In mid-March the Children’s Hope China Team was proud to once again begin matching Waiting Children with our families. In April, Children’s Hope was assigned our first 2009 dedicated list of Waiting Children. Together with the Multi-Agency list, 51 children are now being pursued for international adoption. This is amazing news for these kids that have long-awaited homes and also for our prospective parents. Congratulations to each child and his or her family!
Waiting Children are those children that China considers hard to place. Each child has little to no chance of being adopted within China, as they are older or have known medical needs.
Children’s Hope is constantly expanding and updating our Waiting Child website as these children become available for adoption through the CCAA. If you are not already a member of our password protected site, www.chifamily.net, and are a CHI application or completed family, contact Gloria.Akers@ChildrensHope.net to gain access to this site. We have more children available than we do prospective parents. If you have a friend or family member who desires to parent and has a heart for older or special needs children, this may be the time to act on this desire as so many children are immediately available for adoption.
While both genders are represented within the Waiting Child program, there are more boys available for adoption than girls. In addition to minor maladies, such as repaired cleft lip / palate, children with ophthalmic disease and heart conditions are highly prevalent currently. We are praying for these children every day and hope they will find their forever family soon.
As of June 5th, the Children’s Hope China Program has completed 4 Waiting Children adoptions. Six Waiting Child families have travel approvals and 21 more received their seeking confirmation letter and are waiting on travel approval. Nineteen additional families have their preapproval and are waiting on their seeking confirmation letter. 
Referrals: In May, four referrals were received for Children’s Hope log-in-date families. Each referral was for a beautiful little girl. Three were from Chongqing and were 23-months, 13-months and 8-months old; and the fourth from Zhejiang was 18-months-old at referral.
These families will be set to travel on June 25th, as many continue to await travel approval post-H1N1 flu breakout.
Pictured right: Traveling all the way from Tennessee, Jennifer Glenn shared her referral day with Children's Hope staff in St. Louis, April 3rd. Jennifer's daughter is 21 months old and is from the Guizhou Province. Congratulations, Jennifer!
On January 22 nine Children’s Hope China families experienced Referral Day! In St. Louis, that day had finally come for Greg and Dale Epley. After 34 months of waiting, they saw their 11-month-old daughter’s face for the first time. The January referral families travelled to China to complete their adoptions on March 14th and returned April 2. Congratulations to each of our January referral families!
If you have completed your adoption in 2009, and would like to submit a photo and update to share, email Jennifer.Newcomb@ChildrensHope.net.
CCAA Website:
The CCAA's website currently reads:
“The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before April 30, 2007.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families who adoption application documents were registered with our office before March 14, 2006.”
Travel Update from Karolyn:
Families are traveling throughout June and July to complete their adoptions. Please remember these families and pray for their safe travels.
|
Official Referral Date
|
Travel Dates
|
| April 3rd | Traveling July 9th and returning July 24th |
| April 6th | Traveling June 24th and returning July 9th (19 families) |
| April 15th | Traveling June 25th |
| April 28th | Traveling June 25th |
| May 21st, 26th, 29th | Awaiting travel approvals |
Completed China Adoptions for 2009: 13
2008 China Adoption Statistics
In 2008, Children's Hope International's China Program completed 171 adoptions; 92 were for waiting children.
News from Within China
Melody Honored as Top Charitable Chinese Female - 2008
On December 10th, Melody Zhang, CHI Associate Director, was honored as the top 20 Benevolent Chinese Females of 2008 by Good Housekeeping China for her tireless efforts in the China Earthquake relief work after May 12, 2008. During a December 19th ceremony, Melody used the opportunity to share her experience as an adoptive mom and her heart to help orphan children. She asked every guest to join in the effort to help the millions of Chinese children in need.
“I won by 49% of the vote in the non-celebrity category. Thank you to friends of Children's Hope who voted!“ says Melody. “It was an amazing opportunity to spread orphan awareness.”
See photos from the evening on our Beijing website http://www.cwlc.org.cn/n803c4.aspx (in Chinese) (in Chinese)
RMB 460,000 ($65,000) was raised for CP Children
As an early Christmas present, famous singer ManWenJun donated 10 cerebral palsy rehab centers on December 2. His $65,000 donation was the result of his new album release press conference. These rehab centers will benefit 1000 children annually. ManWenJun became the spokesperson for CHI’s CP training program in 2007.
This is just one of many major donations and projects in 2008. To read the full 2008 China report, click here for a PDF.
The Patrick Family
Earlier this year, Evie Patrick, daughter of Josh and Jennifer Patrick, won the Beautiful Baby photo contest on www.MilwaukeeMoms.com!
Three-year-old Evie received over 220 votes which landed her in the top 30 finalists. From there a panel of judges picked her photo for 1st place.
“Thank you so very much for all the wonderful notes that everyone sent and for taking the time to vote,” says mom Jennifer. “I'm sure that Evie will be quite entertained to understand all of this when she is older!
With her $250 prize, the Patricks donated to the new Love Without Boundaries Nutrition Program and “to our wonderful agency, Children's Hope International, for their orphan sponsorship program.”
Evie, short for Jenevieve, was adopted from China in November 2006.
If you'd like to see all the winners, click here.
