Kyra received surgery in May 2011 to repair her cleft lip. She spent her initial recovery time at our Anhui Healing Home and was moved to a wonderful foster care family in July. She celebrated her first birthday in September!
Kyra has adjusted very well to her new family life and loves to play with her older foster brother. Read more.
As we head into this wonderful season of Thanksgiving, we would like to share some of the things we are especially grateful for with you – our great supporters who make this work possible.
Today we celebrate little Marisol, who fought so hard following her heart surgery and beat all the odds. This gorgeous little girl, who spent many months on a respirator, is now charming everyone who meets her at our Heartbridge Healing Home. We give thanks for true second chances.
Read more.
Julia arrived at the Fujian Healing Home (FHH) in July 2011, at just five months of age. Julia had already been through surgery for an abdominal obstruction, and her orphanage in Gutian was having a difficult time with her post-op care. Fortunately we were able to take this sweet girl into FHH for additional treatment and to receive some “TLC” from our wonderful staff. It didn’t take long at all for Julia to start melting the hearts of the caregivers at FHH; with her wonderful smile and shining eyes, she is irresistible!
Tiny Diana was born in November 2010 and came into orphanage care with a severe abdominal defect called bladder exstrophy. Diana’s bladder formed on the outside of her body, and she needs a very specialized surgery that is not available in mainland China. It quickly became clear to orphanage staff that Diana was going to need a great deal of extra care before she could even be considered for surgery, so LWB volunteers worked to make room for her in our Heartbridge Healing Home.
Diana weighed a scant 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds) upon her arrival in February… much too small for a three-month-old baby. Over the next seven months Diana managed to gain nearly six pounds, but she is still very delicate.
Read more.
Sometimes we get very honest letters from people who say they find it too difficult to look at photos of babies with unrepaired cleft lip. We work with so many babies with cleft that we don’t even really see it anymore. Instead, we just see their gorgeous eyes and smiles…like Zeke, a current resident of our Anhui Cleft Healing Home (ACHH), grinning below. We’ve always felt that sharing photos helps people see the kids for the beautiful souls they are.
We recently posted Zeke’s photo on our Facebook page and asked our readers for their thoughts on seeing photos like this. We were so thrilled with and moved by the comments that we received that we wanted to share some excerpts here!
The search for a “perfect” look should never be larger than that of deepest happiness. Keep posting “non-perfect” photos of real happy babies!!
The first time I saw my son’s beautiful little face, I didn’t notice his bilateral cleft….all I saw was the face on an angel.
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Shayna is a beautiful baby girl who is in LWB’s Healing Homes program at our Anhui Cleft Healing Home (ACHH). Shayna was born in Fuyang in February this year with a cleft lip and palate and has a very sweet personality. At three weeks of age, she was hospitalized for myocarditis at a local hospital and overcame this serious illness over the next two weeks. She was brought to ACHH directly from the hospital and slept quite a bit that first week, but she quickly began to show us her curious nature by looking all about the room whenever she was awake.
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Lindsey is our most recent addition to Huainan Foster Care. She came to us from our Anhui Cleft Healing Home where she had surgery to repair her cleft lip (read more about her in our previous blog). Lindsey is a bright and curious girl who is interested in her surroundings. Her face lights up when she spots people who are familiar to her.
Read more.
We returned to Zhongshan SWI for Day Two of the PT Training. Lisa and I continued to evaluate the remaining children with special needs from Zhongshan SWI and discussed the importance of getting the children up and sitting, even standing for those that showed the ability to be supported in that position. Lisa also evaluated a beautiful five-year-old girl who is unable to speak or chew her food. She really stole our hearts; she has such a gentle personality and is so cute! The staff appreciated all the information Lisa had to share about techniques to stimulate facial and tongue muscles as there is no speech therapy in China. We really appreciate having Julianne with us as a jie jie. When the children seemed afraid of the ladies with the light hair and strange language, Julianne steps right in to play with them, and they seem to forget about us while doing therapy!
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We arrived at the Zhongshan SWI today to begin the PT Training Program for 20 staff members in six orphanages in Guizhou Province. The morning began by providing attendees with an overview of cerebral palsy (CP). Caring for children born with CP can be quite a challenge given that every child born with CP is different. We moved right away to demonstrating positioning and exercise techniques while evaluating eight children from the Zhongshan and Liuzhi SWIs. We were so moved to hear the concerns of the directors and staff who sincerely want the children in their care to have a better life. It was obvious to us that the children are very loved and have strong positive relationships with their caregivers. We also answered many questions about helping children with spina bifida.
The little boy in the top photo was first seen during a March visit to Guizhou by several LWB team members. He also has spina bifida, but he is now walking everywhere!
Read more.
The first thing I thought when I read through Hannah’s reports and saw her photos from this past year was “WOW!” This amazing little girl has come such a long way. I have often wondered where the strength to survive comes from in a child who was as small as Hannah was when she came into our care. Is there truly an innate strength each person is born with that is called upon when they are distressed?
Read more.
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