Our first full day in China was spent in Qiandongnan, in the southeastern part of Guizhou province. This was my third visit to this mountainous region, and I always love coming here because the foster families in our program are just fantastic. As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, Qiandongnan is a Miao and Dong minority prefecture.
One of the first kids we met was Cecilia, seen above, who was leaving for her adoption day just a few hours after we arrived. Read more.
Once upon a time… a baby girl was born in China but was abandoned shortly after her birth. She was fortunate enough to be adopted by a local family as an infant, and her life as a daughter began.
Little Layla’s story sadly doesn’t end there. Her parents eventually divorced, and she was raised by her loving mom. When Layla was six, her world fell apart when her mother passed away and she was an orphan once again. Read more.
The last time we featured Sierra (in “Sierra, Sweet and Smart“) in October 2012, she was still in a hospital room, reading her beloved books and playing with her toys. She had been abandoned with spinal tuberculosis and was in the hospital waiting for medical treatment. Now she has graduated to foster care where she is evidently thriving! Read more.
Babies with cleft lip often have a very difficult time in an orphanage setting since they often face special challenges in drinking from a bottle. Orphanages frequently contact us when they have a baby born with cleft who becomes failure to thrive. We have seen remarkable transformations occur in our homes, and so many lives have been saved. Read more.
Meet Qi! He is a sweet, tiny boy who just joined LWB’s Believe in Me Huainan School last fall upon turning age two. Qi is in a preschool classroom with other students his age. He is adjusting well to his new school and is making many friends. Qi’s teachers have worked hard to help Qi build his cognitive, emotional, and physical skills.
Qi stays busy exploring all of the things a typical two-year-old might enjoy, including dressing up in fancy costumes! Read more.
LWB first met Emily a year ago, and who could forget her! This spunky little girl with a big personality was dealing with multiple special needs, including three missing limbs, cleft lip, and a heart defect. Emily had her cleft lip surgery during our 2012 Cleft Medical Exchange last April and then stayed at Heartbridge Healing Home before and after her heart surgery. In December Emily, now named Jennai, was adopted by her American family. Read more.
John is a child whom many of us have watched grow up. Part of our foster care program in Anhui since 2008, we have seen monthly reports on him for many years, and LWB volunteers have met with him on numerous occasions when they visited his village. He has truly grown into a boy who is full of fun! John has been on the shared list for several years now, and he also is the recipient of an adoption assistance grant. Boys are typically chosen for adoption less frequently than girls (see Amy Eldridge’s blog post, “The Adoption of Boys“). Despite this, and despite the fact that with each passing year John’s chances of being adopted become slimmer, we hold onto hope that an incredible family is out there for this special boy.
Frankie came to LWB’s True Children’s Healing Home in September, after a long journey from his home province of Shaanxi. At six months old he weighed less than ten pounds and was in need of a great deal of careful nurturing, but his sparkling eyes told us that we would soon be seeing a strong and active Frankie.
The TCHH caregivers immediately set about filling Frankie’s tummy with nutritious formula and filling his little soul with love and attention. Frankie began to thrive. Within a few weeks he had started crawling, and by November he was brave enough to approach the bigger babies and take their toys away!
Read more.
Five-year-old Jonathan has been in our Foster Care Program in Hunan since October 2009, when he was just two. We first introduced him in 2010 in the blog, “Endearing Jonathan”, when he was just beginning to walk. As we have come to know him over the years, we have seen him maintain his sweet spirit and charming personality while developing confidence in many areas. Jonathan is now a happy, enthusiastic boy who attends kindergarten.
It’s hard not to be charmed by Jonathan as he performs a well-known Chinese children’s song in the video below called, “Ni Wa Wa”. This song is about a doll who has no mother or father — just like little Jonathan. Read more.
Sweet baby Rhys is a new arrival at LWB’s True Children’s Healing Home. He was abandoned after life-saving surgery for an intestinal malformation, which unfortunately left him in need of more urgent medical care to fight off infection. Rhys will be with us as he recovers, gains weight, grows stronger, and prepares for his next surgery. Read more.
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