Happy Birthday Daleea!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful friend Daleea. Her Birthday was yesterday, but she didn't tell anyone...so we're going to celebrate it today! I hope yesterday was wonderful for you Daleea. You are an amazing person and I am so glad for all of our conversations over the past week. Daleea's blog is 'Jewels of My Heart'.

Sweet and Spicey!!

Lisa at 'Sweet and Spicey Designs' has created this t-shirt to raise money for the Starfish Foster Home. I think it is absolutely darling. The t-shirts come in a variety of sizes and you can choose the color of your starfish! I ordered one for Eli and one for Sophia. I think it's a cute way to show your support~

Please Send a Word of Comfort to Cyndi and Her Family...

Please join our family in sending a comforting word to Cyndi at 'Waiting for Lilly Rae'. Her father has passed away.

Sunday...

Troubling News for the Vietnam Adoption Program..

I received this information from Laura/lala at 'Ladybugs and Dragonflies' on this morning's Saturday Morning Chat Group. This family is very special to me and I know that they are special to many of you. They have been waiting 18 months now for a referral from Vietnam. Now it looks like it may not be coming. Please do whatever you can to lift up this family.

This information is taken directly from her blog:

Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit
Warning Concerning Adoptions in Vietnam
April 2008
The Department of State continues to urge prospective adoptive parents and adoption service providers not to initiate new adoptions from Vietnam at this time. The 2005 Memorandum of Agreement, required by Vietnamese law to authorize adoptions between the United States and Vietnam, expires on September 1, 2008. In addition, recent field investigations have revealed incidents of serious adoption irregularities, including forged or altered documentation, mothers paid, coerced or tricked into releasing their children, and children offered for adoption without the knowledge or consent of their birth parents.
The United States is strongly committed to processing legitimate intercountry adoptions from Vietnam if possible. Our primary concern is to ensure that the children and families involved in the adoption process are protected from exploitation. The Government of Vietnam shares this concern. Both countries acknowledge that more needs to be done to address deficiencies in the current system.
On April 25, the Government of Vietnam announced that it will allow adoption to be completed in cases where prospective adoptive parents have been matched with a child and received an official referral prior to September 1, 2008. It further stated that in accordance with Vietnamese law, the DIA will suspend the acceptance of new dossiers on July 1, 2008. On September 1, 2008 any dossier that has not received a referral will be closed and returned to the Adoption Service Provider. In view of the processing time required in Vietnam from placement to the Giving and Receiving Ceremony, an adoption process begun now cannot be completed before the current Agreement expires.

Welcome Home Crystal and Savannah!!!

Crystal and Savannah are in the United States, they should be home today! Crystal has a special post where you can leave a comment that she will keep in a scrapbook for Savannah-Hope. If you have been following this amazing journey, go by and leave a comment! Their blog is 'The Johnson Family'

Congratulations to the Waala Family!

Congratulations to the Waala Family on their pending adoption of 5 (almost 6) year old Eli! Thank you for sharing your news with us this morning Shelly on the Saturday Morning Chat!
You can leave your good wishes at 'Waala Family Adventures'.

Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group...

Good Morning Everyone and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group! It is very windy here today. A cold front is supposed to be moving in bringing out temperatures down into the 50's. We were hoping to put our dock in this weekend, but there are some big waves out on the lake right now, so we'll have to see.

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for LID updates and your supportive comments. I actually came home yesterday to a voicemail from my SW. She apologized for the way that my agency is doing things and said she would like to see changes too. That makes me feel better. My agency did acknowledge a change on the status in the review room, but only after the CCAA changed the date on their portal. So essentially, everyone knew the change before they acknowledged it. But my SW did state that it looks like we will be through the review room when the next SN list comes out and we should be able to see the list and apply for a baby. It seems so strange to me to choose and apply for a baby.

THE SATURDAY MORNING CHAT GROUP IS NOW CLOSED...have a great weekend!

Many of Our Blogs Are Listed Here...

Have you seen this site before? I saw someone come to my blog from this site yesterday on my Feedjit. I have seen a site like this before. It doesn't bother me to be listed here, I was just surprised to see how many people I know that are listed. www.chinaadoptionsites.blogspot.com

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

http://justonechildatatime.blogspot.com
on-line auction for Starfish

Bet you think this dress is cute don't you? Bet you want it don't you? Well, you can't have it because I am the highest and only bidder so far at the auction. Too bad for you. My girl is going to be so darling in it.


Robin received over 100 orders for this Kimberley dress. Got one? Well, good luck because Paula has bid on this baby and you haven't gone to the auction!

Oh yes, and don't even think about this outfit! I have the bid on this one too. Hand made by Meredith Teagarden. Darling isn't it....too bad. Mine mine mine.

And if you have ever wondered what it would feel like to take on Rony...go toe to toe with Bloglands hottest Momma, then let me challenge you to raise her bid on this tutu. She's all over it girls, she's outbidding everyone. Are any of you woman enough to take her on?


This is a true opportunity to give some money to a great cause and walk away with something that you really love. Get over to the auction and take a look and start bidding.

AND, I know that you ladies have been shopping. We all have been waiting for so long for our girls that I know you have something in the closet that you could donate to this good cause. Do you have 2 Mulan dolls? A blanket that doesn't match your nursery? A bathtub bubble machine??? (6 of them?) Make a donation!
Lamp from your ex-MIL, necklace from your college boyfriend?? Make a donation!

Love Without Boundaries 'Born In My Heart' Art Auction

Verna forwarded this information to me.

"Born In My Heart" Art Auction

April 24th - April 29th (Beginning the 24th @ 9:00am PDT)

In nearly every orphanage in China, children in need of heart surgery wait to be healed. In an effort to help as many of these orphaned children as possible, Love Without Boundaries began the "Born In My Heart" art auction five years ago. This is an annual event that serves as our special tribute to the miracle of adoption, and also as a fundraiser to help us provide these essential operations to children who need emergency heart surgery.

You can help to save the life of a child by taking part from April 24-29. Every penny raised will help to heal precious children and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive, and perhaps even find a family of their very own. So please bid often and bid generously!

Auction items will begin to launch at 9am (Pacific) on Thursday, April 24th. Nearly 300 items will be added throughout the day, and the auction will close Tuesday, April 29th (again, with items closing throughout the course of the day).

We have some absolutely incredible items this year, all donated by LWB's fabulous supporters! Just a few of the items you won't want to miss are: "Jia: Portrait of Hope" by Leila Ashton: an original oil painting of one of our LWB heart babies, a life-size replica jade burial suit, two giclee prints of "Qi Pan" by Zhao Kailin, personalized digital lifebooks, the most beautiful collection of quilts imaginable (including several "100 Good Wishes" quilts), beautiful paintings (both originals and giclee prints), caligraphy, custom adoption videos, amazing photography, embroidery, gift baskets, jewlery, clothing, heritage items and so much more!

You will be able to access our auction from the Love Without Boundaries website homepage at: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/, beginning April 24th

You can also play a part in healing hearts by posting about the auction! If you have a personal or family website or blog, we would be so grateful if you would mention this event, as so many children are counting on us for surgery. Help spread the news that lives can be saved!
Thank you in advance for helping to make this year's auction our best ever!

Love Without Boundaries
Art Auction Committee

Sadness...Despair...Determination...A Chat with my Agency

I had a bad today. This may go into a rant, so be forwarned. I am doing a little self-healing with this post.
For starters, I'm not quiet, passive or particularly patient. I'm not afraid of confrontation if it's necessary and I'm not afraid to speak my mind.
As many of you know, I and some other great women here in blogland are with an agency that will not allow us to see their special needs list until we are through the review room. This revelation was made after we had already committed to them for many months. We were informed that if we leave, we lose our money and will have to re-do our entire dossier. Let's just say that there were some tears and frustration that day.
Still...we waited.
Thank you to those of you who are aware of this and always try to keep me updated regarding who has been notified that they are through the review room and what their LID is, I appreciate this more than you know.
I am aware that many with November 06 LID's and some with December 06 LID's are through the review room and some January 07 families are getting questions from the review room.
So...being that I have a February 07 LID, imagine my happiness at knowing that next month or the month after, our file should be in the review room...the key to accessing the list.
Well, today my agency informed me that they have no idea how these other agency's could be confirming November and December LID's because the portal that they look at only shows that October 06 has made it through the review room.
UNBELIEVABLE
I sent my SW an e-mail listing several agencies and the LID's that they had confirmed and one agency who stated on their website that their November LID families are through the review room.
Their response again was that they did not know how these agencies were getting this information. Now, to me that is completely depressing. My agency will only confirm information that I know is over 2 months old and doesn't know how to access updated information or won't acknowledge that they have updated information.
I realize that I am on a journey here, but I wasn't thinking that my biggest obstacle would be my adoption agency. How can it be that I am so much better informed than them?
How can they put a policy in place that holds people hostage by the review room and then not put every effort in place to be able to supply them with accurate notification when they reach that goal?
I told my SW that I am very disappointed at their inability to provide updated information and that I am even more disappointed by their admitting that they don't know where other agencies are getting their updates. Hmmm....maybe you should call one of them and find out so you can stop devastating the families who depend on you. Let's just say that I spoke my mind and I didn't put any sugar on it.

I tell you, today I am just over it. I cried. This is insane to me. There are so many people in my yahoo LID group who have their referrals or who already have their children home. Where is my baby? Why can't I get to her? Today I am at the bottom...the very bottom.

Quote for the Week...

Garden Mania Begins...

This is my front garden and porch (well, this is what it looked like last year). Right now it looks awful. I raked off all of the leaves and cleaned out all of the debris from last year, but my plants are just starting to come up, so all you see now is bare earth and stubs. But something beautiful is on its way.

In my neighborhood, it's all about your yard and garden and let me tell you...the ladies are always scoping each other out.

There are quite a few retired ladies on my circle and they spend all day in their gardens. I work and have kids, so I really scramble to keep my little part of the neighborhood looking nice.

There is never a negative comment or anything spoken that would lead you to believe that there was a competition for the best flowers going on...but let me tell you...there is. And those senior ladies mean business. : )

But they can bring it on this summer, because I'm ready for them : )

*On a side note. I would like some new patio furniture this year. It is difficult because my patio is not covered and we live on a lake, so there is always moisture and usually quite a bit of rain. I can't put anything out with cushions because once they are wet, they are wet for days. Wood is also an issue, no matter what I do, eventually the moisture gets to it and it discolors and decays. So, I'm limited to plastic or something that will dry out quickly.

The Sophia Set

The lastest design from 'Red Thread Stitches'.

Have a Great Monday...

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

For Steffie...

Thank you for lunch last week. Thank you for always being a constant friend. I feel so comforted just knowing that you are there if I need help with anything or have any questions. It is so nice to have someone to talk to who completely understands what I am feeling and going through with this adoption. God couldn't have brought you into my life at a better time.

Emily

This post is taken from the Starfish blog. Emily's surgery was completed last Tuesday. I'm not sure if it has been completely funded. I will find out. If you are sponsoring Emily and would like to switch to another baby since her operation has been successfully performed, let me know.

Emily's Surgery is done

I wanted to let you know that Emily's surgery was completed this morning. I have not had much chance to talk to the doctors but they took 6 hours to remove the parasitic twin. The mass had grown on her back and into her stomach cavity, so they opened her up on her back above her buttocks and on her stomach. I am not allowed to stay at the hospital while she is in the PICU so I am staying with an Australian friend until Emily is released which will be another two days or so depending on what is happening. The doctors thought that the mass was one of the biggest they have seen compared to her body weight. They took pictures and I will find out how much it weighted tomorrow.
She has been so cute, since she learned to blow raspberries. She does that as soon as she wakes up. There is just spit flying everywhere. She has been so good. She slept well and the only time I have seen her upset is when she wants to eat. This morning she has not a happy girl because she wanted to eat but she needed to fast for surgery.
Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Sunday...

Good Morning! Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group.

Good Morning Everyone and welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat! It's good to be here this morning since I have missed the last two Saturdays. I want to thank everyone for all of the love and support since my Grandmother's illness. I did receive some troubling news late last night. My Grandmother's biopsy results came in and the growth in her lung is lung cancer. She is going to an oncologist next Friday to discuss treatment options. We as a family are thinking positively and are hoping and praying for a full recovery.


Daleea has designed this beautiful blog to support the Starfish fundraiser effort. She is planning an on-line auction. She is making items which will be displayed on the blog and people can leave their bids in the comments. The highest bidder wins. All proceeds are going to her Starfish child. If anyone would like to donate an item to the auction, please contact Daleea at 'Jewels of My Heart'. I am donating a Kimberley Dress! There is a link on my sidebar to the site. If anyone would like to place the link on their sidebar or do a post to promote the auction, that would be very much appreciated.

Robin at 'Red Thread Stitches' has a sizeable payment due next month to her adoption agency. She is sewing away trying to raise the funds. She could really use for some new orders to come in. She has so many new designs right now. If you are looking for a secret buddy gift or have any special events coming up for a child and are looking for a gift or a beautiful outfit, please stop by Robin's site. There is a link on my sidebar. And if you would like to do a post for her at this time, it would be very appreciated. She is also doing a raffle for an IPod Shuffle.


It would be wonderful if we could have some more blogs sign up to support the Starfish Supplyraiser. No one blog is responsible for raising the entire amount for any child. This is a cumulative effort, so the more blogs that participate, the more of an impact we can make. I have seen great ideas coming in to raise funds. If you are interested in sponsoring a child on your blog, please let me know which one and I will get you the sidebar graphic that directly links you to the Starfish donation site. The money does not come to me. It goes directly into Amanda's surgery fund.

THE CHAT ROOM IN NOW CLOSED...HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Happy Friday Everyone...There Will Be a Saturday Morning Chat Tomorrow.

I am so glad it's finally Friday. I've had a crazy week! There will be a Saturday Morning Chat Group tomorrow. I have quite a few announcements and things to talk about, so please join us!
Have a great day today!!

Interested in Adoption in Africa?

I really am just thrilled about this because I have never seen it before. Not to say that it hasn't been happening, I just have never seen it. There are two families that I know of who are currently in Africa, to bring their children home. I do not know exactly how these adoptions came to be arranged as I am aware that Africa is not as open as other countries to adoption. All I can tell you is that I think these babies are beautiful and I am so glad that they have found their forever families.


These little darlings are Adam and Jeane, you can follow their journey home at 'Tuininga Treasures'. This little beauty is Savannah Hope. You can follow her journey at 'Johnson Family'.

Please Leave a Kind Word and Say a Prayer...

Please leave a kind word for Carol at 'At Home with Emily'. Emily has become very sick and has a rash with sores. Carol took her to the med center and they cannot figure out what she has.

My Oldest...

This is a photo from Zachary's scrapbook. Sometimes I just can't believe he is 15 years old. Well, to be honest, most of the time I can't believe he is 15 years old and he will be 16 July 9th. He is such a wonderful young man now with a life that is quickly becoming his own. He has already made arrangements to purchase a car from his father on his 16th birthday. With that car, he will be able to go anywhere.
Being his mother has been one of the 3 greatest blessings of my life. He is my first child, my first experience at loving as a mother does. He woke my heart. I have loved every minute of every day of every year that he has graced this world and my life. I have loved him through each stage of his life, always eager to watch him grow and always missing the boy he was the year before.
When he was small, he needed me so much. His life revolved around me and mine around him. Somewhere along the road, he has moved on to other things, but my life still revolves around him. He needs me less, but I still need him the same. I can't imagine what I will do when he is grown and out on his own, what it will be like when he isn't walking through the door all the time, when he isn't at the dinner table.
This phase is becoming very difficult for me. I know that it's time for me to start letting go, but it's just so hard. I know that it is my job to prepare him for independence and I'm doing the best I can to ready him for life. I just have to figure out how to prepare myself for a life without him always in it.

LayDFrog...Adoption Fundraiser...Win a $500 Travel Voucher!!

We will be raffling off a $500 voucher towards your next vacation....you can use it towards a cruise, airline tickets, hotel booking...the cost for said raffle tickets you ask??? well, $10 a ticket or 3 tickets for $25!! I know so very cheap for such a wonderful prize!! If you are interested, email me (dannyem1973@yahoo.com) and I will give you the amazing details!!! Go to 'LayDFrog' for more details!

Quote for the Week...

The Waiting Child by Cindy Champnella

Kelly from 'Katie's Antics' gave me this book to read. I read it while I was in Chicago on business 2 weeks ago. I could not put it down. Whenever I was in my hotel room, I was reading this book. It brought me to tears throughout the amazing true story. Jaclyn, the girl pictured above was adopted from an orphanage in China. While there, at the age of only 3, she had assumed the role of mother and protector to a small boy. After her adoption, she prayed daily and relentlessly entreated her mother to go back for this boy. This is the story of Jaclyn and "her baby" as she called him...Xiao Mei Mei.

Monday!

Have a great Monday everyone! Mine should be a little crazy at work since I've been gone for a week, but hopefully it will be a good one.

Thank You For Everything Cheryl...

Today I found out the identity of my Secret Buddy. I hope she doesn't mind me posting her photo, but it was on our Yahoo page, so I think it's ok. Thank you Cheryl for everything. You have been just the very best. You and your husband are such a great looking couple. I couldn't find your complete e-mail address on the site, so if you could e-mail me at timnkim@gmail.com, I would love to be able to get to know you better.
Thank you so much also for the darling apron that I wanted from Red Thread Stitches. I know that Sophia will be just darling in it.
Truly, you have made my year a very happy one with your wonderful monthly gifts.

We Are Home...Thank You for your Friendship...A Special Need...The Biggest Project Yet.

Thank you for every one of your comments and for your prayers and support this past week. It has meant the world to me and I will let you all know how things are progressing with my Grandmother.

I would like to send out a very special thank you to Verna. She makes the graphics for all of the fundraisers and baby showers. I have to say that the one above takes the cake. This is just so beautiful Verna.

If you look on my sidebar, you can see links with the photos of different children on them. Each of these children needs surgery in the near future. They are all affiliated with Amanda and the Starfish Foster Home. A couple of them are currently at larger orphanages in China, but Amanda has been asked to help.

This is going to need to be a little bit different than our traditional giving. These children need a large amount of money. Approx 3k per child. If you are willing to sponsor a child by putting their link on your blog, please leave a comment and we will be sure to get their link to you. The hope is that each sponsoring blog will be able to raise funds by doing a garage sale, bake sale, lemonade stand, donating blog design fees, holding an on-line auction, church donation, car wash etc. This could be a great family project.

Please let me know if you would like to participate.

The post below is taken from Chinese Starfish.

Donations for Surgeries
There have been some interesting developments of late. The orphanages I work with have been calling me about some of the babies that need medical care, hoping that I can help. It has taken almost three years to get to this point and I feel that they are beginning to trust me to find the best care for their children. I have decided to try raise the funds and this is the reason I am writing today: To ask for your help. I am unable to bring them to Starfish right now, which makes me sad but I know that if I help with the surgeries while they are in the orphanage, then they will have a better chance at getting adopted.
I hope that in the faces of the children, you will see a need that you can do something about because the children who could use a helping hand. Maybe it is foregoing a dinner at a restaurant, a DVD or a new pair of shoes and contributing that money to our tax free foundation. By doing that you will make a permanent difference in the lives of these children. People often tell me that they cannot contribute much. I will accept whatever you can donate because I know this: The power is in combining all of those "small" donations and making something 'big" out of it. As in the story from which I took our name, you too can become a starfish thrower, by helping a child to get the necessary surgeries to become healed.

1) Breanna: She is at Starfish right now and we have raised about 2/3 of the money needed for her heart surgery. April has been so eager to help her and to honor all of her efforts, I have decided to have the surgery done in April. We are going to go ahead and do the surgery next week because it is a convenient time for Dr Li in Hangzhou. We need a additional US$1600 to cover the cost.

2) Emily: Emily is our latest addition at Starfish and it would seem that she has a parasitic twin, I still have to confirm that. Regardless, the surgery will be done at the SCMC in the middle of April to remove the growth and this surgery is also partially paid for. The funds were donated to us by the Interkom auction that I went to in Shanghai last week. This even was presented by the high school students, who through their efforts raised 20 000RMB (US$2800) to help a baby get surgery. We are short about US$1 400 for that.

There is a selection of children with Spina Bifida still in the orphanage:

1) A little boy whose picture they sent to me. He is about 8 months old. I just love that little face.
2) Two girls with SB they spent pictures of.

3) I also know of three older children who are in need of some surgery. Two are is seven and they both have to have surgery on three botched attempts to heal their SB. Another girl is four and she was just just left by her family about two weeks ago. We are planning on getting these three on a schedule with Dr Lazareff and his team who will be back in China in October of this year. I was so happy to hear about this.
Please donate through Groundspring on our website http://www.chinesestarfish.org/ You will see the "Donate now" button on the right hand bottom of the page. If you donate, you are welcome to choose a baby and we will make sure we send you some information about the surgeries and the baby's progress over the next few months. The average amount needed for the spina bifida surgeries if there are no complications is about US$3500 to $4000. The heart surgeries can vary depending on the heart condition and this can be between US$3000 to $5000. I will also let you know when the surgeries have been fully funded. I want to keep Dr Bao busy at the SCMC!!! I am just kidding. He is busy enough without all my babies. You have to fight for his OR time and a bed in the hospital. SCMC is a really busy and very famous all over China.
Thank you so much for your support and for allowing me to do this kind of work. I could not do this without the generous donations of the people who follow the adventures of Starfish. It has been an awesome experience for me, one that has defined my life and I am so grateful for the chance to help heal a child and to be there to make sure they have everything they need to find a family.
Life, Love and Laughter,
AmandaStarfish Foster Home
http://www.chinesestarfish.org/
http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/