I happened to notice that it has been quite a while since I posted. I’ve been working on a big project for the past two months that I had planned to let you know about in early 2016. But then we got TRAVEL APPROVAL so now we’re leaving for China in 10 days! I guess you’ll have to wait a few more weeks to hear about the big project. Next week I’ll let you know our travel itinerary and I will begin blogging our journey.

I have just a few links for you on What I’m Reading but I’ll throw in three movie reviews to make up for it.

Julie from My Five Boys blogs A Year of Firsts at Madison Moms. So many people worry about adopting a child over the age of three but Julie shares how wonderful it has been to watch her 5 year old son experience so many new things through his first year home. Because he was older he could share all his wonder and excitement! The pictures in this post are perfect. My favorite was the Halloween one.

Vicki adopted two of her daughters in Nanjing on the same day that we adopted Leo. She recently adopted again and this is the post she wrote about visiting her daughter’s orphanage. The orphanage has a drop box house for children to be abandoned by their parents. I was particularly moved by the fact that it notifies parents of resources that are available to them and requests that they leave a note with their child’s birthdate.

There was a great FAQ on anal atresia posted on the NHBO blog.

From Bloomberg Business: The Children of China’s Cancer Slum

Holt International posted an article on the myth that you and your adopted child will feel love at first sight on their blog.

There were three new adoption related documentaries to hit rental services this past month.

Find Me – The Documentary follows the adoption journey of a few families who are adopting from China. The crew is asked by an orphanage director to find a family for one girl in particular, so her adoption is followed from start to finish. The film makers take the time to include information on the children’s finding spots and the nannies who care for the children. I appreciated that they highlighted the life of these children before they were adopted. It was especially nice that the difficult circumstances which lead to child abandonment were mentioned. I would have appreciated if they had chosen to explicitly mention that boys were available and to highlight a boy’s adoption more. There was one at the end, but it wasn’t the full focus the way the girl adoptions were. It’s a great documentary for anyone interested in adopting from China. Find Me is available to stream online for Amazon Prime members.

Twinsters is a documentary that follows two young women in different countries who stumble each across each other and find that they are identical twins. Both were adopted from Korea but to separate families, one in France and one in the United States. There is really not too much more to the documentary than that. One of my thoughts watching it was that it is so typically Millenial to record yourself finding out about some big event in your life. Much of the documentary is in the form of selfie videos and chat logs. There were some parts which had more depth. One twin shared more struggles about being adopted while the other twin said she had a more positive experience. Both traveled to Korea and were able to meet their foster mothers. Their birth mother refused contact and in fact maintained that she had not given twins, or any child, up for adoption. The best part was simply watching them develop a close relationship. Twinsters is available to view on Netflix. Note: Twinsters has some PG-13 language.

The Drop Box is a documentary about Pastor Lee in South Korea who takes in abandoned children. After several babies were left at his door, and knowing that abandoned infants die of exposure every year in his city, he builds a drop box at his home. The drop box sets off a national debate about whether it encourages women to abandon their babies or if it is only helping to keep babies safe who would have been abandoned anyway. Pastor Lee’s story unfolds with the film and we learn how the birth of his own son was a catalyst in helping him to do this work. The abandonment of children with special needs is a focus, as is the social stigma of unwed mothers in South Korea. In the end, the message of the movie is that all life is worthwhile and has a purpose. The Drop Box is available to view on Netflix. Mollie Holt from Holt International makes an appearance in the film, which you can see in the trailer below.