Monday, June 30, 2014

Matching Madness - the Photoshoot

As promised, we finally managed to get everyone in the right place at the right time, and we have pictures of them all together.  All seven recently matched children, gathered together and ready for a group photo.


It wasn't easy to get them all looking at the camera at the same moment...


...or sitting still...


...but when they are all so adorable, it doesn't really matter.


Madelyn (Sarah Lyn), Asher, Seth, Mia (Lena), Talia (Talley), Ethan and Elijah - we are so happy that you all have forever families coming for you!


Sunday, June 29, 2014

NDNorth: A Group Therapy Session

When Angela and Liz, speech and physical therapists, volunteered their time to come and help work with the kids at the orphanage, in our baby room, and help train the therapists, we couldn't turn them down! The orphanage staff were all very excited as well, and the two days that our visitors were here were full to the brim of inspiration and education.


They started with observation, and then worked with some children individually. 


There are so many needy children at the orphanage, and the three therapists are busy and overwhelmed, trying to keep up with their needs and decide who to focus on. Seeing this need, Liz and Angela made one very helpful suggestion...


"Let's do group therapy." And so a group of children were brought into the therapy room, and were each positioned in one position... then rotated to another, and then another. 


It was a more unusual environment for the therapy room, which is usually rather quiet, with only one child being work with by one therapist, but it was a much more productive environment! Children who otherwise would not have been on the therapy schedule because of time constraints were getting opportunities to learn new things!



We were so inspired by the therapists visit. 






Thank you for coming, ladies! You're welcome back anytime. 

Saturday, June 28, 2014

NDSouth: Dr. Ada & Dr. Sadie

Meet the newest members of our New Day South team, Dr. Ada & Dr. Sadie! Isn't Ada an adorable doctor?


We recently brought out some doctor toys and the kids are loving them! They know just what to do. Ada, really knows what to do since she spent four months of her life last year in the hospital. If you haven't yet, make sure you read her amazing story!


Ada, you are a living, breathing miracle.


 Sadie (also known as: Dr. Sadie) also thought the doctor equipment was quite fun.


 She decided when examining Ada, that she needed a little trim!


Sadie, deep in thought.


What an excellent little doctor you are, Sadie.


Yes, more fun will be had with these toys.


We rotate our toys and it is very exciting when we bring out "new ones."

Now wouldn't you want these two cuties operating on you?
Friday, June 27, 2014

Matching Madness!

Don't you just love getting good news?!  That moment when someone says "Guess what...?", and you can tell from the smile on their face that they are about to tell you something that will make you smile too.

One of our favorite kinds of good news here in the New Day Foster Home office is when we hear that one of our children has been matched with a forever family.  There are lots of happy faces and the information gets passed around with excitement.  Gan Lu adds the all-important little * next to the child's face on our website, meaning that they have been matched with a family.  Then a fun little game begins on Facebook, the "asterisk game", where our Facebook 'fans' get the chance to search for the new asterisk on the website.

Grace, our Chinese Vice Director, gets the news about children being matched from their orphanage, the place they lived before they came to New Day.  New Day is not an adoption agency, and we have no say in the adoption process for our children.  We do have the privilege of caring for them until they are adopted, and we are always so happy to hear when that day is going to be coming soon (even though we will miss them when they're gone).

Anyway, why all this talk about matching?  We've just had a rather unusual 7 days, where we have had good news after good news - 7* children matched with forever families!


Last Thursday we heard that Ethan and Elijah were matched, and then the same day heard about Asher's new family.  Three in one day, not bad!  



Then, the next day, we heard that Talley had a new name, Talia, and a family of her very own. 


That seemed like plenty of good news, but on Monday we heard that Sarah Lyn (now Madelyn) and Lena (now Mia) have also been matched with families! 


In the wider New Day family,  New Day South also heard last Tuesday that their Sadie was matched with her family.

So, once we hear that a child has been matched with a family, what next?  How long until they will be adopted?  There really is no definitive answer, the length of time will depend on a number of different factors.  Sometimes it can be very quick, other times it takes months or even years.  For now, the important thing is that Ethan, Elijah, Asher, Talia, Madelyn, Mia and Sadie are a BIG step closer to having families of their very own.  One day soon there will be seven less orphans in the world.  Good news indeed!

You can read more about adoption on our website, and there are lots of helpful links.


*NEWSFLASH! Since this blog post was first written, one more child has been matched.  We just heard that Seth has a family of his own coming for him!

In case you are thinking that it would be awesome to see pictures of all seven of our newly-matched children together, we totally want to do that.  It's been difficult to get everyone together in time for the picture to go in this post, but look out for it soon...
Thursday, June 26, 2014

NDSouth: A Little Trim

Haircut time at New Day South! Several weeks ago we headed out for a walk down to our local hair salon for a trim.

Sadie and Hayden were so cute holding hands.


This was Noelle's first hair cut. As you can tell, she was not a fan.


Noelle's finished look. It wasn't so bad, was it, Noelle?


 Sadie has been to the hair salon several time and she knew just what to expect. No tears from her!


Matthew is also an old pro at the whole hair cutting thing. He sat patiently, waiting to be done.


You look great, Matthew!


Hayden looks so handsome!


 Another successful trip to the hair salon. Until next time!
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Wordless Wednesday: Three Happy Boys


Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Therapy Tuesday: Pearl and Oliver

Pearl and Oliver live in the same foster family, and are more than happy to share their therapy sessions too.  They are both working on improving their fine motor skills, and what better way to do that than through play?



Oliver's legs are still in a cast following his recent orthopedic surgery.


Looking closely, you may wonder about Oliver's shirt.  It used to be Pearl's but it got too small for her, so now Oliver is wearing it!


You're a funny guy, Oliver, you can get away with it.


Therapy sessions with Pearl (and Pearl's shirt) are fun, aren't they Oliver?


Monday, June 23, 2014

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome

It's been busy around here lately!  We have three recent arrivals, and we thought that you might like to meet them?


Meet Eli.  This handsome young gentleman is three months old, and has been with us for almost a month.  He only weighed in at 2.8 kg when he arrived, and he has severe heart condition.


Sweet little Charlotte is even tinier, weighing only 2.5 kg when she arrived last week, aged six weeks. She will need heart and GI surgery.


These precious little ones are already so loved here, with many willing arms to hold them.  They will have surgery when they are a little bigger and stronger, and plenty of tender care.

Eli and Charlotte are adorable and cuddly...but there isn't too much that we can write about them at this stage.  They like taking naps, drinking milk, being held, taking naps, watching what goes on, and drinking some more milk.

Charlotte seems to mostly have a contented, even cheerful, expression on her face, but when baby Eli arrived and we first posted pictures of him on Facebook, several people said that he looked sad. While we agree that he did seem to have sorrow in his eyes, many babies don't even begin to give 'social smiles' until they are two months old, so for him not to be smiling for pictures yet is not too unusual. 


Our most recent new arrival is Judah.  He is six years old.  He really did look sad in his first pictures. Sad, and confused, and somewhat suspicious.



He'd had a long journey to Beijing, with bad weather causing delays.  He was suddenly away from everything he'd ever known, away from the orphanage where he'd lived his whole six years.  His familiar caregivers were gone, replaced by strangers who couldn't understand his dialect.

Are you ready to see a series of pictures that will gladden your heart, and beautifully demonstrate that love really does grow here?

Judah is interested, but still slightly suspicious...


Look, look - a little smile!


Laughter!


After spending a few days in isolation to make sure he didn't have anything infectious, Judah was ready to move downstairs and start getting to know his new friends and carers.  He's doing really well.  The other kids are all very impressed by this big grown-up boy and how he gets around despite his orthopedic issues.  His speech is well-developed and he chatters with the older girls, like Cora Jo and Lucy, but they have trouble understanding him because of how he speaks (like a very strong regional accent).  The good news is that he does seem to be able to understand the nannies without too much difficulty.

It's a privilege to welcome Eli, Charlotte and Judah to New Day.  We are so glad that we get to love them and help them, and see the difference that will be made in their lives.
You can play a part in making that difference through sponsorship.