Chinese Star Fish

A few weeks ago I found out that Will has been living at a Foster Care Home called Chinese Star Fish. It is run by an amazing woman named Amanda from South Africa. She takes high risk special needs children who need immediate care from the Xi'an Childrens Welfare Institute and brings them to her Foster Care Home. About 15 - 20 babies live there at one time and are taken care of by nannies living in China as well as many volunteers from all over the world. The website for Chinese Star Fish is http://www.chinesestarfishthrower.org/. I'm quite sure that Will would not be alive today if it was not for Amanda and Star Fish. If you go to the website and read Amanda's blog, Nathaniel is the name that Will was given when she brought him to Star Fish. The funny thing is the volunteer that named him, Kay, was just married to a man named William, who goes by Will. Also, another volunteer, Rachel, told me that she looked at Nathaniel (Will) one day and told him that he would have made the best little "Will". Will is the little leopard witch sitting on the back of the couch on the photo above.

We feel so lucky that Will has lived in this Foster Home as opposed to the orphanage. He has had basically one on one care. He was also able to get his first two surgeries because of money raised by donors through the surgery fund.....so if anyone is looking for a good tax deductable donation :) Also, if you get the urge to travel to China, volunteers are always welcome!

It's A Boy!

May 15 was the day we found our little Will. All we knew was that his date of birth was August 4, 2006, he was born with a cleft lip and pallate, and he was just adorable! Since then things have been moving along quickly for us. We received our PreApproval on May 29, our Letter of Approval on June 9 and our Travel Approval on June 27.

As of today, we know that we'll be leaving Cincinnati on July 27 and leaving China on August 6. We're expecting a call this week from Lotus Travel with final dates/times and then a final itinerary from FTIA. We won't be traveling to Beijing because of the Olympics. Hotel rooms are hard to find and security is very tight. We're OK with that because our trip to China is about bringing Will home. Someday we'll go back with Will, Karli and Griffin and see Beijing....and maybe come home with a fourth child :)