SIx Month Anniversary

It has now been more than 6 months since we opened the cleft house. It was a good idea in the beginning to call it the cleft house, but it did not stay like that for very long. The very next month we added a whole lot of heart babies and the month after that more heart and cleft babies.

I just held Antonia, the oldest of the babies downstairs. It is amazing how much progress she has made. From an 11 month old who could not roll over or sit up, she is now walking. Tim, Bryan, Nadia, Nick, Clara and Stella are pulling themselves upright and are also crawling. Nadia is a two method girl. When she wants to move fast she does the army crawl and if does not have a dress in the way she will crawl on all fours. The house is busy with little rug rats and you have to be careful where you walk.

I looked at Noa who looked so sick when I took the Easter pictures and she is now as round as a ball. I love knowing just how different they look with all the love and the attention they all get. I love the unique hairstyle that Sadie has and the round cheeks she has. Six of the children have had their first birth day parties. Nobody thinks Clara is Chinese because she looks like a Mexican senorita.

Thank you to everyone who has helped, especially all the volunteers and the nannies who spend so much time with the babies. We have also done five cleft lip surgeries and there will be a lot of cleft repairs in October and one of my favorite cleft palate lip surgeons will be in China in November to do the double cleft lip babies. So Tim, Tina, James and Sophia (from the 5th floor) will be getting their double cleft repaired by Dr Lisa Buckmiller. We will be travelling en masse to Beijing for that one. Thomas is doing well and we are waiting to hear if his heart surgery successfully healed the specific part of his heart to prepare it for the second heart surgery. The other babies all have ASD's and VSD's and Dr Li, the thoracic heart surgeon suggested that we wait until all the babies are about a year old before we do the surgeries.

The piece of good news is that 13 babiesare ready for the next part of their adoption dossier. We will wait to get the adoption medicals done and then they will be off to Beijing. The next group is another eight and they are all from the first floor apartment. After that there is another big group from both the fifth and the first floor whose finding ads are in the newspaper right now.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 94 children to date, arranged more than 55 surgeries and had 21 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption to France. We currently have 49 babies under the age of 3 at two foster homes.
www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

River

Thomas

Jessica

Julia

Libby

Noa

Antonia and Nadia

Bryan Post OP

Carmen

Clara and Stella

Grandparents' Day Special

The Starfish Celebrate Grandparents’ Day -- Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Grandparents’ Day is a United States Holiday celebrated every year the first Sunday after Labor Day. Marian McQuade founded this holiday in 1973 in West Virginia and spent five years bringing all the states on board with the celebration. Grandparents’ Day is a day to honor the elderly and the love and wisdom they bring to children.

We know here at Starfish how much our babies who have been adopted are loved and cherished by their Grandparents. We hear so many stories from our Alumni’s families about the joy and bond between the Starfish and their Nanas and Papas. Grandparents can help create so many great memories and bring a special relationship to our adopted children.

As our babies at the Starfish Foster Home wait for their forever Grandparents, we’d like to extend an offer to you to give a gift to Grandparents that will make them feel good. For a donation of $30 you will receive a vibrant-colored scratch and UV-resistant keychain with the design “My Grandparents are the Best” printed in gold along with a Grandparents’ Day card. Your kids will be ready to give these to their beloved elders on September 13th.

To order or have sent to a special person in your life please go to our website www.thestarfishfosterhome.org and click on the “You Can Help” page.

Best Grandparents

11 Buddha Bellies

I am working on naming and sorting pictures (there are more than 1000 of them for July!). I came across this picture and just love to see how healthy they are looking. A FEEL GOOD picture for the day!
Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda