Jia Qi is not afraid.
Jia Qi is not afraid of hard work. He works for a token sum at the university library and still finds time to do volunteer work to help others.
Jia Qi is not afraid of a physical handicap. At three years old he became ill with polio. He uses one of his hands to help him walk. Read more.
Recently I read a blog where the parents of a child adopted from one of our programs made some derogatory comments about the child’s appearance and behavior in their first days together. As I read through the blog, it made me quite sad. I don’t think they wrote such critical things purposely, but it was clear that they weren’t taking the time to see life through the child’s eyes instead of their own.
It made me think that perhaps I should write up a few articles over the next month about setting realistic expectations during adoption. I hope these can be practical blogs that address some very common daily issues such as standards of cleanliness. Read more.
During a visit to some of our foster care programs last October, our foster care program director and associate director met a sweet boy at an orphanage just three days after he was abandoned. He was nearly nine years old and appeared to be carrying the weight of his crushed world on his tiny shoulders. It was difficult to imagine the pain and loss he was feeling. He had a wooden walking stick to help with an obvious weakness he had in his right leg. When questioned by the orphanage staff, the boy would answer each question in a soft, broken voice. A decision was made to move him into foster care as soon as possible in an attempt to start healing his broken heart and spirit.
The wait is over, and we are ready to announce that we have found our team for the 2012 teacher training! We are so thankful for the dozens of amazing educators who applied this year. We had a really challenging job narrowing down who would be on this year’s team as all of the applicants were so talented. How awesome that so many teachers and therapists across America wanted to give a week of their summer break to help orphaned children with special needs in China!
The team that has been chosen represents a diverse set of skills that we feel will be extremely beneficial for the training. Our team members include Amy H. from Florida, seen above with her family. Amy brings 11 years of teaching experience in Elementary Education with special education inclusion. Read more.
Love Without Boundaries was invited to visit Duyun, Guizhou in March. This beautiful area in southeast Guizhou is home to the Buyi ethnic minority group, whose villages are almost always located near rivers and whose homes are traditionally made of stone. This region of China is famous for the Libo wilderness area and is filled with rivers, waterfalls, and forest covered mountains.
Read more.
These little ones, lined up to have their photo taken, are part of our nutrition program in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province. The program started in 2011 when an adoptive parent brought to our attention the need these children have for nutritious formula.
Our program is small as it is new, but we serve about ten babies and toddlers. We send a shipment of formula quarterly and receive new photos of the children in return. With rising formula costs, it is becoming harder and harder to keep our babies’ bottles full! You can make a difference in the life of a child through a suggested monthly sponsorship of at least $20 per month or a one-time donation in any amount. Read more.
With our 2012 Cleft Exchange Trip just around the corner, we are all very excited at the possibility of so many lives being changed. So when we heard from a family who adopted a little girl who was part of our 2010 cleft exchange, we thought it was the perfect time to share exactly what this surgery can do for a child.
When we started our China adoption journey back in 2007, we were thinking things would be fast since at the time referrals were being made in six to eight months. Things in China changed quickly, and the wait went on and on and on. Fast forward to August of 2010. We decided that it was time to think about switching to the special needs program in hopes of speeding things up. Read more.
The next part of our recent trip to China was to Guizhou Province, which is home to several minority groups, including the Dong, Miao, and Yi. As we reported last year, the Dong people live primarily in eastern Guizhou and are renowned for their beautiful songs about both nature and love. Their songs are very important to their courtship rituals, which always involve music. In early relationships the young men and women sing traditional songs, but as the relationship deepens, they will begin singing spontaneously to each other. We were blessed to be able to listen to several traditional Dong songs on our first evening in Guizhou.
The next morning we visited the new Qiandongnan orphanage facility, which opened earlier this year. This is truly a massive facility, with space to someday hold over 1,000 children. Read more.
For many of us in the United States and other western countries, opportunities abound, especially when it comes to the world of education. All American children know they can attend high school, and most will attend some college. On the other side of the world, however, children face a completely different reality.
In many of the poorest and most rural provinces in China, many children have no chance at an education. It is not because they are unable to do the work but that they are unable to pay the astonishingly high price of a high school education. Read more.
Our 2012 Cleft Exchange in quickly approaching. In less than one month, four doctors from the United States will travel to Kaifeng, Henan and perform up to 40 cleft lip and palate surgeries. At the same time they will be working with Chinese doctors and training them in the best methods of performing quality cleft surgeries. It is our hope that through this training, more children in China will have beautiful cleft repairs for years to come.
Our last cleft exchange took place in Fuzhou in the fall of 2010 where thirty children received life-changing surgeries. Most of the orphaned children who were a part of that trip have since been adopted by their forever families. Read more.
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