A few weeks ago I finally got to view the film “Babies,” which I had wanted to see when it was first released in May of 2010, when I was pregnant with my own baby.
The film follows four babies in four different countries—Japan, Mongolia, the United States and Namibia—from the time of their birth until they are one, capturing in wordless storytelling and beautiful cinematography the different ways infants are raised in each of these countries.
The director, Thomas Balmes has said the film was meant to, in the words of one Salon reviewer, “transcend cultural and geographical barriers.” I’m betting that the producers behind the International Museum of Women’s (IMOW) new online exhibition, “MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe,” have the same intention.
The exhibition, which was launched in late January, explores the issues of maternal health and the unique challenges and perspectives faced by mothers around the world. There’s a lot to look at, and much of it is powerful.
A Montclair family is advocating to find families for older, orphaned children from Colombia, and an event has been planned for July 10, to which potential families and interested parties are invited.
Rachael and Mark Egan, who adopted their own two daughters from infancy in New York, told Barista Kids (which wrote about the non-profit Kidsave.org’s Summer Miracles program here) they feel passionately about this endeavor.
Here’s an interview BK had with Rachael recently:
Who should attend this event on Sunday?
People interested in learning about older child adoption, people interested in learning about hosting an orphan, or to advocate for their adoption, and people interested in learning about volunteering with Kidsave.org (a non-profit dedicated to helping older orphans and foster-care children meet people who may adopt them) to help older orphans around the world and in New Jersey.
It was brutally hot in Guangzhou. We landed at the airport and were taken directly (and unexpectedly) to the government building where our babies would be brought to us from various orphanages in Southeast China. Though most of the trip had been meticulously planned and executed, we were learning to roll with the punches. And this was a pretty big punch: we’d been told that, after landing, we’d check in at the White Swan Hotel with plenty of time to unpack and prepare diaper bags for the babies’ arrival. But there we were in 103-degree weather, being shuttled from the tarmac to the Cultural Center, sans diapers, wipes, clothes, bottles, formula, or toys.
We were 18 families from all over the US who traveled to China en masse, meeting up in Beijing for four days of sightseeing, Peking Duck, and shopping. Then we split into two groups to collect our little ones, mine heading south to Guangdong Province.
That fateful day, we waited in the Cultural Center for well over 2 hours. There was no air conditioning. The toilets in the bathroom were holes in the floor. Anxiety was mounting; husbands and wives bickered nervously. And for the 1,000th time, I looked at my sister-in-law, Shaye, with love and gratitude for making this amazing journey with me — while my husband remained in Montclair, recuperating from emergency surgery and trying his best to ready our new daughter’s room.
All of a sudden, we heard them enter the building: babies crying, caregivers speaking Chinese, a glorious, terrifying hubbub of bodies, languages, and confusion. They began calling out baby names in Chinese and English, carrying them into the room where we awaited. “Fu Yu Diaz,” Shaye and I heard, and we sang out together, “That’s our baby!” In an instant, I had become a Mother.
Worldwide Orphans Foundation, founded in 1997 by Dr. Jane Aronson of Maplewood, works to address the unique needs of orphaned children worldwide through medical, developmental, psychosocial and educational programs. It’s a highly respected organization.
Board member and Manhattan real estate developer Matthew Blesso, started a tradition on his birthday to celebrate and raise funds for WWO. This year’s party called Blesso’s 3rd Annual Birthday Celebration will take place on the rooftop deck of his penthouse loft in NYC. The evening will feature musical and artistic performances from around the world. It will include special performances by The Energy, the Ethiopian jazz band Arki, Chloe Temtchin, Irwin Thomas, DJ Vito Fun, acrobatic and aerialist team RI KI KAI and more…
The party will also include Brooklyn-based artist Andrew Ohanesian, who will reconstruct his critically-acclaimed bar installation, Mandies, for the benefit. It’s like stepping into a Brooklyn dive bar from the roof of a Noho penthouse and becoming both bartender and guest all at once.
But the best part, for me at least, is that Amy Poehler, of Parks and Recreation and SNL fame, will be there to speak and mingle. I’m a huge fan of the very funny, intelligent Poehler. The minute I saw her do the Sarah Palin rap on SNL when she was nine months pregnant, I was hooked.
Maplewood’s Dr. Jane Aronson, WWO Founder and CEO, will be at Words Bookstore tonight sharing her deeply personal essay entitled, “Dare to be Happy” on her pivotal decision to adopt her first son, Ben. The essay is part of Katie Couric’s newly-released book The Best Advice I Ever Got. It’s a wonderful and timely essay for Mother’s Day.
The bookstore will offer copies signed by both Dr. Aronson and Katie Couric.
Children’s Aid and Family Services is holding an open house with information about fostering or adopting a child on Thursday, May 12 at The Geyer Family YMCA in Montclair. The agency is seeking loving and nurturing individuals and couples to care for medically needy infants and toddlers, as well as older children in its care.
In addition to comprehensive training and support from the agency, foster parents receive a financial stipend and children have medical coverage. But the reward of helping a child in need is priceless.
Children’s Aid and Family Services is one of the leading nonprofit human services organizations serving northern New Jersey. The agency is fully accredited and has served the community for more than 110 years. Its mission is to preserve, protect, and when needed, provide families. Motivated by compassion for vulnerable children, young adults, frail elderly and their families, it provides high-quality and innovative services that meet their social, educational and emotional needs.
Adoptive and foster families often face unique challenges, and in some cases there can be issues in cementing the parent-child bond. Social worker Kate Langhart, MSW, LCSW, specializes in practical strategies for dealing with issues of attachment and/or trauma in adoptive and foster-child situations, and will be leading a free workshop of games and activities at the Maplewood Library Hilton Branch on Thursday, April 28, 6:30 pm. Langhart, who recently moved to Baristaville from Pennsylvania and opened a family practice in Springfield, talked about what parents can expect from the workshop.
If you’ve ever felt blessed for everyday things in life that are easy to take for granted, like family, you may appreciate the warm thoughts behind Kidsave.org‘s Summer Miracles program.
Kidsave, a nonprofit which works to move older kids out of foster care or orphanages and into permanent, loving homes, plans to bring orphaned or abandoned children, age 8 to 13, to Montclair and the New York metropolitan area from Colombia, and to find host families for them for a four-week summer visit.
The goal of this visit is to help these kids find permanent families, their own “forever homes.”
Montclair resident, adoption-advocate, and author Zara Phillips just released the American version of her adoption memoir, Mother Me, after having previously published it in her native England. It hit bookshelves here yesterday, Valentines Day.
Phillips’s book chronicles her journey to discover the truth about her birth and herself. Although Phillips knew she was adopted ever since early childhood, it was something that was never spoken about.
“Yes, you know, but don’t tell anybody,” Phillips recalled of the prevailing sentiment in 1964 when she was adopted. “I could never talk about being adopted.”
And, so, Phillips kept those feelings inside, never at liberty to discuss her conflicted and confusing emotions. “I didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel connected to anybody or anything. I really needed to know my story because in my head I thought I must be a mistake. I really felt my [biological] mother didn’t want me. I carried that into my teenage years.”
Years that are tumultuous for most became disastrous for Phillips. She began to act out, use drugs and alcohol and express her internal strife. “I had a terrible anger.” Phillips said. “It was rage, really.”
At the time neither Phillips nor her mother understood the root of her emotions and behaviors, and Phillips’s involvement in the 80’s London rock scene didn’t help provide any clarity.
It’s that time of year again when everybody’s making resolutions – mostly concerning their weight. But this year you can do the typical loose-the-extra-pounds thing while also helping to change a child’s life.
Montclair resident and adoptive mother Jessica Chu is running The NJ Marathon Festival at the Shore this spring to raise money for an organization that helps orphaned and impoverished children in China and rural Tibet. But Chu is more than just a racer she is a volunteer with the organization, Love Without Boundaries (LWB), and she is organizing a team of resolution-making, Barista readers – and anyone else for that matter – to join her on May 1st down the shore in beautiful Long Branch, NJ to participate in one of three marathon events. Hard-core Baristavillians can do the full 26-mile marathon, and regular people can run either the 13-mile half marathon or the half marathon relay, which splits two 6-mile legs between a two-person team.
“The marathon is a great way to get in shape,” Chu said, “especially after making those New Years resolutions.” And she pointed out the half marathon is perfect for people who aren’t runners. “It’s an attainable goal for a non-runner.”
The race is also a great way to help a child in need.
