Kids adopted from China raise cash for quake

A small body frozen in a moment, surrounded by rubble. A terrified, bleeding young girl carried on a stretcher. Sobbing mothers clutching photos of children lost to the earthquake in China.

"There for the grace of God go our daughters, and us," said Sandi Janusch, who adopted 7-year-old Kaili from China as a baby.

Moved by images of the tragedy and pulled by an invisible red thread that — as Chinese legend holds — forever connects her to her daughter's birth country, Janusch wanted to do something, anything, to help.

So she, Kaili and some friends baked. A lot. Together they raised $2,400 for relief efforts by making and selling gourmet fortune cookies — espresso and jasmine tea were among the specialty flavors sold eight to a decorated box — in Calgary, Canada.

Where there are Chinese girls adopted by parents halfway around the world, there are bake sales, garage sales, dance performances, memorial services and cash campaigns raising money for earthquake victims in the country that united their families.

The amounts raised are tiny in contrast to the nearly 69,000 people dead, estimated 18,000 missing and millions left homeless by the earthquake, but reaching out to their birth country is priceless to the girls and their families.

"We're all devastated. Just numb," said Janusch, who took Kaili back to China about a year ago. "Kaili understands that her life would have been quite different. She's worried for the people. Our kids are the lucky ones."

Parents say the efforts are a good way to help their children embrace their native land. With about 68,000 children — mostly girls — adopted from China by Americans since 1991, that's something many moms and dads already have made a priority.

Ming Lewis, 12, has taken on earthquake relief for her bat mitzvah project in Needham, Mass., raising $1,151 so far

Ming and her mother, Rose Lewis, visited China last year on a "heritage" tour, stopping off to see the pandas at a reserve in Chengdu in hard-hit Sichuan province. They also went to Ming's birth province of Hebei, a safe distance from the devastation, and sought out her "finding" spot in front of a now-abandoned factory building just steps from the orphanage that took her in as an infant.

"I felt very sad for the people who were in it and I just wanted to try to help people out," said Ming, whose adoption inspired her mom to write the best-selling picture book "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes."