Children from CCAA's Shared List

We are thrilled to report that seven children were locked for Gladney families during the most recent update on the CCAA shared list. The photos below are some of the children that were locked for families during this last update.

***The China Waiting Children program has many children that are available with varying degrees of correctable and non-correctable medical issues. There are many precious children ready for adoption who are waiting for their forever families. Please contact April Lerch, Waiting Children Coordinator at 212.868.4564 for more information about the China Waiting Children program.***



Little girl, DOB 11/11/08
Little girl, DOB - 9/2/08 Little boy, DOB - 8/17/08

Little boy, DOB - 7/10/08

Little girl, DOB - 7/1/09

Little boy, DOB - 4/11/04

Annual Larchmont Picnic!

It was good to see many families this past weekend at the Gladney Family Association Picnic in Larchmont NY! Over two hundred were in attendance enjoying the afternoon with friends and family on the grounds of the Larchmont Yacht Club.

It was wonderful to see some of our families who have come home this year with their children from China and Taiwan!

At the picnic Maria Ciringione had a chance to introduce her daughter Grace to Gladney China program staff Wendy Stanley and Mary Chapman. Grace came home to the NY area in April. Grace was adopted through the Waiting Child program.

International Children's Day at the Chinese Consulate!

On May 29, 2010 the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan, right on the Hudson at 42nd St., hosted a wonderful International Children's Day event! Kathryn, Sarah and James went with their dad and grandparents. (Mom--that's me--was working, unfortunately). Chris, their dad, took some wonderful photos , a sampling of which are below. Dozens of families enjoyed terrific live entertainment, balloons, and a sumptuous repast! It was a wonderful start to the long Memorial Day weekend.:-)

The consul's wife kicked off the festivities from the podium, and Haibo, the World Expo mascot, was a real crowd pleaser!

May 25, 2010, Guangzhou, China...

GOTCHA!!! Mom Janet and big sister Julia welcome baby sister Jenna to the family. Jenna was adopted through Gladney's Waiting Child Program. For more information on this program, please contact April Lerch at april.lerch@gladney.org. In the meantime...Mom is ecstatic, Julia is proud and happy, and Jenna is beyond adorable!!!

Gladney Center for Adoption's Humanitarian Aid Program

New York Area GFA Educational Presentations!

You are invited to attend the upcoming New York Area GFA Educational Presentations!

Sunday, June 6^th, 2010

Pattye Hicks, Gladney Post Adoption Director, has planned an incredible Registry Panel Presentation including 4 Adult Adoptees who have all met their birth family and who all live in the NYC area.

10:30 AM during the Annual NY GFA Picnic at The Larchmont Yacht Club. The educational event is free of charge, however if you would like to RSVP and pay for the picnic, please click on the link below: www.adoptionsbygladney.com/events/larchmont.html

Monday, June 7^th, 2010

Pattye Hicks, Gladney Post Adoption Director, has planned an informative TEEN Adoptee Panel

Presentation including 4 TEENS. Come listen to Gladney Teens share their adoption stories and hear an update on the Mexico Service Trip at the Gladney New York Office.

5:30 PM Social

6:00 PM Presentation & Pizza Dinner

For additional information or to RSVP please contact

wendy.lee@gladney.org

817-922-5947

Waiting Children - Shared List will be updated shortly

Next week, Tuesday night, the CCAA's "shared list" of children available for adoption will be updated. Children with diagnosed medical conditions, ranging from very minor to more significant, will be included on this list. Gladney has matched several children from this list, boys and girls, with our waiting parents. If you would like to learn more about this process and learn how you can be considered for this matching process, please contact April.lerch@gladney.org.

Save the Date!

The 12^th Annual GFA Family Picnic

at the

Larchmont Yacht Club

We are planning a fun filled day of activities for children of all ages, great music, good food and fellowship. We will also have a raffle with fun donations big and small.

You won’t want to miss the 1^st Annual Gladney Staff vs. Teens/Tweens volleyball game

Don’t forget to mark your calendars! We look forward to seeing you all there!

You are invited to click below to register for the picnic online.

www.adoptionsbygladney.com/events/larchmont.html

Invitations will be mailed soon

Kathryn and Sarah have a weekend in the country!

Kathryn's and Sarah's grandparents invited them to Tarrytown House, a gorgeous estate in Westchester that is now a bed and breakfast, for an overnight trip! They enjoyed the train ride along the Hudson, the indoor pool and Jacuzzi, and exploring the grounds. And they were back in time to present me with their home-made Mother's Day gifts.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

China Monthly Update

Referrals:
The CCAA has not yet announced new referrals, but we wanted to go ahead and post our monthly update. As soon as CCAA announces referrals and updates their website with the new information, we will send out an email to all families.

Our next Gladney families to receive referrals have a LID of 4/26/2006. Since our last update in early April we have had 2 Gladney families from the special needs/waiting child program receive their Letters Seeking Confirmation. Congratulations to these families!

We currently have 2 families in China completing their adoptions. Several more families will be traveling later in May.

Immigration:
If you are a family who is "grandfathered" into the I-600 immigration system please be aware that you will continue to file your I-600 extension requests with your local state office. If you have visited the USCIS website lately you may have noticed that they have instituted a new centralized system for I-600A submissions (similar to the I-800A system). This new centralized system is only for families filing their I-600A's for the first time, therefore this does not apply to any of our families in the China program. Please feel free to contact your caseworker with questions.

The US Consulate in Guangzhou recently announced that they issued their 1000th visa under the Hague system! That means that 1000 Hague adoptions (I-800A) have been completed from China since the Hague went into effect on April 1, 2008.

GFA June Annual Picnics and Pool Parties!
The GFA annual family picnics are coming up! These are wonderful Gladney agency-wide events. It is great to see so many families through the years from all of Gladney's domestic and international adoption programs.

June 5th - Regional picnics/pool parties in: Houston, Delaware Valley, North Carolina, East Texas
June 6th - NY/NJ/CT regional picnic (Larchmont, NY)

Frank Garrott, Mark Melson, Wendy Lee and Pattye Hicks will all be traveling to join families for the Delaware Valley and Larchmont, NY picnics. The NY Asia program staff will also be joining the Larchmont picnic. We hope to see many of you during this weekend!

If you are interested in learning more about the GFA ("Gladney Family Association") and upcoming events in your area, go to http://adoptionsbygladney.com/html/gfa/index.php or contact Wendy Lee at wendy.lee@gladney.org.

Happy Spring!

Whitney and Sally are enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

Play ball!

This spring James is playing baseball and Sarah is playing tee ball! Kathryn is not really interested, we are thinking of an art class for her. Here is Sarah after her first game yesterday for the Fireflies here in Brooklyn. Apparently her beloved "Doggie" wants to be on the team also! If you have any pictures of your children involved in spring activities, or just any pictures at all that you would like to see on this blog, please send them to lebonchien@aol.com or sbrueckel@gmail.com. Happy Spring, everyone!

Waiting Child Update

On April 21, 2010 the CCAA posted several new child profiles to it's shared database. Two profiles were secured for Gladney families hopeful to adopt a waiting child with a minor medical condition.

The shared database is not accessible to families - but rather to adoption agencies only. Gladney China program staff monitor the database regularly. "Waiting Children" are children of all ages who have a diagnosed medical condition, as well as healthy children over the age of 5. For more information about Gladney's Waiting Child Program please visit: http://www.achildtolove.org/.

Baby Grace And Her Daddy Have Fun In China!

Like Father Like Daughter!

On April 14th Baby Grace hams it up with her Dad in Guangzhou. We look forward to seeing their smiles soon! Parents Jim and Laura live in the Long Island Area of New York.

Capturing Family Memories...During Your Adoption Trip and After

This little girl, Mira, adopted from China by Gladney parents, was the inspiration for Little Dreams Pictures!

Referral Update

CCAA updated their website on 4/6/10 to announce that they had processed referrals for families with Log-In-Dates (LIDs) through 4/17/06. They have reviewed dossiers for families with LIDs through 4/30/09. Our next Gladney families to receive referrals have LIDs of 4/26/06.

Family in China now; follow along on their trip!

Follow along on the family's trip here!

Tessa Celebrates Her First Easter in China!

“My little sister!”
Big hugs for Tessa (age 2) from big sister Emma. Tessa will celebrate her first Easter in Guangzhou before finishing immigration paperwork and making the journey to her new home in Illinois.

Travis and Dustin Meet The Easter Bunny!

Here are Travis and Dustin on a visit to see the Easter Bunny! The boys have only been home from China since February and are settling in very well! Wishing everyone a Happy Passover or Easter this week! Temperatures here in NYC are supposed to soar this weekend--yeah!:-)

Happy Spring!!!

Spring weather has arrived, at least for now, in NYC, and so we leave winter and move onto the new season! Kathryn, Sarah and their big brother James posed this morning in their St. Patrick's Day attire. (I do have a little bit of Irish blood in me!).

Three years ago today, Chris and I were celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Shanghai, prior to traveling to Guangzhou to pick up Sarah, who was adopted through the SN program. If you click on the March 2007 archives on this blog, you can read all about our trip to get her. We are very excited that Gladney's SN program has grown so much since then! If anyone has any questions about our experiences adopting twice through the SN program, please feel free to email me at sbrueckel@gmail.com.

Today, all three kids are enjoying school and extracurricular activities. They are all signed up for baseball this spring, and are looking forward to it!

We hope that spring brings the forming of new families to many, and the renewal of hope for those who still wait.

More Great Photos of Gladney's New Year Celebration!

This year’s Gladney Chinese New Year celebration kept everyone on their toes as drummers and dragons from the community frequently passed through the Jing Fong restaurant! The children excitedly climbed onto their parents’ shoulders to catch a glimpse of the dragons weaving throughout the restaurant! While the children enjoyed themselves with various activities, their parents had a chance to reacquaint with old friends and make new friends. Everyone enjoyed the performances of a traditional Chinese dance troupe who performed fan and handkerchief dances.

The Chinese New Year is a holiday celebrating reunion and thanksgiving. Each year we are honored to share with families in this important holiday. We hope that everyone enjoys a healthy and prosperous Year of the Tiger.
Here are some more great shots of the party in Manhattan's Chinatown on Feb. 20th. At the bottom is a picture of Kathryn and Sarah, today, on the last day of the Spring Festival. They were unable to attend the party this year, but since they are from Cantonese-speaking Guangdong province, they wish everyone "Gung Hay Fat Choy!"