Three Cheers for Three Musketeers!
This past July, we were contacted by an orphanage in far southern China who had three little girls with unrepaired cleft lip.
They asked if we could possibly take them into our healing homes program, and then when they were healthy enough for surgery, arrange for their operations. We were happy to welcome Amy, Millie, and Lola (pictured left to right in the above photo) soon after to our care. Yes, that’s a whole lot of cuteness!
Millie on the move
Millie was the youngest of the trio, at nine months of age. And while she might have been the quietest of the three, she was definitely the strongest. Millie soon learned how to zoom around in her baby walker, crawl super-fast, and we actually had to lower the mattress in her bed as we quickly discovered she was quite the little climber! We also learned that Millie had a beautiful set of dimples that showed up every time she smiled.
Millie’s double dimples
Amy, at one year old, was a bit more delayed. She was unable to sit up on her own when she arrived to our home and had very weak legs. But what a happy little girl she was!
Amy waving hello
Amy loved playing peek-a-boo with our nannies and truly only fussed when she was hungry or wet.
Such a great smile!
Lola was 22 months when she arrived to our home, but she only weighed the same as an average four-month-old. She was quite delayed in her development, unable to stand or walk, but she quickly began to catch up under the care of our nannies.
A tiny sleeping beauty
“Hey, can I get some help here? I don’t even know how I did this!”
This past fall, all three girls had gained the health they needed to undergo their cleft lip surgeries. Their operations went very smoothly, although all three girls were of course quite sore for a few days.
“I don’t know what you did to my lip, but I sure hope it was a one-time thing!”
Thankfully, all three girls recovered quickly and were soon sharing their wonderful smiles once again.
Last week, all three girls were finally ready to graduate from healing home care. It was time for our Guangdong trio to head back to their home orphanage to prepare their adoption paperwork.
We sure are going to miss seeing their beautiful faces each day, but our sincere hope is that they will soon be chosen by their very own forever families. We are thankful that we could play a part in their life stories, and we are so grateful to everyone who supports our work to make these wonderful transformations possible.
Three cheers for the three musketeers!
