In the final hour, dear friends of ours stepped up and committed to bringing the last of the three buddies into their home to be advocated for as well. He wasn’t left behind. As we pray for the right family to find our little Chinese friend; we are praying for him too. We don’t want any one of these boys left behind.

10 days into hosting “Jasper,” here’s what they’ve learned so far about him:

– His favorite song is a song called “Punctuation” featured on a LeapPad system, and he giggles when he raises his voice with a question mark. “Happy Day” is definitely rising in popularity though given that it’s his buddy’s favorite song.
– He was deathly afraid of his host family’s dog when he arrived but has since become a sweet helper for the “hǎo gǒu.”
– He has mastered riding a bike in one week after never having ridden one. It is one of his favorite things to do. And, he looks super cute in a helmet!

– He says “thank you” without prompting now with the cutest little accent that you have ever heard.
– He surprised his host family with his willingness to help with chores that their kids don’t even do—folding laundry, clearing the table, bringing in the groceries, and making his bed daily.
– He is happy…all the time. And even when he falls (which he does sometimes because of some weak balance), he never cries or throws tantrums.
– He loves Fruity Cheerios, ice cream, spaghetti, and cheese curls—all of which he can house in 5 seconds flat.
– He goes to bed well and sleeps through the night, waking his host family up with the “pitter patter” of his new light-up Lightening McQueen sandals, which he loves.
– He’s an “early reader” but definitely can read his own name as well as the name of his best friends.
– He cares for his host siblings but is especially concerned when their 4 year old cries.
– He is a strong lefty who loves running with a kite trailing behind him.
– He has conquered his fear of the pool after he jumped in without hesitation the first time he saw it. Now, with guiding hands, he loves the water.
– He laughs when they dance in the kitchen, he laughs when they sing, he laughs when they try to copy his Chinese, he laughs when they laugh, actually, he laughs almost all the time.
– He is tough with free, unstructured time because he doesn’t know how to use it or what to do.
– He loves to play with other children rather than by himself; he doesn’t like to be alone, though he’s already getting much better with it.
– He loves music and will repeat lyrics instantly.
– He needs a family with kids who will love him well and play hard!

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We are currently hosting the boy MAA calls “Brett” for advocating purposes; our friends are hosting “Jasper.” If you feel the nudge that one of these boys may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me and/or the social worker at Madison who is working hard to find them families too. Note that Madison is offering $3,000 in grants towards each boy’s adoption with possibly more available!

We’ve had only 9 days with our friend; but, we’ve learned a lot about him in those 9 days with most of the learning happening in the last 3 days as he’s gotten a whole lot more comfortable with us.

– His favorite American songs are “YMCA” and “Happy Day,” singing them both with an adorable Chinese accent.
– He’s scared of cats and dogs, but he will cautiously pet our cats with encouragement.
– While his first experience at the pool was not so fun, he had a ball swimming during Visit #2 and #3.
– He surprised us by loving the sand and wave jumping at the beach.
– He laughs with a short, little chuckle.
– He matches uppercase and lowercase letters on a little learning toy we have.
– He has really cute dimples.
– His favorite American food is spaghetti with my homemade sauce.
– He never turns down a banana and doesn’t like strawberries at all.
– He is a great Lego builder and paper-folding engineer (think origami boat and basket).
– He has a love-hate relationship with ice cream (tastes good but so cold!).
– His favorite arcade game is the candy claw machine (it’s play until you win…smart boy).
– He sleeps like a champ.
– He burps like a champ (but is learning to say “excuse me” at least).
– He’s rather parrot-like with English, mimicking nearly everything we say.
– The first English sentence he learned and now uses (a lot) was, “It’s okay.”
– He is a little bit of a pain with a seatbelt.
– He’s also a little bit of a pain with the buttons for the automatic sliding doors in the van (grrrrrrr…..).
– He and his buddy (hosted with one of our best friends) are quite the pair; his buddy is clearly the ring leader, and he laughs and follows along.
– He doesn’t like being told “no,” but he does listen and let us be in charge.
– Drew (GeGe) is his best friend in our family, followed closely by Mark (ShuShu).
– Eye contact is hard for him, but we’ve seen him start to take a bit more risks and try.
– He’s sensitive, crying silent tears for a few minutes when overwhelmed.
– One of his coping mechanisms when under stress is to really focus on something (like Legos for an hour and a half).
– He loves taking pictures when he’s the photographer, but he doesn’t like being in front of the camera or even looking at pictures he’s in.
– He loves piggyback rides from Ayi.
– He likes fake sneezing to receive a blessing (we’re saying “God bless you” nearly all day long).
– He needs a family, one preferably willing to be lifelong friends with us because all of us really, really care about this little man.

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If you feel the nudge that he may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me.

We all knew our beach visit could be a short one if he didn’t like the sand between his toes and the waves rolling in. But, the six of us were very happy that it was an all-around win.

He’s an undercover beach bum. The sand, the shells, the waves. Even the handholding. All were a big hit.

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If you feel the nudge that he may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me.

M.Y. found a fun book on Drew’s bookshelf—a paper airplane making guide. He handed it to me with big eyes, chatting away at me.

“Oh yeah, sure. I will try to make you one! Evan, come help me!”

Evan and I sat down and took out a sheet of paper from the package in the back of the book and started studying the instructions.

Step 1. check. Okay, Step 2. Fold here. Got it. Step 3…hmmm….Evan, do you think it goes like this….

When we were struggling through Step 15, we looked to our side and there M.Y. was holding this…

yeah…in the time it took a high school freshman and a nearly 40 year old woman to make a paper airplane, he could have made about 3 of these.

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We are currently hosting until mid-July with the intention of advocating for this sweet child so his forever family can find him. If you feel the nudge that he may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me and/or the social worker at Madison who is working hard to find him a family too. Note that Madison is offering $3,000 in grants towards his adoption with possibly more available!