LWB Community

Care Packages to China

Over the holidays, we had a call from an orphanage who had been sent a care package from a kind and well-meaning adoptive parent. Unfortunately the package had been stuck in customs, and since there were multiple items inside the parcel, the customs agent was insisting on charging the orphanage a $60 fee to pick it up. The orphanage staff had to go into the city several times to fill out paperwork before the package could be released, which took quite a bit of their time as well. Once we had worked out the details of this last package, the orphanage director suggested that while they appreciate the good intentions, perhaps we could let adoptive parents know that packages often cost them precious money and time to pick up, depending on each city’s customs rules.

We know everyone sends packages with such good and kind intentions, but we felt it was important to point out some of the issues that can arise when a package is mailed to an orphanage in China. One orphanage was once hit with a $125 customs fee for a large box that a parent had sent. Read more.

Layla: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Layla has just turned seven years old; yet she has had to endure more in her short life than most could imagine. Abandoned at a young age, she was adopted domestically and enjoyed family life. When her parents divorced, her mother continued to raise her until she took ill and passed away last fall. Layla was returned to the orphanage, and, while dealing with the grief of losing her mother, she became very sick. Doctors discovered she has a VSD and is in need of surgery.

Layla wants nothing more than to return to school, but her caregivers would like her to have a healthy heart before doing so. Read more.

When Hope Turns to Loss

When LWB first started our Unity Medical Fund, it was with the hope that we could actually prevent children from becoming orphaned. Through our medical work in China, we had learned that many parents abandon their children born with medical needs when they are unable to pay for the surgeries their children need. Our LWB managers had been approached multiple times by pleading rural parents who didn’t have the funds to get their child admitted to the hospital for care. They would frantically say, “we will give you our child if you will just save her life.” There is only one word to describe what I saw in too many rural parents’ eyes when they could not afford to help their child: desperation.

Read more.

Feliz 2012

From all of us at Love Without Boundaries to all of you, best wishes for a happy 2012…in any language!

Happy 2012 from LWB!

Us Versus Them

This morning I had a phone call from someone who had read that we were helping children in China. What I thought was going to be a pleasant call actually gave me great pause when the woman asked me, “But why should WE help THEM?”

It probably didn’t help my mood that I had just finished reading Sarah’s Key, a book that took place during World War II. This book made me wonder how people can ever reach a point where they don’t see each other as fellow humans, but instead as “others,” somehow lesser and not worthy of help. My caller’s use of the word “them” cut through my heart like a knife, bringing images of tiny babies abandoned in cardboard boxes and toddlers shut down and in shock at suddenly finding themselves in an orphanage without their parents. Read more.

Counting Down Our Top Ten Photos of 2011: Smiley in Foster Care

Coming in at number one for 2011 is this adorable photo of little Alisha, grinning for the camera with her foster mom. Alisha is part of our Loudi foster care program, and every report describes her as social baby who is outgoing and loving.

Alisha goes shopping with her foster mom almost every morning, and she is always so happy to meet neighbors and greet them with a smile. We loved hearing that she is “especially enthusiastic” when she sees other children! We are so happy that sweet Alisha has now been chosen for adoption. Read more.

Counting Down Our Top Ten Photos of 2011: Foster Family Love

Ben is a beautiful little boy who is in LWB’s foster care program in Anhui Province. He loves playing with his foster brother, Jon, but obviously what Ben loves the most is being in the arms of his foster mom.

She likes to take him outside to walk in their vegetable garden, and she loves telling our local manager what a thoughtful and sweet little boy he is. We are such huge supporters of foster care for orphaned children as we believe every child deserves to grow up in a family setting versus growing up in an institution. Read more.

Brody: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Tiny Brody is the newest addition to our Heartbridge family. He was born in late November with a serious abdominal blockage. By the time Brody came into orphanage care a week later, he was in critical condition. Fortunately LWB’s medical team was able to arrange for emergency surgery the very next day. While our volunteers awaited news on Brody’s condition, we all hoped and prayed that this sweet baby boy would survive. Read more.

Counting Down Our Top Ten Photos of 2011: Peeking Out

Number three in our Top Ten Photos of 2011 is preciouis Yi. Baby Yi is part of our nutrition program in the Guangdong Province. She is a very sweet baby with a mild personality who loves to smile when her nannies tickle her. Yi was born with thalassemia, and she needs to go to the hospital for blood transfusions once a month.

We love this beautiful photo of her peeking out of her crib. Her nanny says she loves to be held most of all… and we think very few people could resist picking up such a beautiful little girl. We hope that a family will choose baby Yi in 2012 so that she can continue receiving the medical care she will need long-term.