We recently posted Zeke’s photo on our Facebook page and asked our readers for their thoughts on seeing photos like this. We were so thrilled with and moved by the comments that we received that we wanted to share some excerpts here!

The search for a “perfect” look should never be larger than that of deepest happiness. Keep posting “non-perfect” photos of real happy babies!!

The first time I saw my son’s beautiful little face, I didn’t notice his bilateral cleft….all I saw was the face on an angel. I took him in my arms, buried my head into his shoulder and choking back the tears, I whispered to him “I will never, ever let you go.” Cleft babies have the biggest and best smiles….Every single one of them is a picture drawn by angels.

If these little children can be so joyous and full of life in spite of their physical needs, I have no business feeling uncomfortable!

Adam, a resident at our Henan Cleft Healing Home

We brought home our daughter with her cleft lip and palate unrepaired. The night before her lip surgery we took about 100 photos of her laughing, smiling beautiful mouth. People in the U.S. don’t have the chance to see a cleft lip because our health care is good here and it is repaired in infancy. But there are so many children in need of the surgery. Keep on making people aware.

Don’t stop posting!!! It helped us become more aware of the cleft-affected children, and we found our daughter whose picture was before her surgery. We didn’t find out until after we received pre-approval that she had it repaired. We knew she was beautiful from the minute we saw her!

My son was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate.  I remember looking at his referral picture for the first time and thinking I had just viewed the most beautiful little face ever.  I still do.

Alicia from Anhui Cleft Healing Home

I like when people are interested in the before & after, because they can see that with a relatively simple surgery, that baby with the lip they find too painful or revolting to look at is still a beautiful baby.

It was difficult to look at our daughter’s first photos (unrepaired cleft), but it is so very important to post those photos.  Some orphanage directors will NOT release a child’s file for adoption unless their lip is repaired. I think there reasoning is that the child will not be chosen if they “look that way.”  So when folks donate for repair surgeries they are literally changing the future of a child and the blessed family that has the honor of adopting him or her.

People need to see it to know the reality. I’d never seen an unrepaired lip until I got into adoption. We need to know there are older kids who’ve gone their whole lives with unrepaired cleft lips & palates.

Shayna from Anhui Cleft Healing Home

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Thank you to our Facebook readers to expressing their thoughts so eloquently. These beautiful souls capture our hearts, and it is our privilege to be able to help them.

For many of the kids in our programs, we have a wealth of information. We take so many pictures of the kids in our care – logging in over 15,000 photos of the kids we serve every year! We keep reports on their health status and their activities in school or foster care. The question, of course, is what do we do with this information as a child leaves our programs. Well, right now we keep it all until a family contacts us post-adoption and we can send them everything we have. I know I personally have hard drive after hard drive of information, and our volunteer teams store massive amounts of information from each individual program as well. We love when we can send information to a family of their new child’s earlier days. The reality, though, is that we never hear from over 50% of adoptive families when the kids we help find permanent homes. We understand that not every family will contact us — because kids are adopted around the world, and, despite us wishing it was so, not every adoptive family has heard of LWB. Of course that isn’t the case, and so the information we have is never passed on in many cases. As I organize my files occasionally, I am always so sad thinking that I have information that I know an adopted child would love to have for their history someday.

This is just a reminder to everyone who supports LWB that if you ever hear of someone adopting a baby or child we have helped, please let the family know we will gladly send all of the photos and information to them for free. Occasionally I will post to online groups looking for the parents of some of the kids that we have a wealth of information on. I have tried for several years to find the family who adopted the Rainbow Twins, seen in the above photo, who came into our hands when they weighed just a little more than 1 kg. each. We cheered when they were adopted but have never heard from their family. Or children like Eoin in the photo below, who definitely would have passed away without the care at our Henan Cleft Healing Home. We are thrilled that he is with a permanent family now, but oh how we wish we could pass on all of his reports and photos of him as a baby as there is just so much information to share!

Every so often the issue of data storage will come up for us again, as we wonder if there are things that can be deleted. We know, however, that for many children, we hold their early life histories. We believe that information is priceless and ultimately belongs to the child. When we think of these kids grown up as adults, searching for any link possible to their past, we know the information we hold is really theirs – not ours – and so we buy another hard drive!

Amy Eldridge, Executive Director

If you would like to request information on a child you have adopted who may have been in a Love Without Boundaries’ program, please complete our Request for Child Information form.

Are you like me, guilty of things becoming “just a job”? Well, I guess walking the Flora Women’s Mini-Marathon in Dublin was falling into that category for me. Not that the walking was getting any easier (especially now that I am a year older!) But the motivation needed to write and ask for support in my endeavours was lacking. That part of me that needs to step outside my box and ask, openly ask, for money for the Henan Cleft Healing Home (HCHH) was quite hard this year. Promoting the event had become a job I couldn’t quite settle down to do…until I saw the photos of three boys. Three boys, Vicente, Noel (featured above) and Paul who now live in our HCHH getting the nurture and care that their tiny fragile bodies need…never mind the love their beating hearts crave.

Seeing those photos was difficult for me. You might think I would be used to the never-ending needs of our sweet babies born with cleft. But no, these little boys have motivated me to SHOUT out for help. Can you help me continue our Cleft Healing Home care for babies like Paul?

Look at this photo of Paul, then scroll down and see what one week…yes, ONE week of HCHH care did for him.

Paul gained 1.7 pounds in that first week of hand feeding. I’ve worked out that the cost to make that happen for Paul is about $100 (per week). $100 for everything needed from the wages of a loving, trained nanny to the electricity to heat the water to add to his formula, from his diapers to his warm snuggly crib. I didn’t make that happen. Our incredible sponsors did.

To help us continue helping babies like Paul, Vicente and Noel, click here.

With thanks and IN HOPE!

Julie Flynn Coleman, Healing Homes Director

Peter is an adorable baby who lives in the Henan Cleft Healing Home. He is chubby and happy. However, when he was discovered in an orphanage last fall, he was a failure to thrive baby. Born with a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate, Peter needed some additional attention to eat and thrive. After a brief stay in the hospital, he came to live at HCHH where the loving and well-trained nannies could shower him with love and attention.

Recently, Peter met one of our LWB volunteers. You can see from the top photo that he obviously has no fear of strangers and had a wonderful visit. We are so happy about Peter’s improved health! He will need to stay at HCHH for a few more months until he is old enough for his lip repair surgery and also a hernia repair. Peter needs more sponsors to help fund his nurturing care at the healing home. Sponsorship covers excellent formula fed by loving hands and kind, nurturing nannies who are helping him to grow and develop.

If you would like to be part of Peter’s story of hope and healing, please click on Peter’s sponsor page.

Little Joseph came to our Henan Cleft Healing Home (HCHH) as a three-week-old with pneumonia. He was in and out of the hospital multiple times to cure his respiratory infections. We have been so concerned over this little fellow as he often has low grade fevers and has had an ongoing battle with ear infections. Below is a photo of Joseph when he first entered HCHH.

Fortunately, Joseph has really responded to the care, good formula and love he has received at HCHH. The nannies all adore Joseph! He likes to play and he is reported to be very smart. Now he is even starting to stand up with the help of his caregiver. Isn’t he cute? Joseph is now waiting for funding to be in place for surgery to repair his bilateral cleft lip.

If you would like to be part of Joseph’s story of hope and healing, please click here. We appreciate any support for this darling boy!

My visit to the Henan Cleft Healing Home this past June was a day that I loved completely. All of the babies were so healthy and happy, and the home has such a family feel. How wonderful to hear the sound of babies laughing and to watch the aunties singing and playing with the kids. We all said that we wish every orphaned child could live in such a caring environment.

We have just learned that five of the boys served by this home are now on an agency specific adoption list, and all of them are still waiting to be chosen. If you know of anyone who is open to adopting a child with cleft, please let them know that these great little boys are waiting. Each of them is so special to us. They received the very best of care and know what it feels like to be truly loved. Isn’t that what we wish for all of our kids before they are adopted?

As the mom of five boys, I know firsthand how incredible it is to have a son. Some of my most precious memories are of sewing Batman capes, being brought handfuls of dandelions, and watching my sons step up to home plate. And let’s face it…..your day just can’t be bad when you are told again and again how beautiful you are by the little boys in your life. Oh, how they love their mommas!

For more information on Sawyer, Isaiah, Neil, Nick, or Eoin, please email us at adoptionassistance@lwbmail.com, and we will be thrilled to tell you more.

Thank you for spreading the word that these gorgeous little boys are waiting!

Amy Eldridge is the Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries.

Love Without Boundaries proudly advocates for adoption but is not an adoption agency. We invite you to contact adoptionassistance@lwbmail.com with questions about a child we have featured and encourage you to contact your local adoption agency for more information about China’s Waiting Child Program.

Joseph is a precious 3 month old baby boy from Xinxiang, Henan Province. Joseph was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and he came to the Henan Cleft Healing Home (HCHH) when he was one month old. After only a short stay at HCHH, he had to be hospitalized for a week for pneumonia and anemia. Finally, he was discharged to HCHH for his further recovery. However, after a few weeks, he had to be readmitted to the hospital due to bleeding in his mouth and nose. He has spent two weeks in the hospital to receive tests, blood transfusions and IV fluids. We are relieved to tell you that the bleeding has stopped and Joseph was able to begin formula again. He was discharged to the loving care of the nannies at HCHH.

While baby Joseph has had a very rough start to his short life, he has proven himself to be a fighter. We are convinced that his life counts! Please visit his sponsor page to help to pay for the medical care that saved this little boy’s life.

Early one morning during our recent trip to China, we made a visit to our Henan Cleft Healing Home (HCHH), located in Kaifeng. It is SO lovely. It is completely like being in an extended family’s apartment, and all the aunties and babies are so happy. This home is run by Stephanie Wang, a lovely young woman who has poured her whole heart into making sure all the babies have their every need met.

Right now there are beds for eight children in the home. We had recently received three new babies from the Louhe orphanage, (Tadhg, Beto, and Alan) and all three of the boys are now doing quite well. We also got to meet Daphne, a little baby girl from Zhumadian – an orphanage that is brand new to international adoption. I was so happy to see that they are now able to send children’s files for adoption.

Darling Daphne

We got to meet the Healing Homes doctor – and I absolutely loved him. He was SO kind, and monitors the babies closely. We also got to meet all the aunties for the home, as the night shift aunties stayed until we arrived. Each of them was so sweet. They are all so attached to the babies, and in fact….on the day a baby “graduates” from the home, none of them want to work that shift as they cannot stand to be there when they have to say goodbye. It just hurts too much.

Our dedicated HCHH doctor with Eoin

As we played with each baby, I quickly saw why the aunties were so attached. Eoin is obviously the king of the home. He is SO smart and followed us around like a little duck in his walker. He was into everything, and I know keeps the aunties on their toes. Wow is he cute. He still struggles with asthma at times, and so we are not discharging him just yet to foster care. We are going to find a good family near the healing home so that our doctor can keep a close eye on him.

Little Siobhan obviously has all the aunties wrapped around her finger. She smiles nonstop and is just the happiest baby. If we even glanced her way, her eyes would light up and she would grin from ear to ear.

Little Siobhan

Sam was one of the most active babies I have ever met. We were calling him Sam Sam the Jumping Man as he was scooting everywhere in his walker but was trying to jump out of it at the same time. He was PURE JOY and full of life. Sam knows how to turn on the music button on his walker, so every time it would stop he would push it again immediately.

Sam Sam the Jumping Man!

Sawyer looked so healthy and beautiful, but boy was he serious!  We never could get him to smile at us…but I give him credit for not crying even though I think we were scaring him to death.  Obviously the strong, silent type. : -)

Serious Sawyer

We loved the few hours we got to spend in this special home. I came away knowing that our Healing Home projects are each such a success. I hope everyone involved with them, from volunteers to donors to aunties and supporters, realizes what an enormous difference you are making! It is wonderful to see so many children who were once so tiny and vulnerable all looking so very happy and HEALTHY.

Amy Eldridge is the Executive Director for Love Without Boundaries.

As many of you know, travelling in China can be an exhilarating — but exhausting — experience.  Our three intrepid travellers — Paige, Amy and Sheri — have been extremely busy and can’t wait to share their stories with us!  However, they are having some computer and internet problems in China and will therefore post tales of their travels when they return home next week.  In the meantime, here are a few photos from their adventures!

Sheri, Amy and Paige with all the babies of the Henan Cleft Healing Home!

Paige enjoying some snuggle time with Tadgh

Paige, Sheri and Amy in Kaifeng

Little Sam and Eoin look rather confused! In the top photo, these buddies from our Henan Cleft Healing Home are all bundled up and ready to go to the hospital to receive cleft repair surgeries. They don’t look too thrilled with the hats and jackets and they probably weren’t too happy with life right after the surgery…but we know they will be very excited with the final results.  Take a look at them now, just days after their repairs!

Big-eyed Sam doesn’t look too sure about giving us a smile yet as his surgery for bilateral cleft palate was complicated.  Before long, he should be much more comfortable and will use those gorgeous expressive eyes to complement his new smile!

This winter, Eoin has had some health issues that prevented him from being eligible for surgery, but last week he experienced a window of good health and was eligible.  Although Eoin doesn’t understand the drama that surrounded his repair, HCHH’s gentlest boy does seem to be rather pleased with his new look!