China Trip, we made it!!

It's been an adventure filled few days since we landed in China Friday night. We all planned to meet at the terminal after collecting luggage. Aimee and Lesley arrived together several hours after Krista. Moya arrived soon after. Unbeknownst to us ( note to self: check this detail in the future) Moya landed at a whole different terminal. So she got a cab to the hotel alone. The driver got lost, pulled over and tried to figure out where to go. Eventually she safely joined the others at the hotel...although for a few minutes, she was worried.   Friday morning after a coffee at the nearby Starbucks, we spent time negotiating how to get 400 lbs of donations shipped to the orphanage. We made a new friend in the concierge and eventually all was settled by calling another company. The duffel bags were taped to the top of a vehicle! Here is Krista with said luggage transporter!

The Doubletree was then unable to get us a cab to take us to the train station and told us it would be easier to take the subway. What??!!. So we walked a block to subway and negotiated that. Leslie had her bag lifted and pushed onto the train by an employee at the door was going. We made it to the train station and found our way to our gate. "Quickly, quickly", said the man who checked our ticket. We thought we had almost 15 minutes to our train but the uniformed employee who let us through the gate and ran with us to the train indicated otherwise. We barely made it on the train-car 6 and had to make our way through 5 cars to get to our seats!

A few hours later at 300 km/ph we arrived in Zhengzhou. We got subway tickets and emerged above ground just minutes from our hotel. Whew! We had a lovely dinner at a noodle joint, met a new friend who offered us free translation any time ( she works in sales and manufacturing) and then made a short trip to Wal-Mart. The next morning, we set out to buy some things our OT and PT (Leslie and Aimee!!) need to help our kiddos. QiRui, our room manager, and Yang Yang, the assistant director met us at the hotel to give us a ride to XuChang. There was not enough room in the car so Yang Yang. QiRui and Krista took the fast train. We checked into the hotel with some issue as they wanted twice our week room charge as a deposit and our credit cards were not working. Sigh. Finally my debit card worked and Leslie went with QiRui to 8 banks to get a debit machine to take her card and spit out money.

 
Finally we went to dinner down the street for some delicious hot pot. We were surprised to see a robot delivering food! Tomorrow we are very excited to head to the orphanage and meet "our" kids.

Adoption at the Movies

Source: Adoption at the Movies : The Third Annual Adoption at the Movies Awards

First Hugs Board of Directors Annual Visit to China

All of us at First Hugs would like to wish all our family, friends and supporters a Happy Chinese New Year.  2016 is the year of the Monkey!  We are delighted to report that there has been a buzz of activities happening for the children.          Hurrah! We have finally booked tickets for our annual visit to China. Krista and Moya first visited XuChang Social Welfare Institute in 2010. They had no idea at that time that they would return 5 years later to start a program there. “We were deeply affected by our first visit to XuChang There was a seed planted and it was amazing to us that we ended up there years later!” says First Hugs Executive Director, Moya Smith. This visit will be extra special. Not only will it be our first visit to First Hugs at XuChang, this time we are bringing a pediatric Occupational Therapist, Leslie Brock and a pediatric Physical Therapist, Aimee Ryan. Both women are parents to children from China. Leslie’s daughter was in First Hugs at XinXiang. Follow our trip on our blog or on facebook

Wish List for XuChang Trip Moya and Krista have put together a wish list of items they hope to deliver to the children at XuChang.  We understand that times are tough for everyone, but if you can make one tiny sacrifice it would make such a huge impact! Here is the link in case you would like to contribute: Thank you in advance for helping the children of XuChang!   Click Here to View the Wish List

Why did you do that?

Recently a First Hugs sponsor sent me a great question. Why, she asked, did you change the amount to fully sponsor one child from $1000 to $2000?  When we did that, it was purely to reflect changes in our budget when we moved our program from XinXiang to XuChang.  In the interest of being fully transparent, I am going to share our costs with you.

First of all, labor is more expensive in XuChang . In XinXiang we paid each of 6 staff 1400 yuan monthly plus we paid them for holidays. We paid our room manager 2400 yuan monthly. The SWI paid their insurance. At XuChang, we pay each of 9 staff members 2500 yuan monthly. We have 20 children at XuChang, up from 15 we budgeted for at XinXiang (Although we sometimes had up to 17 children at XX.) We also hired one nanny at XuChang to cook for the children (insuring that the children get good nutritious food and plenty of it!) and cleaning. When she is finished, she spends time with the children. We also pay our manager from XinXiang 2000 yuan monthly to go to XuChang two days weekly.

Most of our donors are drawn to sponsor children. They get quarterly reports and photos. So we made sponsorship for one child $2,000. We expect it will take several sponsors to fully sponsor each child. If all children are fully sponsored, we will have raised $40,000 (20 children times $2,000 full sponsorship) of our $51,000 budget.

There is no doubt we are facing an extra challenge this coming year to raise more money than ever. Our budget has gone from $30,000 to $50,000. We are dedicated to changing things at XuChang for the children. We are hopeful many people will join us in seeing a bright future for these children.

We are planning our annual trip to China in March. We are very excited to visit our program at XuChang for the first time. Krista Dolan and Moya Smith from the First Hugs board will be traveling. As always, we pay all of our own travel expenses. No money from First Hugs goes towards any travel expenses. This trip, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist will be traveling with us. Both have children adopted from China and both are passionate about helping orphans. They will pay their own expenses as well. Every cent raised for First Hugs goes to the children; to pay the nannies’ salaries. 

KEEP Collective & First Hugs  Fundraiser What is Keep Collective? Keep Collective a company that strives to empower people to focus on what really matter in their life through personalized jewelry! The interchangeable design system allows you to create your one-of-a-kind piece to represent your one-of-a-kind life!  First Hugs has coupled with Keep Collective to raise funds for First Hugs while giving you one of a kind personalized jewelry! From now until December 22nd, First Hugs will receive 100% of the profit of all Keep Collective’s keepers (bracelets) and keys (charms) purchased through the fundraiser! Click here to shop

Give the gift of sponsorship

You can give a sponsorship of a child in our Gracie's Room/ First Hugs Program for just $25. Simply complete the form below and be sure to include the honoree email address.If you are unable to view the form please use the direct paypal link to the right to make your donation, and we will be in contact with you shortly.Your donation of $25 or more will help keep the babies hugged and cuddled through out the year, while the honored individual ) in your life will receive a card letting them know they are part of such an amazing program. Along with a card, updates on the babies they help, will be sent to the at the email address you provide. To ensure your honoree receives the correct type of card please select it in the drop down menu on the form below or type it in the designated space. Cards will be similar to those pictured on the right, but may differ slightly.  Thank you for helping us care for these little ones.
Click here to order.

How can I educate my adopted children's school about their needs