This handsome young man is Will, formerly a resident of LWB’s Anhui Cleft Healing Home (ACHH) where his precious life was saved! After recovering enough to be discharged from ACHH, Will now lives in the area of Anhui that we’ve named “Zhang Village.”   Zhang Village is a tightly-knit community of foster families who take wonderful care of children who need a bit of extra tender love and care. Currently we are waiting on news that Will’s file has shown up on the shared list. We feel that this will happen very soon and hope a loving family will come forward for him. In the meantime, we need to help Will’s foster family pay for him to attend kindergarten so he can continue to grow and develop as he prepares for life with his forever family.

We hope that this will be Will’s last year in Zhang Village, and we want to make it a great one! If you are interested in being a sponsor, please visit his sponsor page. For $20 per month, you can help Will enjoy his kindergarten year, and in return you will receive quarterly updates on his progress, including new photos. As the saying goes “Where there’s a ‘Will’ there’s a way,” — so please help Will find his way and be prepared for his future family!

Our foster care program director, Arlene Howard, is currently in China with some other great LWB volunteers visiting all of our programs in Anhui and Henan. They arrived bright and early in Lu’an ready for a full day’s work. The children were so excited to see them coming, as they know that visitors often mean lots of hugs and new toys! Jenny especially loved her new baby doll, and George obviously loved his new world ball.

Some of the older children were studying with their tutor when our team arrived, and very quickly the whole visit turned into a party atmosphere. The children have always loved to be photographed as they like seeing their digital images on the camera screen, but we had a new surprise today for them with our video camera. They thought video was the greatest thing ever, and soon the girls were singing and dancing for us. The oldest boy in our Lu’an foster care program took great delight in clearing the area so that he could do cartwheels on film!

Arlene got to visit three of the children who were Anhui Cleft Healing Home grads — Chelsea (above), Leah, and Kevin (below). All of them are doing absolutely great in their foster homes. One of the goals of our programs is to work together for the good of the “whole child.”  We love that our medical, healing homes, and foster care teams can coordinate to make sure each child is served in the best way possible.

All too soon it was time for a final hug goodbye before heading to the next town.

Gail was about 2 months old when she arrived at ACCH in February 2009 with a large unilateral cleft lip and palate. She was a fighter then and is still fighting now! Since arriving at ACCH, Gail has always seemed “on guard,” keeping her tiny fists clenched and her eyes constantly on watch.

At first, when she was upset she would cry loudly and grab the staff’s hair, as if to say “I may be small, but I need your attention!” And, while Gail has been described as having a strong personality, lately she has started to relax. She doesn’t cry as much and is more cooperative when getting her diapers and clothes changed. Just recently, the staff described how she even gave them a big smile after looking at herself in the mirror! She is turning into quite a little lady.

Gail’s fighting personality is apparent in her everyday life. She is small, but has been slowly gaining weight, even though she has suffered some medical issues. She caught a cold in May which turned into pneumonia. She stayed at the hospital for a few weeks where she was treated for her respiratory illness. She is now back at ACCH recovering nicely. Even though Gail has experienced challenges with her health lately, she has shown what a little fighter she is by continuing to get stronger and put on weight. These pictures perfectly highlight her little fighting spirit.

Camera Man approaches Gail with camera aimed at her. Gail is very uneasy about this situation and thinks to herself “What shall I do now? Nanny, please don’t go away and leave me alone with this guy!”

Gail, getting ready in her fighting position, states “Okay, the nanny ignored me. It looks like I am going to have to handle this guy myself.”

“All right Camera Man, you’ve left me no choice, put up those dukes and let’s get down to it!”

Ahhh, now our little fighter can get some rest. Relax Gail and sleep tight!

We all look forward to the day when Gail is big and strong enough to receive her cleft surgery. We know this little girl with the big personality will go far in life!

Lisa Schmidt is an Anhui Cleft Healing Home Assistant. She lives with her husband and four children in Virginia. Her youngest child, a son, was adopted from Fujian Province, China in 2008. Her oldest child, a daughter, was born with a cleft lip and palate.

Gavin arrived at ACHH on December 14, 2008 at just 13 days of age. At first glance, all one might have been able to see was the very large cleft that engulfed the right side of Gavin’s face, extending into his cheek and up to his eyelid.

As you can imagine, it was very difficult to feed Gavin. His nanny would feed him very slowly by spoon, requiring the utmost of patience and attention. Of course, spoon feeding would take so long that Gavin would routinely become upset and cry. Gavin quickly graduated to bottle feedings and was able to get the milk into his tummy quicker, which made him a much happier baby!

When we found out that Dr. Ness thought he could operate on Gavin during LWB’s Cleft Medical Exchange in Shanghai, we were so excited, yet cautious, as we didn’t know if Gavin would be able to gain the required weight to proceed with the surgery. Miraculously, Gavin weighed exactly 10 pounds by the time of surgery. Unfortunately, we weren’t out of the woods yet. Gavin became sick the first day of the Medical Exchange and was unable to receive surgery. He was given medications and watched carefully all week with hopes that he would be well enough by Friday to receive his life changing surgery. So many people around the world were praying and wondering, “Would Gavin get his turn?” Well, amazingly, Gavin’s lungs cleared up, he appeared strong, and was deemed healthy enough to receive his surgery by Dr. Ness and the Team! The surgeons worked for four hours with great skill to repair Gavin’s large facial cleft.

As everyone waited for the first look at Gavin’s face after surgery, one may have been wondering, “How will such a large cleft be closed in one surgery?” Dr. Ness and the Team definitely outdid themselves on Gavin! Gavin has recovered so well and so rapidly that he is ready to graduate from ACHH and will be moving in with a foster family in Hefei very soon.

As you can see below in the “after” photo, Gavin’s transformation is nothing short of amazing! When I look at Gavin’s post surgery photos, I am simply mesmerized and can’t seem to take my eyes off of him!! He is whole…He is complete…He is absolutely perfect! So, even though at first glance, all one could see was the very large cleft engulfing Gavin’s face, now all that can be seen in those eyes is Hope, Healing, and the chance for a very bright future! What a story our Amazing Gavin will have to tell!

Trish Gerber is the Anhui Cleft Healing Home Coordinator. She lives with her husband, Shon, and four children in Kansas. Her youngest child was adopted from Anhui, China in 2008 and received the gift of a cleft lip repair from LWB in 2006. They await their fifth child, a son, from Maoming, China.

Jone, our representative from LWB Spain, who with her travel companion Aitor, left Shanghai today and traveled to Hefei, Anhui. Today they visited the Hefei SWI and the Anhui Cleft Healing Home. Here are today’s gorgeous pictures from their travels.

Here are some pictures from the orphanage

And also some from the Healing Home

Please click here if you interested in donating to Love Without Boundaries.

I was peeking through our most recent ACHH reports, and this entry from our manager cracked me up!

Zane is now an active child. Though he looks not-so-big in size, but he has gained much strength, especially in his legs. He often kicks his legs in the cribs. Because of this, he is often found to have his head pressing against the side of the crib. It is not strange to find him naked if you uncover the blankets, for he has kicked off his pants. See his strong legs, you’ll find Zane has been fattened up quite a lot since he was moved to ACHH two months ago.

Sounds to me like Zane is just showing off his excellent new physique!

All joking aside, this is truly wonderful news! When Zane arrived in December, he was terribly sick and too weak to even drink from a bottle. His nanny patiently fed him by spoon for an entire month until he was able to drink from a bottle, as shown below.

He has made some truly amazing progress! THANK YOU to all of our ACHH supporters!

Jan Champoux is Healing Homes Co-Director for Love Without Boundaries Foundation. She lives in Nebraska, USA with husband Rob and four children. Jan and Rob have two “homegrown” teenagers, a son adopted from Korea, and a daughter adopted from China.

From Zhang Ming, the manager of our Anhui Cleft Healing Home:

“We drove Daisy to Fuyang on Saturday. Daisy was placed into a LWB foster care home directly. As usual, the nannies all hugged Daisy when they parted with these loved little ones. Fuyang orphanage staff were all surprised to see Daisy with such a beautiful and chubby look after the lip repair. The last time they saw her she was just a tiny baby.

The foster family in Fuyang were very happy to have Daisy. They told me they had been anxiously expecting Daisy for about one week. The foster family was so excited and kind. They immediately wrapped Daisy with a big coat when they got her.

Wu Xue Qin, our cleft home nanny, also felt very excited all the way to Fuyang, for she was able to see Philip and Wren on this trip. These two had been living at the home and left to live with a family a month ago.

Actually everyone at the cleft home wanted to see how Philip and Wren were doing, but Qin was the lucky one chosen to accompany Daisy to Fuyang. The last day Qin saw Philip was the day his first tooth came in. We had seen the foster care reports but were so pleased to see with our own eyes that Philip and Wren are doing fine in their new homes. Philip still remembers his nanny, Qin. He was very content to be back in her arms. Qin took him onto the van, and he doesn’t seem object to going back to our home.”

. . . but our babies are still delightful!

A couple of sudden cold fronts in December prompted the Cleft Home to make quilts for the babies there so they can keep warm as they snuggle in bed each night.

From Zhang Ming, the manager of the Home:

We didn’t have winter quilts, for this is the first winter for our ACHH. One of our nanny’s, Zhao Su Qin, who lives in the country in the Zhang Village, which is on the outskirts of rural Hefei, took it upon herself to handle this project. She gathered some cotton from the farmers to make a batting and then bought some cloth to cover the outside. Then lovingly she sewed the pieces together to make cotton padded quilts for each baby. Here she is sewing the quilts together.

The quilts were all put in use one week ago. Together the nannies made 20 quilts in all; one each for the 16 beds and four as spare ones for change.

Thank you Zhao Su Qin and everyone who helped make quilts to keep our Cleft Home babies snuggled and warm!

Tyler, also known as Superman, celebrated his first birthday last week! This is a special day for all children, but especially this little guy, who was very sick just a few short months ago. We are happy to report that Tyler is now well again, and slowly putting on the pounds! I bet a few helpings of this birthday cake will help!

Tyler’s getting some love and well wishes from Simba, the son of Zhang Ming, our house manager

This final picture of all the nannies and children celebrating together with Tyler just made my heart smile. Happy birthday, Tyler…here’s to many more!