Unfortunately, a fire in a foster home in China killed 7 people last week. As a result, a directive from the government called for a country-wide safety inspection for all foster homes. A decision was made by the ShaanXi province that all that all ShaanXi children in foster care/homes were to be returned to their respective orphanages of origin, effective immediately.

The Xi'an orphanage subsequently came and took their children back to the orphanage. The Xi'an orphanage had no choice and took no pleasure in doing so. It was strictly a government directive. The Xi'an orphanage and personnel have been cooperative in every way. We have our nannies personally caring for our Starfish babies and are still with our children all day. We have arranged for the nannies to stay in a hotel next to the orphanage so they can be close to the children.  The orphanage did allow us to keep Chloe until her adoption on January 27th.  People from the Yulin orphanage are arriving Saturday afternoon and will be taking our Yulin babies back to Yulin on Monday. We are doing our best to arrange that our children continue to get the best possible care from our staff.

The decision is being made province-by-province which is why the other foster homes in China have not yet faced these same circumstances. Eventually, however, all foster homes will be facing changes. We have been assured that this measure is temporary. We have our lawyer and one of our board members flying out to China to meet with the authorities. We have maintained all of our staff and have no plans for layoffs as we have been continually assured that this is only a temporary situation.

We ask our Facebook readers and followers to please not share this information over Twitter or blogs or other social media until we are able to know more details. We will keep you informed as much as we can. This is a difficult time for our babies and for each of us, as well. Please know that all the babies' welfare is our top priority, and we will continue to do all we can to ensure the best possible care for each one.

Thank you for weathering this storm with us.

Patrick McLaughlin - Starfish Board President