Cleft Home Three Weeks Later

There are days that are just outstanding and yesterday was one of those days. You can see in black and white what you have done and how it has impacted the children's lives. Nothing is as dramatic as yesterday was. I hovered as Elise weighed an measured the cleft babies. I think the fact that I am tracking nine babies' progress is what made yesterday so incredible.

On February 5 we took on nine cleft babies as I am sure you might have heard. Since then, we have fed them when ever they wanted. The three older ones have been downing 50 oz a day and some days Bryan had 60oz. It was such a surprise to see because it is about double what they should be having. On top of that the three older ones are also on rice cereal, tofu and fruit and still they are drinking that much. Even little bitty Tina is drinking a lot more than what she should. I am ordering so much more formula than what I expected. It is a milk fest down there!!

So you want to know what the results have been for the last three weeks? There is some PHENOMENAL growth. Tina's head grew 3cm (1 and a quarter inches) since she got here. Bryan has grown 3.5cm (almost 1.5 inches) in length. The three older ones picked up about .50kg (1 pound) each last week. Collectively the nine babies have added 7 kg (15 and a half pounds) in weight, they grew 17 cm (6 3/4 inches) an my personal favorite: their heads grew a unprecedented 11.7cm ( 4 3/4 inches). I just think of all those brain cells forming.

I am one excited and proud mama who is so grateful that things have gone so smoothly. The nannies have all done a great job and the new ones are learning fast. It is a triumph for all of us who have contributed to their care: The nannies, the volunteers and the donors. Thank you so much. I hope this gives you warm fuzzies for the rest of the week.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
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 starfishes 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 two foster homes. We just opened a new cleft palate house on February 5, 2009 and currently have nine babies.

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
NEW BLOG SITE FOR CLEFT HOME:
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Playing, eating and sleeping!

Tim

Karl

Antonia

Jasmine

Growing Quickly!

Bryan

Clara

Nick

Stella

6 Days in at the New Cleft House

"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach." Clarissa Pinkola Estés Ph.D

What a few days we have had! It has been truly memorable. The ability to know that there are children in extreme need and to be able to do something about that is just awesome. Thank you so much to those who offered me financial support. I could not have done anything about it was it not for your generosity.

It has been really busy as I am running between the fifth floor and the first floor. My apologies to those who have not heard from me. I am so behind in my emails.

It has been six days since we got the cleft babies. It has actually been really peaceful and calm. I was expecting much worse. I think my saving grace is the upstairs nannies are experienced and they know what I like and how I like to do things. The nine babies all got weighed, measured and bathed. We took lots of pictures.

We hired five more nannies and all of them did really well. They all have children and so they had the basic idea down. They just had to learn the Starfish way, which is unique in its own way, because it is the Chinese way mixed with the foreign and then true, tested and proven ways which do not fall into any of these categories.

For the first few days the babies are usually really quiet hardly any one cries. It takes a few days for them to realize that when they cry someone will bring them food, change their diaper or just hold them. Once they figure that out then the crying an fussing starts in earnest, which is exactly what has happened. I think this fussing so much healthier that all the silence in the beginning. The other thing I notice and that you can also see from the pictures is almost everyone is eating their hands. What a blessing it is for us to be able to relace that han with a warm bottle of milk.

One of the most exciting days after the babies come and for a few months there after, is to see how the babies grow. We weigh them every week and this a great way for us to see just how much they can expand. They grow like weeds. We usually have a winner of the week. They all did really great with in the first five days. In five days they picked up weight really well. Tina is struggling a bit and we had her at the hospital this morning.

I have chosen some of my favorite photos of the past few days to show you. I hope you can vicariously through us the experiences of these last few days. Thank you for your love and support.

Life, Love and Laughter,

Amanda
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 starfishes 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 two foster homes. We just opened a new cleft palate house on February 5, 2009.

www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
NEW BLOG SITE FOR CLEFT HOME:
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Eating hands....and bottles of milk!

Bryan

Clara

Tina

Stella

Bath Time!

Antonia

Tim

Nick

Karl

The Starfish Cleft Home

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 the YOU CAN HELP tab 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 HomeXian ChinaAt Starfish, we have taken care of 67children 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.orghttp://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com