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Yes, folks, I am not kidding. We're going back to China! China gave us PA for a sweet little girl who will be 5 in January (to Reese's 8 in October).

Under current Hague laws, which are kind of confusing to begin with, I can't give a whole lot of information about her, as I understand. But I can share this.

Introducing my new little sister, Ana-Cherie!

Like Reese, she has a facial birthmark, and it is listed as being elsewhere as well (that's more than we got with Reese...we were somewhat surprised that she had port-wine stain elsewhere, but that didn't matter.) She had a seizure last fall, but she has had physical therapy for it and everything seems to be fine. At the last update we have of her, she was 30 lbs and 36" tall. We hope to travel to get her next summer.

Current Timeline:

I first saw Ana-Cherie's picture: 06/27/2012

Submitted Application for Pre-Approval (PA) and Waivers: 08/09/2012

PA: 08/20/2012

We have until Feb 21, 2013 to be DTC (Dossier to China).

This is a completely surprising adoption, as we really were not looking to adopt again, but here we are, unexpectedly "expecting".

We currently have 2 fundraisers running for our adoption. This was kind of a surprise "pregnancy", as we really weren't thinking we would ever go back to China.
Current Fundraisers:

1. Puzzle Piece Fundraiser- $5 buys a puzzle piece, which we will write your name on.
2. Tupperware Fundraiser- This runs through OCTOBER 26. We get 40% of the proceeds towards our adoption of Ana-Cherie. They have some really awesome products, and because this is online, they are shipped straight to you.

Current Trends and Status in Chinese Adoption

I wrote this for a class in college called "Writing for the Workplace", and it got an A, so I thought I would share it. It has some interesting information in it, if nothing else, and I thought maybe someone else would appreciate it. Please forgive the formatting issues for the bibliography, it didn't copy properly, and it didn't want to repair easily. But I assure you, it was done properly originally.


Current Trends and Status in Chinese Adoption

Annotated Bibliography
by
Monica D.



Askeland, Lori, and Elizabeth Bartholet. "International Adoption." Children and Youth in Adoption,   Orphanages, and Foster Care: A Historical Handbook and Guide. Westport,     CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

This chapter details some of the reasons why international adoption came to be prevalent in many countries, as well as reasons for the closure and decrease of adoptions from some other countries. It also addresses the recent legal developments in the area of adoption, such as encouraging domestic adoption and providing more protections against the “selling” of children. These changes are addressed in the Hague Convention. Some of these factors may be affecting the formerly high number of children being adopted from China. The point of view from both the side of advocates for and against international adoption is mentioned.

"Country Specific Information for China." Department of State: Intercountry Adoption. Mar.     2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2011. .

The United States Department of State releases information on international adoption. This website displays the most recent information on procedures for adoption from China from a legal standpoint, as well as statistics for the amount of adoptions from China to the USA from 1999-2009. It includes information on the requirements to adopt from China, legal fees, how to obtain a visa to travel to China, finalizing the adoption process and obtaining the adopted child’s citizenship, and more.

Crary, David. "Adopting China's Special-needs Kids." Msnbc.com. 28 Mar. 2010. Web. 01 Feb.     2011. .

In the wake of an increasingly long wait for a young, non-special needs child, many couples seeking to adopt from China are turning to the special needs program and adopting children with special needs, ranging from minor to severe. This article tells of a family who adopted two girls, one with an underused right arm, and one with a now-repaired cleft palate; it also addresses other perspectives of people in the adoption community. Reputable sources in the article say that as many three out of every five adoptions from China today are special needs adoptions, with adoptions from China having plummeted 60% since its height in 2005. In some adoption agencies, perhaps even most, special needs adoptions comprise 50% of their caseloads.





Davidson, Cheryl. Personal Interview. 02 February 2011.

We discussed recent changes in the flow of adoptions from China, as well as the increase in acceptance towards deciding to adopt special needs kids. We spoke of personal adoption experiences, both of experiencing her own adoption and that of friends, and the way things have changed since she first became involved in the Chinese adoption community in Arkansas. Adoptions have slowed drastically, and families coming home with their children are few and far between. The lack of adoptions was a contributing factor to the end of the group, Families with Children from China-Central Arkansas, of which she was a member from 2004 until its end in early 2011. 

Dowling, Monica, and Gill Brown. "Globalization and International Adoption from China."     Child & Family Social Work 14.3 (2009): 352-61. Print.

Globalization has made the adoption world much more acceptable and commonplace. This globalization has made there be closer links and understanding between various cultures, including that of America and China. Pursuing an adoption, and having to travel to China to receive one’s child, allows one to experience another culture on a level that books and movies cannot provide, allowing for more understanding and comprehension of the culture. This article also discusses the reasons behind infant abandonment in China, including the One-Child Policy and poverty, and how it is contributing to a wide gender gap in China, with as many as 145 boys being born in some areas to every 100 girls. Increasing domestic adoption within China is also addressed, as that is a key component to the lack of healthy babies available for adoption internationally. All of these components are crucial factors in the major slow down of Chinese adoptions from only a few years ago.

"Foreign Adoptions by Americans Hit 15-year Low - FoxNews.com." FoxNews.com. 31 Jan.     2011. Web. 01 Feb. 2011.
            americans-hit-year-low/>.

Foreign adoptions by Americans are at a 15-year low, with many countries having either closed their programs down or severely cutback the amount of children being adopted internationally. Chinese adoption has been steadily declining since 2005, Russian adoption was slowed down significantly by the highly-publicized story of the 7 year old boy shipped back to Russia alone for being “difficult”, and Guatemala all but halted adoptions due to alleged “baby selling”.

"Special Focus Child Adoption Program." Great Wall China Adoption. 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 01     Feb. 2011. .

In 2010, China initiated a new program to further encourage the adoptions of children deemed “special needs”. It is called the Special Focus Program, and it allows children who have been on the shared special needs list, a list of children available for adoption released to all licensed adoption agencies, for more than two months or who had attended a China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) “Hope Camp,” to be adopted by families who have their dossier in China already, or who can have a dossier completed in six months. A dossier is a collection of paperwork detailing information about the prospective parents’ health, monetary value, and their reasons for desiring to adopt a child. This project also allows families to adopt two unrelated children, at least one being a Special Focus child, to be adopted in one trip to China, though it does extend the length of the trip to China, as paperwork must be done in each child’s province; for a family to adopt a Special Focus child while remaining in line to wait for a non-special needs referral; and to allow a family who has returned home with a child to begin a second adoption of a Special Focus child within one year of returning home using their original dossier. This increases the desirability of adopting a special needs child, and also lessens the overall cost in some cases of adopting two children separately.





Summary and Conclusion


    Based on the referenced information, international adoption from China, as well as other countries, has dropped to a 15-year low. Adoptions from China to the United States of America reached an all-time high in 2005, topping out at over 7,900 children being brought home to the USA in that year. In 2009, the last year for which data is accessible, adoption dropped down some 60% to a mere 3,001 adoptions. Adoptions from China are processing through the China Center for Adoption Affairs, or CCAA, at a trickle, it seems, and adoptions are progressing slower and slower for families choosing to take on the non-special needs track, asking for a healthy baby, usually female and as young as possible, averaging between 6-12 months old at referral. Families with a Log-In Date, or LID, of their paperwork to China in 2006 are facing a minimum of a 4 year wait to referral, and the time frame for families logged in after 2006 is even longer. As a result of this massive slow down, many families are looking to the special needs track to adopt. Once a family switches to the special needs track, they can usually have a referral within 12-18 months. It is becoming a problem, however, that families are switching to special needs to shorten their wait without thinking of the possible consequences adopting a child with special needs can have. While many children have limited, minor special needs, such as cleft lip or cleft palate, or missing limbs, or birthmarks, some special needs can be much more severe, such as heart defects, blindness, deafness, and many other things. It is up to the family to decide what they are capable of handling, and some families do this more reasonably than others.
    With the increased wait for a non-special needs adoption, special needs adoptions have become the emphasis for adoption from China. Some agencies are no longer accepting applications for families wanting to adopt a non-special needs child, and some are reporting up to half of their caseload is involving special needs adoptions. More families are thinking about it and deciding that they could handle some special needs and switching to the special needs program. In contrast to 5 years ago, special needs adoptions outnumber non-special needs, though to what extent no one is sure, as the CCAA does not release this information. The CCAA has recently implemented new rules making it easier for the child who have special needs to be adopted, including allowing children who have been on the shared list, a list of special needs children available to be adopted made accessible to agencies, for more than two months, called Special Focus children, to be adopted by families as long as the family has a dossier in China, or can get one together in six months (former rules required families to have a dossier in China before submitting paperwork on a child, or only gave a very short three months to collect a large amount of paperwork). Families can also adopt two unrelated special needs children at one time, as long as one is a Special Focus child, and they can also return to China to adopt a Special Focus child within one year of having adopted another child using their old dossier. Formerly, families had to wait a year from returning home from China to start the process again, with new paperwork. Families are also now being allowed to adopt a Special Focus child, while keeping their dossier in line to adopt from the non-special needs track. All of these new rules have increased special needs adoptions further, even though these rules are still relatively new. Some professionals are theorizing that perhaps China is looking to phase out the non-special needs program and go to exclusively special needs, but nothing official has been said about such a thing.
    Anyone involved in the Chinese adoption world can speak to the fact that adoptions have slowed down drastically. “Why?” is a question difficultly answered. The CCAA holds to the fact that there are fewer girls being abandoned, leading to a lack of healthy baby girls to refer to a growing list of prospective parents. Some parents who have asked for a girl are even being referred boys, as the amount of healthy boys abandoned has seemed to have increased for a reasons no one can seem to pinpoint. Domestic adoption is also being encouraged in China, in keeping with the Hague Convention, which further decreases the amount of healthy babies available for international adoption. While the Chinese people are more and more willing to adopt healthy babies, most are not willing to take on the responsibility and cost of a special needs child. Therefore, the special needs children deemed eligible for international adoption are made available to adoption agencies worldwide to match with families.
    Current trends in Chinese adoption are a vast slow down of non-special needs adoptions, a vast increase in special needs adoptions, and overall lower number of children coming home to waiting families in the United States and other countries who participate in adoption from China, such as Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, and more. China is pushing for more special needs adoptions, making them easier to do, and seemingly hoping for more people to choose to adopt special needs from the beginning or for families on the non-special needs track to switch to the special needs track. There is currently no sign of the non-special needs track speeding up, with only a few days worth of Log-In Dates being referred each month, and families are simply having to wait patiently until their day comes. Agencies, and the CCAA, are definitely encouraging the special needs track, as there are so many children with special needs, some of whom their special need is just the fact they are older and were not adopted as babies, that need homes.

Scarlet Threads

Scarlet Threads empowers rural women through employment.

{Empowering} In a rural area home to many farmers, taxi drivers, and laborers, there are few job opportunities for women, many of whom only have an elementary-school education. By drawing on the practical skills they learned in their youth, we provide them with an unprecedented opportunity to earn a steady source of income for their families.

{Employing} By helping sell their wares in other countries where they can earn higher profits than they would locally, we provide an opportunity for each of our partner seamstresses to be self-employed in her own profitable business.


This business sells the cutest aprons, bags, dresses, and (for a limited time only) tree skirts that are handmade in China by rural Chinese women for a fair price for fair wages. This is truly awesome, and I definitely had to share it. :)

Blogging time limited...

This is Cheryl, the mom. The group of course is in Taiyuan, but they only have one ethernet cord for the computers, so they are having to share computer time around the other activities they have going on. So- not sure when Monica will update, but I am looking forward to it!

Reese enjoyed looking at the pictures of her foster family posted on the blog. I was a little concerned she might have some sleep issues afterwards, but it did not seem to cause her any problems. In the past, whenever we have reminisced over pictures from the adoption trip, a lot of times she would have night terrors that night.

Thanks again to Beth Gore for planning this trip, and to Andrea and Melanie for going along, too.

China Care Foundation

I am sure many of you who know us have listened to us rave on and on about China Care.
This is because they are the wonderful foundation taking care of my baby sister. They have her in foster care in Taiyuan with a lovely family, that we know, at the very least has a mother, a grandmother, a young son (somewhere between 8-12, I'd say), and I think it's safe to assume a father, and there may be others. During the short time periods she hasn't been in foster care either in her current family or the one she was in in Beijing, she's been in the excellent care of one of the China Care homes, either in Beijing or Taiyuan. They have also funded her laser surgery treatments and the necessary surgeries and medications for her glaucoma.

China Care was founded by Matt Dalio at the age of 16. Matt is now a Harvard graduate and is still head of China Care. Since it's conception, China Care has expanded to having 4 Children's Homes:
The Beijing Children's Home is the medical hub for northern China projects. Children are sent here to receive medical treatment and then, when well, are returned to their original Children's Home. The Beijing Home can care for 28 children, as well as 6 infants in the Special Care Unit.
The Taiyuan Home is located in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, and receives children from all over Shanxi. The Home is divided into two facilities, which can each care for 12 to 15 children at a time.
The Baotao Children's Home is located in a medium sized industrial town in Inner Mongolia and receives children from nearby orphanages. Currently, this home can handle 12 to 15 children, with plans to double it's occupancy capabilities soon.
The Dong Guan True Children's Home is located in the southern city of Dong Guan in Guangdong province and is the medical hub for southern China projects. This Home was opened in February 2006 thanks to the support of Alan and Twila True. It has a current capacity of 12 to 15 children and accepts children from all over southern China.

Only smaller, simpler procedures are done in local hospitals. Most procedures are complex enough that the children are sent to the Beijing Home for medical care at Beijing's hospitals, or to Dong Guan. The Medical Program staff in each place takes the place of a parent in caring for the child at the hospital and after until they are recovered. Currently, they are raising funds for several surgeries, including: 10 cleft surgeries, 3 shunt surgeries, 2 heart surgeries, and 3 surgeries to remove meningoceles from Spina Bfida kids.

They have an excellent foster care program, and, like many groups, children are placed and kept in foster care through sponsorships. We are fortunate because we know one of Reese's sponsors, Stacey S. in Washington, who also has a daughter adopted from China with port-wine stain. Sponsors give China Care the necessary funds to place children in foster home, which is a much preferable setting to an orphanage and allows for space in the Children's Homes for children who need more specialized and professional care than a foster family could provide. Currently, they have 4 children posted on the website who are in need of sponsorship. A 7 month old with a heart defect, a 13 month old with cleft lip/cleft palate (cl/cp), an 18 month old little girl with visual impairment, and another 7 month old with cl/cp. Have a look at them on the Sponsor a Foster Child page.

China Care also helps the children left in the orphanages, the children who are healthy and don't need medical assistance from China Care, as well as the less ill ones who can be cared for by orphanage staff. They provide the orphanages with formula, diapers, trained foster families, and renovations to the orphanage itself.

They also have a Financial Aid Program for families adopting from China. Most commonly grants (or low interest loans) are given for amounts ranging from $2000 to $4000, depending on the financial situation of the family and need.

China Care has an awesome Volunteer Program. They have a summer volunteer program and a non-summer program, and ask that you spend a minimum of 1 week at the Children's Home you are volunteering at.

China Care is also the reason we have like a bajillion pictures of Reese, from the time she was 2 months old, and we are soooo grateful. We have an opportunity most adoptive parents don't and that is to see Reese grow up, even though we weren't there behind the camera snapping the photos. It is an experience we couldn't have asked for and couldn't be more blessed to have. Thank you so much to the people at China Care for everything they have done for us, for Reese, and for so many other children.

Please visit their website: China Care Foundation

We get Reese on the 28th!

"They're coming to get me."

We got our itinerary today. Here's how things are looking:
In Beijing we're staying in the Poly Plaza. Phone #: 0086-10-65001188
14 Dong Zhimen Dajie (south), Dongcheng District, China

We get picked up by our guide (whom we still don't know) at 9:25 pm at the Peking Airport on the 25th.
On the 26th, at 8:30 am, we begin our tours of The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and Tian An Men Square.
On the 27th at 7:35 am, we fly out to Taiyuan and arrive at 8:40 am.
In Taiyuan we are staying at the Shan Xi Grand Hotel. Phone # 0086-351-8829999
No. 5 Xinjian South St., Taiyuan, China
On the 28th at 9:00 am, we go to the Civil Affairs office to get Reese! And we go shopping, etc., that afternoon.
On the 29th, we do the adoption paperwork.
On the 30th, we're going sight-seeing to the Children's Park.
On the 31st, we're going to Yingtze Park.
On the 1st, at 2:00 pm, we go to the Civil Affairs office to get Reese's passport, and at 4:00 pm, we fly to Guangzhou and arrive at 6:35 pm.

In Guangzhou, we are staying at the White Swan Hotel. Phone # 0086-20-81886968
No. 1 Shamian South St., Guangzhou, China
On the 2nd at 9:30 am, we have the medical exam and visa pictures.
On the 3rd, we're going sightseeing to the Chen Family's Temple in the afternoon.
On the 4th, our guide goes to hand in our documents to the Consulate.
On the 5th, we go to the American Consulate for the interview and to get the visas.
On the 6th, we fly out of Guangzhou at 8:20 am and arrive home in Little Rock with Reese at 4:40 pm.

An awesome video a friend made

First, I thrive on comments. I live and breathe them. Please leave them. Ideas about things to post, your thoughts, whatever. I just want people to talk to me. *smile* Thank you.

Our awesome friend Stacey made this video for us called "Waiting". She made it using a bunch of the pictures we have of Reese and it is a tear jerker. We are so fortunate to have so many pictures and such great friends.
I have only cried at the supposed ends of favorite animes and Ladder 49. And I cried with this. I will cry when we get her. Mom will probably be dealing with 2 crying children. : )

We're coming, Le Le.

Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy. ~Author Unknown

Sturge-Weber Syndrome is a neurological disorder indicated at birth by a large port-wine stain on the forehead and upper eyelid on at least one side of the face. This Syndrome is usually used as a diagnosis when there is the PWS, glaucoma, and seizures. Sturge-Weber is often accompanied by loss of nerve cells and calcification of the brain on the same side of the body as the birthmark. Neurological symptoms begin in infancy and sometimes worsen with age. Usually if the child does not develop seizures by the time they are two years of age, they will not develop them, and they may not have brain involvement. Only an MRI can determine if there is any brain involvement. Children are sometimes diagnosed with SWS (as Reese is) because they have a PWS and glaucoma, but have no seizures, and possibly no brain involvement. We won't know for sure until we get her home and have an MRI done.
Seizures usually occur on the side of the child opposite the birthmark; there may also be muscle tone loss on the same side as the seizures. Children with seizures (particularly before the age of two) and brain involvement are at a higher risk for physical and mental delays. Children with glaucoma that is unmanaged may have their eye bulge out of the socket due to increased pressure in the eye. SWS rarely effects any organ outside of the eyes and brain, if those.

There is no cure for SWS. Treatment is symptomatic. Laser treatments are common to lighten birthmarks, or even possibly remove it. Anticonvulsant medications are used to control seizures. It may take several tries and combinations to find a medicine and concentration to manage a child's seizures. Eye drops can usually be used to manage eye pressure, but sometimes surgery is required to manage the pressure if it gets to high. Physical therapy may be needed for children and infants with muscle weakness, and educational assistance and therapy may be needed for those with mental delays. At least a yearly evaluation is recommended to manage and notice any development of glaucoma.

News, news, news

We received our LOA on April 4, 2007...whatever number day that was, I don't remember. It was returned to China on April 13, 2007. And apparently my mom accidentally only signing her first and last name, then going back and signing first, middle, and last beneath it worked because we got our TA today! : ) We're leaving on the 24th, and we should have a Consulate appointment on either the 4th or 5th of June. That's my current exciting news. (At left is Reese on her 2nd birthday, and at right, is Reese in March of this year, almost 2-1/2! The wonders of laser treatment and eye pressure surgeries and drops.)

Now for some brain food:

Port-wine stain is a vascular (containing blood vessels) birthmark made of enlarged capillaries. It effects 3 out of every 1,000 people born and is present at birth. The mark may darken as the child gets older and can be lightened with a laser. This usually has the most benefit when begun early in life, before the birth mark thickens. PWS covering the upper and/or lower lids is often associated with glaucoma. It can also be a symptom of Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS) or Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome. So any large birthmark, particularly across the face, should be evaluated. Doctors may order a pressure exam of the eye to rule out glaucoma if the mark goes over the eye and/or and x-ray of the brain to rule out brain involvement (a.k.a. seizures).