AGCI Travels to China Part 5!

Here’s a final update from Jodi, AGCI’s VP of Adoption and Carin, AGCI’s China Case Manager!

Today we were sad to say goodbye to Xiamen!  We boarded another high speed train to travel further north to Gutian and we were excited to see all the kids there!

As we were driven to our destination, we admired the mixture of trees  and farmlands! We passed rows and rows of different vegetables and crops! We soon met the director of Gutian and were warmly welcomed with another traditional lunch.

Over tea and lunch our teaimg_4011-jpgm shared updated pictures of a family who adopted their son from Gutian in the past.  This was such a treasure for their staff to see! The director was thrilled to hear about this family and was proud of the adoptions that they have done.  He shared a book of which presented many of the children from Gutian!

After lunch we headed to the home where the children are currently cared for.  We were able to continue our medical assessments and met with all of the children who have adoption paperwork submitted.  We were happy to hjuliaelp update the medical information for these children!

One child,  Arron, recently had paperwork completed.  It was a privilege to provide a more thorough medical exam to better understand his needs.  He had the best smile when his caregiver spun him around in circles! He had the best belly laugh! Please reach out if you would like to learn more about Arron.

There were other familiar faces like sweet Beck who excelled in the art class we were able to sit-in on! The kids love their art teacher and the daily lesson was learning to focus on details of a flower! The kids did great!

After our time at Gutian, it was time to prepare to leave to Fuzhou for our last night in China.

As we met so many children and advocated with orphanage directors across the Fujian region for the children’s paperwork to be completed, we also want to encourage families to begin their paperwork now.  For families who are prepared and paperwork ready, it can dramatically reduce the time a img_3979child spends in an institution.  Although families can often accept the referral of a child while in the process of completing paperwork, it is very important to remember that a prepared family’s adoption process is often shortened too!  In last two years, 24% families completed adoption in 1 year, 86% families completed adoption in under 2 years!

We are grateful for our time in China.  Of course the highlight was spending time with the children.  We especially enjoyed seeing progress in so many children.  We also enjoyed meeting new children and children who we look forward to advocating for soon.  We can’t help but be struck by the magnitude of need in China!  We were privileged and honored to see over 140 children during our time.  We appreciated understanding the care that they are receiving and being able to fully understand some of the children’s needs.  We were able to recommend tests and evaluations for some children that will help us ensure the children are receiving the best care possible to meet their needs.  It also allows us the opportunity to better advocate for a family!

We would be happy to personally share more about our trip or the children who we met with you!  As a child centered agency, AGCI always looks to refer a child to a family who is already in the adoption process with AGCI.  This means that many children never appear on our waiting child page.  We would love to share more about our China program and personally share a child’s story with you!

We stand in awe of God’s love and care for each child!  We have seen firsthand how God has a plan and He does immeasurably more!  Please join us in praying that each orphanage director we met will either continue or begin to prepare children’s paperwork with urgency, especially knowing that there are families prepared to help that child thrive in their forever family.  Our team certainly has urgency for these children!mia

In less than 2 years AGCI China families have received $335,717.01 in grants! For this reason we urge you to step out in faith and love if God is calling you to adoption.

 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20

If you have any questions on our China program and steps in applying to be ready for these sweet kids please feel free to reach out to Carin at 503-327-7407 or csherman@allgodschildren.org.