Hope Journey Updates: Meet Shiflett, he is waiting for a forever family
This little darling is known as Shiflett. He is a 6 year old little boy full of energy, joy and spunk. He is extremely playful and full of giggles. He is clearly attached to the women who are his nannies and the adoration is mutual.
My first interaction with Shiflett was at the Beijing zoo. He caught my eye as he was running and laughing with his nannies playing chase. Every sight and texture brought interest and giggles. He especially loved all the fall leaves. He endlessly picked them up and threw them as high as he could and laughed as they fell back to earth. Joy and mischievousness were the words I thought of as I watched him play. The next day we had a shopping day and each child was able to pick a snack or small toy, I looked every where for him, but couldn't find him. Our translator was able to find out from the Nannie that the mall environment was a bit too much for Shiflett and they had to take him out. I didn't want him to miss out on the shopping so I found a sweet soft stuffed elephant that I purchased to give him later. The next morning was game day and as the big kids were playing games, I gave Shiflett the stuffed elephant to entertain him. He was delighted. It also started a whole new round of throw and laugh and retrieve and giggle and throw again. Shiflett is pure joy wrapped up in a little boy with the smile of a mischievous angel.
I never saw him anything but happy. When I did his evaluation, he seemed to pick up on what I wanted quickly. He imitated gross motor tasks like crawling right away. He liked to play with the blocks during his evaluation, and seemed to know how to play in a pretty normal way. It was memorable though because he knew what to do with the beads and pipe cleaners but couldn't do it. Even when we showed him how to point the hole in the bead at the pipe cleaner, he couldn't do it. He didn't get frustrated though and kept trying happily.
He has a right eye condition and does seem to have limited hearing due to a level of nerve deafness, but apparently followed spoken and visually instructed directions and does well in school. His attention span seems somewhat limited, but could play ball, chase and catch with a stuffed elephant indefinitely.
He shows physical scars of heart surgery, but has no obvious symptoms of any lingering heart defects.
Although he seems to be behind developmentally, his capacity for joy and his desire to laugh seems to know no bounds. Shiflett is a special focus child, which means a family at any stage of the adoption process or considering adoption, are eligible to review his file. Please contact our China team at china@awaa.org with any questions or to learn your next steps. You may also complete a FREE Pre-application HERE and note “Shifflett” and our staff will follow up with you.
Please join us in sharing about Shifflett with those you know- together we can find a family for this sweet little boy.
By- Summer Schaefer, team photographer