Starfish Adoption 30: Antonia, now called KARINE

As you might remember I wrote about the way that we expanded in February 2009 with the orphanage calling me and asking if I could take some more babies.  Five days later, Antonia and eight other cleft lip and palate babies arrived at Starfish. Antonia was the oldest of them  at 11 months.  I was so amazed that she was not able to roll over, hold her bottle or do anything.  She also weighed 5 kg (11 pounds) which was so small.  Like Bryan and Tim she started to drink the milk and would drink so much.  Some days it was more than 60 ounces of milk. Between the three of them they ate me out of house and home but I was so delighted to see how well they picked up weight.  They were neck and neck in the race to get to 10kg and finally Antonia won that race.  She was the" first" one to roll over, hold her bottle, crawl, the first one to walk and so it went. The one thing I remember is the kids all getting chicken pox soon after they got here.  I have the best picture of Antonia with calamine lotion on her face.

Soon she was well enough to get lip surgery.  I took her to a famous plastic surgeon in Xian for her lip surgery that had been recommended. He did a good job, but taped her face like a face lift patient.  I was so stunned to see her face.  She looked like she had been in a bar fight. In April this year we arranged for her to go to the Operations Smile Hospital in Hangzhou where she had her palate repaired.

We were so delighted to hear that she was going to Canada and that she was going to have two older brothers. Her family came to get her on May 10th.  Her new name is now Karine and from what I hear things are going well with her new family.  

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Nick, Bryan and Nick

Antonia and her nanny

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 112 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 35 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China.  Our latest four adoptions took place in two weeks and we now babies in three new US states:  Massachusetts, Colorado and Missouri.  We also added another baby to our count in Holland.  We currently have 47 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have eleven babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

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

From Our Man Kristian in Denmark

Hi Amanda

I would like to write to you,  from a sunny and warm Denmark. I hope you are doing good in China with all the new babies.

I am doing so good! I already understand a lot of the Danish language and I can also say a lot of Danish words. I can say cars, no, more, thank you etc. (all, of course, in Danish) I love to dance to music, I can set the table and help my mom to do the dishwasher (sometimes it helps and sometime it does notJ) I also help my daddy cutting the grass. But most of the time I LOVE to play with LEGO® and I have a lot of it!

We have been to a local fun-park two times, and I really love the roller coaster, the more the better.

When my daddy is at work, my mom and I often go for a walk or we go by bike. We live not far away from the ocean (2 kilometers), and I think it is very funny to throw stones in the water and to build sandcastles. Sometimes I get totally wet, but it is so FUN!

I have been to the hairdresser twice, I have been to the doctor for check and vaccination. I have also had my ears checked, and the doctor found out, that I have a hole in my ear drum. Do you by any chance remember if I had any kind of drain in my ears when I was at Starfish? Oh by the way my mother thinks that I also can say “starfish” and we found one at the beach the other day.

I sleep from 8.00 pm to 8.00am and I get a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. I eat almost everything I am offered. The other day I learned to eat ice creme, and I got a big one. In the beginning of my time I Denmark I did not like rice, but the other day my mom tried again, and now I like it.

Now I will finish my email. Give all my love to everyone that I now at “Starfish”, and please tell the new babies not to cry, because I know they are in good hands!! Also a great hug to you from my mom and dad!!

All my love to you

Kristian (your Tim)

JACK'S Gift

JACK

I just got back from New York and on the same day Tineke flew in from Amsterdam.  She brought with her a child's sized wheelchair for Jack, that had been donated to Care4Tina, the Dutch Foundation that she and Elise manages.  I was so amazed at Jack.  Within a few minutes he was wheeling himself forward and then he figured out how to go backwards and by the afternoon he was spinning in circles.  The other kids, well mostly Lucas, were fighting with him to get into the chair after the nannies took Jack out for lunch. Jack screamed until Lucas got out,  and he has taken full ownership of his chair.  This morning everyone wanted to have a go in the wheelchair.  I was overcome by emotion at Jack's exuberance at being able to move on his own. What a truly wonderful gift!  My most sincere thanks to every one involved.

Life, love and laughter,  
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 112 children to date, arranged more than 80 surgeries and had 31 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China.  Our latest four adoptions took place in two weeks and we now have babies in three new places: Sweden, Denmark and Canada and a new US state, Georgia.  We currently have 52 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have eleven babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

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

Lucas

Hosea

Alice