LWB Community

Baby Carson

A guest blog by Stefani Ellison

The calendar said it was the first day of Spring 2012 but the biting cold was more like mid-winter. I had just entered the children’s section of the SWI I was visiting and the worried nannies brought first to me a child who needed immediate help. They carried in a bundle of heavy quilts. As I peeled back each thick blanketed layer, there was the tiny face of a baby. A baby boy with big and intense eyes fanned by his long thin fingers. This baby boy latched right onto my heart as he reached out and latched my finger with his wee hand. I guessed this child couldn’t be more than 2-3 months old. I was very wrong. He was would soon be two in June. 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.

Day Five of the 2012 Cleft Exchange – Final Surgery Day

Friday was a wonderful and exhausting day in Kaifeng as the LWB 2012 cleft trip entered its final day.

Baby Theo waiting for his turn

Ten surgeries were completed today, which brought the total number of children healed to 49. One baby had to be disqualified from surgery this morning due to infection, but we all agree that 49 lives changed is a wonderful accomplishment in just five days of surgery. Both the US medical team and the China medical team feel that the trip was a complete success, and they are already talking about when they can get together again in the future to help more children in need. Read more.

In Memory and In Hope

This has been one of the hardest winters I can remember in all of the years I have worked with orphaned children. As the temperatures drop, we know that pneumonia and other illnesses will spread quickly through orphanages, and we always pray for an early spring. I don’t think many people even stop to think about how fast a sickness can spread in an institution when 20-30 babies live in just one room. And for babies struggling with medical issues already, such as heart defects or breathing difficulties, they are very vulnerable indeed.
Read more.

Yasmin: LWB’s Featured Child of the Week

Yasmin is almost five years old and has been in our Dingyuan foster care program since mid 2009. She is a very energetic girl, and our China foster care manager says she brings joy and lightheartedness to all who encounter her. Read more.

Journey to Guizhou – Reflections

All of the wonderful people who volunteer for LWB know that I have a few rules about going on an official trip. One of them is that you can’t cry when you are in an orphanage, even though I know all too well that it is absolutely overwhelming at times to walk in and see crib after crib, filled with babies living without a mom or dad. The reason for this rule is that I never want any orphanage caregiver to misunderstand our tears. I would never want them to feel that we are crying out of judgment.
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Journey to Guizhou – Day Five (Liuzhi)

The journey to Liuzhi can only be described as HARROWING, and I would like to recommend to anyone traveling between mountain cities in Guizhou that their train system is lovely. : -) Picture mountain cliffs with no railing, two lane roads with trucks passing around corners, fog, wind, rain, and thousand foot drop offs. When we finally made it to the city, our driver told us he was happy we did it in the dark, as he thought our hearts wouldn’t have taken doing it during the day. That certainly made me smile.
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Counting Our Blessings on the Twelve Days of Christmas: Team China!

On the tenth day of Christmas, we are thankful for all of our amazing team members in China, who give of themselves each and every day to bring love and hope to orphaned children. The stigma surrounding children born with special needs in China is so enormous that many people feel working with those who are orphaned is bad luck or not a job of which to be proud. LWB has been extraordinarily blessed to have built a network of kindhearted, caring staff members throughout China who live our vision statement each day:

“To provide the most loving and compassionate help possible to orphaned and impoverished children in China, and to show the world that every child, regardless of  his or her needs, deserves to experience love and be treated with dignity and care.”

For all of our teachers, caregivers, managers, doctors, and volunteers on the ground in China — you are changing lives every day! We are SO grateful for your commitment and passion to make this world a better place.
Read more.

A Visit to Xinxiang

The foster care team had a great visit to the Xinxiang orphanage and the foster care families today. It was a beautiful fall day, and all the children were excited to have visitors. Our volunteers were so happy  to visit with three of our Henan Cleft Healing Home graduates. Many of you might remember Neil, Isaiah, and Eoin. All three boys are doing beautifully in foster care and have bonded great with their new foster moms. Eoin wins the “Mr. Moose” award as he was quite heavy to hold!
Read more.

Day Four of the 2010 Cleft Surgery Trip

Dr. Ness and Dr. Martin deserve Superman nicknames today as they did five bilateral cleft surgeries, which made for a very intense day. The repairs look wonderful, and we are so grateful that the kids are receiving such beautiful repairs. We wanted to share this before and after photo of Lianne (just a day after surgery), so you can see what an artist he is in the OR. (I did remove a bit of the blood from her nose with a photo tool, but the rest is all from Dr. Ness!) Her aunty had changed her out of her little blue hospital gown back into her pink sweater and hat, and I think this is the first time we have had a baby in the same outfit for a before and after shot! Read more.