Sixteen years ago, Gabby McElwain was born in China and then taken to an orphanage. LWB had recently set up foster care in her city, and we were very happy when she could move into a wonderful foster family instead of being confined to an orphanage crib. For over a year, she experienced the love of a family who cared for and cherished her.
When Zeke was first found abandoned as a baby, he was in a very fragile state. He struggled to feed and then battled both pneumonia and malaria, but the LWB community helped provide the extra care and support he needed in the orphanage. Zeke slowly began gaining strength, and we celebrated every developmental milestone this gorgeous little guy made.
For the next six weeks during this special holiday season, we’ll be sharing stories about some of the children whose lives have been truly transformed because of this amazing LWB community. First up today is Sampson. It was exactly four years ago that we met this little boy who lives along the border region of Cambodia and Thailand. At just two years of age, Sampson had already lived through more sorrow than any toddler should have to experience.
In many countries around the world, the standard practice for children who are abandoned or relinquished is to place them into institutional care. Long-term stays in orphanages, however, can lead to both physical and emotional harm to a child. There is plenty of research on the topic of course, but all of us at LWB have seen firsthand the difference it makes in a child’s life when they are instead given the opportunity to be raised in family-based care.
Last September, two little boys entered the same foster family. Asher was five years old, and Zeke was three. These two boys are not related by blood, but they have become extremely close and are definitely brothers in their hearts!
Some of you will remember that right before Christmas 2019, newborn preemie Elgin was found in the cold. We rushed him to LWB’s partner hospital in Hefei. Baby Elgin was admitted to the Neonatal ICU (NICU) weighing just 1.3 kgs, or 2.9 pounds. After spending over a month in the hospital at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Elgin reached the “magic weight” of 4 lbs and could leave the hospital at last.
As we spoke, she was either covering her face and giggling, or swelling with tears. Deborah is a woman of great joy and compassion, and I liked her right away. She works twelve-hour days, from 6 AM to 6 PM, as one of the cooks for the Mukono Healing Home in Uganda. For eight years, she has been working hard at this job. And to her work, she pours out an abundance of skill and heart.
Twins Sawyer and Lizzie were born late last summer. After their parents were no longer able to care for them, they entered our Cambodia Foster Care program when they were three months old along with their older brothers Henry and Howard. Although Sawyer is the first-born of the twins, Lizzie has him beat on size. We love her extra baby rolls!
Roberta has been a resident of LWB foster care and on-site family care off and on since she was 4 years old and has been eligible for adoption for many years. We have just learned that there is a family hoping to bring her home at last!
As the whole world shares the weight of a pandemic, the truth that love has no boundaries has never rung truer. There is a collective ache we feel, a grief we share, from the United States to India, and from China to Uganda. Hard stories abound, and no country is spared. Nevertheless, beautiful stories abound as well, because we also carry collective compassion and collective hope. Running in tandem alongside all the challenges are brilliant light and many illustrations of great humanity and love for others.
