NO HANDS BUT OURS

NO HANDS BUT OURS was designed to be a resource for special needs adoptions from China. This informative site has been a long time dream for an adoptive Mama, Stefanie, in order to help families considering, in the process or home from China who may need resources. Most importantly, it was created to help the waiting children of China possibly find their forever families. Along with Stefanie, three other great adoptive Mamas, Rebecca , Tonggu Momma , and Amie from Heart Smiles, collaborated in this wonderful mission.

Please check out the site. Here you will find information about specific special needs, links and resources, family stories (including our own sweet Kai's story - I'm working on Anna Grace's), agencies, as well as information about current children who wait. A place where anyone who is considering the WC program or at any stage of the process can find answers as well as encouragement to help them along on their journey.

As many of you know, I am the very proud Mama of two amazing special needs children from China. Adoption is my passion and special needs children are at the top of that list. My sweet Kai was born with a severe cleft lip and palate, and our Anna Grace was born with Poland Syndrome, which includes limb deformities. They have both been immense blessings in our lives. Words cannot describe the love I feel for our children, all 6 of them. But, as I've said many times before, there is something so very, very special about these waiting children. My heart shrivels up and dies when I think that Kai, coming from such a poor orphanage, would never have had his palate, with the degree of severity he had, repaired. He would have never spoken. I cry at that thought. Our Anna Grace would never have had her hand corrected and she would have had to live with a a disability for life that is so easily corrected in our country. Yet, so may children in China will have to live their lives without the medical care they need. That is their reality. It's heartbreaking. Especially when so many of these special needs are so easily corrected. Some children even have corrective surgery before coming home. Then there are the older childre who are placed on waiting list just because of their age. They are perfectly healthy, but with every day that passes, their chances of being adopted and belonging to a family become smaller and smaller.

Please, consider opening your heart to a waiting child, whether you are starting the process or are in the very long wait for a non-special needs referral. Visit NO HANDS BUT OURS and see if maybe your child is waiting there. If there is a special need you've been praying about, check out the resources or the family stories. Feel free to ask questions and inquire about your concerns. There are so many children still waiting for their turn to be a part of a family and your family may just be the one!

I know in our own lives, Scott and I often speak of our dream to someday go back to China and bring home another cleft-affected little man. That dream has been placed in God's hands because of China's restrictions. But, your dream may be just paperwork away.