Shanghai Mission - Thursday

More news from the neurosurgery mission done in partnership with the Shepherd's Crook Ministries.

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Yay!!! All surgeries were successfully done! Time has gone fast. In only 4 days, 19 children were healed and their future will be forever different!

Four surgeries were done today. Baby You wasn't crying much after surgery. He was actually sleeping so well. Carrie was sleeping too and her roommate - Matthew came out to play in the hallway as he told me he didn't want to disturb Carrie - he wanted her to sleep well. What a good boy! Benjamin's surgery took hours and his ayi was so concerned. He finally came out and his foreheard doesn't stick out like before anymore. His ayi was staring at him while he was sleeping soundly and her eyes were filled with tears. She kept saying "our Benjamin is so good looking now!" Lei has received a small surgery for his hydrocephalus.

I would say today seems to be a happy day. Most kids seemed to be in such great mood.

Remember I mentioned that Little Wendy was so fussy and cried a lot yesterday. She is so playful already today. She talked a lot, laughed and smiled! Guess what the secret is - her foster mom was blowing bubbles by her bed side. She had so much fun trying to catch the bubbles while laying on her tummy.

Liu, who cried a lot and tried hard to stop crying yesterday has a great mood today too. She could lift up her upper body now and gave a big smile. One of the American doctors has fallen in love with her and she kept running to her bedside to talk to her. Liu has trouble talking but Tasha was trying really hard to say words one by one slowly. Liu tried really hard to follow every word Tasha said. When Liu's ayi mentioned that she likes oranage juice, Tasha disappeared right away and came back with a big bag of juice and toys for Liu. I know I have to watch this child well so Tasha won't try to sneak her back to America!

Naomi was also in a great mood. She smiled all the time. Her ayi felt bad that she has to lay on her tummy for so long and she put Naomi laying on the pillow and held both naomi and the pillow on her lap. Naomi enjoyed it so much and she was making all this noise showing how excited and comfy she was! One of her hands was tied to a small cardboard to hold the IV injection needle.. she kept putting that hand to her ear and tried to talk to it - as she thought that was her cell phone! LOL

Older Wendy just couldn't wait to get out of bed and she felt upset for just a little bit.. I came up to her and kept telling her not to cry.. it didn't work.. she still cried. I told her I was going to tickle her, she burst into laughter and giggling non-stopping.. Oh.. how much I wish she could get well enough to be able to get out of bed. I know she's the one who's always trying to be happy to set a good example for the younger ones.

Hou is another older child who wants to show he's the brave one. He enjoyed so much the new toys he got from the volunteers and was singing while playing with them.

Our volunteers continued to touch my heart deeply. One mom brought her two kids to the hospital with handmade cards and snack bags for each child and ayis. They had so much fun playing with our babies too and they already couldn't wait to come back to the hospital again to help. Jake, one of the kids, was doing some fun tricks that got Heather to laugh out loud - so loud that I could even hear her laughter outside the room. I've never seen Heather being so happy these days.

Pam, our nightsift volunteer, has spent a couple of nights in the hospital helping the babies in the dark over night as they turned off the lights at night. She has started her nightshift from the afternoon. I asked if she should go home make dinner for her husband and her kids - she was telling me "oh don't worry about them.. they are big babies".

Elfie - I call her my last-minute on-call angel. With a medical mission this big, there's always a lot of expected things happening at the last minute and then you need help. Elfie always said "Ok, I can do it" She saved us on so many occasions when we ran into situations like "what should we do now!" I told Elfie today that we would look for Chinese people to foster a baby, she told me she would go for plastic surgery to get herself a Chinese look - I was laughing so hard hearing that!

I wish I could list out every volunteer who came help. I would not know how to organize this without their help.

The nurses in the Shanghai Children Medical Center have been so helpful too. They have been running between rooms and working extra hours this week.. They love our kids so much as they would come to play with our kids and use their cell phones to take pics as they want to keep every cute face in their memory.

Tonight the American doctors and Chinese doctors had dinner together to celebrate the success of this mission. While walking into the restaurant, I told Dr Lazareff that I heard he would definitely come back. I was joking and asked if he was just saying it to be "polite".. he said "no no no.. no empty words.. I am definitely coming back". He promised to come back to China next time speaking more Chinese. The hospital director told him that next year they will have a new OR for foreign doctors and they will have everything in English there.. Dr Lazareff said "no need to because I will come back speaking Chinese". What a super nice and funny doctor he is, but I know it is truly his kindness and big heart for helping orphans that will bring him back here again soon!

I think what touched me the most during this whole mission is that I realized providing children a better future is really not that difficult. Everyone is trying their best and giving their money, time and effort, and in just one short week, 19 kids are going to have a brighter future! I know we can't help all the orphaned children, but if we can just keep this same passion going week by week like this past week, we can definitely provide more and more kids a better future.

The story's not over yet even though we have done everyone's surgery. Let's continue to pray for their recovery. We will keep going back to visit them, too.

Tingting