Daniel is full of personality! A resident of our Xinxiang foster care program in Henan, three-year-old Daniel races to heartily greet everyone who enters his household with an enthusiastic smile and welcome. His days are filled with playtime with his many friends, and most importantly to Daniel, time with Grandma.

Grandma is Daniel’s foster grandma and primary caretaker. As she is a little older, he respectfully refers to her as “Grandma.” Like grandmothers around the world, Daniel’s grandma wants to be certain that he is sufficiently warm and bundled up against the cold. In fact, the cute hat Daniel is wearing in the top photo (with “Happy Sheep,” one of his favorite cartoon characters, on the front) was a gift from Grandma…which Daniel made sure to tell our foster care manager. He really loves and appreciates his grandma!

Daniel was born with a form of congenital spina bifida for which he has had a surgery and currently has left lateral curvature of the spine. Please don’t remind Daniel about his special need, though.  He is as active as any other boy and has adapted extremely well to his disability. Recently Grandma took him to a local supermarket where there was a trampoline set up, and he immediately rushed over to begin playing on it with the other kids. He had a wonderful time!

Daniel’s grandma and foster family tell us that they love him and hope he has a chance for a happy life. Now that he is on the shared list, his chances for that are good!   Please help us spread the word that Daniel is waiting for his family. His big personality and gregarious, fun-loving nature will surely bring joy to his forever family!

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.

Sweet Isaiah – HCHH grad

Neil was all smiles

Eoin won the “Chunky Monkey” award

We have moved two children with Down Syndrome into foster care in Xinxiang, and the orphanage staff told us that they are just amazed at their progress now that they are in a one-on-one setting. We think it is pretty obvious how much Junie loves her mama! Our foster care director encouraged the orphanage to file adoption paperwork on both children, to give them a chance at finding a permanent family.

Junie loves her foster mom, and the feeling is mutual!

Our team had a wonderful time visiting with all the other kids as well.  Lauren, who is always so welcoming to our foster care manager, invited her newfound friends into her home. She is being adopted to the US in just a few weeks, and our team already introduced her to the Silly Bandz craze. As you will see from this photo, Lauren decided Silly Bandz are pretty wonderful to adorn your wrists!

Thank you for the gifts!

Our volunteers were really taken with Daniel. He has been on the shared list for quite some time, with no family choosing him yet. He has severe scoliosis, and really needs to be adopted to get the proper medical treatment. He was SO sociable, talking to everyone and wanting to be right in the action. He loved the ball and racecars our team gave him. We are really hoping that a family will see his photo and want more information on him. He is such a smart and fun little boy, and he hasn’t let his scoliosis stop him in any way. He really needs a family so that he can have the future he deserves!  If you would like more information on Daniel, please contact us at adoptionassistance@lwbmail.com.

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.

Love Without Boundaries functions as a virtual foundation and is run by volunteers from a variety of states and countries around the world. Most volunteers dream of one day visiting the program into which they pour their hearts and meeting some of the children they know only “virtually” through photos. One LWB volunteer, Diana Cheng, recently made time during a vacation to visit the program she coordinates, and we asked her to share some of this experience with LWB Community:

My name is Diana Cheng, and I have been a long-time supporter of Love Without Boundaries. In Fall 2009, I started volunteering for LWB as the Xinxiang Foster Care coordinator. In a short period of time, I have worked closely with our on-site manager and the LWB Foster Care Director and have gotten to “know” the children in our foster care program — if only on paper and via the computer screen. When the opportunity arose for my daughter and me to take a trip to China for spring break, we seized the opportunity to include Xinxiang in our plans in order to personally visit these beautiful children of Xinxiang.

At the end of April, we arrived in China, toured through various regions and completed our trip with an amazing visit to Xinxiang, situated in the Henan Province.   Being greeted by our LWB Foster Care Coordinator, Peter Zhao, and the Xinxiang Foster Care Coordinator, Li Jia, was lovely! We spent time at the Xinxiang SWI and also visited the five foster families that care for our seven children currently in the program.  We were warmly embraced by Director Zhang and Assistant Director Li who were kind and gracious throughout our visit and provided us with a tour of the SWI.  Among some of the rooms we visited were their health clinic, physical therapy room and classroom for older children with moderate special needs.  In addition, we were able to see the frail and vulnerable babies, toddlers and young children with varying degrees of cerebral palsy or physical other physical disabilities.  It touched us greatly.

After the SWI tour, we were able to visit with each of the foster families and provide toys to each of the seven children in our foster care program. It was truly wonderful to see the loving manner in which the foster children are cared for despite the limited means of many of our foster families; these children are thriving in their environment.  Each of the families was so appreciative of the help and support they receive from the orphanage, Love Without Boundaries, and our sponsors.  With the support of many of our friends and family, we were also able deliver much-needed milk, vitamins, whey powder and medicines for the children.

The Xinxiang orphanage is over 60 years old. This makes me particularly happy to share the news that the orphanage will be moving to a new facility by the end of this year.  I hope you’ll enjoy just of few of the many photos were took of our memorable trip.

We currently have two children from Xinxiang who need foster sponsors — Annie and Neil.  Please visit our sponsorship page to see their darling faces and learn how you can become part of this wonderful foster care program!

When a thing is scarce, it is precious — Chinese proverb

When Meigan arrived at the Anhui Cleft Healing Home (ACHH) at one month old, she was very serious baby with unilateral cleft lip and palate. Her first few months at ACHH were quite uneventful, and she remained healthy. However, the caregivers could not get Meigan to interact much with them or even to attempt so much as a smile.

In July, Meigan received her cleft repair surgery. As she began to recover, her smile slowly appeared and her laughter began to fill the air. Her nanny said, “Now that Meigan’s lip has been repaired, she is easily teased to smile and chuckle as she is more confident!” What a difference the cleft surgery — and the persistent love of her nannies — has made to Meigan!

Meigan has just recently “graduated” from ACHH and is now getting accustomed to her new foster family in Xinxiang. Her new foster family will appreciate these smiles….but probably not nearly as much as the nannies who worked so hard to coax them out of her!

Daniel has the face of an angel and the personality of “warm spring sunshine”. How is that, you ask?

Our China manager of Xinxiang Foster Care wrote of Daniel,

“He is like warm spring sunshine. Everyone can feel him. Also he is friendly to his friends. And he is ornery enough to amuse everyone he meets.”

Daniel was placed into our Xinxiang Foster Care program at seven months of age, and immediately won his foster grandma over.

When he was about a year old, he was sent to Shanghai to have a spinal tumor removed. While there, he was spoiled by a group of expatriates who visited him regularly and brought him toys and snacks. Again, our local manager said “Daniel is very popular because of his charm.” Here he is recuperating in the hospital post-surgery. Who could resist that smile?

Following this surgery and recovery, he returned to his foster family where he continued to recuperate. As he continued to heal, he learned to walk and loved the toys that were delivered to all of the foster children in Xinxiang.

I love following Daniel’s antics. Daniel has a special place in my heart, because he has scoliosis just like my daughter does. And while my daughter was adopted and able to have her surgery at 3-1/2 years old, allowing her internal organs to develop properly, Daniel is still waiting to have a family choose him. I know as well as anyone that his special needs are serious, but I also know there are specialists available here in the U.S. who can give him the best care possible.

If you are interested in learning more about Daniel, and what a blessing he could be to your family, please contact waitingchild@chinesechildren.org. Knowing what warm spring sunshine feels like through Daniel could be in your future!

Nancy Delpha is the Xinxiang Foster Care Coordinator, and she fell in love with the kids when she visited in March 2008. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband, Tim, and her four children. Tyler, from Wenzhou, and Natalie, from Xi’An, were both waiting children.

Who among us has not watched a child struggle with the challenges of the ageless stacking ring toy?

Recently our Manager presented the children in Xinxiang Foster Care with some new developmental toys purchased with funds provided by a generous donor. 

The pictures he sent made me smile as each child dealt with the challenges of the rings in their own special way:

Hmmmmm, if I could only get these open, I know I could do it!

Now I KNOW these are supposed to go back on here!

When all else fails, wear as jewelry!

Now we’re getting somewhere!

If I hold my tongue just right…….

Nancy Delpha
Xinxiang Foster Care Coordinator

Daniel loved having his picture taken by a professional photographer. He posed and smiled like a little angel. But look closer—behind his beautiful smile and adorable dimples. Do you see it?

Each month when I read Daniel’s report, I laugh out loud because he is so full of mischief and uses his charm to get whatever he wants from his foster family and his buddies in the neighborhood. In China they call him “the big potato,” which I believe translates as “the big shot” in English. I bet you can see his boyish mischief now!

The ABC’s of a child needing a family…

A-Adorable
B-Brave
C-Cute
D-Dimply
E-Excited
F-
G-Giggly
H-Happy
I-Intelligent (he loves math!)
J-Joyful
K-Kind-hearted
L-Loveable
M-Marvelous
N-Nice
O-Outgoing
P-Proud
Q-Quick
R-Respectful (especially to his teachers)
S-
T-Talented
U-Unique
V-Vibrant
W-Waiting
X-Xtra Special
Y-Youthful
Z-Zestful

This handsome little boy is six years old and has a repaired cleft palate. He is currently in LWB foster care and loves being a big brother. In fact, when we were taking individual pictures of each of the kids for Chinese New Year, he insisted on having a photo taken with his little brother as well.

You may have noticed we are missing the letters “F” and “S”; that is because this little boy hasn’t found his FAMILY yet off of the shared agency waiting child list.

Could he be your SON???

Erika Callahan
Shantou Foster Care Coordinator

We often hear about the loving relationships that develop between foster families and the children in their care. Little David, who has been in foster care in Xinxiang, and his father are a perfect example of this love.

David joined his foster family one year ago, just days after receiving surgery to repair his cleft lip. From the start, the bond between David and his father was strong.

Throughout David’s monthly reports, there are personal observations made about the relationship shared by father and son. For many months while David was learning to speak, his dad reported how much he wanted David to say “Baba.” While David’s names for mother and grandma seemed to roll off his tongue, he made his devoted father wait. Finally, last month, David’s dad excitedly announced that he was being called by name. This reminds me so much of all the “da da das” I heard before my children starting saying “ma ma.”

In December’s report, our program manager, Li Jia, shared a heartwarming story about David’s affection for his father. He wrote:

During this visit I witnessed something wonderful. When Dad said, “Kiss Dad,” David turned around and held his dad’s face with both hands and gave him a big kiss, leaving a lot of slobber on his face. He then cleaned it with his small hands. This made his dad full of joy! What a nice family!

I wish I could have been there to see it. The warmth and love that is so obviously present in this family is the true gift of foster care.

Michelle Holmes, LSW
Xinxiang Foster Care Coordinator