"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.DWhat 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
4 comments:
Amanda,
Oops! I think I posted my comment on the wrong blog. I'll try it again:
I just sponsored a cleft baby! We brought home our sweetie in March of last year from Guiyang. She had an unrepaired cl/cp and I am so indebted to her precious foster parents who made such a difference in her life. You're doing a wonderful thing! May you be richly blessed!
Hugs,
Tammy in Alabama
Thank you so much for sharing with us..... I am praying that little Tina is feeling better and I thank Jesus that the rest of the babies are doing so well.
God bless you all,
Daleea
Thank you for the post. I will love following along to watch these little ones grow and thrive. We will be praying for all of them, but especially little Tina (we are helping to sponsor her). God Bless!
I want to sponsor a Starfish Cleft baby but am unsure of where to go to do so. Is there a way to specify which baby you want to sponsor? Thank you for all the work that you do to help these precious children!
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