I Believe This Is Called Shameless Promotion...

And shameless it is. I am a shameless advocate for special needs adoption, especially that of birthmark babies, like Reese.

The mother from Ni Hao, Y'all, the infamous blog that everyone knows about, has finally set up her website for family stories and general information about special needs adopted children. You can click on the cute little boy above to go to the website. She first sent out the call for family stories in May and I responded. If you scroll down almost to the bottom, you'll see Reese's story. Hint: it's the only one that doesn't have by so-and-so the MOTHER of.... It has by Monica, Big Sister to Reese with Sturge-Weber Syndrome. There's also a link to this blog. Here's to maybe getting more hits, and dare I think it, more comments. I know a lot of people lurk, but it's nice to hear from you from time to time. :D

Anyway, back to the point of this post... if you have adopted a special needs child, I'd like to challenge you to send an email about your experiences with your child's special need(s) to nohandsbutours@gmail.com. Stefanie is asking for the name of your child's special need, when they came home, or when they're expected to come home, your agency and contact information (i.e. email or blog), although that's not required at all, any resources you found helpful, and your experiences. What's it like having a child with so-and-so SN? What are the upsides? The downsides? Treatments, or lack thereof? What's it like living with this every day? We all know no two kids are the same, even if they have the same special need. 2 peoples experiences with cleft lip/cleft palate can be completely opposite. That's why getting so many stories is important.

So...would you like to share your experiences with the world?




This family is going to get a little boy from Reese's province, Shanxi. He's from Datong, up in the far north of Shanxi, not Taiyuan, like Reese. They're hoping to travel in December to get him, but they need some more money. They have some AWESOME prizes up for grabs for donating to their cause and 20% of the money they raise is going to the Elison Project, which is grant program for adoptions. They still need $9000 to pay their orphanage donation and for their travel costs. Click on the adorable picture of Owen in his orphanage, waiting for his family, above to get details on how to donate and the other awesome prizes.