Starfish Cleft Home

2011 Starfish Calendars

2010-12-29T18:35:00.001-08:00

Did you know that January is the biggest month for buying calendars? So this is for all the procrastinators, the ones who join me in the exclusive if-it-is not-the-last-moment-it-is-not-getting-done club. We still have some calendars available to reach our goal.

So here is the information again:

1) http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectID=1545143&productId=31

2) The calendars cost $30 each retail. International shipping rates: $13.00 US shipping rates $5.00 Please note that this is an American Holiday format. We will try some other countries next year.

50% of the cost of the calendars will be donated to to Starfish Children's Services (EIN number 20-4682916) and goes directly to our medical fund which pays for life altering surgeries such as heart, spina bifida and shunts for babies with hydrocephalus and other general surgeries.

3) Pay pal account information. michelle@bindandremember.com

To order your calendar, go to www.paypal.com

It is easy to quickly set up an account with paypal and use a credit card to purchase immediately.

If you have your paypal account linked to a bank account, it takes 3-5 days to create the account

Once your account is set up, log in and follow prompts to send money to michelle@bindandremember.com

IMPORTANT Select "Personal" & "Gift" or "Other" to avoid paypal fees to Starfish Include in the message box your complete address

For questions and discounts on orders of 3 or more calendars, contact Michelle at michelle@bindandremember.com 801-529-6850

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

At Starfish, we have taken care of 124 children to date, arranged more than 130 surgeries and had 53 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 adoption was to Finland, the land of Santa, the reindeer and the North Pole right before Christmas. We currently have 42 babies under the age of 3.

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

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

Starfish 2011 Calendar

2010-11-18T18:46:00.001-08:00

At Starfish, we take so many pictures each year of the babies. This year we thought of sharing some of the pictures by making a calendar. The second reason is that we want to use this to fund raise for our medical fund in order to help more babies with medical cost for their surgeries. If you are interested to take a look at what this calendar looks like please click on the following link. My most grateful thanks to Michelle for putting this together so fast and for sharing her talents to help the babies.

1) http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectID=1545143&productId=31

2) The calendars cost $30 each retail. International shipping rates: $13.00 US shipping rates $5.00 Please note that this is an American Holiday format. We will try some other countries next year.

3) Pay pal account information. michelle@bindandremember.com

To order your calendar, go to www.paypal.com

It is easy to quickly set up an account with paypal and use a credit card to purchase immediately.

If you have your paypal account linked to a bank account, it takes 3-5 days to create the account

Once your account is set up, log in and follow prompts to send money to michelle@bindandremember.com

IMPORTANT Select "Personal" & "Gift" or "Other" to avoid paypal fees to Starfish Include in the message box your complete address

For questions and discounts on orders of 3 or more calendars, contact Michelle at michelle@bindandremember.com 801-529-6850

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Adoption 35: Justin to Holland

2010-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

On July 19th we got three babies from the orphanage, Justin, Josie and Joseph. As I mentioned before the three J babies. Justin weighed a whopping 5 and a 1/4 pounds or 2.35 kg. There were two very obvious things about him besides his size. He was missing his hand below his elbow and he had a big mouth. He remember he ate a lot and slept even more. I tried to take Chinese New Year pictures of him and I just wrapped him in a red cloth and took some pictures.

He slept in the window on one of the bassinets and for the first few months he was hardly out of that area because he was asleep. Slowly but sure he started to leave his corner and out popped this boy with the best smile you have ever seen. He was so friendly and easy going from the beginning and would let any one hold him. It was really interesting to see him use his little arm. The hand was spontaneously amputated in the womb and from what I understand it is a result of malnourishment. These strings form and once it get caught around a limb it is strong enough to cut it off. He was not deterred! His one hand would hold his bottle and his little arm would stabilize it on the other side. His answer to crawling was to scoot along the floor and boy could he move. As he started walking he would hold out both his arms for balance. Soon he was walking well and he would tuck things under his arm. I loved the fact that he has not stressed by not having a hand. It was just so normal to him. Kids are simply amazing in their ability to adapt.

That big mouth soon became a cause for a Colgate toothpaste commercial. Stunning is the only word I could use.

Soon all his paperwork was in Beijing and we got the news that he had a family but we had no idea where. One day the Big O asked me to fill in some paperwork about Justin and I saw at the end of the page the name of the Dutch adoption services and I knew he was going to the Netherlands. I am sure his parents must have been so surprised at the load of information that arrived. We had a whole lot of Dutch volunteers here. So Justin's nanny got the reputation for sending her babies to the Netherlands. It was Starfish's fourth baby in Holland and Xiao Liu was the nanny to three of them.

Justin became Youp which is part of his Chinese name with an added P. He is also the younger brother of a sister who also comes from China.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 45 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 5 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and in Spain. We also have three more babies in the US. We currently have 45 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility.

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

Pictures of the "New" Starfish House.....HELP needed!

2010-08-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

We could use all of the VOLUNTEER help that we can get! Please let us know if you can help!

Life, Love, and Laughter,

Amanda

Looking For Skilled Volunteers

2010-08-23T18:49:00.001-07:00

After being in the same place for five years STARFISH has to move. We have found a house which is really suitable for us, but needs some major work and we found out yesterday that we will be able to move in there, but before that happens we have to renovate. In order to do that, I will need some major help. Do you perhaps know a plumber, electrician, handyman experienced do-it-yourselfer that will be willing to come to China for a month or two and come and help us get this new place ready for the babies?

Time is of the essence and I will need someone as soon as possible. Nothing like having a plan and giving you a long lead time. As one of my favorite adages teaches: IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE LAST MINUTE NOTHING WOULD GET DONE!

For all the people in China, do you perhaps know if any companies that do construction and decoration that would like to make a donation in China to Starfish, please put us in touch. We could even use samples of household products and appliances, we are going to need air conditioners for sure. If you can think of anything that could be useful to us, I would like to know.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 38 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 adoptions took place recently and now we have a fifth baby in Holland and our first baby in Washington State. We have also added another baby to our count in Holland. We currently have 51 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have fifteen 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

More Cleft Mission Pictures!

2010-08-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

James

James and River on the train

Joseph post op

Kathryn

Kathryn and Angela

Olivia

River

Starfish Cleft Medical Teams

2010-08-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Soon after I came back from New York, we got ready for 23 cleft palate surgeries in two different places before the end of July. I am so grateful to all the people who donated to this very worthy cause. There are so many people that have to cooperate to make this happen. Sometimes it works better than others, but the only thing that I keep in mind is that the children are my primary concern and they are the one's whose lives will be changed.

Getting cleft lip and palate surgeries for so many children is one of my favorite things to do. I absolute love seeing their lips repaired. Often I can hardly recognize them when they come back from surgery. I have to admit the repaired cleft palate is not as dramatic a change but an important one none the less. The milk stops squirting out of their noses, but even more important is the fact that there is now a palate for the tongues to push against as they start to talk, which is why it is very important to get the palates done as soon as they turn one.

I am somewhat crazy in my desire to get the babies to the best doctors that I can and that means I travel across China to get the babies to the best care that I am capable of. This time we could not get airplane tickets for so many children and so we took the train. We traveled in a group of 15 kids and 19 adults. There were no sleepers hard or soft and we were forced to take the hard seats. I hated doing this, because I knew how difficult this would be. It is really hard to be on the train for the normal 22 hours it takes and let me tell you Chinese people know about hard beds and seats. It is extremely uncomfortable to sleep. Little did I know what would happen next: We were on the train for 52 hours! What a marathon train trip to go down in history and be talked about for years! At one point at three in the morning I ran out of drinking water and there was none on the train, and that meant there was not enough milk for the children. We were low on milk powder and the toilets were backing up because there was no water for sanitation. It was really U-G-L-Y. The reason this happened was that an enormous amount of rain had fallen and caused a mudslide and flood. We stopped for 8 hours and then when we tried to go back, there was another mudslide behind us. The best thing that happened is that we got some beds and I sent the smallest babies to the beds and the caretakers got some sleep, which saved their sanity. The babies had done really badly in the seats and did not sleep well. I have never eaten so many instant noodles in my life. That is the most popular food in China.

We finally made it to Hangzhou and there Dr Lisa Buckmiller and her medical team were waiting for us at the Operation Smile Hospital. I am grateful that so many people got to work together for the good of the children. When things got really tough on the train all I kept thinking is that at the end there is such great help available for the kids. We had four children from the Yulin orphanage, six from the Luoyang Maria's House, three poor families and then eight babies from Starfish. One of the kids was not able to get surgery because of a liver condition and so we did 20 cleft lip and palates. Two of the children had surgery in Yulin.

I love the fact the our latest arrivals Angela and Kathryn got their lips repaired and that they look so different. Angela was the most placid baby on the trip. Not only that, but she almost picked up a pound (.39kg) in the last week. That is so amazing for a baby that has just had lip surgery as they usually loose weight. She hardly cried where as Kathryn fussed for the both of them. Six other babies got their palates fixed (James, River, Joseph, Karl, Olivia and Aaron). Olivia wins the prize for Miss Congeniality, she charmed every one. Now we have three weeks of arm bands and boy is that a struggle for the older babies. They cannot put anything hard into their mouths and are eating soft food only. You are always worried about them falling and the lip or palate bursting open.

There are so many people to thank: Dr. Lisa and her team ( Dr. Robert Glade, Dr. Patti Kymer, Dr. Robert McLean, Ginnie England, Charlie Phol, Samuel Yu, Jessica Boswell, Matthew, Abby Nolder and Chris Robbins). My most grateful thanks to all the volunteers who went with the babies on this epic journey did not give up even though the going got really tough. We had Chinese, Dutch and Americans working together and taking care of the babies. Thank you to all the donors who were so generous so that babies could have their surgeries. Thank you to Jeannie Butler and Annabelle's Wish for your contribution. You have all made a difference in the life of a child. God bless you all for your willingness to help these babies of ours.

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 100 surgeries and had 36 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 took place recently and we now have baby in Virginia. We have also added baby another baby to our count in Holland. We currently have 47 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes. We have fifteen 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

Adoption 31: Stewart to France

2010-08-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was in the US when I heard the news that Stewart was being adopted. It was a huge surprise. We have had three adoptions to France and every time I was in the US and missed them all: Sean, Breanna and now Stewart.

A French family had come to China and disrupted their first adoption. The CCAA had to replace the baby with another and Stewart was available and so they chose him. At the moment I do not know his new name or where in France Stewart went. Unlike most of the Dutch families, the French families do not speak much English, so the communication is really hard.

Stewart came to Starfish on April 1st, 2009 in a batch of eight babies, seven of them were heart babies. The first few months were really tough. He did not eat well and had a really bad skin condition. Lila, our volunteer loved on him and help him so much in the beginning. Slowly but surely he got stronger and with in a few months he was hitting his developmental stages and with that he started eating more and more. When we did the echo a few months later to diagnose what the heart condition was, much to our delight, Stewart's heart had healed and he then went from a special needs baby to a non special needs (NSN). We never really know what is going to happen with the NSN babies. Everything remains a mystery up to the last moment.

Stewart turned out to be such a fabulous story of a little boy who survived an orphanage and then later thrived with us and landed up with a family in France. At Starfish we filled our purpose and that was to keep him safe until his family came to get him.

A bientot, mon ami. (that was my best French)

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 100 surgeries and had 36 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 took place recently and we now have another baby in Virginia. We have 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 fifteen 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

Starfish Adoption 30: Antonia, now called KARINE

2010-07-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-08T17:23:00.000-07:00

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

SIX NEW BABIES

2010-06-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

Just before I left China, we got the chance to go to the orphanage and pick up some more babies. You have no idea how much I love bringing babies to Starfish!! I wanted to get five cleft palate babies and prepare them for the two medical teams who are coming in July 2010. The plan was to leave for New York and then leave responsibility of taking care of them to Elise, a Dutch volunteer who has been coming to Starfish since March 2009. She took time off work and planned to spend 4 months with us in in China. In her previous life she was a neonatal ICU nurse, specializing in premature babies so it was a really good person to leave this huge task to.

As always, we got more than I planned. I always think of the one rather than a group (as in 1....1.....1....1....1....1). We brought six babies home. The orphanage worker kept on adding a baby and finally I said yes, a very unexpected addition. She was the only one who did not have a cleft palate. I have never named a baby and have always asked volunteers to do that. So we got names from people who come from all over the world. So we now have an Angela, Isaac, Ryan, Kathryn and Elise. Our surprise was named: Amanda which means worthy of love. That would be the second Amanda. The first one was one of the original six babies when I started in 2005. Later when she was adopted her parents decided to keep her name.

Elise took some pictures and I wanted to share that with you. The time lapse is so important to see where they start off and what a few weeks can do for them. Thank you to Elise and Jack a 17 year who spent 2 months with us at Starfish and became Papa to the six babies as they stayed in the volunteer apartment, before Elise moved them out.

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 two foster homes. We have ten 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
New email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com

Kathryn

Elise

Starfish Swimming Party

2010-06-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

As you know it is summer in China. I loved these pictures of the Starfish Swim Party!! The babies faces were just priceless!

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 two foster homes. We have ten 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
New email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com

A Fulfilled Dream

2010-05-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started the foster home, I was fascinated with the idea of arranging an opportunity for surgeons to come to China with a medical team and help the babies. My very first medical mission was at one of the fanciest hospital in China, the Shanghai United and I was there when Dr Lazareff and his team did 13 Spina Bifida surgeries in December 2005. I was so impressed that he would leave the US and come to China and help children that he often never heard of again.

This dream stayed in the background while I traveled often to go with the children from Starfish to find doctors on medical missions. I watched and learned, hoping that one day I would get a chance to do something like this. I asked everyone I knew and was repeatedly told to give up, that it could not be done. I had the idea of doing surgeries in Xian and after 16 months, the answer was still: It is not possible. One day I was asked to see about an orthopedic mission and called the only person whom I thought could help, the director of the Xian Red Cross hospital, who had offered free surgery a few months earlier to one of my babies. He had said to contact him if I found a medical team. It was a shot in the dark. He graciously agreed to see us. At the end of the conversation I could see that the whole idea that the team was proposing was not going to happen. I asked if he knew other hospitals that would be interested. I got on the phone and called the director of the biggest children's hospital in Xian. We were driven over there and in an hour we got in touch with everyone who could make a decision at Xian Children's Hospital (XCH). They told us that they were eager to help us, and it gave me so much hope that they wanted to have medical teams come often.

A few weeks later we submitted our Dutch medical team's dates and what they were planning to do and soon we had their medical requirements to issue licenses to operate in China. XCH were so extremely generous in the hospital fees and asked a fraction of the usual costs. I extend my most grateful thanks to the XCH and the doctors and staff who worked with us. We made history! In the 80 years the hospital had existed they had never had a foreign medical team.

We had everything ready in China but never did we expect that volcano erupting. It grounded the whole medical team and caused a week long wait and cut the time in half, and we helped less babies than we wanted. The upside was that the medical team was on TV and that helped to get them seated on a flight to China sooner. However, eight babies had their lives changes and that was worth everything. Dr Johan also looked at David and made some recommendations for his care in the future, and he later went back to Guiyang, but not before we had all fallen in love with him. He is already tri-lingual (Mandarin, English and Dutch), as his foster family is Dutch. We also found a boy with a cleft who needed surgery but his parents did not abandon him. The doctors found a previously undiagnosed heart condition that needs to be taken care of first. I feel that if we could offer some care and information right after birth that so many of the children will not be abandoned.

My most grateful thanks to Dr Johan Verhof, Dr Hing Gwan Kho, Astrid Paauwen, Elise van Haalen for their superb effort in helping the children. I got to watch them in action and I have to say I covet their skills, especially since I think I would be very happy to do something similar. I just loved watching Dr.Johan transform a baby's face. A great gift that will stay with the children through their lives.

I also have to thank Elsie and Tineke from Care 4 Tina Foundation, who raised the money for this medical trip when they were in Holland. They worked so hard on that and have had so many creative ideas that they have still to execute, that there will be even more funds for the babies. They both feel so passionate about this and it is wonderful to see what a difference they can make.

The result of the medical mission: Eight babies got surgery, the Dutch and the Chinese formed wonderful new relationships, Elise and Tineke are working on getting two doctors invited to Holland for a trip to learn more about special techniques for cleft palate surgery. It would seem that the Dutch medical team plans to come back again next year. As for me, I fulfilled a dream. I am working on more medical missions, three teams before the end of the year, if everything goes well. Organizing a medical mission check that, a dream fulfilled.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 106 children to date, arranged more than 80 surgeries and had 30 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 in Mat 2010 and we now have babies in three new places: Sweden, Denmark and Canada and a new US state, Georgia. We currently have 47 babies under the age of 3 in two foster homes. We have ten babies matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them. Starfish just recently did our fist medical mission, in cooperation with a team from Holland and the Xian Children's Hospital. Eight babies had cleft surgeries.

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

Adoption 28 Tim: Denmark

2010-05-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned before I was sure that Tim and Bryan were going to Europe because there was no information at all. No even a rumor.

The surprise on May 4th was the country: Denmark. Our first baby to go to Denmark. The cute thing was when the nine cleft babies first arrived there was a Danish volunteer that came almost everyday to help. I like the idea that we honored Marianne for all her heard work. Tim whose named was changed to Kristian is his parents first child. They wanted to pronounce his name Kris.ti.an so the an would be said like the an for Xi'an. If I remember correctly, they said they had been waiting for 3 and a half years. They did not have any information and were so surprised to see that he was so big. They had a picture when he was seven months old and weighed 7 kg. I was surprised to read that because when he came to Starfish he was only 5 kg at 10 months. He was so small but the great thing is he could drink milk well in spite of his double cleft. He figured out how to chew on the nipple and that would squirt milk into his mouth.

Tim with chicken pox

Tim and Marianne

Tim and the biggest snot bubble EVER

He soon got the hang of drinking so much milk and started to pick up tons of weight. In no time he was hitting one developmental stage after another. I think the cutest thing to see was how he and Bryan could make each other laugh. They slept in the same crib until they grew too big. I think when the families do not come to Starfish not only do they miss out on seeing the relationship with the nannies but they also miss out on the friendships their children have with the other kids. The two boys also played so well with Antonia.

We struggled to get Tim's cleft repaired and often we would be ready to go for surgery and then something would happen and we would need to postpone it. In November 2009, Dr Lisa Buckmiller was able to repair the double cleft. Tim had a really hard time healing, he looked so much better after wards.

I am so glad that the three older ones were adopted so close to each other because they would have missed each other I am sure. He is already back in Denmark with his family and he looks happy and is adjusting well to his new environment.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 106 children to date, arranged more than 80 surgeries and had 30 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 48 babies under the age of 3 and two foster homes. We have ten 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
New email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

An unexpected endorsement

2010-05-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

It is amazing what a day can bring. I got a surprise email to tell me that Perez Hilton, often visited gossip columnist, has highlighted Starfish as a worthwhile cause on May 17th. It is the kind of exposure that money cannot buy, since there is so much traffic on his site.

As my friend Cindy said: "We are not the target audience of Perez Hilton -- but he is a "Celebrity Dish" blogger who is very popular among the chic, trendy, 20 something-ers ." None the less, I am grateful for his endorsement. I love the fact that people from all walks of life come together with one goal: Help the children of China and make a difference.

http://perezhilton.com/2010-05-17-a-worthwhile-cause-577#respond

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Adoption 27 BRYAN

2010-05-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I wrote much and I am going to repent and update you on some of the wonderful things that has been happening at Starfish.

In February 2009, we took on 9 babies all with cleft palates. On April 24th our first baby from that group got adopted. After a long silence I predicted that both Bryan and Tim would go to Europe and I was right. When there are these long silences then I know it is the Europeans, who have no idea that I exist and who are not allowed to have anything to do with the orphanages. I have to make a special note to exclude the Dutch from that group. It is usually a massive surprise for the families that a place like Starfish even exists.

We got word a few days before Bryan was adopted that he was leaving and I scrambled to get all this paperwork done. He was so sad to say goodbye to his nanny. We had a hard time on the first floor because it was the fist adoption and it was so emotional for the nannies, who cried a lot. After about five minutes, he just sat on my lap and looked out the window. At the adoption office his parents were waiting. They were a little older and Bryan was their first child. They had been waiting for four years for him and came from Sweden to get him. The come from a small town called Mora. Bryan handled it really well and I told him that this was his mom and dad. He sat with his mom and just looked at her. I was so amused to learn that they were going to call him Tim. At the foster home his best friend is Tim and Antonia.

I was thinking that our next adoptions would be on May 10th and then in a surprise telephone call another one of our babies got adopted.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 106 children to date, arranged more than 74 surgeries and had 27 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China. Our latest adoption was to Sweden and we are waiting for another two adoptions on May 10th. We currently have 51 babies under the age of 3 and a half at two foster homes. We have six 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
New email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Bryan

Bryan and Tim

Nick, Bryan and Antonia

A few more "bunnies"

2010-04-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Justin

Tim

Tina

Tristan

Virginia

Easter Starfishes

2010-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Aaron

Alice

Anna

Anthony

Antonia

Bryan

Callum

Cameron

Carmen

Caroline

Clara

Daniel

Emerson

Faith

Hosea

Jack

James

Jasmine

Jessica

Joseph

Joshua

Josie

Julia

Karl

Libby

Lucas

Malin

Matilda

Matthew

Megan

Nadia

Nava

Nick

Noa

Olivia

River

Rose

Sadie

Sophia

Stella

Stewart

Thomas

Amanda's Trip To Holland

2010-03-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

If you know the history of South Africa, you will know that the Portuguese discovered it and then the Europeans sailed around Africa to get to Asia to do trade. It was a long and arduous journey and many people died on route. Many of them died from starvation because they ran out of food towards the end. In the 1600 the Dutch got the bright idea to send settlers to South Africa so that they could farm and provide a half way stopping point to take on fresh supplies for the rest of the journey. That is how my ancestors came to South Africa and later married into the many groups that also came to South Africa from France and the British Empire. My closest relative from Europe was born in Scotland in the mid 1800s and came to South Africa when the richest source of diamonds and gold in the world was discovered in South Africa. In South Africa we also speak Afrikaans which is a remnant of this old Dutch.

You can only imagine how interesting it was for me going back to Holland. I think from the first time I set foot on Dutch soil I felt at home. I could see myself in the people. Talk about Viking women!! There were times that I felt small. Some women are more than 6 feet tall. The men are mostly really tall too. I think the Dutch are on average the tallest people in the world and coming from a place like China what a unique change. My modern Dutch improved so much in the 10 days that I was gone. Most of the time I could understand what was being said and we laughed a lot about the way the South Africans say things and how the Dutch use the same word different ways. We went and visited a port city, where the old Dutch trading companies sailed from and while walking down the street I found my last name painted on a door. There is also a famous singer named Ilse de Lange. She is from the de Lange's who can sing. If you want to see two of her English songs here they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjb7ye42xE&feature=email
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVmMolbCZA&feature=email

Amongst all of this I loved the food and ate more than what I should have. The Dutch are the original cheese heads and I loved all the dairy products. I could have eaten the yogurt all day long. They have all these different varieties. My favorite was the Greek yogurt.

But best of all was seeing the Starfish families in Holland. They made such an effort and they all came to meet me at the airport, with Elise who was a volunteer from Starfish. I was not sure what to expect and as I came closer the two girls, Mei-Li and Norah were the first to greet me. It was so cute, Mei-Li immediately showed me her new shoes and the jabbered away in Dutch. They were both so free with their "snuffeljes" (hugs and kisses) it was as if I had been gone for a few weeks. Jain who had been in Holland just 2 months was a little hesitant and came over to say hello and then immediately ran back to his mom.

I stayed with all three the families and I just loved seeing what a wonderful life they all have. Not just the three of them but in total these three families have adopted 6 children from China. It made me think about the times that the babies come to me. At that moment we at Starfish spend so much time trying to save their lives, getting them medical care and then doing surgeries, that I do not think about the end result. I do not think about the tenderness of the families and how the older siblings will take care of the younger ones. I watch as one of the older sisters helped her younger sister walk across the playground and made sure she did not fall. I loved being in the homes and seeing the pictures on the walls and their bedrooms. I loved going to the schools and supermarkets. They were so hospitable and treated me so well. I came home all spoiled. No one offered me tea and a snack in China, I had to fend for myself.

Another highlight is that Jian got baptised in the Roman Catholic Church and I was able to attend the service. Not only that but Jian's family asked me to take a very active role in the ceremony in a gorgeous old stain glass window church near their home. I was so honored that I was asked to take such an big part in this special day for the family. They honored the work we did at Starfish and lit candles for us and said a special prayer too. My most favorite part: The family sang the song "Somewhere out there." Throughout the song Jian sang the words over and over again: "Somewhere out there". That is all he knew. It was too cute!!!

Another great experience was being with Elise and Tineke. They arranged such a well planned benefit evening and raised 20 000 Euros for doing cleft lip surgeries next month. They have been working so hard to raise money for a charity they started called Care4Tina. I am so grateful to them and thank them both very much for taking such good care of me on my birthday. I am eager to see the results of the very first medical mission that Starfish is going to be actively involve in. We are going to work with the Xian Children's Hospital to arrange this. Thank you also to the Dutch physicians who are coming.

I t was hard coming home after being spoiled so much, but the babies were waiting for me. There was no time for feeling home sick for Holland and I started working immediately. Lots of surgeries coming up and we are working on new adoption dossiers.

Life, love and laughter,

Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 106 children to date, arranged more than 74 surgeries and had 26 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China. Our latest two adoptions were to the Netherlands and Virginia, USA. We currently have 53 babies under the age of 3 and a half at two foster homes. Recently we learned that 6 babies have been matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com/
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

The Year of the Golden Tiger

2010-02-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai

The year of the tiger will start on February 14, 2010 and will end on February 2, 2011. The Tiger (associated with good fortune, power, and royalty), is viewed with both fear and respect; hence, their protection and wisdom is sought after. Many people believe the tiger, and not the lion, is the true king of beasts. According to Chinese thinking people born in this year have the following abilities: agile natural leaders, alert, energetic, independent, far-sighted, charming, friendly, well-liked, loyal, intelligent, confident, courageous, powerful, strong, self-reliant, sacrificing, optimistic, relentlessly competitive, good strategists and tacticians and because of this they will have great careers in Music, Acting, Writing, Advertising, Management, Aviation, Travel, Entrepreneur, Politics.

I hope you will help celebrate Chinese New Year with 1/5 of the world's population. Thank your lucky stars that you are not in China listening to two weeks of fire crackers which will slow down after lantern festival.

Here is a fun video of all of the Starfish babies..we hope you enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhLkei6Ohc

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/yrABIdRx2w4/ ( for Chinese Starfish Fans)

From all of us at Starfish, wish you the best year of the Tiger, with forever families for everyone at the foster home. Thank you also to the ISOM family for all of their hard work taking our pictures!

Life, Love and Laughter,

Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 106 children to date, arranged more than 74 surgeries and had 26 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain and in China. Our latest two adoptions were to the Netherlands and Virginia, USA. We currently have 53 babies under the age of 3 and a half at two foster homes. Recently we learned that 6 babies have been matched and we are waiting for their families to come and get them.

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com/
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

More Happy New Year!

2010-02-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

Jessica

Stella

Sadie

Carmen

Matilda

Matthew

River

Olivia

Nava

Tina

Aaron

Cameron

Stewart

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

Carmen

Karl

Olivia

Antonia

Thomas and Gigi

Antonia

Thomas

Rose and Libby

Thomas

Bryan

Rose

Libby

Julia

Julia and Libby

Tim

Clara

Daniel

Nick

James

Noa

Starting the New Year

2010-01-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

It has been a wild time over here at Starfish.

First, let me share a video with you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n4JKHjrU8k
or if you are in China: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/FVXfiREyNM8/
Carlotta took our Christmas pictures and then she made a video of them. Five minutes of Starfish babies at their cutest.
Second, my Christmas presents arrived in a bundle of five. The Siew Sisters, our returning Australian volunteer family, and I went to the orphanage and instead of getting one we came home with four. Three boys and a girl. The boys, Harrison, Emerson and Marcus went into the hospital soon after they got here and received some great care and are now recovering well. We hope to have them home soon. Sally, who has spina bifida will be going to the hospital soon for her surgery. At the same time Dr Siew, saw a baby with cataracts and after I made some arrangements, we got Chloe and I flew with her to Shanghai. She is staying with a foster family in Shanghai and will go to the hospital in a few hours to prepare for her surgery which will be on Thursday China time. So I am now the proud mom of 55 kids, the crazy proud mom. I have to say that Starfish is rocking on its foundation!
Third, on Christmas day we had a very unexpected adoption. The day before while I was grocery shopping I got a call to tell me that Teresa was getting adopted to a Chinese family that very same afternoon. I was not at home and so they delayed it to Christmas Day. It was a really weird adoption because for the first time all the nannies were there to meet the family. They are from Beijing and there are some things I cannot explain. Teresa was the baby that was abandoned at a garbage dump. A really beautiful child, who had surgery in Shanghai with Dr Larareff recently. Soon after Christmas we got word that we will have another two adoptions before the end of January, and both the kids are from Yulin orphanage. Cailean will be first and he is going to Holland, our third baby there. He has an older brother and sister. The next adoption a few days later will be Heather. She is the oldest child at Starfish and she will be going to Virginia and will have two older brothers and a sister. We are preparing them as much as we can for their new families.
Fourth, I saw an open apartment on the first floor and I decided that the price was right and that we could use another space for the kids. Soon after we got the perfect handyman in Christian, a volunteer from the UK, who has been helping us so much. We are almost ready to move the babies in. I hope we will get that done before Christian leaves for his next adventure. He is traveling around the world, while he works and in our case volunteers. I have had a lot of fun shopping ( bought 15 cribs at once) I will be sending some pictures soon.
Fifth, my new years resolution: I want to work everyday at finding a hospital for us to do surgeries. I have been struggling with this for 14 months and I still have not found a place in Xian.
Finally, we are going into surgery mode again. I am sending 5 babies to Operation Smile for surgery in Hangzhou, we have to do another seven heart surgeries for Dr Li also in Hangzhou, and there are another few surgeries I am trying to arrange. The second group of spina bifida babies are in Hong Kong and they will have surgery this coming Saturday. I am going to try and get as much done as I can before Chinese New Year which falls on February 14th this year.

I am so grateful that is spite of the chaos that reigns at Starfish, the children are being helped and loved. I guess I could have an orderly foster home where there is peace and quiet, but if it is at the expense of not helping some really fragile babies than I choose the chaos. We are also gearing up for a lot of volunteers who will be coming for the winter vacation in China. I am so grateful for your support and for the encouragement I receive from you.

Life, Love and Laughter with a heavy touch of insanity,

Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 105 children to date, arranged more than 66 surgeries and had 24 international adoptions , so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption was to a local adoption to Beijing. We currently have 55 babies under the age of 4 at two foster homes.

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com/
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847

Holiday Greetings from Starfish!

2009-12-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Wise men still seek Him

It is always a little weird celebrating Christmas in China, but in many ways it highlights the very simple message in such a profound way: having the children is the sweetest message that there is to share as we celebrate the birth of Christ, even though I cannot celebrate this time of year in the most traditional way. The babies are such a great example of how the spirit of Christmas is around all through the year. There is no way I EVER could have managed the babies on my own, and so my gifts are given throughout the year as so many combine their efforts, talents, and time to help take care of the babies. I am so grateful for the many who generously donate their money, which enables us at Starfish to do our best to save babies lives. I have said this before and I will say it again: I appreciate you all for trusting me enough to send your hard earned dollars across the world. I absolutely love knowing that when I see a need, I have the financial backing to be able to bring a baby to Starfish and offer so much HOPE for the future. I would be heartbroken if we were not able to help. So, I get to see the FAITH in action as we follow the admonition to take care of the orphans.

So this year we celebrated our 4th anniversary. It was a wild year! We doubled our numbers (24 to 48!) and opened another apartment. You have no idea how scary that was! I was not sure that we would have enough money for all of that, but only knew that 9 little people needed help in the worst way. Talk about having faith....stepping into the unknown! Not only did we get enough money to support them, but in 3 months, the donations were enough for ALL the children on the first floor! It was a hugs change going from one apartment to two, and we became busier than before. I did not think that was possible. My days start early and are crazy! I subscribe to the motto: Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise!
This year we did 23 surgeries. The best part of that is that we only paid for 2 cleft lip surgeries from Starfish funds, and the rest were all donated. I am so grateful to all the medical volunteers and the medical staff at the hospitals in China for their help. The babies received such excellent care, and I am so grateful! This year I have not traveled as much with the babies to the hospitals as in previous years, but now I have a nanny that goes with them. I have stayed at the foster home more to help keep the boat afloat.
We also have 7 adoptions this year, bringing the total to 23! Two babies went to France, and five went to the US. We have another two babies who are matched and whom we expect to be adopted in January 2010, starting the year off with a bang. In the meantime, we are working on many dossiers for adoption. Ten files are at the CCAA and another 21 are at the orphanage, and there are another 13 at the foster home. I imagine that we will have many adoptions in 2010. We miss the babies, but it does allow the opportunity to bring more babies to Starfish. We are always happy to see how they thrive with their new families, and also become little ambassadors for what we do at Starfish.
Before the end of this year we will be caring for babies number 100 and 101. They are both in Hong Kong undergoing Spina Bifida surgery, but they will be coming back soon. I am so honored to have had the opportunity to take care of them all. It is impossible to save every baby, and there are some really sad times here at Starfish. All of it is part and parcel of the experience, and of life, and I know there are so many people who pray for us, and I can tell you how much I "feel" those prayers!
I am looking forward to many new projects in 2010. The biggest and most important to me will be finding a hospital where we can do surgeries. There are some medical teams who want to come to Xi'an and help the babies, and I am so eager to help facilitate. I am going to travel again this coming year, and already have two trips organized. The first will be to Holland, the land of my forefathers, in March for a fundraiser, and the second to New York in June. I joke that more than 300 years ago the Dutch went to South Africa as settlers, and I am doing my best to repay them by sending our little Starfish settlers over there.
I appreciate your support and love. I consider myself extremely blessed, and even thought this is a great responsibility, I do not want to be doing anything else. Thank you for helping me live my dream as I thought it would be impossible to open a foster home in China. I guess I still had to learn the life lesson that with God, NOTHING is impossible!

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Christmas Blessings

2009-12-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

Stewart

Carmen

2009-12-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

James and Libby

Karl and Jessica

Nick and Bryan

2009-12-22T19:37:00.000-08:00

River

Julia, Nadia and Stella

Jasmine

Tina

2009-12-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

Cameron

Noa and Matilda

Olivia

Nava

2009-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

James

Sadie and Thomas

Matthew

Daniel

Volunteers

2009-11-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

Volunteers

2009-11-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Volunteers add such a special flavor to the foster home. We get volunteers for a few hours and then all the way to the ones who stay for months and indeed years like Kay. We have volunteers from all different countries. This week Sweden, England, France, Australia and Holland were represented and we have a lot of Chinese who visit us regularly. I love the variety and the fact that they have such interesting stories to tell.
Chrissy and Julee volunteered full time here with us for six months. What a joy they were to have and how they loved on the babies and the babies on them. Thank you so much to the two of you for all your hard work and dedication to the children. You made such a valuable contribution and I am so grateful. I know that we have made an impression on your hearts and that you will not soon forget us. All of us at Starfish wish you well and I pray that God will lead you down your road with some clear and precise instructions, so you have no doubt what you need to do.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 98 children to date, arranged more than 64 surgeries and had 23 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption was to France. We currently have 51 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

A Dollar A Comment

2009-11-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a unique way to raise funds for Starfish. Amy will send Starfish a dollar for every comment that is left on her new blog. May you have a lot to say.

Hi all!

Some of you may have already gotten this message--and if you have--so sorry to bother you again!! I have started a new family website that will not only chronicle life as we know it--and all the crazy goings on at our house--but also serve to raise money for children that are still waiting for parents--mostly in China.

Currently--I am offering to send a dollar in YOUR honor to the Starfish Foster Home in China--just by leaving a comment of what you are thankful for--under my "thankful" post. I am going to continue this all month in honor of National Adoption Month and then tally the comments at the end of the month and send Amanda at Starfish a nice big check!!

All I ask is that you visit me--and leave a comment under "thankful" --easy peasy!!

Here's the site: www.lotsokidz.blogspot.com

and if you want to become a follower--add yourself in the left-hand column. And by all means--if you have a website--please give me a plug--help me--help them!!! And feel real good about yourself too!!

Thanks so much--and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!

Amy Dinello

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Nine Transformed Faces

2009-11-17T12:23:00.000-08:00

We got stuck at the Beijing Airport with four babies for 30 hours trying to get home to Xian. I guess it was not as bad as the 19 800 people who got stuck at the Xian airport trying to get out. Apparently the fog was so bad the planes could not land. Ultimately this does not really mean anything in the grand scheme of things because nine babies out of the 12 we took to Beijing, got their clefts repaired and they all look so different except for Hosea who had his cleft palate repaired, no outward change there.
My most grateful thanks to Dr Lisa Buckmiller and all of the medical team that came with her, you all rock and I love seeing your skills in action. Thank you to Dr Bill Moody who made the arrangements and for finding sponsors for the surgeries, so that we did not need to pay for anything. To Bei Da Hospital in Beijing for all they did to help the children. I appreciate all the hard work that culminated in 21 children getting their faces transformed. I just love the unity that it takes to help the children which focuses on one thing and that is the children. I loved watching the tenderness with which the nannies and volunteers took care of the babies. Thank you all so very much.
We are still in the healing process so things are not looking great yet, but here are some pictures. Some of the babies look like they have been in a bar fight, but when the dermabond coating falls off things will look much better.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 96 children to date, arranged more than 64 surgeries and had 23 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption was 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

2009-11-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Sadie and Tina

Olivia

Cameron

River

2009-11-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

Dr. Lisa Buckmiller

the Medical team

James

Ting Ting and Sophia

Cleft Lip Surgeries in Beijing

2009-11-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

I am in the middle of one of my favorite things to do: looking at the transformed faces of the cleft lip babies. Dr. Lisa Buckmiller and her team started working her magic on the babies yesterday and before I left Beijing I saw River, and I just marveled. There are so many people who worked together to make this happen. I am so grateful to Dr. Bill Moody from the Philip Hayden Foundation who was able to take this on and find a place for the team to do surgery. I am also so grateful to the hospitals in Beijing who offered up their facilities and staff.
I wanted to show you the history of River at Starfish. A group of foreigners went with me to the big O to pick up some babies on May 4th this year. River was Mike's choice and he was also the one who named him. River was a month old and weighed 2.99kg or 6 and a half pounds, a small little thing. The one redeeming quality is that River could eat any time and any place and soon he started getting to Buddha Belly proportions! He is now pushing 9kg, quite a change. Soon, he was ready to go to Dr Niu (the dentist) for his orthodontic molding in preparation for surgery. He handled that well and nothing interfered with his eating. His favorite place to sleep was next to Olivia for as long as the two of them could fit into the one bouncer. He really has been the poster child of the cleft home. Yesterday, I saw the result of every one's contribution, and does he look good! There is still a little swelling because this was taken within and hour of him coming out of the OR, but you can see the results are phenomenal.
So by the time I fell into bed last night at 9pm, four Starfish babies had had surgery. River was first, but Sadie was after him and then Olivia and James. I am so eager to see what James looks like. He had a severe double cleft and I know the changes can be dramatic. We have had a few problems with the babies' health issues and I hope that we can clear that up so that more babies can have surgery. I think today it is Sophia and Tina who are on the schedule, and they both have double clefts and Dr Niu has fitted molds so their mouths are prepared for this.
Thank you to everyone who has offered their help. Getting 12 babies to Beijing was no small task. I will write more as I am able because it is a logistical nightmare knowing where everyone is and what is going on. We thank the sponsors of the babies because so far all the expenses to do with the surgeries have been covered. How grateful I am for their generosity!!
As a side note, Nava is back home from her surgery and Teresa came back from Shanghai too. It has been a month of action on all fronts.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

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

At Starfish, we have taken care of 95 children to date, arranged more than 61 surgeries and had 23 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption was to France. We currently have 47 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

2009-11-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

Mike and River

River and Olivia

River

2009-11-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

River when we first met

River with his molding

River one hour post operation

Halloween Fun

2009-10-31T05:44:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween from the Starfish Cleft Home! Amanda is still travelling in America and will return home next week. In the meantime, one of the AMAZING Starfish volunteers captured these precious pictures. We hope you enjoy their smiles and beautiful faces!!

2009-10-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

Tim and River

2009-10-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

Stella

Sadie

Olivia

Stewart

2009-10-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

Nadia

Karl

Noa

River

2009-10-31T05:37:00.000-07:00

Matilda and Jessie

Libby

Jasmine

James

2009-10-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

Brian

Julia

Nick

Matilda

2009-10-31T05:33:00.000-07:00

Daniel

Aaron

Carmen

Antonia

2009-10-31T05:30:00.000-07:00

Cameron

Clara

Clara and Stella

Clara, Stella, and Julia

An Award for Starfish

2009-10-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

When I started Starfish in 2005, I had no idea what was coming. For the first three and a half years I hardly left Xian except to take babies to the hospital in other Chinese cities. As you might know, religion is not accepted part of life in China, and I came to China with my personal testimony of Jesus Christ. It was hard to reconcile the feelings I had with those of being in China and for the first year while I was teaching it was easy to separate my religion and my work. Things became decidedly more complicated as I started the foster home. I continued to practice my religion as the government allowed but never have I spoken openly about it, except to mention from time to time my believe in God and His integral part in my ability to be able to run the foster home. This is in large part to the respect I have to the Chinese government in obeying the laws of their country and secondly, because the church I belong to, has asked its members not discuss religious matters with local Chinese people. The babies do not belong to any church and I am extremely careful that we do not teach and preach any religion at the foster home. I guess my thinking was best summed up by a quote I saw at a friend's home in Nashville: Your life may be the only Bible some people ever read. I am not going to use this as a forum for a religious discussion, but as a preface to explain a more personal matter which also concerns Starfish.
A few months ago I was stunned to find out that Brigham Young University, where I graduated from in 1996, was honoring the work I do with a Humanitarian Service award and that I needed to travel to Utah for the two day event. To be honest I am really embarrassed by all this attention and if it was up to me I would not do it. However, there is a very important consideration to be made and that is my beloved babies. How can I be a better advocate for them? How can I tell their story and help others to have more compassion on the plight that they are in and give people the opportunity to help them? It changed my mind.
I was so amused because of the dress code required. I do not own business clothes, a requirement for the meetings and I am desperately looking for something to wear which will fit my budget. I go to church in the same clothes I wear at home which are baby proof, so I guess a new frock is in order. Any excuse to go shopping.
I also want to invite any one that would like to come to the VIP luncheon, where the award will be presented on Friday October 23 at 12:30am at BYU. There are some additional seats available for lunch and you many contact Alicia Smith if you would like to reserve a place (alicia.brown@byu.edu). Please do it soon. I am also going to be in the homecoming parade and going to the BYU football game on Saturday, something I have not done since I was a student. I am arranging a much more informal dinner at a noodle place on Friday night and if you would like to come to that, will you contact Wendy Beres at kayaknwoman@aol.com for details. Yes, I am leaving China to eat noodles in America but more importantly I will probably not be eating but talking more to people I have know most of my life and others who have played such an important part in getting me where I am today. What a wonderful opportunity for me.

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 22 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain and our latest adoption was to Florida, USA. We currently have 47 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

Four Year Anniversary

2009-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I slept and dreamed that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted and behold service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

September 13, 2005, what a day!! I will not forget the sight of having six little people who were carried into my life. I will never forget looking at them and being so excited at the prospect of helping and at the same time being terrified at having to take care of them. All of them had some sort of special need and I had no experience with any of it. Today, I am so stunned at what has happened in the intervening four years. I have had an extremely steep learning curve in areas of medicine, social work, non profit management, marketing and human resources with a whole range of other skills which I did not possess, but had to learn. I could not have predicted that I would be running a foster home taking care of almost 50 children and all that it entails. I had no idea what was coming! If I had, I might have not taken this on. I would have run and hid myself refusing to take on the pain, the work load and the hassle. At the same time I would have missed the joy and the successes that have played out in the lives of the children as they have been healed and in those who have gone on to be adopted. I find such joy in hearing from each family as they share with me the lives of these babies that found themselves all alone in a park, hospital, cemetery and river bank hoping that someone would help. I cannot imagine what that must be like, abandoned by your very own family, waiting, hoping that someone would take pity on you and help........... I guess in my heart I want to make life a little more fair for each one of them, offering HOPE in a very bleak situation. I carry a story for each one of the 94 children that have come to Starfish, all of the babies I chose to come to live with me and the condition I found them in. I revel in our ability to offer care that allowed them to overcome the medical need they had and to protect them until their families arrive. This is the purpose of Starfish. At the same time the hardest lessons have been the babies that I could not help enough. I will never forget how I pleaded with God for the life of Susan and having her die in my arms. It took me a while to get over that and as I tried to learn the lesson which was that I was not going to save every child but that I was going offer love, warmth and care while their little bodies were not able to be helped by the medical care that was available. My desire is to be able to find better medical care for the most fragile of these babies, who need some specialized care that I can find in Xian.

Kay, who understood the foster home more than intimately that any one before or since, told me once that running the foster home was the loneliest job. That may seem true, but I do not feel so lonely. I feel that God's hand is over the foster home and that He loves these children so much. I see it in the miracles that take place and the help that He sends. I feel His influence all the time and it offers me comfort, truth, wisdom and a tremendous sense of tenacity.

I want to thank each and everyone who has had some connection to the foster home. There is the synergy that works together for good. I love the mixture of the different nationalities, walks of life, different religions and the offer of the US$12 from a little boy's piggy bank to the tens of thousands of dollars from corporate and foundation donations. I am so grateful for the specialized skills from medical staff to the 91 year old Chinese woman who cannot read, but wants to volunteer anyway. I am so extremely grateful to the Starfish Staff who works so hard. They pour their love and care out on the babies and have such a huge hand in the success of our foster home. I love the volunteers that want to come back and the many who do, some who travel across the world back to Xian to be part again of the HOPE that Starfish offers. Thank you to the local volunteers, who spend hour after hour with us and who love the babies so much.

Thank you for following our story and for being Starfish Ambassadors, spreading the word and living the adventure with me. I know there are some very interesting events coming up and some that I cannot talk about yet. One of these days.....I hope it makes you keep on wanting to come back for more.

Here is to saving a life, offering love with a generous dose of laughter, acting in service and finding joy.

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 22 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 47 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

2009-09-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Alice

Rebecca and Jade

2009-09-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

Joseph

Heather

Hosea

Rose

2009-09-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Bryan

Tina

Stewart

Antonia and Nadia

2009-09-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Caroline

Emily

Jack

Stella and Clara

2009-09-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sadie

Rafael

Olivia

Libby

SIx Month Anniversary

2009-08-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

River

Thomas

2009-08-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Jessica

Julia

Libby

Noa

2009-08-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Antonia and Nadia

Bryan Post OP

Carmen

Clara and Stella

Grandparents' Day Special

2009-08-18T19:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

11 Buddha Bellies

2009-08-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

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

Joy and Happiness

2009-07-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

As you might know I went to the US recently. My most favorite thing: I got to see SEVEN of the Starfish Alumni.
I saw Lily and Norma (Erica) in New Jersey as I wrote about, so this is about the rest of the trip. I am so grateful to the families who came to Nashville, for making such an effort to bring the Starfish children to me. I can not explain the emotion seeing them. When you go into the orphanage there is the immediate need they have and when you take them home, you do not think of their future families and the lives they are going to lead. You think of helping them and the medical attention in the moment. You love them and get up for them at night. You pray and watch over them when they are sick and you travel for many miles trying to get them the best medical care you can and you do all you can to heal them both in physically and emotionally..... and then the day comes when you know that there is a family who is going to rip your heart out because they will claim as their own, a little person that you have loved with all your heart for a number of months and in some cases years. I know my purpose in all of this. I know that at Starfish, we are the ones who will save a child's life and then give that child away for someone else to love. Sometimes the parents are kind and thoughtful and sometimes they are unkind and inflict pain when it is not necessary. Some express so much gratitude for the gift you have given them and others take their children without even saying thank you.
So I was so touched to know that so many of the parents made such an effort to spend time with me. I loved watching all the hard work that the nannies and I put into to the babies come to life. I loved knowing that all the work was worth it and that no matter how the parents behaved, our love and care could never be erased and that I saw so much of our foundations in them as I watched the children interact with their parents and siblings. It was such a joy! It will always be a miracle to know just where they started and how weak and fragile they were and how much they needed a helping hand. I looked at each one of them and my heart sang for the chance I got to be such a vital part of their lives.
Some have forgotten me. Baby Amanda took one look at me and said, "You have my name." I said right back, "No honey, you have my name." Seeing Amanda, who was one of the original six was so sweet. She came to me on September 13, 2005 and so many people told me that she would never hold anything or walk because two of her fingers were missing on each hand and she had ostrich toes. Well, you cannot believe how dexterous she became even before she was adopted and she still is the earliest walker at 10 and a half months. Others sort of remembered, and Rebecca waited for a while and then came over and hugged me. Charlie (Gabriel) was so overwhelmed by the day and he did not come very close except to say goodbye. Megan (Jasmine) behaved much as she did on her adoption date with a reverse. I sat and watched as the played together at the pool (they are all such water babies which I loved) with their siblings and I saw a piece of heaven right there. In some ways I wish I could show the birth parents just what had happened to their children. To see how much one can love a child that you did not birth. Thank you so much to the parents who came and brought me more encouragement to come back to China and to work even harder to save more kids so that they to can have a life like the theirs with families who love them so much.

Getting to see Flower again was such a blessing too. Thank you to KG and Angee for their hospitality and for allowing me to be part of the Jensen clan for a few days. I am sorry that River's adoption papers were not finalized.

I am so grateful to know that in the moment that all of the babies were abandoned that God had a plan for each one of them. Starfish was part of that plan and I also saw the plan God had for each of these families. I got to see God's plan in action, which was pure unadulterated joy for me.

Thank you so much to everyone that made this trip so wonderful. You are too many to name, but I hope you know who you are. Thank you for your generosity and your kindness to me. I really appreciated the pampering, the great meals and the shopping. I loved the new relationships that I have formed with the hope that they will bring the blessing that the babies need. I am most hopeful that we will be able to organize the medical missions this coming year.

Wishing Michael's mom a very healthy last few weeks of her pregnancy.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda
Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 92 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

Starfish Alums

2009-07-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Charlie (Gabriel) and his Dad

Amanda and her Dad

Megan (Jasmine)

Amazing reunion

2009-07-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Rebecca

Amanda and Rebecca

Amanda and Rebecca's Family

Another America Trip

2009-06-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

In my life BC (before children) I travelled a lot. I probably spend more money on seeing the world than on anything else. I need to fly from China to South Africa to complete my third trip around the world. Maybe one of these years my family will get to see me, I have not been at home since 2001. I loved seeing the many different places and the people, the food and the culture. When people ask me I often would say that the next place was my favorite because I loved the adventure. When I started the foster home, I knew that would be one of the things I would have to give up. For 4 and a half years I did not leave China. For some odd reason this is the year of seeing the US. I am leaving in less than 48 hours for America, my second trip this year. This trip was planned for a while and now at the last minute I am writing about this, which is just my style. One of my mode of operations: If it was not for the last minute nothing would get done. Not the best way to deal with things but with the amount of work I have to do in a day it is the only way that works. I am going to be speaking about Starfish and generally thanking people for all the wonderful support that I have received. There are some generous help from people in Nashville which is fast getting to be one of my favorite places to hear from and from Vegas where we just teamed up with a great foundation. I am also waiting on news about going to Oklahoma and giving a presentation about what we do. I am trying to make some arrangements now since I just heard about this a few days ago. I welcome the chance to tell people about Starfish and the miracles that happen here and how passionate I am about helping the most vulnerable and medically fragile orphans. The other pleasure is going to be: Seeing some of the Starfish Alum. I am so excited about that. There are 16 babies living in the US and I know some of the parents are going to make an effort to see me. I am going to be in Boise to see Flower's sister River, become a part of her family forever. I feel so honored to have been asked to attend and for the family finding a day that worked for me too. I am also going to be at Norma's second birthday party and baby Amanda's family are possibly coming too and so are Charlie's family.

Here is what I have planned. Please know, that it could change at any time because I will be flying standby on ALL of the flights, so nothing is written in stone.

June 29 arrive in Newark Julia
July 1st Neptune NJ Patrick, Cindy and Baby Norma
July 5th Nashville, TN Jeannie
July 12 or 13 Tulsa OK (This I am not sure about)
July14 Las Vegas Weina
July17 Boise ID KG, Angee, Flower and River
July 22 back to Newark and back to China on the 23rd

Here is my telephone number and if there is anyway that you can get to the places I am going to be, please let me know.

1.561.706.7105

I am also happy to tell you and this is not even at the last minute, but months in advance, that I will be back in the US in October for some more speaking engagements. This time I will be on the West coast. So maybe I will take some requests if you want me to come and talk about all things Starfish. So my desire to travel is coming back and I am getting to couple this with something I care so deeply about, these babies whom I consider as my own and for whom I will give everything I am capable of.

The only really sad thing for me: I am going to miss our little man Sean's adoption. He is being adopted on July 12th and I will not be here to help him through this very important day in his life. Words cannot explain what he looked like when he first came and to see our Wiggle loving boy bouncing around now is one of my best stories. I loved the miracle of him and I will hold that experience dear to my heart forever. By the way, we have added more babies after APM offered more help to sponsor of five babies. Thank you so much to all those French ladies. I love that they are so involved with us and that Sean is going to pay back to France by being adopted there. I cannot imagine that little mouth speaking French!!! How lucky his family is going to have him. The cutest story: He loves Lily to pieces and has been talking about getting on a plane to go and find her. I know Donna and Mark would take him in a Chinese second, somehow a New York minute sounds too long.

There have been a lot of rumour of matchings and we are waiting to get some official word, so hopefully there will some children who will soon have families to call their own.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda
Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 92 children to date, arranged more than 50 surgeries and had 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 51 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

All Three Babies Awaiting Surgery

2009-06-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Nick

2009-06-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Nick Pre Op

Nick Post Op

Having FUN in the hospital

Clara and Stella

2009-06-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Clara Pre op

Clara Post Op

Stella

Three Cleft Lip Surgeries

2009-06-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Before I tell you of the latest happenings at Starfish, I want to send out my most sincere congratulations to Robin and Dr Joyce Hill and Hope Foster Home. Dr Hill and her husband have been doing orphan care for 15 years and she is being honored by the Queen of England for her work in China.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/06/08/2592326.htm

First, I have to thank Operation Smile for all their help in getting the surgeries done for the three babies: Nick, Clara and Stella. OpSmile now has a permanent clinic in Hangzhou and they took such great care of our three babies. My most grateful thanks to Rachel, Ruth and Mary who went on a big adventure and took the three babies for this important part of their healing. We loved getting them back with their lips repaired. The stitches will come out on Friday (which is today yes it has taken me four days to write this). I have selected my favorite pictures of the trip. Thank you so much to everyone involved.

On a side note, Antonia has won the battle of the bulge, very decisively I might add. She shot past the 10kg and is now at 10.5kg (23 pounds). I just love the thunder thighs on her. Tim is now second and Bryan not too far behind. Clara, Stella and Nick also have a lot of baby fat, which I love to see. Nick is now downing 10 oz bottles. Jasmine, Karl and Tina are yet to get to the stage but they are doing well. The older babies moved into their new bedroom and are now sleeping on their own. We wanted to give each one of them their own crib but neither Bryan or Tim would hear anything of it. They both cried and cried and no matter how much we tried to console them they did not calm down and fall asleep until they were both in the same crib. The two of them are so attached to each other. You can often hear them laughing when they just play together.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Three Months Later

2009-05-13T14:01:00.001-07:00

I love the ability to look back and be able to measure the progress that we have made with the first group of cleft palate babies. I love seeing the hard work and how it has paid off and how much some milk and great care can change a child's life. Thank you so very much to everyone who donated and volunteered their time, talents and resources. I want to especially mention my nannies. They do such a great job and it is so obvious to see just how much they love their babies. It is not been easy because the learning curve is steep but they have kept on trying.

I want to show you pictures when the babies got here and what they look like now. I especially want to let those who responded so generously to the plea that I send out know that you have made such a big difference to the life of a child and have given them the chance at a forever family.

So here they all are:

1) Tina

She was the smallest of the babies and has a double cleft. She is in the middle of having her molding done so that it will realign her gums and prepare her for surgery. Her head has grown 6 cm (2 3/4in) alone and she is now 6.5cm (3 in) longer. Phenomenal growth for her because she was so small to start with. She is doing really well and can now drink 3 and 4 oz at a time. When she got here she was drinking a 1/2 oz. She is a really long baby and I am waiting for her to fatten up. She smiles often and it is too cute to see just how big her mouth can open.

2) Karl

I was most concerned about Karl when he got here, he seemed so fragile. He has steadily made progress but I do not think he has caught up completely. He also got chicken pox in the meantime and that did not help. His head is now 4.5cm (1 3/4in) bigger and he is 5 cm (2 in) longer. He has picked up 74% of his arrival weight. Karl is also doing his mold right now.

3) Nick

Nick is a shining example of what I like at Starfish: A real Buddha belly. He has picked up 127% of his arrival body weight three months ago. He looks like a different child. His head is now 6cm (2 1/2) bigger and he has grown 6.5 cm (2 1/2in) too. He is now rolling over on that belly of his which almost does a full 360 degree turn.

4) Jasmine

Jasmine has huge hair issues. It stands straight in the air and she looks like she has gotten a big fright in every picture. She has added 70% weight and 4.5 in (1/3/4 in) length and 3.5cm (1 1/2in) around her head. She is not crying as much as she was when she first got here. The gripe water has been a huge help. We had no luck with her mold. She was able to spit it out in less than a second and we had no way of keeping it in her mouth.

5) Stella

Stella smiles at everyone and is a very easy baby to take care of and the nannies like her very much. Her face has filled out so much because she has basically doubled her body weight, added 6cm (2 1/2 in) to her height and 4.5cm (1 3/4 in) to her head circumference.

6) Clara

I love Clara's tooth that is now sticking out sideways through her cleft lip. We tried to do the molding but her teeth came out before we were finished. She added 50% to her weight and is now 5 cm (2 in) taller and has a head that is 3.5 cm (1 1/2in) bigger. She is sitting up but needs some help and is also rolling over.

7) Tim

Tim is now a big boy. The three older kids, Tim, Bryan and Antonia are in a race to see who can get to 10kg (22 lb) the fastest. They have all three made some incredible improvements. Right now Tim is the front runner at 9.15kg (20lb) but the other two are not far behind. When he got here he could not roll over or move but you have to see him in the crib. He does circles and rolls over in both directions. He is sitting up and beginning to stand. He loves the exersaucer and like Bryan jumps like crazy in it. I wonder if it is going to fall apart. His teeth are also coming in and his top gum teeth are pointing in different directions.

8) Bryan

Has also added some beef, but is third in the 10kg race. Like Tim he is getting teeth and is chewing in his fingers constantly. He has an easy smile and loves it when people talk to him. He is such a friendly little thing. He and Tim share a crib and they are almost at the same development level. I am going to separate them soon because they are getting too big and they each need their own crib. Bryan loves to explore in the walker and we find him down the corridor and in other rooms. He is sitting and rolling over and is really improving. He also celebrated his one year birthday a few weeks ago.

9) Antonia

Antonia was so developmentally delayed when she got here but she is making up for lost time. She is sitting up and can roll over without any problems. Antonia grew a massive 7.5cm (3 in)in the last three months. She also set a new record two weeks ago when she gained 0.70kg (1 1/2lb) in one week. That was a new record for Starfish. She is the only one so far that has had surgery for her cleft and she looks so good. She is so in love with her nanny and follows her with her eyes where ever she goes.

We now have three groups of babies and I hope that they can follow the examples of the first group, we will continue to buy milk. We are now using US$3 000 a month in milk powder alone. These babies deserve the best there is and this is one of our biggest expenses.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda
Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 85 children to date, arranged more than 50 surgeries and had 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 46 babies under the age of 3 at 2 foster homes.

Tina, Then and NOW!

2009-05-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Karl and Nick, Three Months ago and NOW!

2009-05-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Jasmine and Stella, 3 months ago and NOW!

2009-05-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

Clara and Tim, Then and NOW!

2009-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Bryan and Antonia, then and NOW!

2009-05-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

What a Race!

2009-05-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

The Great Wall Marathon

2009-05-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Casten and Emma have been training for the Great Wall Marathon on May 16th. They are both working for a German firm in Shanghai and I am so grateful to them for all their hard work and training. As if a marathon is not grueling enough, they are also going to climb thousands of steps. Their aim: They want to raise some funds for the Starfish babies. So far they have raised a total of US$3 195. If you would like to also support them please check out this site for a donation.

https://www.justgive.org/basket?acton=viewWishList&donorId=235961&listTypeId=1

I wish them cool weather and stamina to endure to the end and then to get a fabulous massage. My marathon would be taking on 46 babies and not running anywhere.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 85 children to date, arranged more than 50 surgeries and had 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 46 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

Planting People

2009-05-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat.
If your vision is for a 10 years, plant trees.
If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.
Chinese proverb

What a great way to explain the vision I have I want to plant people. Yesterday I got my vision reaffirmed. We "planted" another nine babies. What a joy that is and at the same time what an incredible sadness because some had to stay behind. I will NEVER get used to the feeling of choosing from those children who ALL need to have the blessings of food, love, care and a family.
A group of nine descended on the orphanage Monday afternoon. It was a great time because in the morning the decision was made that no foreigners would be allowed to go to the orphanage to visit because of the Swine flu. I was suppose to bring eight babies home but came home with nine. Every one of the volunteers brought home a baby and because of that they got to name them. There was so much activity as we weighed and measured them all, bathed and fed them. We will keep the babies confined for a few days and then some of the heart babies will go upstairs and the others will stay in the cleft home, which is now also a heart center.

This was made possible by an extremely generous donation from a Chinese American foundation. I am so grateful for that serendipitous meeting that took place in Luoyang and for the part that everyone played. To me that was really a miracle because everyone there had a part to play. Thank you so much to everyone involved and for the lives that you will have a part in changing.
Last night was such a special time for me. Everyone had gone home and at 1:20am they woke me up to come and help. So I had some choice experiences down there. Jessica just reached for my hand and held on to it as I fed her twice. This morning, she saw me and smiled the most sweetest smile you have ever seen and just kept on following me with her eyes. Caroline cooed at me as she drank her bottle and I cooed right back. The closer it came to the end of the bottle the less she cooed and soon she was asleep too. Holding the new babies as they eagerly sucked so early in the morning has turned out to be my favorite part of yesterday. How incredibly blessed I am to be a witness to the changes that are going to take place in their life and for the hope that it offers for a chance to have a family of their own one day.

For those following Thomas' saga, he came off the ventilator yesterday and will be released to the general ward from the SICU tomorrow. I think he is going to be in the hospital for another two weeks. Our collective prayers have been answered.

I am stunned that we now have 46 babies at Starfish. I could never have imagined this would ever be possible. That is some incredible growth from where I started with six in September, 2005.

Thank you so very much for all of your support. I could never have done any of this on my own and I am so grateful for the help, emotionally, financially, spiritually and in all other ways that I receive.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda
Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 84 children to date, arranged more than 50 surgeries and had 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 46 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

Starfish Keeps on Growing....

2009-05-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

and Growing......

2009-05-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

More Starfish Miracles

2009-05-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hosea and Antonia Post Surgery

2009-04-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

As you might remember we had two babies have cleft surgeries this past month: Hosea and Antonia. Now that the scars have healed some and they are not so red and swollen, I thought I would show you just how different they look. Thank you so much to Dr Lu for his work on the two babies.

Antonia has not made a big change but Hosea is like a different child. Not only does he look very different, but he is drinking like a boy who has not seen milk in a while. He wants 11 oz of milk at a time and last week he picked up a half a kilo (about a pound). He is also sleeping straight through the night. I am not sure if we could not see him smile before but he is making up for at the moment. His face has so much more expression on it and he is smiling a lot. We are also getting his adoption papers ready with Faith and Clara's and hopefully we will submit them to the Xian CWI soon.

I just heard a day ago, that we might be able to take a lot of our cleft babies
have surgeries through Operation Smile. I need to contact the team and see if they can add us to their schedule. I also have to arrange a lot of volunteers to go because the babies will need a care taker each. This could be as early as next week.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Post Surgery Smiles

2009-04-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Antonia Before

Antonia After

Hosea Before

Hosea After

What a BIG Surprise!!

2009-04-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

If you had told me yesterday morning that by evening Hosea AND Antonia were going to have their cleft lips repaired I would have laughed in your face. It is just amazing how life goes.

I have been trying to get Hosea's lip repaired for more than five months. He missed three foreign missions because he got sick. I have been fighting his infections for months now. He seemed to be okay and then he would land up in the hospital again. I had seen a highly recommended local plastic surgeon three times and he said to wait. Hosea was released from the hospital last week and was on some serious antibiotics. I thought this was a good time to try again. So we made an appointment to see Dr Lu yesterday and try and arrange a time. I thought I should send another baby so he can also start on the seven that we have ready for surgery. Well, Mickey (my assistant) called and said Hosea, Antonia and Tim had to fast and that they needed a blood test. No big deal. Well, when she gets home, she tells that they are fasting to do surgery. I could not have been more shocked, I thought I misunderstood her. Sure enough, after the blood tests were done, the surgery was scheduled for last night. Tim was not healthy enough and so he came home. They went to the hospital at 5pm and Antonia was up first at 7pm and at 9pm Hosea had his turn. I really like Dr Lu's style. The other surgeons want them in hospital for two weeks, but this is going to 5 days only.

I have a very special place in my heart for surgeons who repair cleft lips and palates. I got to watch Dr Lisa Buckmiller in action once and I was speechless. (She even asked me during the surgery why I was so quiet). I am so in awe of the skills that it takes to give a child a new face as I watched her, I coveted that skill. Forget about the years of medical school it took to get there and all the years of practice. On a daily basis I live with the wonder work that cleft surgeons do and I see the amazing results. How grateful I am to have a part to play. I might not be doing surgery, but I will leave that to the professionals and continue to greatly admire them.

A day later.........and I have been to visit the two of them in the hospital and briefly saw Antonia's lip with out the bandages. I had never had a lip surgery with a Chinese doctor and so I was not prepared for the all the bandages. The both looked like they had been in a car accident. They will in the hospital for another 3 days. We had a nurse visit from Chicago and she brought us a special syringe with a feeding tube and it made a HUGE difference to the feeding. The nurses and doctors were very impressed. Thank you Donna!!!! To add insult to injury I had to shave Antonia's head. The nurses were complaining because they could not do IV's. In truth, I loved her bald head.

I cannot wait to see what is happening under those bandages.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Antonia Post-Operation

2009-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hosea Post-Operation

2009-04-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter From Starfish!

2009-04-12T20:00:00.001-07:00

At this special time of year, all of us at Starfish wish you Happy Easter.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda
Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 75 children to date, arranged almost 50 surgeries and had a 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 36 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

Easter Friends

2009-04-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Cailean, Emily, Sean, Breanna, Rose, and Heather

Emily

Easter Fun

2009-04-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

Jack

Faith

Kaitlyn

Justin

Easter Blessings

2009-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Sophia and her "dress shoes"

Heather

Rose

More Easter Blessings

2009-04-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hosea

Sean

Breanna

Cailean

Easter Smiles

2009-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Joseph

Virginia

Alice

Lucas

More Easter Smiles

2009-04-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Stella

Karl

Bryan

Josie

Easter Treats

2009-04-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Tina

Nick

Tim

Clara

More Easter Treats

2009-04-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

Noa and her "bunny" feet

Antonia

Jasmine

Easter Bunnies

2009-04-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

Julia

Sadie

Libby back and front

More Easter Bunnies!

2009-04-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

James

Nadia

Carmen

Stewart

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

2009-04-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: It seemed like a good idea at the time. Bill Cosby

I have come to realise that I am trying to prove to one and all that there should be no doubt as to the fact that I can take on a huge challenge and remain certifiable crazy. I am not sure what it is in my personality that feels the need to prove that I am capable of doing something that seemed at one time to be impossible. I am sure you know where this is leading......I have added another 8 babies to Starfish and here I am to introduce them to you.

We got a really generous donation from a French charity in Shanghai, which allowed us to accept another 5 babies (which they have sponsored for a year). Then I got to pick another two babies to replace Lily and Jade and just for the heck of it another one. I did have five volunteers with me and they did get really excited and instead of five they chose eight, coupled with the orphanage workers were recommending babies which did not help either. Some of it had to do with the fact that we had a Canadian doctor and her family with us for more than a week and I thought she would be able to help. That she did and I am so grateful to her because it was like a crash course in pediatric medicine. Thank you so much Jennifer. The cleft home also has a Dutch volunteer who is a nurse, Elise and we recently added Lila, who bravely left her family in the US and is with us for two months.

I would be lying if I said that this was as easy as the first Starfish cleft babies. It has been a battle and to say my religion is wearing thin just about explains it. I think the fact the new additions have been so sick has really worn on me but I know from experience that after a few weeks everything settles down. I am seeing signs of it already. All I can think it that we will get through this and more children will have a chance to find a family so no matter what, it is worth it. We added two cleft palate babies and six heart babies. I am sure the Gao Xin Hospital across the road where we have the echos done to check the children's hearts will be happy to see us. Jennifer thinks that two of the children have serious heart conditions. We'll be seeing you soon Dr Li!!

The one thing I just loved is the fact that the orphanage took pictures for the finding ads before we even left the infant room. That means that the whole adoption process will move a lot faster. I feel so hopeful that the babies will have a greater chance to get adopted while they are young and we will be able to help a lot more children. We have 6 children who should have dossiers at the C2A2, another three need a medical to complete their dossiers, 13 have their finding ads placed right now and then the newly arrived babies should be starting soon. Hopefully this trend will continue!!!

So as I write, we have 36 children at Starfish. I am amazed at this number and I am so grateful for everyone who supports the babies and purpose of Starfish. There are some exciting things brewing, which makes me so hopeful for the future and for the fact that even more children will be helped.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China
At Starfish, we have taken care of 75 children to date, arranged almost 50 surgeries and had a 20 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US (latest adoption to North Carolina), Netherlands, Norway and Spain. We currently have 36 babies under the age of 3 1/2 at two foster homes.
www.thestarfishfosterhome.org
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com
http://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com

New Starfish Friends

2009-04-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, More Starfish Friends!!!

2009-04-06T19:09:00.000-07:00