This is my niece, Gracie. She’s 4.
This is my sister, Jennifer. She’s Gracie’s mom. She adopted Gracie a few months before her 3rd birthday.
Gracie was born in China. She was born with a cleft lip and pallet. Because of this, she was put on the waiting child’s list with an American adoption agency. These lists are made up of children with special medical needs, developmental delays or children who are older and therefore harder to place because many adoptive parents want infants.
This is the picture of Gracie Jennifer saw on the waiting child’s list. She knew right away that she wanted to adopt her.
Before Jennifer left to get Gracie from China, she sent a care package to the orphanage. Along with toys and special treats for all of the kids there, she sent a few disposable cameras. She wanted the orphanage workers to take pictures of the people and things Gracie was familiar with so that she would have pictures when she grew up of her home before she was adopted.
For quite a while after Jennifer and Gracie got home, Gracie couldn’t talk. She seemed to understand English but because of her cleft palate she physically couldn’t talk. She’s a very smart girl though and was very good at communicating without words. One day they were looking at the pictures that the orphanage workers took and came to this picture.
Gracie pointed to the bed, pointed to herself and then put her hands on her arms and shivered. Jennifer thinks she was saying that that was her bed, and it was cold.
Gracie’s orphanage is in one of the poorest provinces in China. There is no heat in the orphanage and not always enough clothing, medical care or even food. In spite of this, Gracie was well taken care of when she was in the orphanage. From almost the first moment Jennifer met her, Gracie was a happy, well behaved child. This is a testament to the orphanage workers who took care of her and loved her while she was with them.
We all love Gracie and can’t remember or imagine our lives without her. We can’t help but think sometimes, about what her life would have been like if Jennifer hadn’t seen her picture on that adoption agency’s website. And our hearts break when we remember that there are so many other children who are in China right now, loved, well taken care of, but without a family of their own, without enough food to eat, and without a warm bed to sleep.
Wanting to help some of these children left behind, Gracie’s family decided to make a donation to the orphanage where Gracie spent the first 3 years of her life. Initially they wanted to donate enough money to provide some much needed heat for the orphanage but the orphanage director said that they needed cloth diapers more than anything. They didn’t have many and there wasn’t always time for them to dry after being washed before they were needed again. The family sent over 900.
The orphanage director mentioned that they desperately need warm clothing for the children and formula for the babies. There are currently over 100 children at the Nanyang orphanage and a set of warm clothing costs about $10. Formula is $3.50 a bag. Each baby goes through 10 bags a month. I’m not sure how many babies they have.
We would like to make a large donation to the orphanage to at least make sure all of the children have warm clothes to wear this winter. Love Without Boundaries will make sure the right products get to the right orphanage.
Would you like to help? If so, click on the button on the bottom of this page to make a donation through PayPal. (You don’t need to have a PayPal account to donate this way.) Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference. My PayPal account is set up as Travel Agent Community so don’t be worried when you see that. You will see PAYPAL**TAC on your credit card statement. If you would prefer to send a check, email me for my address.
THANKS A BUNCH!! I’ll keep you updated on the progress!
