As orphaned children grow older, their opportunity to be chosen for adoption shrinks. Today we are highlighting 15 children from our programs in China who are currently waiting for a permanent home of their own. We believe that every child deserves a family. Even if you aren’t able to adopt, you can help by sharing this blog in the hope that hearts will be moved.
‘Pack light’. As I ascended the steep steps in my heeled boots to our first foster family home in Qiandongnan, I was beginning to regret my footwear decision. The concrete steps were of uneven height, and no sooner did we get to the top of one flight then there was a corner and another flight of similar steps ascending ever upwards. It was with a sigh of relief that we walked along the front of a small apartment building and I was told that this was where the two families fostering Lewis, Chandler, Hanna and Clyde lived — in fact, all on the same floor. Knowing that we were almost there, the last flights of internal stairs in the building were a breeze. I just wanted to meet the children.
Did you ever wonder why March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day? March 21, or 3/21, signifies the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome which causes Down Syndrome. Around the world, people are proudly wearing crazy socks and celebrating the joy that people with Down Syndrome bring to the world. Today we would like to shine the spotlight on ten children with Down Syndrome in our programs who are waiting to be chosen for adoption. Here they are from oldest to youngest:
The visually stunning and culturally diverse province of Guizhou was the next destination for me and Cindy, our China director. Situated to the west of Hunan, it is mountainous; little wonder that bicycles are not the most popular mode of transport here. Travel from Loudi was through countless tunnels, and I drank in glimpses of terraced fields and forested mountain peaks, some with exposed rock and others without; and of villages nestled in valleys.
As my flight from Australia descended into Beijing, I looked through my notes that I had written about the more than 50 children I was intending to visit over the next eight days. I wondered if I was being a little overly ambitious: five cities in four provinces. The schedule that Cindy, our foster care director, had put together was a tight one, and I hoped for good weather. Much of the time would be spent traveling from one city to another, but once there, nearly all our time would be spent visiting the foster families and children in our programs: Xinzhou, Loudi, Tongren, Qiandongnan, and Lanzhou. It was with excitement and optimism that I stepped off my flight, negotiated Beijing International airport and eventually laid my head on a pillow
Our deepest wish for the children in our programs is to have the love and support of a family. This blog features seventeen younger waiting children in our programs. Many of these little ones were not featured last year and are new to our list. We are so happy that their orphanages filed their adoption paperwork and hope that in 2018 some of these incredibly special children will find permanent families of their very own.
Every year, we do a blog that features all of the children in LWB programs who have been waiting for adoption for a period of several months or more. Every year, this blog gets more difficult to do put together. Why? Because so many of the same children wait, year after year after year. Of the 28 children we featured in last year’s Waiting Children blogs, only two boys and two girls were chosen for adoption in 2017. In this blog, we are featuring fourteen children ages 5-12 who are ready for adoption and waiting to be matched with a family. We understand that as children grow older, their chances to find a permanent family grow slimmer. Yet, we hold out hope that there may be a permanent family out there for each and every one of these twelve precious children.
Morgan is 3 ½ years old and is new to our foster care program in Guizhou. When our Foster care team saw Morgan’s photo, they felt that he was in need of urgent medical attention.
We were able to connect Morgan and his foster family with a wonderful eye hospital in Yunnan, and the chief surgeon asked them to travel to the hospital immediately.
Celebrate with us!
Over the last year, fifteen children from our foster care program in China were adopted domestically and will grow up surrounded by families in the country of their birth. Domestic adoption continues to rise in China, and we are thrilled that more and more families are open to adopting children who had been born with medical needs. Read more.
This week, we continue to highlight some of the exciting developments in our foster care program.
