care package/ fundraiser

We have sent little guy a care package. When we volunteered in Shenyang at the orphanage we saw that the kids were able to see photo albums of their new families and the staff and the kids would be so proud to show the pictures. The kids would say Mama and Baba(Daddy) and point to the pictures. The orphange staff even would prop the album up so that when they were in the cribs they could see the pictures. We know one family sent a stuffed animal, but when we volunteered we never saw the stuffed animal. So when we found out our son where our son was, we immediately sent off a photo album. We followed a couple of blogs of people adopting from the same orphanage and noticed that it seemed that the kids were getting stuffed animals that were sent, but not being shown the pictures until just before the adoption. That broke our heart. We really wanted our son to know that he had somebody out in the world who loved him and was waiting to make him a part of a family. And we wanted him to be familiar with our faces, so maybe he would be less scared when we met. Soooo....we found the solution. A stuffed animal with a photo face.

the stuffed family

Actually it's a keychain. The Chinese seem to love keychains. They are always giving them to our daughter and have one attached to zippers, phones, etc. So we think that the staff will think it is very cute and novel. It's personal enough that it should be distributed! We went to a kiosk and had our pictures taken and then they made our face into 3-d plastic model. It is very funny!

Bunny and chics at the kiosk

Then they put it into the keychain stuffed animal.

froggie baby

Behind our face they had sewn shut the little critter so that the stuffing was really in there and not going to leak. It is small but seems safe for kids. I think it could be hung on the side of a bed. We sent him a set of our family, mom,dad, sisters, and him. We kept another set for our daughter to see how they hold up. They have held up well. It's great for roleplays. Our daughter kisses her brother toy one minute, then gets mad at her sister and puts sister toy in time out.

mom and sister chic

little miss playing with her chics

We got little tigers for dad and little guy and bunny's for the females in our family.

Little tiger

For the second set we got tigers and chicks. We got a panda too, its a little bigger and more like a small beanie baby size.

Mom Panda

I like the small ones best. Anyway, we'd be happy to send a set of any other adoptive families to their orphanage. I talked to the maker and they started in Japan and are only in a few places in China so far. The pictures have to be high resolution so the referal photos might not work, I was lucky and had a picture that someone else had taken on their digital camera so it worked. We thought having his little face on a toy was a bonus, our main goal was sending our love with an image of us he could hold. Little ones are $5 and the panda is $8 plus actual cost of shipping and we are in China so shipping is quick and not too much. Email cbilik01@gmail.com if we can help you out.

Mom chic

care package/ fundraiser

Harbin, China