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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
Board Member
Michael Bosmann
Secretary and Child Advocate
Anne Little
Communication and Volunteer Coordinator
Deborah Coffey |
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Message from the President of the Board
By Patrick McLaughlin
 | Xiao Liu with Noelle and Justin
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As we head into spring, the Starfish Children's Services (SCS) team, both in Xi'an and the US, continue to point our attention and resources towards two specific areas:
- Re-establishing our presence as a provider of high quality care to the medically challenged orphans in China within the well documented recent changes in government policies
- Conducting a search for a new location for the foster home
With respect to getting back in the business of helping babies, our role as a healing home is set to begin in earnest this month as we offer our services to several medical missions. Naomi Kerwin, executive director, is working closely with Care4Tina, Children of China's Pediatric Foundation (CCPF), and a Dental Team. These teams will provide surgeries for cleft lip/cleft palates, analtresia, hand deformities, as well as much needed dental work.
The healing home initiative has put a refreshing gust of wind in our sails with respect to our chosen mission of helping orphans with special medical needs. While the scale of the healing home efforts is smaller than our days of helping 30+ kids at the foster home, we are simply grateful for the opportunity to play an active role in helping the medical missions treat as many children as possible. I fully anticipate that Naomi and her team will meet and exceed every expectation set by the incoming medical missions.
Our journey to a new location continues on a methodical and deliberate path. On very broad terms our goal is to make the right choice not the first choice. As detailed in prior notes, we are balancing the natural desire to make a decision quickly with the need to make a sound decision that fulfills all of our strategic needs for a healthy future.
As part of our search for a new location, I have asked two board members, Michael Bosmann and Cindy Klaja-McLaughlin, to take ownership of the project. Michael Bosmann will bring almost 15 years of experience of doing business in China to the table. His 50+ trips to China as an owner of a business engaged in local transactions will serve us well as we navigate the cultural nuances attached to securing a new location for our foster home efforts. Michael also has an extensive network of Chinese friends and business associates that are aware of Amanda's efforts to help the orphans of China and have expressed a desire to help.
Cindy Klaja-McLaughlin is a founding member of the board and, more importantly, the mother of a Starfish baby. These characteristics give Cindy a unique and comprehensive understanding of the heritage of our mission as well as real life experience as a passionate advocate for children in need of medical help. Since the board was founded in 2007, Cindy has been the unofficial "child advocacy officer" in the US and this experience dovetails nicely with her upcoming duties on this project.
Michael and Cindy will be working directly with Naomi Kerwin on this important initiative. Naomi will provide the necessary "reality checks" based on her years of NGO experience as well as helping with logistics related to this type of endeavor. I have asked Michael and Cindy to begin planning a "fact finding" trip to China in May/June.
As you will read in other parts of this newsletter, the Spring of 2013 offers evidence that Starfish has positive momentum on multiple fronts. I look forward to sharing the journey with all of you.
Thank you for your continued support.
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Note from the Director
by Naomi Kerwin
 | Moving day at Starfish
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I had planned for 2013 to be a dull year. By the end of the 2012 I had a solid trustworthy staff, great volunteers, training was in place, we had two new babies in our care and were expecting more, children ready for adoption, our accounting and office procedures were moving from chaos to order. 2012 was a crazy time, eventful, heartbreaking, joyful, challenging and I expected 2013 to be a year of improvements, tweaks and growth but not exciting. We had no idea what was about to hit us. On Jan 9 I was online looking at new aprons for our nannies when we got the call. Because of a fire in Henan at an illegal foster home, the Xian SWI had orders to take back all of their children. At 9:00 am the next morning they arrived -- with a bus. A few days later Yulin SWI arrived and took the last of our children. As a favor they allowed Chloe to stay with us as her adoption day was near. We were heartbroken. The next few weeks were a flurry of meetings, visits, phone calls with government officials, lawyers, board members, staff, families, volunteers, other foster homes ending with the very sad conclusion we would not be getting the children back and Starfish will need to make necessary changes. This was not completely unexpected. Amanda and I had discussed that eventually Starfish would need to leave Shaanxi Province long ago. Apparently she had talked with many others but immediate concerns always pushed plans for the future aside. Shaanxi had never been entirely supportive of Starfish's mission so we are changing gears and looking for opportunities elsewhere. In the mean time we are staying on mission with our new Healing Home and keeping in touch with our Starfish babies at the orphanages and all over the world. So what are we up to? - #1 priority is keeping close, consistent contact with all of our children.
- moved from old facility to large apartment in town
- opening a healing home for Shaanxi orphans receiving surgery in Xian.
- preparing for three medical missions in April.
- looking for our next mission.
- keeping in contact with our Starfish babies all over the world.
We are grateful for your encouragement and continued support. Your emails, messages, prayers and giving are greatly appreciated while we continue the vision entrusted to us. Return to top |
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"Life, love and laughter."
When you hear or read these words, who comes to your mind immediately? Amanda de Lange.
In March, we would have celebrated Amanda's 53rd birthday. March also marked one year since Amanda left Xi'an for treatment in Nashville, Tennessee. It is hard to understand all that happened to Amanda and Starfish over the past year, but it helps to focus on the meaning of Amanda's often used phrase, "Life, love, and laughter."
These words defined Amanda and her passion for changing the lives of hundreds of babies. Amanda courageously led the charge for Starfish and her mission was clear: to save as many babies as possible and to give them a forever family.
With all the transition that Starfish has been through this past year, we have been bombarded with hundreds of decisions, both big and small - issues that have answers and issues that don't. The consistent question that we always ask ourselves is, "What would Amanda do in this situation?" This has been a clarifier for us in many instances as Amanda was so wise in her approach. And we will measure our decisions carefully against the high bar set by her.
We are committed to the continuation of Amanda's work. Everyone needs to know that Starfish is here to stay and poised to enhance Amanda's legacy by expanding our impact on the orphans of China so that so many more can enjoy "Life, love, and laughter."
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Starfish Babies at Yulin Orphanage
Naomi Kerwin
We have been regularly visiting our children in Yulin. Honestly I had heard some pretty horrible stories about Yulin CWI but I am pleased to report that the past is gone and Yulin CWI is clean and well run, with excellent facilities and staff. The building was new, clean, large and well maintained. The rooms were spacious with plenty of toys. The nannies are young and engaged with the children and there is a low ratio of nannies to children. This is a real profession for the nannies - many went to university or specialized training. The non-Starfish children were shy around me at first but by the end of the day were beginning to open up. Overall all of the children were happy and well adjusted.
I sat in on Anna, Bella, and Xander's PT sessions. I talked with Bella's therapist and she was hired straight out of the university and had been there three years. The equipment was very good and the therapists were kind and patient. The children enjoyed the PT time and were obviously comfortable with their therapist.
I also sat in for much of Coco's preschool. There were only 6 children in the class and preschool was held 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. The teacher was lovely. We went through several songs and dances, colors, numbers, exactly what you would expect in any preschool. We also had a birthday party with cake, hats and singing!
At the end of the day Kaitlyn's awesome new chair arrived. It is a pretty fancy piece of equipment and we are grateful that she has it and with her 1-2 hours a day of PT will experience quick progress.
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Starfish Baby
Naomi Kerwin
One of the big joys at Starfish is seeing our babies after they have joined their forever families. I had a layover in Seattle and was able to see Charlotte, now Madeline and her mom and dad. I was curious if she would even remember me but she sure did! I was greeted with a big hug and kiss. C/M knowing that it was a big day had chosen especially a purple tutu. At Starfish C was my laundry buddy, pouring the soap and pushing the buttons - it would take her forever to chose her clothes every morning and she had the most delightful giggle. Her mom assures me she is still the same little girl; only with dance classes, and impressive English skills and her very own mom and dad - which makes all the difference in the world.
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PHOTO SHOWCASE
Our New Starfish Healing Home
Welcome to the STARFISH HEALING HOME!
With the dramatic change of events we needed to make necessary adjustments. The old facility was no longer necessary, too expensive and too far out of town; so we downsized. Through the efforts of dedicated volunteers and staff and a lot of planning and hard work we packed up the old facility and moved to an apartment in the city. We are now headquartered in a 180 square meter, four bedroom apartment in Northeast Xian and operating as a healing home.
A Healing Home is a place where orphans from all over Shaanxi who come to Xian for medical surgery can stay during their entire medical care including pre and follow up care, usually 60-90 days. We also have a room for volunteers.
We decided to open a healing home so Starfish can continue to care for orphans while we look for another location in another province. April will bring three medical missions and an opportunity to kick start our home with plans to accept our first children the by mid-April. We are excited to be back on mission and to once again wake up to smiling faces and watch children get excellent medical care and grow and blossom under our care.
We also have a small volunteer room so please let us know if you would like to help :-)
   
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Starfish Foster Home
Shaanxi Sheng Xi'an City
Weiyang Qu Feng Cheng Ba Lu
EE Kang Cheng 1 Danyuan 404 Shi
Zip code: 710021
CHINA
Starfish phone: 86 18629257752
Naomi's cell phone: 202.657.4836
Sincerely, Naomi Kerwin, naomi@starfishfosterhome.org Starfish Foster Home |
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