We had the honor of spending an evening with five of “our” adopted teens, ages 14 to 18, who shared their experiences of being adopted as well as offering advice to over 50 adoptive parents last Friday night, September 26, 2008.  The young women were very honest with their humorous and heartfelt feelings which they graciously shared with parents who will soon have their own “teens”.  These panel participants were part of the first ever CCAI Adopteen Conference last July and were happy to help raise funds and awareness to support next year’s gathering.   We are planning another panel discussion in November or December as we had many other interested parents wait listed due to limited space.  All proceeds go to support our 2009 Adopteen Conference.

On September 17 (China time), Vice Minister Dou Yupei of China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs welcomed the U.S. Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team and 2008 Beijing Paralympics Silver Medalist Su Gui and her coach Katrina at the China Center of Adoption Affairs.  CCAA Director-General Lu Ying gave Su Gui a personal tour of every CCAA department and showed her the adoption record from when she was first matched to her adoptive parents in 1995.  The entire staff of CCAA was extremely excited and honored to see that one of their matched children has become a Paralympics medalist. “You are our heroine!” Minister Dou told Su Gui at the welcome reception.  Su Gui generously agreed to let the minister hold her precious silver medal while taking a picture with him.

Once again, congrats to Su Gui for winning the silver medal!   

Su Gui spent her first five years at Kunming Orphanage in southern China.  In 1995 a wonderful couple from New York adopted her with our assistance (CCAI Group 12).  Today, Su Gui is competing on behalf of the U.S. Women's Sitting Volleyball Team in Beijing's 2008 Paralympics Games.  The U.S. will meet with China on September 14 to compete for the gold medal.  Go Su Gui!!! 

http://paralympics.teamusa.org/news/article/6613

Our volunteer rehab team of four professional physical and occupational therapists led by Barb Woodbury offered rehab training to over 100 orphanage caretakers from 13 orphanages in Henan Province.   The ten-day training provided a great opportunity for our professional volunteers to teach and demonstrate both basic as well as advanced rebah knowledge and skills that were urgently needed.  Our thanks go to Barb Woodbury, Wendy Lee, Jeanne Fagan, Erica Karazsia, as well as the training coordinator and translators Yisha, Xia, and Lianzhi.   

CCAI’s Joyous Chinese Cultural Center not only provides on-site Chinese cultural education to over 500 adopted kids ages 2 to 14 and many adoptive parents every year, it also offers long-distance learning to many more children around the country.  JCCC’s six levels of teaching and learning curriculums, with seven sessions in each level and accompanied with CDs, are particularly popular among many cultural schools and adopted children in other states.

For more information on how you can order these curriculums, you can visit

www.joyouscenter.org or call JCCC at 303-221-6688 ext 202.  

After two months and $10,000, a gloomy and sad corner of Luohe Orphanage in Henan Province has been transformed into a bright, beautiful, and caring Lily Orphan Care Room (LOCR), named after Lily Nie, co-founder of Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI). The new cribs, toys, clothes, kitchen, bath, child-proof floor, heaters, air-conditioners, music, as well as colorful paint and drawings on the walls provide a tender, loving living environment for 30 kids with special needs.  Newly trained LOCR caretakers feed each baby in their arms, play with them regularly, and bath them everyday. 

Our thanks goes to Xia, our Charity Director, and her team in China who have worked tirelessly to improve the living conditions for as many abandoned children in the orphanages as possible.  For information on how you can contribute to support the operation of LOCR, please visit the Charity Outreach page of our website or call us at 303-8509998 ext 26.