Lily's Bat Mitzvah Project

I was reading something on the Families with Children from China website the other day and I ran across a posting asking the families for help with a Bat Mitzvah project. I was not only thrilled to come across another Jewish child who was adopted from China but excited that LO would be able to help this girl with her project.

The girl's name is Lily and she is looking to collect stories from other Jewish Chinese girls for her project. I e-mailed Lily's mother and she asked me to help get the word out about Lily's project. I know that there are several of you who have mentioned to me that there are adopted Chinese girls at your shuls and it would really be a mitzvah if you could spread the word to those families.

LO is already working on her essay for Lily's project and I promise to share it here as soon as she finishes it.

Here is the link for more information...Lily's Bat Mitzvah Project.

Gotcha Day

(photo taken: May 29, 2000)

In the adoption world the day that you finally meet your child is often referred to as "Gotcha Day". It's a day that comes after piles and piles of paperwork, after home study visits by a social worker, after loads and loads of money, after riding the emotional roller coaster of a lifetime, and for us...after a trip to another continent.

Today marks the seventh anniversary of that day that we now call "LO Day". The photo above was taken the very first time I ever held LO in my arms. I can't imagine a greater gift in life than the gift of my little girl. G-d has truly blessed us.

Chinese Jewish Adoptees

photo by: James Estin/The New York Times

It's interesting to me that on Wednesday I blogged about LO's adoption and then yesterday The New York Times ran an article about a Chinese adoptee who had just completed her bat mitzvah. (Thank you to everyone who sent and/or told me about the article!)

LO and I are the only Chinese members at our shul. And I know of only one other adult Chinese Jew (who found me through this blog!) But I have to wonder with the large number of Chinese children who have been adopted by Jewish families, will we start to see a change in the demographics soon? It will be interesting to see.

Shabbat Shalom.

Adoption Nostalgia

As any parent knows, it seems that our children grow up WAY too fast. A day hardly goes by when I look at LO and can't believe how grown up she is getting. It seems like the trip to China to get her was just yesterday.

For those of you who don't know much about the way the Chinese adoption process works, here's a brief explanation. It basically involves a WHOLE LOT of paperwork (and a WHOLE lot of $$.) Once you make your way through the paperwork, home studies, fingerprinting, etc. you basically send all your papers to China and then you wait. And then you wait some more. And then you WAIT even more. Until the day when you finally get "The Call" and are told that you have a child waiting in China for you.

My call came in March 2001 - just shy of six years ago. The above picture on the left is the first picture I ever saw of my daughter. The above picture on the right is a picture of her this past Sunday at our Purim carnival. LO was 21 months old when we met in May 2001. She stood 31 inches tall and weighed all of 16 pounds. Look at her now. What a difference love can make. And what a blessing G-d gave me.