'We have a heart for them'

A summer stay with US families has ended for 30 Chinese orphans with special needs. All have returned to China, but a large majority of them have found families that want to adopt them, May Zhou reports in Houston.

Jack, a 10-year-old Chinese orphan, blew out his birthday candles on the last Saturday of July, surrounded by his host family in Garland, Texas.

Jack is one of 30 Chinese orphans with special needs who arrived in the United States in mid-July for a four-to five-week stay with families across the nation. Seventeen of them stayed with families in Texas. All of the children have returned to China at the end of their stay, but about 80 percent of them have found families that want to adopt them. The remaining children are still looking for a home, but "it changes daily", said Shannon Phillips, director of the orphan hosting program Great Wall China Adoption.