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Thanks again to each of you who donated to help one of the orphans from the Shangrao orphanage, Rao Jiaming, come to the US this year as a high school exchange student.  In her own words:

I am happy to tell you my year here.  At first it was hard to make sense of the what was going on in school.  I made some friends a little bit but wasn’t able to do much with them.

I have a great time with my host family . I did lots of stuff that I really wanted to do when I was little, like go down the big slide and climbing. And the girls I met who are adopted from China are really nice to me.   

Maybe you know I was almost adopted internationally. But because I cared so much about my foster mom and I know how much she did for me, I wouldn’t agree to be adopted.  My foster mom took care of me even though a lot of people told her it was stupid to take care of a child that wasn’t her own.  And if I left my mom they would think that I am a person who does not know how to be thankful and they will think all the things my mom did for me did not count anymore.  And at that time I was just 13 and I did not know how dark my social life would be later in China.  in people's mind I am always a kid who does not have parents . For example if I want to get married to someone his parents will not agree with that unless maybe if I am strong and successful.

And that’s the reason why I want to try to stay here (in the United States) for more than this one year of high school.  I want to be able to choose to change my life and not always be looked at as not as good because I’m an orphan.  Another reason is because of my dream, which is to be a doctor and find a way to help people who have cancer. 

This is the first year one of our orphans was a strong enough student to participate and also brave enough to come.  I hope there will be more in the future.  But in the meantime, if you would like to host a high school student from Jiangxi province (not an orphan) for the upcoming school year, please email me at peggy@gurrad.com. Jiaming's parting email to us all:

Thank you so much for giving me a chance come here and experience a different country’s culture! After this year I feel I have been grown a lot and learned a lot! Also, I think this year will be best year in my life and affect rest of my life!  Please, tell all the people who helped me: Emma(Jiaming) really appreciates it, lots of thanks to them and best wishes to them!