In our efforts to support impoverished families who are desperate to find help for their critically ill children, LWB’s Unity Initiative provides life-changing surgeries for children in great need. Today, we are standing alongside two families from rural China.
2018 is a very special year to all of us at Love Without Boundaries, as we celebrate 15 years of helping orphaned and vulnerable children find the hope and healing they deserve. All through this wonderful anniversary year, we’ll be bringing you updates on some of the children whose lives were changed since our work began in 2003. We hope as you read their stories over the coming months that you will know just what a difference our incredible LWB supporters have made in the world. Join with us as we celebrate 15 years of love. Our first update is about a little boy who was helped by LWB in 2016. People all over the world fell in love with precious Phillip, a baby from an orphanage in southern China who was born with a complex heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, or ToF.
With Valentine’s Day is just one week away, we are beginning our celebration early in honor of a little boy named Oliver who desperately needs our help. After suffering from infertility for eight years, Oliver’s mother was thrilled to find herself pregnant in 2015. Immediately following little Oliver’s birth, however, they were given the news that their miracle baby had been born with congenital heart disease and Down Syndrome. In China, around 95% of women terminate their pregnancies if they learn before birth that their child has Down Syndrome.
Today was Intake Day for our 2017 Cleft Medical Exchange. When our team arrived early in the morning, many families were already lined up hoping to be seen. Unlike our past medical exchange trips to China where we pre-identified the children having surgery, this year ads were sent to villages, schools, and orphanages by Smile Cambodia. Today was the “open call” for anyone to come and be seen by our international team.
What’s that? A family, for me?
That’s right, Phillip! We’ve heard that you have a family working to bring you home just as quickly as they can. Read more.
In the fall of 2014, LWB was contacted by an orphanage in Guangdong province about a little girl who was almost three. When she had entered their care, she was very weak and short of breath, and her lips and fingers were deep blue.
We were able to move Amanda to Shanghai for medical evaluation, where we learned she had a serious heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, which is normally repaired in infancy. Following her complex surgery at Fudan University, Amanda became a resident of our Heartbridge Healing Home. She needed time to heal and catch up on the developmental milestones she had missed due to her illness. We immediately fell in love with her beautiful, somber face. Read more.
Back in early March, LWB was asked to help a beautiful baby boy named Phillip from an orphanage in Fujian province. Phillip had been born with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a complex congenital heart defect which is surgically repaired either shortly after birth or later in infancy. We moved little Phillip to Shanghai for surgery, and everyone on his hospital ward quickly fell in love with his outgoing and lively disposition. Phillip had his essential surgery on April 8th, and like all babies who have open heart surgery, he was placed on a ventilator. Read more
Most people who’ve heard the story of Love Without Boundaries know that it all began with one baby boy born with congenital heart disease and a group of parents who wanted to help him. Since 2003, we’ve provided life-changing operations to thousands of orphaned and impoverished children, with over 750 of those receiving heart surgery.
Thanks to the partnerships we’ve built with some of the top cardiac hospitals in China as well as the generosity of our incredible supporters, we’ve been able to repeatedly celebrate the remarkable health transformations that can come through open heart surgery. Read more.
Phillip has the energy and strength of a baby superhero!
His superpower must be to make everyone fall in love with him at first sight. (We know that many of us already have!) Read more.
Right now we have two babies with serious heart issues in the hospital in Shanghai. We wanted to introduce them both to you as they need every good thought and prayer sent their way.
Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect seen worldwide. Read more.
