Find My Family: True

February 28, 2014 Family Found 1 Comments

Update: My family has found me! Precious True is 10 years old and is listed as having a spinal deformity. Due to this special need, she is not very tall. She complies with the rules and respect her teachers and nannies. She has good self-care ability, can clean her room and wash her clothes. Usually …Read More

Coloring in the Back Seat

February 27, 2014 Carrie, journey to adoption 1 Comments

This time next month, we should have our little one in our arms. Those words don’t feel real even as I type them. Our application was approved on April 26,2013, and we settled in to what we thought would be a 2-3 year process. But if all goes as planned, we should be back in …Read More

waiting child highlight: gladney

February 26, 2014 Family Found 0 Comments

Update! I have a family Xin Xin is a 3 year old little girl who loves to play. Her caregivers say she is a happy little girl. She can say some words like “Ma Ma” and “Ba Ba”. She can also follow simple commands. Xin Xin’s special need is osteogenesis imperfecta. She does not walk …Read More

Children’s Adoption Books

February 25, 2014 adoption realities, books, Chinese Culture, Kelly 6 Comments

I may hesitate a little when I part with teeny tiny onesies and sneakers that have run one too many miles. But, our children’s books? They aren’t going anywhere. In fact, we converted one of our bedrooms into a “library” to house them all. They are overflowing and really need a good purging. But, I …Read More

we want to hear from you

February 24, 2014 Stefanie 1 Comments

We have an amazing group of contributing authors here at No Hands But Ours – those who currently blog and those who have blogged for us since we began over 5 years ago. When a new contributor joins our team, we ask them to commit to one post a month for the calendar year and, …Read More

waiting child highlight: BAAS boys

February 24, 2014 Family Found 0 Comments

I went to visit Pan Zhi Hua Children Welfare Institute, one of the orphanages that BAAS started one to one orphanage partnership with in late October of 2013 and had a wonderful time meeting the staff members and the children. Children from Pan Zhi Hua CWI are mostly older children (3 to 12) who have …Read More

saying yes to complex conditions

February 20, 2014 complex medical, Family Stories, Rebecca, Urogenital System 7 Comments

Checking off medical conditions that we would accept on our agency’s medical checklist, and not checking those we wouldn’t accept, was among the hardest tasks of our adoption process. Our human side wanted to maintain our comfortable life, and longed for easy. In our hearts though, we knew that God’s plans are always much higher …Read More

special need highlight: adopting a child with cerebral palsy

February 18, 2014 Central Nervous System, cerebral palsy, Family Stories 4 Comments

At the end of a long road of infertility, miscarriage, miracle daughters, and a Korean-born son, we found ourselves at the end of an adoption attempt, that after 4 years, had resulted in a son forever in his birth country due to political reasons. We were devastated. That long process that ended in heartbreak was …Read More

Known by name

February 17, 2014 birthmark, hemangioma, Kayla 1 Comments

We call her Jubi, or Jubi Sue, or sometimes Jubes. But her name is Jubilee, and she loves her name. The other day her daddy wrote “Jubi” on her paper cup and she was not happy. “Where are the rest of the letters, Daddy?” she asked with a frown. “My name has an l and …Read More

Bonding Goes Both Ways

February 15, 2014 Attachment, Jean, older child adoption 3 Comments

The literature on children bonding to their new parents is plentiful but it falls short when it comes to the parents bonding with the child. With our first adoption I didn’t even consider it an issue. After all she was 16 months old and completely helpless. I had bonded to her before I had ever …Read More

Find My Family: Molly

February 14, 2014 Family Found 1 Comments

Molly, born at the beginning of August of 2007, is an active, beautiful little girl who gets along well with others. She came into care at the age of 5, and was found to be a normal, healthy little girl who was developmentally on target. She adapted to the orphanage life quickly. She was tested …Read More

special need highlight: adopting a child with cleft lip and palate

February 12, 2014 cl/cp, cleft lip, Craniofacial, Family Stories 1 Comments

Two years ago I fell in love with a very small 7 month old little boy with big sad eyes and the hiccups. He didn’t cry much and loved to be held. He was the most beautiful little boy. He also had a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate. At that time, I was on …Read More

wounded heart

February 11, 2014 heart defect, Kristi, vision issues 1 Comments

Character band-aids. They seemed to me like a colorful slice of a pacifier that we ever so gently stick on our children’s wounds…sometimes they even actually even cover blood. I have in the past had what you could call a ‘love/hate relationship’ with character band-aids. That is until a Mother’s Day tea in one of …Read More

the greatest special need of all

February 7, 2014 Amy, Attachment, scoliosis, Tetralogy of Fallot 8 Comments

Welcome to Amy, mom to Grace adopted from China 8 months ago, and our newest contributor at No Hands But Ours. Amy blogs at Stops Along the Journey. Special needs. We hear those words so often in so many places; schools, adoption agencies, the work place, fast food restaurants, and facebook. Adoptive parents who choose …Read More

The Bamboo Project: 7 children who wait

February 6, 2014 Down syndrome, Family Found 1 Comments

**an update from Desiree from The Adoption Seed on the Bamboo Project kiddos who are still waiting for their forever families** Sometimes at night, just as my little boy is falling asleep in my arms, I whisper into his ear “You are loved. You are wanted. You are handsome. You are precious. You have a …Read More

Holidays and Celebrations

February 5, 2014 heart defect, older child adoption, Tara 3 Comments

I’m not exactly what you’d call a “holiday” person. I know people who have decorations ranging from Christmas trees to pumpkins to shamrocks to pink and red hearts that they put up as the seasons rotate. Bu I’m not one of them. I’m a minimalist. The only holiday I decorate for is Christmas and that’s …Read More

The Tools of The Trade

February 3, 2014 cl/cp, Education, Jennifer, speech delay, speech therapy 4 Comments

If I had to do it all over again, I would have been a speech therapist. It’s funny how things work sometimes; I never expected to spend five years of my life in group and individual speech therapy with both of my biological boys for oral motor and articulation issues. Now my oldest boy competes …Read More

waiting child highlight: adopting a deaf child

February 2, 2014 Family Stories, hearing loss, Sensory System, shared list, special focus 3 Comments

For as long as I can remember, I have always dreamed of having a little girl. I also dreamed of adopting an Asian girl, but I wasn’t sure where she’d be from- China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or the Philippines? In September of 2010, I stumbled on an advocacy blog for children waiting in China. …Read More

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