Welcome to the Starfish Foster Home:

Greetings from Patrick McLaughlin, President of the StarfishBoard of Directors    April 6, 2012

 

Here is an update on the status of Starfish and Amanda.

 

• The Starfish Foster Home has been recently blessed by the work, service, and dedication of our interim director Patrick Belnap. While Amanda is away for medical treatment, Patrick has stepped in and taken control of a very fragile situation at the foster home, and has done so with flying colors. All this while his wife was back in the United States preparing for the birth of their second child. He is to be given a hero’s thank you! Now he needs to be off to join his wife, and we wish him well in his adventures as a new dad. Thank you Patrick Belnap!
• We are happy to introduce to you our interim-interim director – Naomi Kerwin. Naomi is “on-loan” from Children’s Hope foster home in Beijing. She has worked with Melody Zhang at Children’s Hope and comes with great experience and dedication. We are thrilled to have her on board with us for however long we can keep her. Thank you Naomi – and welcome to Starfish!
• We also now have a medical volunteer nurse who has given up her job in the United States to come and help us at Starfish for a time – Gillian Wain. Gillian has many years of NICU experience and was happy to accept our request for her to come and provide medical oversight for the babies. We appreciate her so much – she is a true saint! We will be looking for other long-term medical volunteers in the future for when she needs to return home.
• After a short pause in our volunteer services, we are now scheduling volunteers again, particularly those who meet specific Starfish needs. We have made some changes to our volunteer policies in order to best meet the needs of the children. Those who are interested in applying for volunteering can contact Deborah Coffey at volunteerforstarfish@gmail.com.
• Amanda is doing well and feeling strong. She is preparing for a surgery on April 18^th to remove a tumor. She appreciates everyone’s well-wishes, prayers, and expressions of love. She is also actively involved in all of Starfish’s decisions and direction, and looks forward to getting back to China as soon as possible.

 

 

Our priority remains the care and help for the Starfish babies, and the health and strength of Amanda. We appreciate all the concern, prayers, and well-wishes of all our Starfish friends during this time. Thank you all for your support.
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Our founder and executive director in China, Amanda de Lange has received highly esteemed humanitarian awards for her relentless work in building the Starfish Foster Home. We all know that Amanda is the heart and soul of the organization -- we are so proud of her and the amazing dedication she tirelessly gives to the babies.