Role reversal

I am a helper by nature. I love helping others more than anything else. I think this is why I love being a parent and helping my children become the people they are meant to become. It is probably also why I love being a pediatric occupational therapist. If the families I am working with need something, I will make it a mission to get it. It is also why I have journeyed back to China each year to assist the orphanage staff with learning to care for the children with special needs in their care.
This year has been a special year for many reasons. One of them, is the unexpected gift of Mia. China had been closed to single parents. For years. There were/are over 1700 kids who are waiting for families in China. The simple fact that China reopened to singles in March, and I found Mia in April is really unbelievable. Miraculous. I wasn't actively looking for a third child. I wasn't prepared financially to adopt a third. But Mia, who is known to Grace and Hope for Children, and the Chinese national friends I partner with each year to do orphanage work, is to be mine. And of the 1700 kids, I was led to her. While working with my Chinese friend in one of the orphanages just 6 weeks ago, she smiled as she told me she has lots of things to share with me about Mia's story once she is adopted. But until then, she told me, just know that "God has chosen the right family for her".
And so, I am in the spot of needing help. We are scheduled to leave in a little over a week and I have to raise some funds. This will be our second trip to China in less than 90 days. My agency did everything possible to try to time it so that Mia could come home in September, when we last returned after our volunteer trip. It wasn't meant to be. I absolutely hate asking for help and had hoped I would not have to.
For any donation (there is a paypal and credit card donate link on this blog page) , we will hold a raffle for a new Monopoly Here and Now: China edition. This is not available in the US. The game is bilingual, in both Chinese and English.









And Mia will do the honor of selecting the raffle winner on November 12th, when we are home.