Children's Hope International E-Newsletter

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Recipes for a
Complete Holiday
A Traditional Russian
Christmas Dinner!

DEVELOPMENT AID:

An Orphan's
Christmas List
A New Year and Future
for Ethiopian Orphans

BLOG OF THE MONTH:

Blog of the Month
Meeting Her Children's
Beginnings

PARENT-TO-PARENT:

Parent-To-Parent
Your Child's Early
Life to Remember

KIDS CORNER:

Kids Corner
Cookie Puppets
Come Alive!

PROGRAM UPDATES:

	China Five China Families Receive the Gift of Referrals
	Colombia What a Year!
	Ethiopia Courts Rescheduled, Families Traveling
	Kazakhstan Families Bringing Home New Loved Ones
	Russia Breaking news from Russia!
	Vietnam Families Begin Receiving 1-600 Approvals!

Request a copy of our Adoption
Guide to see which program
is right for your family.

Help the lives of orphans by sponsoring a child today!

Get your church involved
with orphan ministry.

Our Accreditations

Every Christmas the Carscaddens build a gingerbread house. Although her son Jacob hasn't been too interested in recent years, parents Kathleen and Bob thought it would be a tradition to begin with their newly adopted 5-year-old daughter, Jessica. Watch Jessica in action and get into the Christmas spirit with a girl whose smile can melt the frostiest Scrooge-heart.

Our little Miss Jessica Hualiang has been home just over a month and is not only the light of her Baba and Mama's life, but has her big brother completely wrapped around her little finger. Jessica has been an absolute study in what can go right in an older, special needs adoption. We are wishing every Children's Hope family a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. ~ Bob, Kathleen, Jacob and Jessica Carscadden www.freewebs.com/jessieshome

During our 2.5 year wait for Nate, the holidays were the hardest for me. I kept thinking, "Will this be the year we get to see Christmas through the eyes of our child?" The answer was always "no"...until this year. We have much to be thankful for and the biggest thing is bundled in a 23lb package. This is how God answered our prayers for a child...

You prayed for help when we found out we needed $15,000 in adoption fees. He answered your prayers by providing us over $16,000 in just 3 months! He went beyond that by bringing many people together during the fundraising weeks.

You prayed that our baby would be healthy. Through Children's Hope, God gave us a BEAUTIFUL, healthy 10-month-old boy. He is in the 90th percentile for height, is average weight for his age and the worst he had was a little cold.

You prayed that he would adjust to his new life easily....God answered you by helping Nate bond to his dad immediately and adjust to his new home within 3 weeks. He never had night terrors or bad reactions to new food... He enjoyed being with us and has slept through the night since day one.

You prayed that WE would adjust to our new life as parents... God gave us an easy child...a fast learner who helped us get into a routine quickly, professions that allowed us to be with him, and understanding/ patient friends and family who helped us during those crucial first few weeks.

Even through the long wait, Nate came to us at the right age, at the right time in our lives. Any sooner and we would not have received him. Not that we wouldn't have been happy with another baby...but we are glad that we have our son. He was worth waiting for.

I am so excited about Christmas this year. As I was unpacking all our decorations, I came across the stocking holder that we had bought over 2 years ago for our expected child. Each year it sat up on our mantel empty, but this year, it will hold our new son's stocking of goodies.

He is the best Christmas gift we could have ever received. And because of that, we named him Nathaniel, which means "Gift of God".

Don & Denise Sullivan
ddsullivan2@msn.com

Pictured on the left: their son Nathaniel. Pictured on the right: Denise Sullivan as a baby in 1968, during her first Christmas. "Now, almost 40 years later, my son gets to celebrate his. And wouldn't you know it- They still make those little Santa suits."