Foster Care

After mentioning that Katelyn was in foster care, a few people wanted to learn more... I thought I'd just go ahead and post it here...

We received Katelyn's referral in February 19, 2008. On March 28, 2008, I received an email from one of the yahoo groups I belonged to... this one is specifically for Katelyn's orphanage. Anyway, the email was from Erin, and she was looking for the family of Ji Jiangzhou. Turns out, Erin had been sponsoring Katelyn to be in foster care. I had no clue! Eventually, Erin and I connected and chatted a bit on the phone. She was so excited that Katelyn had a family waiting for her, and I was thrilled to speak with the woman who made a huge difference in Katelyn's early life. Here's what I learned from Erin...

She began sponsoring Katelyn when she was 3 or 4 months old (we're not exactly sure when she entered foster care, but that's when her sponsorship began). It was believed then that Katelyn was the least likely to be adopted (because of her special need), so they wanted to place her in foster care so she'd get individual attention. Keep in mind that most children with spina bifida receive surgery within 24-48 hours of being born... Katelyn didn't receive her surgery till she was 9 months old. She then remained in foster care so she could recover and, in fact, thrive!

In November of this past year, Erin was notified that Katelyn had been adopted, so her sponsorship had ended. Of course, I was totally confused about all of this! How could she have been adopted when we didn't receive her info till February?!?!? I contacted the woman in charge of organizing foster care for Katelyn's orphanage and found out that Katelyn had been brought back to the orphanage in November '07 because they thought she was going to be adopted by a Chinese family... but then it didn't happen.

Now that we are home with Katelyn, the organization that arranges the sponsorship has shared 2 reports with us that they had received while Katelyn was in foster care. Below are the pics of her with her foster mom.

This picture was in a report dated January 2007... she would have been close to a year old at the time, and it would have been taken after her surgery.

This picture was in a report dated August 2007. Katelyn would have been 18 months old at the time. The shoes she is wearing in the picture are the same shoes she was wearing when they brought her to us this past June.

I'm planning on sending an update on Katelyn's progress (and some pics) to the orphanage in hopes that they can send it to the foster family. China has a strict policy about foster families not having contact with the adoptive families... so I don't know that I'll ever get to correspond with them, but I at least want them to know that Katelyn is doing well.

I am so thankful that Erin and I connected and she was able to share such valuable info with us about Katelyn. Erin has already adopted once from China and is in the process of adopting again. We look forward to meeting one day.

Our agency was not aware that Katelyn was in foster care, but they are now! I have asked that they try to do a bit of research and see what they can find out... but we're not sure if they'll be able to find out any more than what we already know.

So, now you know what we know...