LWB Community

Baby Carson

A guest blog by Stefani Ellison

The calendar said it was the first day of Spring 2012 but the biting cold was more like mid-winter. I had just entered the children’s section of the SWI I was visiting and the worried nannies brought first to me a child who needed immediate help. They carried in a bundle of heavy quilts. As I peeled back each thick blanketed layer, there was the tiny face of a baby. A baby boy with big and intense eyes fanned by his long thin fingers. This baby boy latched right onto my heart as he reached out and latched my finger with his wee hand. I guessed this child couldn’t be more than 2-3 months old. I was very wrong. He was would soon be two in June. Read more.

Bergen: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Bergen is one year old and has some very complicated heart defects. He was brought to the Anhui Healing Home in February in hopes that relief from the cold, harsh Anhui winter would help him to gain strength and increase his appetite. Unfortunately surgery is not an option for Bergen in China. Our goal is to keep him as healthy as possible as he waits for a family of his very own, who can give him the best medical options available. Read more.

Behind the Scenes: New Arrivals at the Healing Homes

Have you ever read about a new arrival to one of our healing homes and wondered about how that little one ended up there? We know our volunteers make it look fairly effortless, but the reality is that a whole lot of communication and travel are usually involved before a new baby is safely tucked into her new home. Read more.

Emerson: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Emerson is the most recent arrival at our Anhui Healing Home (AHH). Born in February with a cleft lip and palate, this poor little fellow also developed a severe hernia and had to have surgery in March before ever coming to AHH. Now he is healing nicely, and once he reaches a safe weight for surgery, Emerson will have his lip repaired. Our loving AHH nannies will make sure this little sweetheart gains quickly and has the chance to heal fully before transitioning into LWB foster care. Read more.

Zachary: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Zachary is a happy, bubbly eight-month-old bundle of pure joy! Born with a severe abdominal blockage and also two small heart defects, Zach has already gone through one major surgery and two hospital stays for pneumonia. Although Zachary has healed nicely from his abdominal surgery, he will stay with us at Heartbridge for awhile longer. We will continue to monitor his heart (hoping his defects will heal on their own) and also give those fragile lungs some extra TLC so he can hopefully stay out of the hospital.

Zachary is a favorite of visitors due to his easy disposition and gorgeous smile. He is in need of additional sponsors. Read more.

Visiting Heartbridge

A visit to our Heartbridge Healing Home is always a treat, and last month’s visit was no exception. The children there, who once were very weak and fragile, are thriving. You would never suspect from looking at and playing with these children the odds they have overcome. Attentive nannies, quality nutrition, and lots of TLC make an unbeatable combination!  Here are some of the beautiful faces from our visit.

Adrienne, seen above, babbled away to us, probably telling us about the great care she has received at Heartbridge. Read more.

Visiting the Henan Healing Home

Visiting the Henan Healing Home is always a wonderful experience.  While this home might be small in size (with room for eight babies), it is HUGE on love.

Amy and Sheri snuggling with the babies at the Henan Healing Home

We have been working with a rural orphanage over the last year that really struggles with their babies born with cleft lip.  We have a very good partnership in place where they contact us about their newly abandoned babies, and we move them to our Henan Healing Home as soon as we can.   In February, we had taken in two new babies who were both really vulnerable and tiny when they arrived.  Some of you may remember when little Bennett and Abby arrived to our home, neither weighing more than 3 kg.   As we got new pictures of them each week, I could tell that their faces were starting to fill out, but it was hard to gauge just how small they were since the photos were normally closeups of their faces. Read more.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

An Irish 10K to Help Babies in China

Would you fancy a reason to visit Dublin, Ireland? Well, here’s your chance! We invite you to participate in the Flora Women’s Mini-Marathon on June 4 to help support the babies in our Henan Healing Home.

The Flora Women’s Mini-Marathon is the largest event of its kind in the world! 40,000 women run in this 10K race to fundraise for their charity of choice. Places are going fast, so click here for your race number. Read more.

Jade: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Since early times, jade has been valued in China even more than gold and silver. The newest resident of True Children’s Healing Home (TCHH) in Fujian is truly a precious gem. Jade is just four months old and was born with a very sick heart. LWB was able to arrange open heart surgery to repair Jade’s pulmonary artery valve stenosis at a pediatric hospital in Shanghai. Upon discharge, Jade was moved to True Children’s Healing Home for one-on-one care during her recovery.

When little Jade arrived, she weighed only 6.5 pounds, but her sweet smile and bright eyes tell us how lively she wants to be. Read more.