Magnificent "Middles"

Some of you who know me hear me refer to my "littles", my "middles", and my teens and on of course to adult kids and "grandblessings". Today I want to share about magnificent "middles" . I love the ages groups of kids between about 7-8 to 11 or 12 year olds. This is kind of a forgotten age in child raising sometimes. These are not cute little kids like infants, toddlers and preschoolers. And the are not yet teens who are pseudo adults that you can mostly relate to in adult kind of way. "Middles" have a lot of positive things that we forget about unless we have kids that age at home. One of the nicest things about this age group is they still like you. They still love and cuddle with mom and dad. They still seek to please and love nothing more than spending time with their parent. You are still their hero! One of the things I like about Down Syndrome children is they take longer to get through their childhood. That means "I" get to enjoy all those neat things about childhood stages a bit longer with my DS kids. So when people are considering adopting a Down Syndrome child I think you can safely assume that that child will be younger acting than typically developing children of same age. This a positive in the adoption scheme of things! There are challenges centered around adopting older and teen age kids. The adjustment and attaching to a new family can take longer and be more complicated with older kids. I think adopting a Down Syndrome child who was 8 to 12 or so would be a really nice way to add to a family!

Sweet eleven year old Sara is a lovely young lady! She is said to be able to to normally take care of her daily needs. She loves socializing with the other children and helping caregivers to care for the little ones. She attends school and her teachers say that music is her favorite subject. Sara has been in care of institution since age one. She is described as an outgoing, optimistic and active girl with a joyful smile. She appears to be high functioning and just a delightful 10 year old ready for new adventures everyday. Holt is the agency trying to place her now. You can go to Holt and fill out a short application in order to receive her file with more information.

These next two girls are with Lifeline's wonderful new program in Maoming. Here can see all the current Maoming kids including many precious Down Syndrome children. But for right now here is lovely Debra and Daphne

Debra is a pretty eight year old girl now living in an orphanage known for it's excellent care of special needs children. She is ready to be adopted! Anyone who is looking to add a fun loving girl who is at a great age to fit right into a new family please contact Amy at amy.hart@lifelineadoption.org.

Several of the children listed with Lifeline's Maoming program not only have photos listed but videos too. The video of 11 year old Daphne was the first one I watched and it brought me to tears. She is soooo sweet! She is at her school and working at her desk. At her teachers prompting she gets out her notebook to show off her writing skills for the camera man. Watching her so carefully and skillfully writing in her Chinese characters really thrilled me! I like to think all my Down Syndrome kids might learn to write so well! As with Debra, Amy at amy.hart@lifelineadoption.org is contact person at Lifeline if you might be interested in a daughter like darling Daphne.

Interested in seeing video of Daphne? Go to Daphne password "daphne"