by Renee Thweatt-Smith
Greetings From Hunan!!!
We have some exciting news regarding the Hunan Foster Care Program. With the generosity of our supporters, the Hunan Foster Care program continues to make positive strides in serving children. We have recently increased the number of children served at any given time from fifty to sixty. Since the inception of the foster care program in 2001, we have served 230 children. Of that 230, 160 have been adopted internationally with 140 being adopted by Americans. We are so very enthusiastic about the addition of ten new foster families to help these children have the very best start in life they can.
In our November 2003 Update we included a story about Gui Ni who was in foster care at that time. Since then Gui Ni has been adopted and is now living with her forever family Denise and Andrew along with her sisters Tia and Abigail and her brothers Trae and Matthew.
Here is an update from Denise on how Audrey Gui Ni is doing since Gui Ni has been united with their family:
"We entered the China program a little over a year ago. We went through the check list for special needs in January 2003 so we began the process. Collecting all of the necessary paperwork was time consuming, but easy. Our dossier was DTC in May of 2003 and we found our precious daughter on the waiting child list in September of 2003.
Through the foster care program we have been blessed with several pictures of Zhang Gui Ni, now Audrey Gui Ni. Seeing her pictures at different stages while in foster care was an answer to prayer. This was our daughter in our hearts many months before we ever got to hold her for the first time and not being able to care for her was heart wrenching, but through these pictures (and the smile on her face) we could see she was being taken care of.
We traveled in February of 2004 and met our Audrey on February 15th. Having friends who have adopted from various countries, we expected Audrey to have some developmental delays; however, when she came to us she was right on target for an 18-month-old child. The day after we returned home we took her for a complete check up. Our family doctor even commented the she was exactly where she needed to be with regards to her development.
We attribute this to her time in the foster care program.
We have been home two months, she is just an amazing child. She has bonded to us and her siblings, is secure enough to interact with our friends, she is talking like crazy (she can repeat anything and can even tell us what she wants), she started potty training at 19 months old and just continues to amaze us everyday. Adopting was a nine year dream and this little girl has fulfilled and exceeded all my expectations." (Contributed by: Denise, Audrey's mother)
FTIA has been contacted by several families who have adopted children from Changsha First Social Welfare Institute to see if their children were in the Foster Care Program. We are pleased that we have been able to share photographs and medical/developmental reports from these children's early months as these children were cared for in the Foster Care Program. To date we have been able to provide 40 families with their child's first photos and developmental reports. We still have information on many more children. If you know of a family that has adopted a child from the Changsha First Social Welfare Institute since summer of 2001, please have them contact Nikki at nbilderback@ftia.org. She will be happy to look up their information to see if their child has been in FTIA's foster care program. For those families with new referrals they will need to wait until they return home with their child.
Financial Report
In the first quarter of 2004, the Hunan Foster Care Program has incurred expenses of $9,042.43. FTIA has directly sponsored administrative costs of $1,115.08. Of the remaining $7,927.35 in quarterly expenses, family donations have raised $6,284.63 (some of this is from families who have fulfilled their annual sponsorship commitment at one time). We continue to be tremendously thrilled for all of the generosity of our donors, but there continues to be a deficit between the monies raised for this program and the monies needed.
We still have a long way to go!!!! Please help us get the word out on this wonderful project. Help us get other families involved so we can all continue to be part of enriching the lives of the children involved. We want to continue to grow so we can extend the program to support so many more children!!! We can do that through your continued support. Thank you so much. We truly appreciate you!
Please remember that monies donated for the Hunan Foster Care Program are completely separate from other adoption related expenses. Also, note that 100% of all monies donated for foster care go directly to the Hunan Foster Care Program. FTIA covers all administrative costs.
We must apologize for the lack of updated information in the past several months. We continue to be very excited about the Hunan Foster Care Program. It is your continued support and generosity that has helped this program to grow. We hope you are proud that you are a part of the Hunan Foster Care Program and what it has achieved. We sure are! Without your help, we wouldn't have gotten this far.
