Who Needs a Smile?

If you need a reason to smile, watch this video!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXy26L4Mjc8&app=desktop  If you've already watched it, watch it again!  It is so, so precious!  Charlie is in a white t-shirt in the beginning, being very helpful serving the cantaloupe, and then in a red t-shirt in the second half.  He is so handsome and happy and helpful.  It just brings a smile to my face every time I watch it!

The sweet boy counting to ten in the English class is Simon.  As far as I  know, Simon is the only child in their class that does not have a family yet.  And MOST of the kids being adopted from that class are coming to Georgia!  I am praying that a local family will also come forward to adopt Simon.  He is so precious and smart.  He has low vision.  If you want more info on him, please let me know!  (He is the one in the striped shirt in the picture below, playing piano with Gabe, who I mentioned in a previous post-- moving to Marietta very soon!)

China has recently changed their requirements for eligibility.  If you want to see if you would qualify, check here.  https://madmimi.com/s/ab08a5  Or, you may not be sure you could afford it.  It is ridiculously expensive.  (Believe us, we know!)  But there are many grants available to families in need, especially for older children with special needs, and there are crowd -funding sights available, like the one we are using, https://www.adopttogether.org/seaboltfamily.  There are people that disagree with fundraising for adoption.  They have their reasons, and sometimes I agree with them.  But if there is a child with a special need that needs a family and will age out of the system unless someone is able to come forward, then I am all about people rallying with them to make that happen!
https://www.adopttogether.org/about

Will Charlie know any English? How will you communicate?

We get these questions quite a bit.  And the answer is, we don't really know.  My understanding is until August, he really hadn't had that much English exposure.  Many of the volunteers at Bethel speak English, so he certainly hears it, but hadn't had classes or anything.  Then in August when we said we were going to adopt him, they put him in an English Class.  Here is his teacher, Mr. Clement.

Clement is French, so I can't wait to hear Charlie's cute little French-accented English!  Like I said before, he will probably know some English, but I am not expecting him to be anywhere close to fluent.  However, when we adopted Kate, she had never heard English in her life, and she seemed to be understanding much of what we said before we even left China!  Kids are amazing.  So... English is not our biggest concern.  We do have several friends that speak Mandarin, and I'm sure we'll be making frequent phone calls when he is frustrated that he can't communicate with us.  So get ready, Mandarin-speaking friends!  You know who you are!

Here is a link to an interview with Mr. Clement, which gives you a great sense of his love and care for these kids.  And a glimpse into their musical tastes... http://www.beijing-kids.com/magazine/2014/12/10/Lighting-a-Fire-Kids-teens-and-young-adults-talk-about-their-volunteering-experi  We do find it pretty exciting that Charlie likes James Brown, and can't wait to introduce him to our kids' favorites:  Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder!

Christmas Package!

Last week we sent Charlie his Christmas presents to China!  He doesn't know we are his family yet, but we are his "sponsors", so it won't seem weird.  I did include a picture of us, so once they tell him that we are adopting him, he may make the connection.  I can't wait to see him in that shirt and hat!  We hope that he and his buddies like Bop It!  It seemed like that would be a fun game to play with his English class.
Never mind that that the shipping cost more than the gifts!  I just hope it gets there by Christmas!