Each month Gladney hosts an Asia Waiting Child Webinar. Our next Webinar will be this Wednesday, Oct. 12th at 1pm EST. Be sure to register for the Webinar!
This informative webinar will focus on the process of adopting waiting children from China. The webinar will provide an overview of Gladney’s program as well as share photos of available children. You will get a detailed explanation of the Application and paperwork process involved with adopting internationally. Also, each month we will feature different children, with a variety of ages and special needs, who are available for adoption. At the end of each webinar we offer time for attendees to ask questions and will provide contact information for you to follow up with one of Gladney’s Asia Program Staff.
We hope you will be able to join us for our webinar! Feel free to pass this invitation along to friends and family members that may also be interested.
In New York, Gladney held a reception to welcome the Shanghai delegation and was joined by families adopting children from Shanghai as well as families who had previously adopted children from Shanghai. The families were excited and honored to meet the officials face-to-face to have the chance to learn more about their children’s environment before coming to the US. The delegation reported that they were happy to see such caring parents and that the adopted children are living healthy and happy lives.
Gladney’s partnership with the Shanghai Children’s Home began in March 2011. If you would like to learn more about Gladney’s partnership with the Shanghai Children’s Home, please visit here or contact April.Uduhiri@gladney.org. You can also read stories about the joy these children bring to the parents everyday through the Asia Waiting Child program.
Last Friday, Sept. 16th, the Gladney Asia Program had a breakfast reception to welcome several officials from Heilongjiang Province. Also attending the breakfast were children who had been adopted from Heilongjiang, including the cute twins above! Gladney Center for Adoption cordially invites families who have adopted from Heilongjiang Province to join us for a welcome breakfast as adoption officials from Heilongjiang will be visiting Gladney’s New York office on Sept. 16th. We are very excited to host the officials and would love to see many families at the reception!
The officials are on a limited travel schedule and so we will be hosting an informal breakfast reception for them at 9am on Friday morning, the 16th of September. They are especially looking forward to seeing children adopted from Heilongjiang as they are very interested in the welfare of the children after they are adopted. This is a great opportunity to show them how much the kids thrive in loving families!
Gladney Center for Adoption is located at 363 7th Ave, 3rd floor (corner of 7th Ave and 30th St) in Manhattan, near Penn Station.
Please RSVP to April Uduhiri at april.uduhiri@gladney.org or 212.868.4564.
It has been 15 years since a delegation from Shanghai has visited the United States and this reception allows US families the chance to share with Shanghai adoption officials the well-being and successes of their children as they have grown through the years.
WHEN: Monday, Sept. 19th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Gladney Center for Adoption, 363 Seventh Ave., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001
Refreshments will be served. Cost is $30 per family.
For more information and to register please click HERE. Please register early and mail payment before September 12. Space is limited and thus registration will close on September 13, 2011.
Gladney will hold two events, one in the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area on Wednesday, Sept. 14th and another in NYC on Monday, Sept. 19th to welcome our visitors. The officials are also excited to mingle with families who have adopted from China, as well as families that are interested in adopting through Gladney’s Shanghai Children’s Home partnership program.
Director Gongzhan Wu and Asia Program Caseworker Lindsay Hatcher meet children from SCH’s foster care program.
Gongzhan and Lindsay outside of SCH with one of the social workers.
Additional information about the two events will be provided within the next week. We look forward to having many adoptive families join us in welcoming these special visitors!
Keira, who came home through Gladney's Asia Waiting Child Program last year, met her cousin Mikey for the first time this 4th of July - they instantly became fast friends! The cousins spent their time together celebrating the 4th with a family BBQ in New Jersey.
Tessa (age 3) and Emma (age 10) are spending their summer in Chicago swimming, playing at the park, taking dance classes and eating lots of ice cream!
7/15/2011 Houston, TX: “One year ago today we were called by Gladney with the great news of our referral! Here are our referral pictures, along with a picture taken of Madeleine today.”
Visit MOCA's website for more details! Admission is $10 or free for MOCA Members and children aged 1 yr or under.
Whitney spent the holiday sailing with her family!All Gladney families are gearing up for a busy summer season! This year Grace, who came home in the spring of 2010, will be spending her second 4th of July with her family in NY. Last year, she celebrated her first Independence Day with her mom and dad at the beach.
What are your family's plans for the summer? Will you visit the beach like Grace? Will you spend time with special friends?
Will you have a lobster feast?
Gongzhan and Lindsay also had the opportunity to visit a regional foster care station in the Shanghai district and meet some of the children currently living in foster families in China. These regional stations act as a hub to provide services to families who are providing care for the children in areas that are distant from the orphanage.
This little girl smiled ear to ear (as did her foster family) when we looked through the photos sent by her prospective adoptive family! She will be adopted through Gladney's Waiting Child partnership with the Shanghai Children's Home.
The Dragon Boat Festival is an important festival in China that is now recognized as a national holiday. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Lunar Calendar - which was June 6th this year. There are several different myths as to how the festival came to be, including the story of Qu Yuan, one of the first great Chinese poets who drowned on the 5th day of the 5th month. Festivities usually include eating rice dumplings called "zongzi", drinking realgar wine and racing dragon boats! Health and wellness are also heavily promoted during the festival and many will follow traditional methods of warding off disease - such as wearing a perfumed medicine bag.
To the ancient Chinese, dragons were thought to be benevolent spirits who controlled the rain and water. Racing dragon boats originated to simulate a dragon fight in the heavens in order to appease the dragon deity - which in turn would bring rain to make the crops flourish. Dragon boats are long, wooden boats that require teams of rowers to propel them through the water. A drummer sits at the front of the boat to help keep time for the rowers.
