![BOWEN_WishYouHappy_COVER_FINAL](<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwimble/16006677715" title="BOWEN_WishYouHappy_COVER_FINAL by Michael Mason, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7516/16006677715_b22a351794.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="BOWEN_WishYouHappy_COVER_FINAL"></a>)
Half the Sky is a US charity that operates in Chinese orphanages that was started by Jenny Bowen. She is amazing and her story is amazing and the amount of lives touched by her is AMAZING!!!
From Amazon:
“Wish You Happy Forever chronicles Half the Sky founder Jenny Bowen’s personal and professional journey to transform Chinese orphanages—and the lives of the neglected girls who live in them—from a state of quiet despair to one of vibrant promise.
After reading an article about the thousands of baby girls languishing in Chinese orphanages, Bowen and her husband adopted a little girl from China and brought her home to Los Angeles, not out of a need to build a family but rather a commitment to save one child. A year later, as she watched her new daughter play in the grass with her friends, thriving in an environment where she knew she was loved, Bowen was overcome with a desire to help the children that she could not bring home. That very day she created Half the Sky Foundation, an organization conceived to bring love into the life of every orphan in China and one that has actually managed to fulfill its promise.
In Wish You Happy Forever, a fish out of water tale like no other, Bowen relates her struggle to bring the concept of “child nurture and responsive care” to bemused Chinese bureaucrats and how she’s actually succeeding. Five years after Half the Sky’s first orphanage program opened, government officials began to mention child welfare and nurturing care in public speeches. And, in 2011, at China’s Great Hall of the People, Half the Sky and its government partners celebrated the launch of The Rainbow Program, a groundbreaking initiative to change the face of orphan care by training every child welfare worker in the country. Thanks to Bowen’s relentless perseverance through heartbreak and a dose of humor, Half the Sky’s goal to bring love the lives of forgotten children comes ever closer.”
In October 2013 when we were matched with Dani and I saw a video of her being held by a Half the Sky nanny my first thought was, “Jackpot!” I had read and heard enough from other parents whose kids had been in the program while waiting to be matched to know that Dani was most likely being very well taken care of. HTS trains the workers and nanny’s about how important it is for the kids to get a lot of attention and touch. They teach them how it will help them develop properly.
When we met Dani she had a big belly and chubby cheeks. She was healthy and once she was done being afraid of us, happy. She knew what it was like to be loved. She knew how to accept affection. She was far ahead of most institutionalized children. All because of the love and care received in the HTS program at her orphanage.
About a month after coming home, Jenny Bowen came through our area on her book tour. I took Dani to meet her and get a photo and book autographed.
I could go on and on, but instead I am going to have a giveaway! This book will make you laugh and it will make you cry, but I wish it will also give you HOPE. Hope that anyone can make a difference. No matter what has happened before, you can make a difference.
The publisher of the book is the Skoll Foundation and they have given me 5 copies of the eBook version to give away.
