their forever family and being well cared for until that family is found.


I am always being told how lucky Liya is to have been adopted by us.  The truth is that we are the lucky ones.  This spunky little character has added so much to our family.  We feel incredibly lucky that we get to be her parents.


It is almost the end of 2011.  It has been a good year for Liya and our family.  I can't wait to see what she accomplishes in 2012.  I'll keep you posted.

Michael Adoption #6

This is an update from Michael's mom. After opening with 6 babies in September 2005, I took on another 6 in April 2006.  There were three babies whom I called the three Amigos.  Michael, Gabriel and Sarah, all three cleft lip and palate babies.  Michael and Gabriel had to be dropper fed for two weeks because they refused to drink from a bottle.  It would take 45 minutes, with them screaming the whole time. That was before I knew about feeding tubes.  Sarah would drink, but could throw up faster than a fountain, then you would have to start again. I do not think there was a volunteer that Sarah did not throw up on, and some of us multiple times and often. She was so extremely premature. I think of those days and I feel that the three of them were the hardest cleft babies I have ever had.  I am not sure if it was because I did not have enough experience, or if it was because they were indeed so difficult. All I know that we made it through and all of them live in the US and are doing well. So I am so pleased to hear about Michael and the life that was saved and to know all of that hard work was totally worth it.

Hello Amanda.  

I wanted to give you an update on Michael, as it has been awhile!  Michael started kindergarten in August and loves school.  He is doing so well and is very enthusiastic about learning.  He is learning to read and is interested in geography and the solar system.  He is meeting new friends and is thriving at school.

Michael and his little brother, Andrew, are the best of friends.  They love playing together and are great little guys!  They look out for each other and are always saying "best friend" to each other.  They love playing with cars and trains.  Michael is now able to read some stories to his brother, which is great to see.

Michael is doing so well.  He is a happy little guy and loves learning and being in grade school.  He told me recently he wants to be an astronaut when he is older.  I do believe he is destined for a great future!

I have attached some photos of Michael that were taken over the past 2 months.  You can see what an awesome big brother he is!

Hope you are all doing well.  We loved seeing the starfish children's halloween photos.  So cute!

Debbie

Life, love and laughter,

Amanda

At Starfish, we have taken care of 152 children to date, arranged more than 190 surgeries and had 69 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Australia and in China. We did two adoptions on November 6th, Sally (Audrey) and Celine (Zahara), who are both becoming American citizens to two single moms who are both teachers.  We currently have 46 babies under the age of 3 and a half at the foster home.  We have just added two girls whom we are getting ready for Spina bifida surgery in Hong Kong.

Starfish Children's Services

US Tax Number:  20-4682916
Xian China

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