[Amymomamie]

Just wondering among any of the Eastern adoptive families if you've sent gifts back to Eastern after you've arrived home. We've been told by our SW that anything we sent Eastern will be taxed on and it isn't really helpful to send items because of this. We would really love to send some clothes and toys to the care of our son's SW and hopefully his foster mother but don't want to disrupt the system. Anyone have any suggestions?

[tinkerbell11599]

We were told the same thing but also we didn't have alot of time for shipping overseas and such (especially since we thought our son was coming earlier and with our daughter we had no idea when she was coming). We didn't send anything before but we're sending pictures afterwards (alot of them I might add). The foster moms love to see how the kids are doing. So we send over art work drawn by the kids and photo albums and letters on how our kids are doing.

I hope this helps you out.

Jen

[Amymomamie]

Yeah...we've sent two sets of photo's for our son's social worker and foster mother already and we've only been home 2 months. My intent is to send something at the end of each month until he is at least 1 then every 2 or 3 months indefinately. We already know his birth parents visited him prior to us traveling so we're really hopeful that these pictures will get to them.

We's just really like to send some clothes and toys over but don't want to impose any financial burder upon ESWS either. I know they always welcome cash donations but wanted the funds/items to get directly to the children rather than possibly being used to fund other programs. Not that that is bad because so much of what they do helps a wide variety of children in need...just our foster mother was so thankful of the clothes and toys we brought to her when we traveled we wished we had brought some more.

Amy

[sak9645]

Some agencies send packages with other traveling families. You might ask your agency if it can arrange to have a traveling family hand carry your gift to Eastern.

But do make sure, by talking with your agency, that your gift will be acceptable to Eastern. As an example, even poor orphanages in some countries will not accept donations of "gently used" clothing. It is considered insulting. Only new clothing should be sent.

With China, there are reputable American charitable organizations with Chinese offices, like the Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, that will let you pay cash for them to order supplies from Chinese stores, where the prices are cheaper than in the U.S., and then deliver them to the orphanage of your choice. You can order everything from toothbrushes to educational toys and books (in Chinese) to baby clothing through these groups, with confidence that the money you send will be used for supplies needed by the orphanage. And since your donation actually goes to an American 501(c)3 charity, you can even take a tax deduction. You might want to check to see if there are similar organizations working in Korea.

Sharon