something warm

I thought about a lovely girl today. Her name is Juliana. I met her and her family at the event of the delegates from C.C.C.W.A visiting U.A.B International Adoption Clinic. Her younger brother was adopted from China. I felt a rush of warmth when I saw this little boy closely connected to his sister.

So before that, when I mentioned about the joy of an adoptive family, my focus was on the parents. But from this family, I realized that besides the parents, siblings could be very actively involved and play a significant role in the adoptees' life. Juliana is very interested in learning Mandarin, and her pronunciation is quite impressive. We have been emailing each other, talking about Mandarin learning tips and Chinese musics. BTW, I heard about that musical people are good at tones. Could that be the reason of her excellent pronunciation? :)

It was nice to see the siblings actively participated in helping maintaining the adoptees' original culture. Maybe I can help more at this aspect. :)

November is National Adoption Month...

U.A.B news

http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/1788-uab-international-adoption-clinic-eases-medical-needs-for-kids-and-parents

Midterm review

Recently, we are doing a midterm review for our project. Thinking back, it has really been a great experience.

 

Back to the very beginning, the idea of choosing international adoption as my topic was inspired by my friend. They are an American couple, and adopted a little girl from China. I was curious. What a commitment it takes to make the decision of raising a child from another country, put great amount of money and effort, wait for years, go through piles of paperwork, and travel all the way to China to bring the child back? A topic that I’m interested in makes the work enjoyable.

Then I learned two lessons. First, Persistence is the key. Second, Be flexible. U.A.B. International Adoption Clinic was my first choice. It didn’t work out after all the communications because of schedule problem. I’ve contacted several agencies, and finally found my perfect match – Villa Hope Adoption. Have to say that, the process of looking for an agency was frustrating, but the encouragement from our instructor Dr. McGuinness did help—“Persistence is the key.” And interestingly, sometimes an alternative choice works out perfectly.

Original plan was just doing research, and generating a booklet. But once I got started to do it, opportunities just naturally came, such as all the communications with U.A.B. International Adoption Clinic, and the friendship I have built with some adoptive families.

There is a family that I knew from an organization called Central Alabama Families with Children from China. They got their daughter Lilie from China when she was 6 months old. Now she is 4 years old, cute, smart, interested in anatomy, and wants to be a nurse in the future. Lilie is the only child. She made this family complete. I was invited to their house, and we cooked Chinese food together. I can feel the joy Lilie brings to this family. And at the same time, this child’s life is changed.

 My friend asked how long will I be doing this project. Well, the booklet will be done at the end of this semester, but I don’t think the connections I have made with the adoptive families will stop from there. I really enjoyed the friendship with these families, and will be happy to contribute in many other ways in the future.

Some links

Friendship Partner Program: http://www.villahope.org/chinese-friendship-partner/
Villa Hope Home Page: http://www.villahope.org/
U.A.B. International Adoption Clinic: http://adoption.childrensal.org/
Association for Research in International Adoption: http://www.adoption-research.org/
China Center of Adoption Affairs: http://www.adoption-research.org/

What an event --- 15 delegates of C.C.C.W.A visited U.A.B.IAC

Yesterday I had an exciting experience in U.A.B. International Adoption Clinic (IAC). 15 delegates from China Center of Children's Welfare and Adoption (C.C.C.W.A) was visiting the IAC. I have talked with most of the delegates, and also helped with translating.

Communication is key. It was a great opportunity to me that I got to ask a lot of questions, such as the average nanny to children ratio, sources and main usage of donations, new polices for the benefit of street kids. And they even brought up the issue of human trafficking, which I longed to ask but thought it might be too sensitive. A program they have talked about in some orphanages is called "bao bao tuan", which means "hug hug group". There are a group of  retired grandpa and grandma regularly visiting the orphanages to hold the children, and play with them. The children in orphanages are in need to one to one communications. I think this program is a very smart idea, and I can see the mutual benefits in it.

On my side, I shared with them my shadowing experience in IAC, my project with Villa Hope, and what I have observed through all the contacts with different adoptive families.

Here are some pictures:

10 minutes and you know about China