Ni Hao Y'all

when east meets south

for the orphan

Hello. I’m Stefanie. And this is my blog.

Thought an introduction might be in order since it’s been so long. I mean, it’s been months since I’ve sat down to really write anything here. I know I’ve posted pictures, but writing has been more elusive. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, or that I don’t have anything to say. But by the time I sit down and try to compose my thoughts, someone (offenders shall remain nameless) asks for lunch. Or to color. Or to play a game. Or go outside. Or whatever.

I’m sure all you mamas get the picture.

But Orphan Sunday is just a week away. And so I am making time.

fortheorphanbanner2

I want to do what I can to bring awareness to something that has such a huge piece of my heart – and is such a huge part of our family – adoption. I have blogged about Orphan Sunday in the past (here and here), but this year I long to do more.

I’m still not quite sure exactly what it will look like, but I’ll figure that out along the way. It’s time to get going. November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and I’ll be focusing on adoption for the entire month. And maybe into December, who knows. What I do know I’d like to do is this:

— Feature any adopting families and orphan charities in my sidebar free for the month of November. If you are an adopting family that is currently fundraising for adoption, or volunteer for a charity that works on behalf of the orphan, please contact me (linked in the sidebar) or leave a comment here. I’d be honored to play a small part in getting the word out about your efforts to bring your child home or care for those left behind.

— Get a good Q and A session going on adoption. My hope is to share my heart on adoption and what adopting has looked like for our family. I get a good number of private emails with adoption related questions, and I’d love to answer some of your questions here on the blog. I got the idea when Ella left a comment the other day, referring to my last Q and A series: “Please, please do another one of these! I thoroughly enjoyed it last time when you did it almost 4 years ago.” I am game, especially if it brings awareness to the orphan. My only requirements are that the questions are kind, pretty please, and that they focus on adoption. Questions can be from those of y’all just considering adoption, already in the process, or home.

So there you go. Send me your buttons and links. Ask your adoption-related questions. I really hope y’all will participate, I know many of you share my heart for the orphan.

Let’s do something and see what God does with it.


Comments

  1. I’d love for you to have our blog in your sidebar! We just started fundraising for our 2nd adoption from DR Congo after bringing home our daughter from there in January: travisandjennyadoptblogspot.com

    Love your heart for orphans! :0

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  2. We are The Shuberts, an adopting family fundraising to adopt our second child from Taiwan. Our little crafting business is called “Crafting A Family” and each member of our family is making something to raise the money for our adoption. Items can be purchased from our sites http://www.facebook.com/CraftingAFamily or http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftingAFamily4. I make different styles of scarves, my husband makes wire crosses, and our son and I make “jollypops” (cute little stripey lollipops that are great for party favors, gifts, or stocking stuffers. We have plans to add Christmas ornaments, too. We have a giving site at http://www.adopttogether.org/shubertfamily. We are also doing a puzzle fundraiser and it is listed on our blog hearttoheartshuberts.blogspot.com and in our photo albums on our facebook site mentioned above. Thank you so much for considering listing us on your sidebar. You can email me at my address listed below. (I also follow you on facebook Heather Bishop Shubert.)

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  3. I guess I am just wondering what you think about disrupting birth order. We have younger kids and it seems like the need is mostly for older kids and the younger ones (especially girls) go quicker. Is it unrealistic to think that there are many PAPs waiting in line for these “healthier” special needs children? If so, how do families called to adopt with younger bio children respond to the actual needs of the children who are waiting and not just be another person standing in line for the younger, healthier child?

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    • From my limited experience, I think it’s important to ask your bio children. A couple years ago we wanted to adopt an 8 year old, but our then 6 year old said no (she was our 2nd born daughter). Fast forward a couple years, we asked our 5 year old (our 3rd daughter) about adopting a 7 year old and she said yes! So we are! And our 2nd daughter is fine with it because the newly adopted daughter will be a few months younger than her. It’s a bigger deal to some kids than others. And I wonder if perhaps it is a bigger deal to the oldest children in the family? I once heard that you make a picture of your family with stick figures and show the children where the newly adopted child will be in the sequence and see how they feel about it.

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  4. 1. Have you used Lifeline? And of so, how was your experience? Would you recommend them?
    2. How long does the Consulate Appointment take?

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  6. Love this idea!
    1. What have you done regarding life books or something similar. I have such guilt over not doing them with/for my kids yet.
    2. Since bringing home our four, I struggle with the balance between orphan care and adoption. There are so many angry yet honest adult adoptees. I want to respect and promote change in the nations (ours too) while also recognizing the need to give the children already in limbo the chance at a family. How do you balance all those thoughts?

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  7. We would love to have our Facebook page up on your blog! Our first and foremost quest is to share our passion and educate our supporters of the plight of orphans. We have done many projects in the past year since we started our little orphan care ministry. Right now we are doing a local craft fair and collecting donations for our upcoming on-line auction. The funds we are collecting will be going to help Little Flower Projects, China to purchase orthopedic clubfoot bars and AFO boots for the club foot babies who are ready for foot correction. Our Facebook page is Operation Orphan Care. Currently our team is looking for someone to put together a video/slideshow for Orphan Sunday. We have used the ones that are on the Orphan Sunday site but we thought it would be nice to have one of our own. Be nice to have some of Johnny Carr’s quotes from his “Orphan Justice” book incorporated into it. Thanks for spreading the word!! PS. We are hoping to launch our new T-Shirt sales next week too!!
    We’d love to add this post to our Facebook page if that’s ok!?
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-Orphan-Care/111323102355847

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  11. How would you go about finding which agency a child is with that you fell in love with from online(China )? and is that even possible to find that type of info?

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  12. We are the Shaws, fundraising for our now THIRD adoption in 3 years!! It’s been a crazy, wild, Jesus-led ride since we said YES to the orphan…and I would NEVER EVER go back!!! We love LIfeline and would never use anyone else. We hope to travel to China in February to bring home an almost 10 year old girl in a wheelchair with spina bifida. We never ever thought we would have special needs children, but God broke our hearts for that and what JOY is ours! Currently we are taking orders for a super cool “Chosen for a time like this” shirts and TODAY is the final day of our Adopt Shoppe auction! Also will be rolling out some new fundraising fun in November (her birthday month!). Would love to have your help in publicizing our fundraising efforts! (3 adoptions literally back to back has us in SERIOUS need of fundraising! 😉 ) Our blog (where all our efforts and links can be found) is: http://www.feet2ourfaith.blogspot.com Blessings!!!! <3

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  14. We are the Akin’s and we are currently working with Lifeline on our second adoption from China! I found your blog during our first adoption and loved the hope you offered. We are praying hard to bring home a 6 yr. old little girl at the end of next summer. We have some mountains to overcome and miracles we are praying for (new China laws with reusing your dossier, moving a child to a different list, actually getting our paperwork done on time for the dossier!) but this is exactly what God has called us to do! My husband and oldest daughter met our first son at Bring Me Hope camp which is linked on your sidebar. We love their organization also! We have a heart to bring awareness for all orphan care. We did fundraising like crazy to bring Peter home in January and are combining many of our fundraisers this year. We are currently starting our puzzle fundraiser. For every $5 given in our GoFundMe account, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece that will hang in our daughters room. This is a forever reminder to her of how loved she is and how hard she was prayed for before she came home. We would be honored to be placed on your sidebar for the month and appreciate all you do. You can visit our GoFundMe page at http://www.gofundme.com/4z4q40 or our blog for our story and more information at http://akinadoptionstory.blogspot.com/. Thank you again!

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  15. The Q&A is a great idea! Here is a Q: How do we explain to extended family that we are not being selfish and weird when we ask them to give us some time alone as a family to bond after we adopt our new child?

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  16. Ni Hao 🙂
    My family is also fundraising to bring home our new son from China, would love to be featured on your blog. Our adoption blog is UntoAdoption.org
    You rock!
    -Mia

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  17. What are your thoughts about the time span between adoptions and how are your sweet girls Poppy and Tallula getting along now that the youngest has been home for awhile?

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  18. Hi Stefanie–we would really appreciate if you shared our adoption story and fundraising efforts on your blog! We are currently raising money for our third adoption, though our second was disrupted in April after we had loved and cared for a beautiful little girl for four months. We were devastated and continue to mourn the loss of the girl who was our daughter, though Jesus has been with us every step of the way. We were amazed by God’s promise to restore what had been lost when in August we very unexpectedly got a call from our adoption agency saying our profile had been seen by a young couple expecting a baby soon, and they wanted us to be the parents. We immediately began fundraising (we had not in any way expected or even hoped that another adoption would be possible so soon), and the baby was born five weeks later, Oct. 6! We were surprised to find out when our son was born that he had been exposed to heroin throughout the pregnancy, but God has been healing him of the ill-effects of that and he is just perfect. We have already raised over $14,000 of the 20,000 we will need, and could use a little help with that last bit. We have been raising money through http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/erdmann-adoption/65495, and parts of our story have been told at my blog http://erdmannbaby2.blogspot.com/.

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  19. How do you stay focused on the children you already have home . . . and how do you know when you are “done”? The computer and blogs and information about family-less beautiful children can be such a distraction (is that an appropriate reference?) from present family needs and other obligations. We have 2 older children and 2 adopted from China (4 YO boy and 2.5 YO girl just home in May). And we have ALOT going on. So why when I see a file would I even look? And why would I become obcessed with the idea of “why hasn’t a family already swooped him up?”

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  20. We would love for you to feature our blog on your sidebar. We are currently in process and fundraising to bring home our 14-year old son from Ukraine, who we met through a hosting program. He will be our fourth child, and second adopted son. We also have 2 bio kids and 1 special needs son from Thailand. We expect to travel in approximately 6 months and have $20k left to raise. We have a couple of ongoing and several up oming fundraisers that will be highlighted on our blog ukrainemyheart6.blogspot.com Thank you!

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    • Sorry, Stephanie but I can’t post links not given directly by the adopting family. Have them contact me and I’ll be happy to help 🙂

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  22. If one of your children wanted to search for his/her birth family, how would you respond (since it is near impossible to find them)?

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  26. I am really curious about the events leading up to sweet Clementine. I know it is a beautiful story of God’s handiwork.

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