My new world

We didn't come to China intending to foster.  When  our sweet baby came to our house, we thought it was for a weekend.  Then we kept him for two....and then he just stayed.  We are still involved in many other things- language classes, English corner, personal relationships.  But for me, having the little guy has opened up a world that I knew nothing about- the world of international adoption and especially special needs adoption.
I've researched this world from the beginning because I believe that the best way we can love our little guy is to find him a family. China has relaxed its special needs adoption laws recently and we hope this will work in his favor.  Of the few thousands of children on the special needs adoption list, only about 2% have Down Syndrome.  The reasons for this are complicated ( as is adoption as a whole) but we hope and pray that this won't be a deterrent for finding our little guy a family.

My first starting place in this new world was my friend Gillian.  While in Ukraine, she gave birth to her third daughter who has Down Syndrome.  After returning to the states, Gillian went back to Ukraine and adopted Evie who also has Down Syndrome.  Gillian is a writer and is writing a book about her experience parenting a child with Down Syndrome.  She blogs at http://gillianmarchenko.blogspot.com/

My second place to stop was Reece's Rainbow.  http://reecesrainbow.com/ Reece's Rainbow is an organization that specializes in international adoption of children with Down Syndrome.  They have an online community for people interested in adoption of children with Down Down syndrome.  This has been a tremendous help to me in understanding the process and issues surrounding adoption.

I've also discovered a large group of blog's of people who have adopted internationally.  This is a group of big  hearted people who are doing amazing things for orphans.
One of my favorites is "Ni hao y'all" - a blog that sponsors the Sunday Snapshot.  The write is sponsoring a month of really fun giveaways and I am entering today for a really cool necklace.




Check out some of these blogs and open up a new world for yourself!