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Starfish Foster Home
| Executive Director
Naomi Kerwin
Head Nanny
Xiao Liu
BoardMembers
President
Patrick McLaughlin
Marketing and Fundraising
Cynthia
Klaja-McLaughlin
Treasurer
Peggy McCue
Board Member
Amanda Oaks
Secretary and Child Advocate
Anne Little
Communication and Volunteer Coordinator
Deborah Coffey
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Greetings!
Starfish has gone through many changes since the passing of former Executive Director and Founder Amanda de Lange. We all miss her greatly. With her blessing and financial help, we are happy to announce the launch of our new Starfish website, www.starfishfosterhome.org. With it also comes the beginning of our quarterly newsletter. We also have a blog site, which will keep everyone updated with more details on the children at Starfish. In addition, frequent Facebook updates are bringing all of us closer to the children at Starfish, and to the mission and purposes of the Starfish Foster Home. Thank you for your continued support of Starfish and Amanda's legacy! We hope you enjoy each one of these tools, as our hearts are touched and our lives changed forever. |
Message From President of Board By Patrick McLaughlin
 | | Louis |
To the friends and family of Starfish: This past year has presented many difficult situations to the Starfish Organization. Most difficult and sad has been the passing our beloved founder, Amanda de Lange. Amanda fearlessly took on a job that no one person should ever have to handle. But, she did and over the past seven years built Starfish into the loving launching pad for many amazing little boys and girls. By the end of October, over 90 children will have been adopted from Starfish Read rest of article HERE. Return to top |
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New Executive Director
Moving Starfish Forward
By Naomi Kerwin
 | | Naomi Kerwin with Baby Ross |
2012 has been a big year for Starfish! Together we have taken the roller coaster ride through Amanda's sudden illness, prayed through her treatment and finally said good-bye to an amazing woman who had deeply touched all of our lives. Starfish has been moving from a one woman force of nature to one of teamwork, using our individual talents towards providing more comprehensive care. We have never lost our focus of caring for babies, getting the best medical care and surgeries and eventually watching our little starfish move on to their forever families.
Read rest of article HERE.
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Keeping Amanda's Legacy Alive
 | | Amanda de Lange |
Amanda de Lange, 51, left this earthly life on Saturday, July 14, 2012 surrounded by loving friends in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She waged a courageous battle against uterine cancer, under the devoted and capable care of medical teams at Centennial Hospital, the Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, and Tennessee Oncology Associates in Nashville. As the Founder and Executive Director of Starfish Children's Service, operating the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an, China, Amanda took in medically fragile children from state orphanages in China, nurtured them back to health, provided their necessary surgeries, and prepared them to be adopted into forever families. Amanda and the incredible Starfish team and volunteers accomplished an amazing, loving feat in just seven short years, taking in 168 babies, arranging and funding nearly 250 surgeries, and facilitating 81 adoptions thus far. Friends and followers of Amanda are moving forward to continue her work. Volunteers spend time at Starfish, donating their money and time to move the work forward. Generous donors are also contributing to the Starfish mission. Amanda's legacy is continuing on, and babies lives will be forever blessed. |
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Starfish Launches New Website
As of October 18th, we are launching our new and improved Starfish Website. The goal of the website is to keep our interested readers up to date with the o ngoings of our organization, both at the foster home in Xi'an and abroad. We also want to make people aware of the important work that we can only continue with the support of the community.
We now have over 86 children adopted world-wide. And, although we had a very difficult year in 2012, we are stronger than ever with high functioning people joining the ranks of the Starfish to continue Amanda's amazing work with the disabled, abandoned babies of China. So much joy has been brought to so many people through Starfish. And, the ability to touch our readers through the website is powerful.
We will emphasize on our website our current children at the foster home and do our best to keep you current with their progress through written word and photos on our "Meet our Babies" page. We are expanding our website content to include more information on the staff and volunteerism. We will post our significant fundraisers on the "You can Help" page. Our Chinese staff will make sure that the "Daily Needs" page is continuously updated. Naomi Kerwin will keep everyone up to date with the Starfish Blog (Home Page, on left hand side) and a direct link to our Facebook page and current You Tube videos. And, as The Starfish Organization grows, we will continue to keep you informed of our development.
Note that our URL is www.starfishfosterhome.org from now on - we have taken out the "the" in our URL. Please visit our new website! We are excited to share it with you!
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New Baby Arrives at Starfish
First New Baby for 2012
 Meet Ross, born August 14, 2012, and our first new baby for this year. He is the 169th Starfish baby. He was born with anal-atresia. He had a rough start at first and was in the hospital for awhile, but has since returned back to Starfish.
Ross is a curious little boy and is always looking around, giving you an enormous smile whenever you pick him up to eat. He is very social, loves going for walks and being around other children. We are happy to welcome Ross to our Starfish home!
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New Adoptions
Fifteen Children Receive Forever Homes
 | | Mila says goodbye to Xiao Liu, Starfish head nanny. |
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With all the ups and downs Starfish has faced this year, it is exciting to report that we have still been able to accomplish our prime objective to get babies adopted into loving forever homes. We have had 15 children adopted from Starfish so far for 2012!
#73 Morgan is now living in Sequin, Washington
#74 Malin is now living in Honolulu, Hawaii
#75 Michelle is now living in Columbus, Ohio
#76 Lexie is now living in Chicago, Illinois
#77 Joy is now living in Castaic, California
#78 Jack is now living in Westminster, Maryland
#79 Jane is now living in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
#80 Ethan is now living in Huntington, West Virginia
#81 Megan is now living in Stonington, Connecticut
#84 Kay Louise is now living in Nanjing, China
#85 Charlotte is now living in Seattle, Washington
#86 Mila is now living in San Antonia, Texas
#87, #88, #89 Angela, Isaac and Katheryn have been adopted and are on their way to their new home in Italy.
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Boeing Makes Donation
By Patrick McLaughlin, Starfish Board President
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I am pleased to announce that the Boeing Corporate Citizenship Foundation has approved a $50,000 grant to Starfish Children's Services. The award will be used to fund our Well Baby Care Initiative in 2013.
Our friends at Boeing have been long-time supporters of Starfish. Since 2008, this is the fourth grant we have received, reinforcing their vote of confidence that we are delivering on our mission of providing "life saving" care.
Boeing is committed to serving the communities in which it operates in China. It specifically seeks to support groups that are committed to providing services that are not available in the community. In the case of Starfish, Boeing understands that there is no better connection to the community than ensuring that special needs orphans are given a chance to live a full and prosperous life.
Join me in thanking Boeing for this very generous gift for the care of our babies.
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Stronger Than Ever
Starfish Emerges With Renewed Focus
Starfish has weathered some challenging storms in the last several months. With the passing of its founder, Starfish was thrown into the spotlight with media coverage worldwide. Financial scrutinies, organizational restructuring, and revamping of medical and adopting policies have tested Starfish's core.
With this firestorm, the world has watched in earnest concern to see if Starfish would "survive" the onslaught. Wonderful people who love Amanda and Starfish have worked tirelessly and unselfishly to pull together and make it work. There have been growing pains. There have been lessons learned. And through it has emerged a Starfish that is getting stronger, getting better organized, and getting more effective in caring for our charges - the little children who look to us for the love and help they deserve.
A brief synopsis of key changes are:- Training provided for improving the quality of nanny care with head nannies for each room, with increased wages based on performance.
- Implementing volunteer training and limiting the number of day visitors.
- Protecting the health and well-being of the babies through improved nutrition, better hygiene, and increased educational experiences.
- Continuing a positive relationship with the local orphanages with a heightened understanding of realistic expectations.
- Improved privacy and security rights for the children.
- Daily preschool classes for older children.
Starfish will continue to grow, change, develop, and change some more. It is a living organization, but is based on a solid foundational structure that keeps it stable and secure. As Starfish moves into the next stage, we wish to tell all of you - all the supporters and followers of Amanda and Starfish - thank you. Thank you for being there, for your faith, for your work, and for your support. It is because of the dedication and support of each of you that Starfish is able to move forward.
To all of you - Amanda's followers - Thank you. Her work continues. Stay with us as we journey forward, and continue to bless the lives of critical needs babies - one blessed starfish at a time. |
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Volunteer Feedback
Letter From Volunteer Gives Insight into Starfish
My time here at Starfish has just gone so fast. I can't believe that I will leave for home in just 2 weeks. I will admit at the beginning I was disappointed that we didn't have but just one infant and for my own selfish reasons I was ready to go elsewhere. But a level head ( and some discussion with my husband) prevailed and I decided to stay and I am so thankful that I did. Naomi has made the volunteers feel very welcome and she does include us in the care of the children. I have gotten to know some of the children whose pictures I have only seen.
 I always was so focused on the infants that I never took the time to get to know the others. In addition to caring for the children we have helped with laundry and the cleaning. As usual it has been an emotional and fulfilling experience. Just a quick word about Naomi. It seems that she is doing a great job managing Starfish. Anyone coming in and trying to fill Amanda's shoes is basically a sacrificial lamb especially when changes are being made. I know before it was always done Amanda's way ( that is the first thing I was told when I first volunteered in 2009). Naomi has faced some resistance while making these changes but I do believe she is quite capable of accomplishing this massive task. Her primary concern and goals are to protect the children. It is evident that she loves them dearly and their needs always come first.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to volunteer again at Starfish. The children are precious and to know that you have played a very small part in their lives is wonderful reward.
Lila Bartlett Starfish Volunteer |
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Halloween Comes Early at Starfish
Babies are dressed and ready for the big day! Click HERE to see the rest of these precious babies and children on our new website.
 | | Geoff and Justin |
 | | Chloe and Starfish Cat Natalie |
 | | Robyn |
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Starfish Foster Home
ChangLeGong Department for Old, Mid FengJing Road
XiaoLiuZhai Village, WeiYang District
Xian 710018, ShaanXi Province CHINA Starfish phone: 134.8811.9870
Naomi's cell phone: 202.657.4836
Sincerely, Naomi Kerwin, naomi@starfishfosterhome.org Starfish Foster Home |
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