Update on Joy!

If you have read our adoption website you know that in December we decided to be a "foster parent" to a child in China. This means that we were able to pay for her to get foster care in China. We were assigned Zhu Joy. Joy was found on Sept. 8th, 2005. She was a premature baby. She had a lung infection and then was placed in a foster home to get better care. Joy lives with a foster mother, father, and two big sisters that are 18 and 24. Joy's foster family took good care of her. I just got my quarterly update on Joy and was sad to find out that she has been very sick and nearly died. When the man who writes the reports went to visit Joy at the Foster Family's home the mom was playing and talking with Joy when he arrived. Joy looked good but when he took off her cap he discovered Joy's hair had been cut and there were pinholes all over her head. (Often IV's are given in the head to children in China) The foster mom teared up when she had to report that Joy had been very sick from November 11th to January 6th. She started with a cough that didn't get better. On December 11th Joy was diagnosed with pneumonia and put in the hospital. During the time she was in the hospital the foster mom was informed that she might not survive, several times!. She finally did recover and left the hospital on January 6th, 2006. That is all that was in the report. You can see our original pictures of Joy on our adoption website, in the photo section. www.pomafamily.com Please pray for Joy that she continues to stay well and that she is soon available for adoption. This is where Joy lives and how you can sponser a child. Guilin, Guangxi Guilin, located in the Guangxi Province, in Southern China is famous for its exquisite beauty and limestone formations. The plains around Guilin are mostly agricultural with the city becoming a modern metropolis of almost a million residents and has many tourists every year. The Guilin SWI is provides a home to over 450 orphaned children in this area. Working with Grace-Hope for Children (www.grace-hope.org) we are able to offer foster care for both children minor medical needs and special needs children. For more information about foster care in Guilin contact LeeAnn at leeann@lovewithoutboundaries.com.