A Gift from China

While in Guangzhou, I happened upon a lovely, quaint little shop called A Gift from China, located just around the corner from the White Swan Hotel. Add this place to your list of "To Do's" once you get to Shamian Island for those of you adopting. Actually, anyone can purchase from their store online. They have wonderful little gifts. The best part - all proceeds go to help orphaned children through the work of The Good Rock Foundation and other charities.

H2O

H2O. Water. Fills our oceans. Pours down from the skies. Plentiful. Our bodies' lifeline. A basic need. It's essential to all living things, yet millions are drinking unsafe water. Millions of people around the world, many who are children, die from harmful water and waterborne diseases. How can this be? In our country, it's unfathomable. We have access to water that is bottled, flavored, with vitamins, infused with electrolytes, distilled, spring, vapor-distilled, even Holy. The options seem endless, but this is not the case in other parts of the world.

This year, I was introduced to A Child's Right, an organization whose goal is to assist children in developing countries by providing access to clean and safe drinking water. They provide purification systems, water filtration units, water storage containers, and extensive hygiene education to orphanages, street shelters, schools and children's hospitals. They are doing phenomenal work by providing the most essential and basic need to children in impoverished areas.

I encourage you in the coming new year to add to your list of resolutions this - "to help bring clean water to children around the globe". Even a small commitment can make a world of difference. Some ways that you can do this:

• Forfeit buying sodas and/or bottled water and, instead, donate to an organization who helps with clean drinking water.
• Match your water bill with a donation. If your water bill is $30 then donate $30.
• Plan to give a one-time donation to an organization whose focus is clean water, like A Child's Right.
• Organize a fundraiser in your community, school, church, etc.

My daughter is currently living in a Chinese orphanage; the thought of her and other babies drinking formula mixed with unclean water, makes me uneasy. We are blessed to have access to this basic human need in our country. Shouldn't we pay it forward?

Let It Snow Happiness!

Consider purchasing these lovely holiday greeting cards from Half the Sky this year. Each card is designed by a participant in the Half the Sky Little Sisters Preschool. Each picture has a little story to go along with it. Inside, the greeting, in both English and Chinese says "Let it Snow Happiness! " Below that, the optional inscription reads "A generous donation has been made in your honor to Half the Sky Foundation." Proceeds go to a worthy cause!

Love Without Boundaries

I absolutely adore the organization Love Without Boundaries. I consider Amy Eldridge, the founder, a Saint as she and others have brought so much hope into the lives of orphaned children.

She so eloquently and candidly writes from the heart in her blog about her latest realization:

"There have been many moments in my life that I have had deep realizations of truth. I remember vividly the moment I realized that there was absolutely no difference between the love I felt for my biological kids and those who were adopted. My realization: that love has nothing to do with genetics but everything to do with your heart. What a wonderful truth to discover.

I remember just as well the moment I stood over a tiny baby’s crib in China and knew he needed heart surgery as quickly as possible and that I was one of the only people who knew that he did. My realization that day: that we can never allow our own fears of taking a risk and failing stop us from action. I was heart pounding scared to ask my friends to help him, but I learned the very real truth that we can accomplish amazing things when we step out in faith.

Not all truths bring joy, however. Some cause real sadness. But I believe all truths bring a clearer understanding of life. I have been struggling the last few months with the truth that my two youngest children lived as orphans. Of course I knew that….since that is the only way they can be in my family today. But recently, this truth has become much clearer to me, as recently I became a grandmother, and I have been able to see every day what a newborn baby wants and needs.

My grandson Asher is a total “tub of love”, and I would be happy holding him up to my cheek all day long if I could, just breathing in his babyness. We live to serve him, and to hear him cry even for a few minutes causes my heart pain. It seems like the second he makes noise, his mom moves into action. When he is hungry, he gets fed. When he is tired, he is rocked to sleep with a silk blankey and a lullaby. We spend hours gently talking to him, making eye contact, and letting him know that he is absolutely, 100% cherished.

In my great love for this child, however, I have had to face the deep realization of what my own two youngest children missed completely. My children never knew what it felt like to be an infant with a devoted mom. Even with the most loving of caregivers, I know my children knew hunger, knew loneliness, and knew bewilderment and frustration that their needs weren’t being met when they cried for help. They were orphans…in a room filled with babies and one lone woman trying to meet their most basic of needs. Of course I knew this somewhere inside of me because of my work, but the full knowledge of it didn't take root until the arrival of my grandson. This realization has caused me great pain, because I love my children so completely. How I wish no child had to be alone. Every baby deserves someone to come when they call.

I look at my grandson, who has never known a moment of pain since his birth, and give such thanks that he is with us. And I look at my own beautiful Chinese children and am amazed and awed by the strength they probably don’t even realize they have. They are such incredible kids, filled with joy and laughter and hope, even after living as orphans. My newfound truth is that children have an unbelievable capacity to trust us, even when adults have let them down in the past, and even when no one had time to come when they called. My latest realization is that all of our children who have faced a portion of their lives as babies without mothers, never being tenderly cradled or rocked to sleep with a song…..all of those children are heroes to me. Their ability to trust again humbles me, and the love they so purely give to us shows me every day the absolute strength of the human spirit.

Let us all keep working to help those who still wait. Truly, they deserve all we have to give."

Amy Eldridge Executive Director

Wisdom from a Hummingbird...

One day an elephant saw a hummingbird lying on its back with its tiny feet up in the air. "What are you doing?" asked the elephant. The hummingbird replied, "I heard that the sky might fall today, and so I am ready to help hold it up, should it fall." The elephant laughed cruelly. "Do you really think," he said, "that those tiny feet could help hold up the sky?" The hummingbird kept his feet up in the air, intent on his purpose, as he replied, "Not alone. But each must do what he can. And this is what I can do."— A Chinese Folktale

The Paper Clip Project

Combine a tiny, rural town in Tennessee, ordinary people, a middle school, the Holocaust, and a paperclip and -- extraordinary things happen!

Last night we watched the most moving documentary film I've ever seen. The film Paper Clips has truly changed the way that I now look at the world. It's an unbelievably inspiring and touching story about a group of people who learn about the evils of indifference and intolerance as well as the dignity of humanity starting with a simple paper clip. Their project takes on a life of its own. Here's the trailer. It's rated G. Put it in your Netflix queue today and buy some Kleenex.

China's Orphans

Twenty-three students and faculty from the University of Southern Maine spend 18 days in Chinese orphanages. Their experience is documented here and here.

Clean Drinking Water for Orphans

A Child's Right, is an organization dedicated to providing clean drinking water, through installation of water purification technologies, to children in orphanages, street shelters, and the like in impoverished areas throughout the world. Clean water -- what many of us take for granted daily, yet so integral to our overall well being.

A team just recently visited orphanages in need of clean drinking water in several of China's Provinces. Here is a peek of orphanage life in China and also a glimpse of these CR volunteers performing miracles -- bringing well being to desperate children.