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| Winter Heritage Tours! |
There is still time to book for the China Winter Discovery Tour, departing December 27th. Make this holiday especially memorable. Visit our website to learn more about reserving your family's spot today.
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| Free Opening Ceremony DV D! |
Now is a great time to select a standard group trip, or plan your custom Homeland Heritage Tour! Be one of the first 100 families to secure your reservation with a deposit and you will receive a DVD of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, compliments of Lotus Travel. Click here to view our Homeland Heritage Tour options.
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Twin Giant Pandas Celebrate 100 Days!
The twin male panda cubs born to Guo Guo reached 100 days of life. In a traditional Chinese naming ceremony, the cubs were given the names Ping Ping and An An. This is an especially significant achievement as the cubs were born just five months after the devestating earthquake that destroyed much of the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province. Their mother, Guo Guo, was relocated to the Bifengxia base of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Yaan, in the Sichuan Province, where she gave birth to the twins on July 6, 2008. To see photos of the adorable twin cubs, click here
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| Mei Magazine |
A number of families within the China adoption community know about Mei magazine. If you haven't heard, you can check out this unique magazine that focuses on adopted children from China. They have a fun spot in the magazine -- a spot where you individuals can purchase a page to recognize their child. Click here to visit Mei Magazine for more details. |
| Packages of Hope Buy to Give Program |
As the holidays draw near, you begin making lists of gifts to buy and perhaps you even want to remember children who live in orphanages around the world. Packages of Hope is a non-profit organization providing aid to children living in orphanages around the world. They have projects in China, Africa, and Georgia (the country). Packages of Hope has a "giving portal," iGive.com. Every time you access one of hundreds of retailers through this portal, iGive.com will donate a portion of your sale to Packages of Hope. Packages of Hope also has items for sale on their website. Click here to read more about this program and see the list of projects completed in China this year.
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| Btween.net |
Btween.net is an online community site targeted for "tweens" touched by adoption or foster care. A "tween" is typically considered someone between tha ages of 8-14, or between childhood and adulthood. The btween.net site is for "tweens" who are also between families, between cultures or origin/current life. Btween.net allows them to share and grow through mutual support and develop concepts of self and place in a diverse world. It's a safe and supported online community focused on "tweens" touched by adoption.
Visit them today at www.btween.net. |
| Special Services |
 Travelex Travel Insurance
 China and Vietnam Visa Services
 Cell Phone Rentals | |
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Heritage Connections
November |
2008 |
Greetings!
We at Lotus Travel are always pleased when November rolls around. During this time we pause and reflect on the privilege of working within this closely knit, wonderful adoptive community. We hope you enjoy our November newsletter with our special tribute to the month, in offering ideas for different ways to celebrate and honor adoption. 
Of course, this month we also reflect and are thankful to you, our clients, for supporting and connecting with us during our last thirteen years in business. As you browse our newsletter, you can celebrate with us by checking out our special 13th anniversary trip promotions (see story below).
This month, we hope you kick back, relax and just enjoy reading some of our feature articles. One of our articles focuses on foster care, and Kimberlie Meyer, our newsletter editor, takes an inside look to interview a fellow adoptive mom about her circuitous path to appreciate the love of her son's foster mom. Also, this month we have a feature highlighting social etiquette and customs for Vietnam.
Enjoy and drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you!
Lea Xu
Vice President and
Sales and Marketing Director |
Lotus Travel Celebrates 13 Years in Business! 
You can still take advantage of Lotus Travel's 13th anniversary promotion! We are offering a $50 per traveler discount on homeland heritage tours for families who book their tour between October 13, 2008 and December 13, 2008, and secure it with a deposit. To visit our website, click here, to view our tour package options and contact us today! .
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 November National Adoption Awareness Month
How many ways to Celebrate National Adoption Month?
by Kimberlie Meyer
There is that famous line, "How do I love you? Let me count the ways ..." As a parent you may ponder that question as you stay awake all night with a feverish child; guide them through a schoolyard injustice; or as sit in the stands at your child's thousandth sporting event.
Since November is National Adoption Awareness month, we pulled together a list of just ten possible and fairly easy ways to stop and celebrate adoption and pay tribute. Click here to see some suggestions.
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Foster Family Connections
by Kimberlie Meyer
 National Adoption Month is often a time to reflect on the adoptive triad, birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptee. Oftentimes there is another important family in this dynamic mix - a foster family. We have decided to honor and take time to reflect on foster family relationships, which are so critical to a child's early development.
I had the opportunity to sit down recently and talk with one adoptive mom who shared candidly about relationship twists and turns she has experienced with her son's foster family connections. She shares openly and candidly about the evolution of feelings, for her and her son, as well changes in relationship with her child's foster mom. While the names in the article below are changed to provide anonymity, the scenarios described are real and her feelings are unmasked.
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Vietnam Social Customs
by Iris Culp
Traveling to a foreign country can be an exciting experience, but also one filled with concerns that you are "doing the right thing." Lotus Travel has put together a guide that will help you understand particular Vietnam social customs to help ease your mind.
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Lucky Money Envelopes Offered Again!
Are you beginning to think of all the holidays just around the corner? The next few months will be filled with holiday festivities for many of us. Of course, a very important event for our adoptive families is Chinese New Year celebrations! This coming year CNY comes earlier than last year, occurring on January 26, 2009.
Last year Lotus Travel informally offered "lucky money" envelopes to FCC chapters around the country to support CNY festivities. This year, we are happy to announce we are making the same offer.
We have a limited supply. So, if your chapter is interested in obtaining complimentary "lucky money" envelopes to hand out to children at your upcoming event, you can contact our Heritage Tours Program Director, Iris Culp at iris@lotustours.net. Please let us know how many you are requesting, the date of your event, and an appropriate mailing address so we work with you to get them to you in plenty of time for your celebration.
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