LWB Community

Questions…and an Answer

My cleft trip summary was supposed to be submitted right after Maureen Brogan’s beautiful post, but to be honest, I didn’t have it in me. I needed a breather as I felt both emotionally and physically raw after returning, and trying to sum up the week I witnessed in China with a few clever sentences seemed trite and disingenuous. I wrote earlier that these trips were hard, but I had no idea. I came back to the US changed. No epiphanies, but the world looked and felt different, and the problem was that I couldn’t articulate why, either to myself or others. Until tonight. 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.

Mother’s Day Wishes

“Make a wish and blow!”

That’s what we teach children when they grab their first dandelion gone to seed. Children see the endless possibilities afforded by wishing. They make their incredibly important wish, fill their cheeks, pucker and blow their wishes as far as the wind can carry them.

I became a mother on Mother’s Day 2004.  In a stuffy Civil Affairs Office in Nanchang, Jiangxi, I received my daughter.  How naïve was I then to the journey that I was just beginning? Read more.

Ruth: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Ruth is a sweet six-year-old girl who works hard in school despite cognitive delays. Ruth enjoys all of her classes but is particularly fond of her Mandarin and music classes. She finds math challenging, but fortunately a special needs school is located near her orphanage where Ruth can be in a supportive learning environment. The school provides the special attention and patience this lovely girl deserves. Ruth loves going to school each day, and. with your support, she will be able to continue to learn in a supportive and encouraging environment. Read more.

Realistic Expectations: Child Preparation

Most parents adopting internationally have at least a year or more to prepare themselves for the arrival of a child into their lives. They go through home studies and read parenting books. Hopefully by the time they step off the plane in a foreign country, they have had lots of opportunities to process their feelings about building a family through adoption.

For the child, however, there is often little preparation for what will happen to them when they walk through the doors of the Civil Affairs office, and so adoptive parents must anticipate every possible scenario. Read more.

A New Adventure: An Education Success Story

It’s time to enter the big world of learning: preschool. A new adventure for any preschooler, children will be given the opportunity to explore; participate in sing-alongs, crafts, and story time; and learn the age-appropriate fundamentals of socialization. Even when children are living together in an orphanage, the experience of entering an LWB Believe in Me classroom at the orphanage brings out the individual personalities of each child and exposes him or her to a new world. Like all preschoolers,  that first exposure to school can be overwhelming. Jamie wasn’t very happy to start school in September.

Read more.

Joshua: A Medical Success Story

Joshua stole all of our hearts from the first day we saw his photos. He was described as strong and active, though diagnosed with several heart defects that made his repair complex. Joshua arrived at the hospital with a respiratory infection but responded well to treatment. His updates always included a note about what a good appetite he had and how active he was.

Joshua and his caregiver obviously shared a special bond as well. Read more.

Formula for Babies: LWB’s Featured Project of the Week

Quality formula, which comes at a premium price, is essential for babies to grow and thrive, particularly when they have medical needs. Last December we received the unexpected news that Nestogen, our formula of choice, would no longer be available in China. We have switched to Lactogen, a formula that is produced by the same company and has a similar formulation; however this formula comes with a price tag that is almost twice that of Nestogen. Read more.

Realistic Expectations: Clothing

When I was waiting to adopt my first child from China in 1999, I read story after story in online forums about the infamous “clothing police” I was sure to encounter on my adoption trip. I was warned about grannies who would come up and yell at me or wag their fingers if my child-to-be wasn’t covered from head to toe even if I thought the outside air temperature seemed fine.

Well, now I can say that many of the clothing police are women I greatly admire. They are devoted foster moms and grandmas and orphanage nannies who have watched far too many children over the years struggle with issues like pneumonia and fevers when they fall sick. As I’ve already covered in my last two posts, many orphanages and foster homes don’t have central heating, and even in the southern provinces of China, the orphanages are quite cold at times. To protect children from the cold and becoming more vulnerable to infection, they are bundled, almost from the very moment that they come into the world. Read more.