Find My Family: True
February 28, 2014
Family Found
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
**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
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
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
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