More about Nathan

Nathan has lived with the same foster family since he was 3 years old.  In China, foster care is closely supervised by the local orphanage.  From reading his foster care reports, he has clearly been well cared for.  His foster family includes three other children- a pretty large number of kids under one roof, especially in China (but just wait till he gets here!)  Two of his foster sibs have fairly significant medical issues and their foster parents have worked very hard to help those two boys develop life skills.  All of this to say, we think it's going to be really HARD for him to leave.  Some of you are likely wondering, "Why not leave this boy where he is?  Why uproot him from the only family he has even known?"

We asked these questions too.  And what we found was that, unfortunately, orphans in China have a really rough road ahead of them.  In China, your family line and name is very important.  An orphan has no family line or name.  Domestic adoption in China, while growing, tends to be for very young babies only.  No one is lined up waiting for older kids (kinda like in the US, hmmm....)  Once they turn 14, children are no longer eligible for adoption.  At 16, they are on their own.  Most receive substandard education.  In Nathan's case, he did not start school at the normal age, but instead, 2 years late.  When we questioned the reasons for this, we were told that it was "normal" for SWI (Social Welfare Institute) kids to start school late.  So from the get-go, they are at a disadvantage.  Also, they are usually sent to poor schools, because in many places, parents don't want their children going to school with 'unlucky' orphans.  After digging around a bit, we found that even the VERY FEW orphans that receive a college education have trouble getting hired (has to do with that 'unlucky' orphan thing.) 

I think I have fairly accurately described the situation in China.  Feel free to comment or correct me if I have misstated the facts!

Here are some more pics of our boy over the years:

Love this one!

With his foster sister

I bet they made him hold those flowers!

With his foster sister again...she sounds like a clone of our Grace!

With his foster mama and two foster sibs