Many of you know that I work with an amazing organization to support children in China.

Well, this holiday season, we would like to share with you the dreams of the children of….

An Orphan’s Wish.

Click on any image below to learn more about the dreams in our Holiday Catalog this year, or to give.

With each donation made, a card will be sent to you to let family, teachers and friends know you have honored them this season.

$15 donation to the General Fund for Pajamas, Sleepers and Blankets 

A gift of $15 to our General Fund can be used to purchase items like Pajamas, Sleepers and Blankets.  This Holiday season you can help ensure that our precious children like Chester are all snuggled in their beds with warm pajamas, sleepers and blankets. Their dreams will be so much cozier. (Click Here)

   Your family can truly make our celebration come alive with a donation of $25 to our General Fund! Can you imagine how the kids will giggle as they help decorate the tree or when they give thanks for an extra-special meal? The memories of this joyful celebration are sure to fill their dreams with happiness and cheer. (Click Here)

$250 donation to the General Fund – Teachers Training and Education Supplies

  Our children, despite their special needs and challenges, dream of what they will be when they grow up: doctors, teachers, policemen, firemen and of course the occasional ballerina or fairy! We strive to provide all of our children with an education. With your generous donation of $250 to our General Fund, we can continue to train our teachers, purchase many needed school supplies and allow our children to dream BIG for their future. (Click Here)

$500 Donaton to the Emergency Medical Fund

  Children sometimes arrive at An Orphan’s Wish in a life or death situation. Little Kirsten arrived this year in dramatic circumstances and in need of immediate life-saving surgeries. She was hospitalized several times after surgery to address life threatening complications. The doctors nicknamed her “Lucky” and lucky she was indeed to survive by the Grace of God and to have come to AOW when we had funding for her serious medical needs thanks to AOW’s generous donors. Would you please join us in replenishing our Emergency Medical Fund so that we can continue to provide critical medical help for our little ones?  (Click Here)

Again, I do hope you will choose the children of AOW to bless with your annual family holiday gift. To learn more about AOW, you can go to our website. And if I don’t say it enough, I am VERY thankful for you all! I hope you have an Amazing Christmas Season!

~Kay

Meet Peter.

I stare at this face and try to determine how he is feeling. Sad? Angry? Left behind? Wary?

Whatever emotion it is, this is how he looked when he arrived at the AOW House of Love last July. While most 11-year-old kids are busy with school activities, sports and other hobbies, Peter was leaving his second home in his short life and arriving at his third. Peter was born with Spina Bifida and as a result he cannot walk. His parents relinquished him at the age of 7, and of course Peter still struggles with that and is cautious about opening his heart again!

But House of Love was prepared for that. Before Peter arrived, they prepped Brad that he would soon welcome a room buddy that had similar needs, and that the staff was depending on him to help Peter settle in. Brad took that challenge to heart and when Peter arrived, he immediately began to bond with him and within a few weeks was rewarded with a new best friend who’d decided to trust again.

With his newfound independence of a wheelchair and a crash course and subsequent talent for playing Wii, Peter is doing much better. Not only does he have a healthier and happier outlook on life and his future, but he is participating in chores and learning responsibilities to make him feel a complete part of the House Of Love.  Surprisingly for a boy of his age, he also loves school and the unique access to an education that being with us gives him.

Peter is getting almost everything he needs right now to make his life better. I say almost because unfortunately, it costs for An Orphan’s Wish to be able to facilitate this amazing home. Each child needs sponsors to help alleviate the costs, and Peter still needs 4 more. If you’d like to be a part of helping Peter reach his potential while staying at the AOW House of Love, and your family budget can afford the $35 monthly sponsorship, please comment below and/or click this AOW link. I thank you for your generosity, but I know more than my gratitude, a face that has been transformed from the one above to this one below is thanks enough.

I’ve learned over the years that the old saying of ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ is not just a cliché. In these cases it is the simple truth. As always, thank you for coming here to read this, as I know that means you have a heart like mine, to do what you can to help a child.—Kay Bratt

In early June a tiny baby girl was left fighting for her right to survive at a local hospital in China. Possibly only living on borrowed time, her path touched that of a woman named Kirsten, our director of The House of Love in Guilin. Kirsten intervened and the fragile girl was examined by a doctor. With one look, that doctor nick-named her Lucky because she was still holding on, despite the odds stacked against her.  Born at 33 weeks at just under four pounds, Lucky was also suffering from duodenal atresia, a life threatening medical condition that required immediate surgery for her to survive much longer.

On June 21 financial help was secured from New Hope Foundation and Lucky received her first surgery. Because of severe post-op complications, she underwent surgery a second time on July 6. For the next several weeks, Lucky fought for her life by gaining strength and overcoming other challenges until she could be released into our care at The House of Love (An Orphans Wish) in mid-August.

It was there that she was reunited with Kirsten, her guardian angel and the one who refused to give up on little Lucky. Since then Kirsten has devoted unlimited time and energy to fight for this little girl, and Lucky is improving because of such dedicated care.

Lucky has now been named Kirsten, in honor of the love and care she is receiving. Will Little Kirsten make it? No one knows her fate, but we do know that she has been placed in the hands of those who want to do what they can to give her the best chance possible to live out her life.  She has a long road to go and we want her to continue to recover and heal at The House of Love. However, in order for this to happen, Little Kirsten needs 8 sponsors. While love makes a lot of difference in the prognosis of these children, there are still responsibilities to be met and even though the house is about at capacity, we want to make sure Little Kirsten can stay. What does your donations as a sponsor cover? It covers basics just like our own children need; housing, caretakers, meals, basic medical care, preschool/education, toys, and even clothing. For some kids sponsorships cover additional medical testing if needed, or physical therapy.

With the help of sponsors for Little Kirsten, she will continue to thrive and grow. If you feel you are meant to be one of those who help this little girl through this crisis, please click here to become a sponsor and yet one more needed guardian angel for Little Kirsten. And let me know on this blog or Facebook if you willl!

As always, thank you for your continued support for these little hearts that won’t let go.

So I’ve been especially busy this month. Besides all the personal (boring to you) stuff that has been going on at our house, I was able to make time to fill my spirit with works that feed my passion.

Earlier in the month I spoke to a women’s group in Peachtree City. We talked about ‘Finding Your Sweet Spot’. I love to give this talk because I had to learn about it the hard way but my journey is a good model for others. I searched for many years for something to fill that empty hole in my heart. When I learned what my gift was (writing), and then found my passion (advocating for children), then brought them together to fulfill a need, (supporting the children of China), I soon found my own Sweet Spot. It is that part of my life that gives me satisfaction. I shared that message with the Peachtree Ladies and in turn, they supported my work by donating dozens of cute onesies to our AOW House of Love in China. Thank you, ladies! (I also got to meet some adorable children as a big plus!)

Then last weekend I got to attend Our Camp China for the second year in a row. Last year I was their guest speaker but this year was even better because I got to work with over 60 children! (Luci in the photo above was super sweet and wanted me to sign her copy of my book!) Anyway.. I was the Service Project Coordinator and helped with many crafts, but my project was helping the children with friendship bracelets. Each child made two identical bracelets; one for their own and one to send in a card to a child in an orphanage in China. This was a great way to help the children learn about needs outside of their own little world, and building compassion in our children will only result in a better future!

Jayme was a pro….she actually helped teach the others how to do the bracelets!

Maggie was my little Origami teacher. She is the craftiest kid I’ve ever seen! I wanted to put her in my pocket and sneak her home with me.

So as you can see, I had a lot of fun. Even with the hours of cutting and knotting thread I couldn’t have picked a better way to spend my weekend. I do hope I’ll see all the same faces next year plus a few more newbies! This year we had families from 12 states…..let’s add yours next year!

I hope you’ve all had a great summer so far.

Meredith is a little girl who is currently a resident of our AOW (An Orphans Wish) House of Love. She is now walking. Everywhere! Also, Meredith is available for adoption on the shared list for LID families only. If you’d like to know more about her please email

 advocacy@anorphanswish.org

To see more photos of her and hear about her latest accomplishments, please go to our blog here! An Orphans Wish Blog

Thank you for helping us to support these beautiful babies!

If YOU’ve got SOLE

UPDATE: Thanks to all of you generous people, we’ve met our goal of 100 pairs of shoes and are still going. At last count we were at 130 pairs. I will be sending the shoes to China soon and before you know it they will be on teeny tiny cute feet! Thank you all SO much for your generosity!

We need your help! So far we have 32 pairs of our goal to gather 100 pair to send to the House of Love.

At the AOW House of Love we have children in need of good shoes. If you would like to donate a pair, you can find more information on the website here, including sizes and types of shoes needed. There is also an address listed where you can send the shoes directly to ME!

Thank you for helping little ones like the sweetheart below.

Getting involved is easy:

You are invited to participate by purchasing and mailing quality, unused footwear in kids’ sizes 1-13 to

Mail Donations from the USA to:

Mail Donations From Australia To:

The deadline for participating is June 30th

Show these special kids that you got sole…. and celebrate your summer knowing that you’ve blessed a precious child with each joyful step.

As a volunteer director for AOW (An Orphans Wish), I am committed to bringing awareness to all of my readers. This month I want to highlight Jacob and Chester and let you know that they both need sponsors. At the House of Love, our kids received specialized care so that they can thrive in a loving environment and be prepared for the next phase in their lives. If you can give $35 a month to support one of the AOW kids, please follow this Donate Now link to become a sponsor or even help with a one time gift. Your generosity is what keeps the home going. Now! Let me show you two angels who are waiting for sponsors!

Born in May of 2002, Jacob has cerebral palsy and came to the house wheelchair bound. But now, he is walking with a walker!

And little Chester is fairly new to AOW and is in need of 7 sponsors. He is from Guilin and was born with anal atresia.

*An Orphan’s Wish is an all volunteer foundation, which means our overhead costs are extremely low. Over 98% of every donation we receive goes directly to our programs which aid these children. We are so grateful for every donation we receive. We provide all of our donors with quality and timely reports and value your trust in us to be good stewards of your donation.

Will came from Desheng to An Orphan’s Wish House of Love.  A healthy-looking little chunk who will need club foot correction surgery. It’s great that these children have a shelter to come to when they need to be surrounded by love and be given a new start. But they need sponsors. We need 7 sponsors for Will. The $35 a month helps care for him, buy supplies and fund his surgery and recovery. Does Will have a place in your life? Please let me know if you can be a sponsor for him, or click this link to An Orphans Wish to get started. And Thank you for supporting these children from China!

So for a week now I’ve been buzzing about a new project. Some of you may not know this but I’ve recently jumped on board with AOW, An Orphans Wish. I’m very excited to work with such a reputable and amazing organization to continue my work supporting and advocating for China’s children.

That leads me to my GREAT news.

Portrait Artist Marla Michele Must of ~Enchanted Photography~ by Marla Michele and Kay Bratt, child advocate and best selling author of “Silent Tears; A Journey Of Hope In A Chinese Orphanage” are joining forces to create a treasure for adoptive families.

Illuminating real-life stories, our book will be an unforgettable photographic expression of the life changing and inspiring journey adoption has for families all over the world. Adoption is not always a fairy tale story. This compelling project will give you a snapshot of tears, trauma, laughter and joys of the unforgettable gift of building a family.

Open casting calls for the project are in the works. If you are an adoptee from China, Russia, Korea, or elsewhere and would like to be a part of this project, or if you are the parent of an adoptee from China or another country and would like to enter your child in the project and share a small part of her story with the world, please contact Marla at MarlaMichele68@yahoo.com for details.  A portion of all future net proceeds will benefit AOW (An Orphans Wish).

All participating models will have a photo included in the book, and some models will also have aspects of their stories highlighted. Written pieces will be submitted to and edited by Kay Bratt, and will include memories of Forever Family Day and/or other special moments that should be captured in print for others to share. The sharing of the stories, however, is optional and up to the discretion of the family.

One of my online friends sent me a message and said, “I love the idea, but who is this Marla Michele?”  That’s a great point. If I’m going to ask you all to participate in such a project, I should give you a bird’s eye view of the woman leading it, right?

What I know is this. Portrait Artist Marla Michele Must of Enchanted Photography, is the proud mom of three remarkable children ages 12, 10, and 5 and lives in Metro Detroit. She is fluent in Hebrew and Mandarin (and her children speak Mandarin as well!). Her youngest cutie pie was adopted from China. I have to share a photo of her, get ready….

Marla has been a vegetarian since she was 11 years old. (33 years!). She loves photography because along with feeding her passion to find the beauty in everything, it allows her to bring awareness to adoption, parenting emotionally intelligent children, PTSD, and anti-bullying.

 And without further adieu, let me introduce you to Marla Michele in her own words:

 ~Planting Seeds~
Portrait Artist Marla Michele Must’s Story

When I was 13 years old I was given a camera by a family member who was someone I looked up to. She took an interest in showing me how to use the camera and how to properly compose a photograph (without shooting a tree growing out of the top of someone’s head, or a stop sign in the back-round of a portrait). Her encouraging words were very powerful to me at my young impressionable age when I was shy and not very sure of myself.

As I spent time getting to know my new camera, I realized that I had an innate habit of “composing” the world around me with my eyes long before ever picking up the camera. My new camera became my tool to capture all that I composed, all that I found to be truthful, meaningful, unique, precious, sacred, beautiful, enchanting, unusual and momentous in the world- and to capture it on film forever. It was magic!

I still feel that way today, much more so now that I’ve become a mom and have my precious three children to photograph. After years of hearing the question “do you do this professionally?” it occurred to me that the amount of time I was spending shooting, editing on the computer, and obsessing about photography might actually be translated into the practical world and perhaps something I get paid to do… so…. I hung up a shingle and things began to fall into place. The amazing part- all it took was for me to acknowledge and believe in myself enough to follow my passion wholeheartedly. I entered and won a photography contest and started to construct a website. I called a professional photographer in my area to learn more about the field, and now he is one of my mentors. I considered building out a studio space in my home and suddenly an opportunity for the Royal Oak studio came about. All of this leads me to the conclusion that following my intuition led me to my authentic path- and that path is lined with a higher purpose.

Life has a way of offering up opportunities to pay it forward… for example; in photographing children I’ve recently noticed a repetitive theme arising, especially with young girls. During our portrait sessions my young subjects will often confide in me and reveal something they are self-conscious about, or something they’ve been told is unflattering in their appearance. It’s at that moment that I recognize I have been given an opening to “plant a seed” of empowerment- either with a few words of encouragement or a sincere compliment. I strive to replace the negative thought with a positive empowering one instead. The words I offer are very powerful to the recipient, likely because they are perceived as coming from an “expert”, a stranger looking through the lens, someone aside from a friend or family member, someone with no perceivable motive. I can usually see a reaction following our exchange, sometimes its apparent in the softening of their body language, or an expression of relief, the renewed sparkle in their eyes.

The most exciting part of photography for me- it’s given me the ability to apply my passion towards a greater life purpose. I’m happy to be able to use my craft to support and endorse local businesses in Metro Detroit through a combination of my photography, social media, writing, and collaborating. The businesses and projects I am attracted to endorsing are those modeled on authenticity, integrity, driven by passion, and those that encourage giving back to the community. Causes I hold dear to my heart include bringing awareness to parenting emotionally intelligent children, anti-bullying, and parenting empathetic mindful children. I hope to bring awareness to therapeutic adoptive parenting, having just recently adopted my youngest daughter. I’m grateful for the medium of photography and the messages it allows me to send out into the world.

Hope to see you on the other side of the lens!
~Marla~

Web: www.MarlaMichelePhotography.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EnchantedByMarlaMichele
Adoption Blog: www.MustLiveALifeLessOrdinary.com

This is the year of the dragon for China.

This year is held above others and the people celebrate in a huge way that it has come around again. We can help make this one of the best years ever for the children in China.

Recently I met a woman online who is coordinating amazing things for China’s children. At Grace and Hope organization and to help children with special needs, offering therapy, equipment & support for mothers fostering these kids.

Linda Anne Greenshields also told me about another program they coordinate called Hope 4 China’s children. Please take a look at their blog!

If you are looking for a child to sponsor this year, there are some beautiful faces waiting for you at this link. For only $39 a month, you can help get a child prepared for foster care and be a part of their ongoing life by receiving reports and updates. Another part of that project is raising funds to help mothers who would otherwise be forced to give up their child. They currently work with 4 mothers who refused to abandon their SN kids, some despite being thrown out of their homes. You can see those couragous moms here!