Cerys is a wonderful four-year-old girl in our Dingyuan foster care program in Anhui. She is the youngest in her foster family and loves spending time with her foster sister. Cerys has a sweet personality and gets along well with others.  She is great at following rules but loves to be the leader. When she is playing with other children, she wants them all to follow her rules! She has a very competitive side and always strives to be the first, best or fastest at what she does. We have reports of her enjoying role-playing with her foster sister and friends.  With her leadership skills, she probably assumes the role of the teacher!

Cerys is currently attending school, and her teacher tells us she is a very good student.  Cerys is able to draw a circle, triangle and rectangle very well.  She loves to spend time writing and drawing. She can write some Chinese characters including her name and a few numbers.

When she is at home, Cerys has all meals with her foster family. She has a great appetite and is not a fussy eater, loving meat but also soups and vegetables too. She has a lot of variety in her diet and will eat whatever her foster mother gives her.  Her foster mother reports that Cerys has a sense of entitlement being the youngest in the family. If there is an extra piece of candy left over Cerys feels that it should be hers because she is the youngest.

While at home Cerys enjoys riding her tricycle and playing outdoors if the weather is nice. She also likes to swing, climb and skip around, and it is not uncommon for her to sing a familiar tune as she enjoys playtime.

Cerys is in need of a sponsor for $35 a month to support her in foster care. Please consider visiting her sponsor page and supporting her as she experiences the love and guidance that family life offers her.  As a sponsor of Cerys, you will receive monthly updates including photos of her sweet smile (or occasional pouty face)…we love seeing them all and know you will, too!

Our foster care team’s next stop was Dingyuan in Anhui Province. With the slowdown in adoptions from this province, the number of children in the orphanage is increasing. The orphanage director realized that many of the older children needed to begin their education, and so he has set up a school inside the SWI. We are hopeful that we will be able to help them with some materials and teacher training.

All of the kids in Dingyuan foster care were doing so well. Everyone fell in love with little Gareth. He was all smiles and giggles and was perfectly content to sit in Mary’s lap.

It was great to see James again as well. He is one of our ACHH graduates and is now zooming everywhere in his walker.

Diana also received care in our Anhui cleft home. She is starting to take her first steps with someone holding onto her hand and has grown very attached to her foster mom, shown holding her below.

All of the kids were weighed and measured and then given their treats.

Yasmine (seen in the top photo) saw Arlene taking notes on all the children and thought she would help out as well! Thank you to everyone who supports a child in Dingyuan. You are allowing them to know the love of their very own family, and that is a wonderful gift indeed!

Yasmin is a lovely 2 1/2 year old girl who has just moved into foster care in Dingyuan. She has hydrocephalus and mild epilepsy. Yasmin is settling well into her foster family, but at the moment she doesn’t have any sponsors.

We have just received her first monthly foster care report and learned that Yasmin is adjusting very well. I especially love this story about her:

The summer in Dingyuan is very hot and the days are getting hotter. Yasmin likes to play outside in the yard. She especially likes to play “poker”, and she practices very hard and pretends to be a magician. She gets lots of praise from her foster mum.

Would you like to sponsor Yasmin? She needs two sponsors to meet her needs. The cost is $35 per month and sponsors will receive monthly photos and reports.

Kirstin Clark is the co-ordinator for Dingyuan Fostercare. Kirstin is a midwife and she lives in Conwy, North Wales (UK) with her husband Rhodri and they have 2 children, a son Gwion who is 6 1/2 and a daughter Ceinwen who is 4 1/2, Ceinwen was adopted from Jiangxi, China.

The LWB Orphanage Assistance program provides formula to children in the Dingyuan SWI every three months, thanks to our generous donors. As part of the Orphanage Assistance program, a monitor goes to the SWI each quarter to photograph, weigh and measure the children. Jia Wen is a lovely little girl of nearly two from Dingyuan and was one of the children who benefited from the formula sent to her SWI.

We got to know her sweet smile through the photographs and records taken on these quarterly visits. She melted our hearts with her sweet smile, and we could tell that this little girl already had a happy personality all her own.

Look at that sweet smile on her chubby cheeks! Jia Wen is particularly happy after her little tummy has been satisfied with the formula. She is outgoing and often makes sounds in baby language. One of her “hobbies” is standing on the crib and rocking it for fun. From the photo, you can tell that she really loves that!

We are now very happy to report that Jia Wen has been adopted by a loving family who calls her Claudia.

As you can see, she and her new mom share happy times together! We wish this little angel of joys the very best.

Linda Tang is the LWB Orphanage Assistance Administrative Assistant. She lives in Seattle and enjoys being able to locally contribute to a global cause like LWB.

I wanted to update everyone on our little Samuel. A few weeks ago I told you about this little boy’s strong spirit in a blog titled “Fighting for His Life… Again”.

Well, our little guy is improving every day.

The doctors are slowly weaning him off the respirator and hope he will be able to breathe unassisted soon. This is wonderful news, but I can’t stop thinking about this little guy. Perhaps it is because my oldest son’s name is Samuel, but mostly I think it is because I thought he was alone and didn’t really have anyone who cared about him. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

First of all, so many people cared about Samuel and helped with funding his surgery; the hospital has helped tremendously with his bill; we have heard from many people from around the world who are saying prayers for this little guy; and today we learned that the nurses who take care of Samuel bought him new clothes—a very important part of the New Year tradition. He looks adorable in his new ensemble. Samuel is not alone; many, many, many people care about him—what a wonderful way to start a New Year!

Xin Nián Kuài Lè, Samuel!

Kate Finco
Medical Co-Director

This is Samuel. Samuel has defied all odds to make it to celebrating almost 22 months here on the earth. This little boy was born with a very serious heart defect. He received first stage surgery and was recovering when he suffered a very serious brain bleed. Several doctors told us nothing more could be done for Samuel; so we put him into a home where he would receive lots of love and care for the remainder of his days. Obviously no one told Samuel because, for the most part, he eventually recovered!

When we were told Samuel was healthy enough for surgery, we had him moved to an excellent hospital in Shanghai where he recently received the second stage heart surgery he required. He is now fighting for his life again. This little boy has fought a hard fight all his life and is continuing the fight, but he can’t do this alone.

He needs our support and love right now, and he needs a lot of medical care. If you would like to learn more about Samuel and how you can help, please click here: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/medical_sponsor_child_detail.cfm?child_id=617&mc_id=101

On behalf of Samuel, thank you!

Kate Finco
Medical Co-Director

Last week we received our December nutrition update from our monitor, Lisa, in Dingyuan. Judging from the photographs, Lisa had a particular favorite–little Ying here. There were lots and lots of pictures of Ying!

Lisa tells us that the nannies reported that Ying is always a smiley, happy baby. Sure enough, when the nanny held out a snack, Ying gave her very sweetest smile! Of course she was rewarded generously.

Lisa helped Ying to put on her socks, which she had kicked off in her crib. Ying gave a naughty look and immediately pulled them back off with a grin and a giggle. It’s such a treat for a child to have a new audience for their favorite old tricks! It’s also wonderful to see the children looking so fit and feisty.

Wishing all of you joy, happiness, and a little bit of naughtiness this holiday season!

Your LWB Nutrition Team