I first met Miao in April, 2006 when my Dad and I were given permission to visit  my daughter’s orphanage in China.  The orphanage had been closed to any Westerners visiting and past offers of assistance had been politely refused.  When we visited, we were in the baby room holding and playing with babies in cribs when our guide was pulled over to look at this little toddler.  Her color was very blue, and she was quiet, very quiet.  The next thing I knew, he was looking at medical files (I could tell because he was reviewing an EKG strip) and whipping out a second cell phone.  He was speaking in English, which should caused me to think that something was up, but I was busy making sure my daughter’s visit was a good experience so I didn’t focus much on his call.  On our way to lunch, our guide told me that they “would let us take her”.  What?   Oh, he forgot to mention that he worked with Love Without Boundaries, and the orphanage was certain the little girl would not survive without help, so they were going to allow LWB to arrange heart surgery for her.  He had been on the phone in the orphanage, very late at night with someone from the Medical Team in the US, gaining approval to arrange for her life-saving heart surgery.  Wow!  Well, that was the moment I then became involved with LWB.

Miao went from blue to an adorable pink shortly after the critical surgery.  Unfortunately, during my next visit (this time as an LWB volunteer), we found her to be yellow.  Yes, yellow.  Apparently she had a blocked bile duct so, arrangements were quickly made for another medical procedure.  Miao went from yellow to pink very quickly this time at the hospital.  This was the trip  where we also convinced the orphanage administration to try foster care through LWB – and so that was another great moment.

I missed Miao on my last visit to China this summer.  We were running out to a field trip with 25 students from her orphanage school,  and then working on the sponsor crafts in the late afternoon.  I made plans to meet with her the next day, but then I learned she was ill.  Gravely ill – and it had come on so suddenly that the orphanage wasn’t sure she would survive.  LWB’s medical team whisked her off to the hospital, and then she was sent to Heartbridge to remain until her family could adopt her.  While in the care of LWB, the photos showed she gained weight and, once again, had a much healthier color to her.  Miao really thrived at Heartbridge, and I celebrated when I learned that her family was finally traveling to China to adopt her.

Miao at Heartbridge

I am overjoyed for this beautiful little girl, but also for the many volunteers and staff who found their way to LWB to make it possible to help these children so in need.  You know, I still think about the fact that I insisted on one thing on our trip in 2006 and honestly, only one thing.  It was our guide.  I had learned about him from a fellow adoptive parent who used this man’s services for a film project he was doing.   I wanted someone I could really trust in-province so I asked our tour agency to arrange him as our guide.  Initially they resisted saying they used to use his services but didn’t any longer.  Then they said the dates would not work.  Then he could not meet us at the airport on the day we had planned.  So, we paid extra, changed the dates, and caught a shuttle to the hotel, but we had Zhang Ming on our trip.  I had heard of LWB but had no idea he was with them and that he could do what needed to be done so quickly for the kids.  I feel God had a plan for Miao and used us as his instruments to deliver the plan.  The door was opened through our trip.  If it hadn’t been us, it would have been someone-  but I am blessed to think that He did use us just a bit.  And thanks to everyone who believed in LWB’s work by donating and volunteering, MANY children have been helped in this large orphanage  through medical, education, foster care, healing homes, nutrition, and orphanage assistance.  So much still to be done but it all started with Miao. And that is a definite WOW!

~ Sandy Hartman, LWB Education Volunteer

As a mom to seven, I of course have had many times where my own children were sick, and a few very specific times when my kids were seriously ill. Some of you might remember when one of my sons suffered a severe head injury, with two areas of bleeding in his brain. I remember feeling like I couldn’t take a complete breath. My heart didn’t seem to be able to fully beat as I waited for news. And so as we get in the applications from desperate families asking for us to provide life saving surgery for their children, I always think of what the parents are feeling, knowing their child needs surgery to survive, but knowing they have no financial means to provide his or her care.

I have been blessed to have been able to meet some of these families in person during my time in China. I vividly remember one rural father who waited for me an entire day so he could express his thanks, which I kept trying to tell him wasn’t necessary. We had provided heart surgery for his two year old son who was critically ill, and he was so in love with this little boy that his feelings took up the entire room. The father could not write, and so he had come in person to tell me what it meant to their family to know their son would now grow up healthy. He kept telling me how smart his little boy was and how he was determined his son would get an education so he would have a better life. It was one of those moments that was humbling beyond belief.

This past year our Unity Fund has helped 26 families out of their desperation. And we have celebrated and given thanks as these families left the hospital with their now healed children who have been given a second chance.

This last week, however, I have had to face the reality that sometimes our very best intentions are not enough. We came to know Fu Xiang, whose parents are extremely poor farmers in Shaanxi province, surviving on less than 75 cents a day. His mom has cerebral palsy, and when they gave birth to a little boy with heart disease, they knew they had no possible way of healing him. At age five, Fu Xiang was tiny and weak, but he had a smile that simply shone. His parents had heard that there was a foreign charity who would provide help to children in need, and so they left their farm to travel to the city to apply. When they were told that we would first need to raise the funds for their child’s heart operation, they said they would just wait next to the hospital for news, no matter how long it took. You see, they had finally been given renewed hope that their little boy would get his second chance – and so they said they could not leave until they heard whether or not we could accept him for surgery.

School children in the Netherlands heard about Fu Xiang and helped to raise the funds for his operation, and the JOY on his mother’s face when she heard he would finally receive medical care was palpable. On December 27th, Fu Xiang went into a seven-hour surgery and was then moved to intensive care. As a mom, I sat that night and knew in my heart all of the emotions that his mother was going through while she waited and watched him through the ICU window, hooked to so many machines. Our volunteer team and supporters said so many prayers that his recovery would go well.

And then we got the terrible news that he had passed away in the night.

It is hard for me to even think about, because I keep going back to his mom and dad – and the hope they had that finally their precious son would be healed. And as a mom, that feeling is too intense for me to fully take in, and it hurts so much to know there is nothing now that can be done to bring Fu Xiang back to them. I wish I was there with them. I wish I could take his mom’s hands and hold her and tell her how sorry all of us are that her little boy didn’t make it. I wish I had some magic way to bring her comfort. But I know that isn’t possible at this moment, as she has lost the dearest thing in her life — her only child.

This week I have asked myself again and again the age old question of why bad things happen to such kind and good people, and why one life is spared when another is taken. I of course don’t have the answers. For some reason, we had been able to help 25 other families walk out of the hospital in joy, but Fu Xiang’s family had to leave in complete sorrow. We are heartbroken for them.

And still the applications keep coming, and rural farming families keep contacting us with the same desperation of wanting their child to have a chance at life. One family are cave dwellers, another somehow manage to live and eat on just 50 cents a day. But they all share an agony of wanting to help their child find healing. And so as we continue moving forward with our Unity Fund, we will never forget those whose lives ended too soon. If anything, the terrible loss of a child like Fu Xiang makes us even more committed to keep as many families as possible together. We can never lose sight of the power of hope or give up on the belief that love does ultimately win in the end. Even when we face those moments of sorrow that we can’t even begin to understand.

~Amy Eldridge, Executive Director