Mother's Day

A mother holds her children’s hands for just a little while but holds their hearts forever.
~ Author Unknown

Mother’s Day is almost here! Have you ever heard it said that every mother is a working mother? No truer statement has ever been made! Time to tell Mom how special she is to you and how much you appreciate her. How can you really show a mother how much she means to you every day year ‘round? Make this Mother’s Day memorable and truly make a statement about how important your special mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be are to you with a gift for them that also helps children in need. Love Without Boundaries has brought together some of our most exceptional merchandise ever to truly celebrate mothers and all they do.





We have handcrafted silk brocade “Blessed Banners” that feature the verse from Proverbs 31:28, “Her children will rise up and call her blessed,” written in beautiful Chinese characters. The background silk features Tang Dynasty poetry. The banners were handmade by older orphaned children especially for LWB. The banners are available in a wide variety of colors to please every Mom’s taste and décor. These banners will make beautiful accents to tabletops or as wall hangings. Each is sized 15” x 28” and they are exceptionally beautiful when framed. These are a wonderful way to incorporate our children’s heritage into our homes and daily lives.







We also have an exquisite collection of jewelry that is exclusive to LWB. Our “Red Thread” jewelry is truly wearable art and features strands of 100% pure red silk, textured cord, suede, and linen thread. These symbolize the ancient Chinese proverb, “There is an invisible red thread that connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time and place or circumstance. Although the thread may stretch or tangle, it will never break.” Each necklace is 18” long and closes with an elegant silver clasp. The necklace features sterling silver Thai Hilltribe and Bali silver beads, dichroic glass beads, freshwater pearls, and the Chinese character for love in a beautiful silver charm.

The necklace is stunning when paired with our exclusive earrings featuring freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, and a silver charm matching the necklace perfectly. Each necklace and earring set was thoughtfully designed to represent the connection that a mother has with her children and handcrafted by artisans in China exclusively for LWB. The necklace and earrings are specially priced as a set or available for purchase individually.

Our second edition of the Love’s Journey series, “Love’s Journey 2: The Red Thread," is a wonderful gift to celebrate Mother’s Day. This coffee table style book holds over 250 pages of photos and essays written by adoptive families, children, and caregivers to celebrate the adoption experience. Mom will enjoy quiet time with this book and she will also enjoy sharing the stories with her children. This book will inspire meaningful conversations about adoption, family, love, and heritage between parents, children, and extended family and friends.

Can’t decide? Don’t worry! All of these items are also available specially priced in combination. All proceeds from every purchase will help orphaned and impoverished children in China receive the medical care, nutrition, foster care, and education they need to thrive. Celebrate Mother’s Day and improve the life of a child! Your gift will truly make a difference. Please visit our website http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/lwbshop/Categories?category=Mother%27s+Day+Promotions to learn more about pricing. We can ship to you or directly to Mom.

"Mother's Love"

Our "Born in My Heart" Art Auction is currently taking place. All proceeds from the auction will be used to provide heart surgeries for orphaned children in China. We would like to share a wonderful story behind one of the items, a remarkable painting by acclaimed artist Caroline Young entitled "Mother’s Love."

From the artist: "'Mother's Love' is a limited edition of a painting I did for my own mom, for her Mother's Day present. It is very relevant for the 'Born in My Heart' auction, and for the adoptive parents who will be viewing LWB's auction items. The story behind the piece is as follows:My father and mother were born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. After World War II they emigrated to Hong Kong, to start a business and a family. After three miscarriages, my mother was able to carry her fourth pregnancy to full term. She labored for two days and two nights, and the doctor told the nurse to sit on her stomach and push the baby out. A beautiful baby boy was born, but died several days later. My mother almost died, and the doctor warned her never to become pregnant again, as she could lose her life the next time. So my parents decided to adopt. In those days, there were many unwanted children in orphanages in Hong Kong, as the Chinese there did not adopt children that were not blood-related to them. My parents visited several orphanages, but did not find a child that was right for them. They finally decided to try an orphanage run by American missionaries. Not finding THE one there, they decided to leave. As my dad was driving out of the parking lot, my mom stopped him, saying, 'Wait! We have to go back in there. We didn't see ALL of the kids.' My dad replied, 'What do you mean? We saw everyone there!' And my mom spoke these fateful words: ;No we didn't. I know, because I hear my daughter's voice, in my heart, calling to me from within those walls.'They went back in, and that is when they found me. According to my mother, my caretaker at the orphanage had bonded with me, and did not want me to be adopted. So she had hidden me in a closet. When she thought the coast was clear, she let me out, and that is when my parents returned. So if my mother hadn't listened to her heart, I wouldn't have this wonderful life today."

To read more about the artist and view the painting in the Art Auction, be sure to visit the following link before the auction ends tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29th.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190217116229&ih=009&category=72182&_trksid=p1742.m153.l1262

Help Heal a Heart!

"Born in my Heart" Art Auction
April 24-29, beginning the 24th at 9:00 am Pacific Time

In nearly every orphanage in China, children in need of heart surgery wait to be healed. In an effort to help as many of these orphans as possible, Love Without Boundaries began the "Born in my Heart" art auction five years ago. This is an annual event that serves as our special tribute to the miracle of adoption, and also as a fundraiser to help us provide these essential operations to children who need emergency heart surgery.

You can help to save the life of a child by taking part from April 24-29. Every penny raised will help to heal precious children and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive, and perhaps even find a family of their very own. So please bid often and bid generously!

Auction items will begin to launch at 9 am (Pacific) on Thursday, April 24th. Nearly 300 items will be added throughout the day, and the auction will close Tuesday, April 29th (again, with items closing throughout the course of the day).

We have some absolutely incredible items this year, all donated by LWB's fabulous supporters! Just a few of the items you won't want to miss are: "Jia: Portrait of Hope" by Leila Ashton (above): an original oil painting of one of our LWB heart babies, a life-size replica jade burial suit,

two giclee prints of "Qi Pan" by Zhao Kailin, personalized digital lifebooks, the most beautiful collection of quilts imaginable (including several "100 Good Wishes" quilts),

beautiful paintings (both originals and giclee prints), calligraphy, custom adoption videos, amazing photography, embroidery, gift baskets, jewlery, clothing, heritage items and so much more!

You will be able to access our auction from the Love Without Boundaries website homepage at: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/, beginning April 24th.


You can also play a part in healing hearts by posting about the auction! If you have a personal or family website or blog, we would be so grateful if you would mention this event, as so many children are counting on us for surgery. Help spread the news that lives can be saved!

Thank you in advance for helping to make this year's auction our best ever!
Love Without Boundaries Art Auction Committee

A Story of Hope

Today you get two stories in one...1) a preview of one of my very favorite items from the upcoming "Born in my Heart" art auction, and 2) the story of a very special child.

First the child: our beautiful Jia. Born with an incredibly complex heart defect (actually a number of defects), Jia had a very rocky start in life. We first learned about her in November of 2006, and quickly were able to arrange a first-stage heart surgery to try and save her life. The surgery was a success, but left Jia very weak and fragile. We moved her to our Heartbridge Rehabilitation Unit in Beijing, where we could give her the very best care, and she would have the greatest chance for recovery. Jia's heart was so weak...her doctors and caregivers did everything they could for her, but had little hope that she would survive. And yet by some miracle, Jia pulled through, she is one tough little cookie!

Now on to the painting: The summer after Jia's surgery, we began to look for an artist who might be willing to paint a portrait of one of our "LWB kids" for the next art auction. We found a wonderful portrait artist named Leila Ashton, who very graciously offered to donate her time and talents to create a custom oil painting to benefit our heart kids. With plenty of time to create the painting, now we just needed to find a subject...

And of course that brings us back to Jia! One of our volunteers in China is a very good photographer, and we sent him to a number of orphanages to photograph possible subjects for our painting. When I saw Jia's picture for the first time, I knew we had found our girl! So more photos were taken, and the painting was begun.

Soon after, Jia was diagnosed with irreversible pulmonary hypertension, and she was placed into palliative (end of life) care in October. We wanted her to at least know the love of a good foster family, for whatever time she had left in this world. All the volunteers and supporters, everyone whose life had been touched by this little girl, were heartbroken.

Now comes the amazing part...Jia apparently has an angel on her shoulder. She has a very special angel in her corner anyway, someone who arranged for her to come to the US for once last chance at healing. Any day now she will be traveling, perhaps even during our art auction. How is that for timing?!

The painting was just completed last week, and we wanted to give you a little preview. The title is "Jia: Portrait of Hope." I would like to invite you read the rest of Jia's story, and perhaps bid on this incredible painting in the upcoming auction. Our auction will begin Thursday, April 24th, with items starting to launch at 9:00 am Pacific Time. Bidding will end Tuesday, April 29th.

More importantly, I would like to ask you to join us in sending positive thoughts and prayers to this special little girl, as she and her foster momma make the difficult journey for surgery. Please be a part of Jia's story of hope and healing! Thank you.

Jan Champoux
Art Auction Coordinator

FIRST HAIRCUTS!

The Anhui Cleft Healing Home is up and running and we are getting to experience a series of firsts with our new babies. I wanted to share their first haircuts with you! I think our home manager did a wonderful job of writing about it, so I will let him tell the story (by the way, Paddy is our Assistant Home manager, driver and now barber extraordinaire):

'The kids all settled down well at cleft home. They're fattening up each day and their hairs are growing longer and longer. Two of the babies need to get haircut now. But it won't be an easier job to bring them to a barber shop. One reason is that the babies will have to line up in the barber shop to wait their turns. It is hard to keep them stay calm without crying. Finally, Paddy said that he could do the haircut for all our cleft babies. He once learned the skill of hairdressing/haircut. So Paddy now has one more role: Cleft Home barber. He spent one morning in the market and bought a set of tools. In the afternoon, Paddy had two babies hair cut. One is Becca, the other is Kyle. Becca is a girl, so Paddy just trimmed her hair shorter. After haircut, Becca looks more smart and tidy. Kyle is a boy so Paddy did a traditional boy hairstyle for him. He looks cute with the new hairstyle. Doesn't he look more handsome? The Nannies likes him even more with the new hairstyle. :) The Nannies said they would like to have a free hairdressing done by Paddy next time. '

Kyle before his first haircut

Paddy seems to be enjoying his new role

Tada!! The new stylin’ Kyle.
He doesn’t look thrilled, but then again he

didn’t seem to fight the haircut!

Becca before

Becca with her new "do"

Okay, I have to admit, I may not have thought the babies needed haircuts quite yet. But who am I to speak? I kept my boys' blond curls much longer than I should have when they were little! And the asian men in our local barber shop had to coax me into allowing them to cut my Chinese son’s hair, he really did look better afterwards! I am very happy that these babies are part of a family who decided they needed haircuts and then figured out the best way to give them. And I know their future families will be blessed to have these snapshots of their early lives!

If you would like to read more about our babies at Anhui Cleft Healing Home please subscribe to our ACHH blog on the right side of this page.

Sandi Glass
Cleft Healing Home Coordinator
Love Without Boundaries
"Every Child Counts"
http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/

Meet Li

Li was born with a congenital cleft lip and abandoned within a week of her birth in 1987 in Hubei Province. However, Li was a smart and strong young girl whose lip was repaired when she was a small child and grew up in the Jingzhou SWI. The orphanage staff members tell LWB that Li always helped with the younger brothers and sisters at the orphanage. She has always been a very good girl. Moreover, Li excelled in her studies in elementary, middle and high school.

After taking college entrance exams, Li achieved a tremendous honor. Her marks were high enough to earn her admission to Wuhan Science and Technology University of Hubei Province. Li is the first and only young person from her orphanage to achieve such an honor. Li says: “The big family (orphanage) that raised me. It is the kind-hearted people of the society who sponsored me to go to the university to have a further study.I will study hard and be a useful person to society and help those who need help.”

In September 2007, Li enrolled as a student majoring in logistics at the university. A television advertisement praising Li for her academic achievement and financial need generated enough donations within to fund her schooling for the 2007-2008 academic year. However, Li has no funds to pay for her next year at university. Fees for tuition, books, room and board and a small amount of pocket money for the 2008-2009 academic year will total $2,633. LWB is seeking donors to sponsor Li achieve her dream of an education to help people. No donation is too small to help Li. She appreciates every bit of help in her desire to become educated and a help to her future achievement. To learn more about Li contact linda.mitchell@lwbmail.com.

Xie Xie,

Linda Mitchell
Believe In Me Jingzhou Coordinator
Associate Director of Education, LWB

"The Middle Kingdom Through My Lens"

Matt Cline is an adoptive father who chronicled his adoption journey through his photography. In April of 2007, Matt, his wife, Kristin, and their daughter, Merril, journeyed to China to bring Rachael home to their family. But this isn't just a family photo album. Included in this book are beautiful photos of life in China. This book is a wonderful collection of landscapes, portraits, and street photography of Nanning and Yi Ling, Guangxi Province and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

Matt is not only sharing these wonderful photos with us, but a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Love Without Boundaries' medical program.

Please take a look at this book:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/213460
It truly is a beautiful representation of life in China.

Matt has also donated a few of his photographs for our "Born in My Heart"
Art Auction which is coming up on April 24th. Please visit our website for more information http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/.

Teacher Appreciation Day Gift

I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom. ~Author Unknown

Remember that tickly feeling in your stomach when you knew that your teacher at school or Sunday school or coach on the ball field was absolutely delighted with something that you did or said? Wasn’t it just the best?

So many of us have at least one memory of an adult from our childhood that made us into the people we are today. We love reliving them when we see our children grow and blossom under the leadership of wonderful teachers in their lives. We can see that LWB teachers in China are making this kind of difference for students in our Believe In Me Schools and Mama’s Wish students. It’s obvious that teachers are vital to creating a world that we all want to live in.

This year, Teacher Appreciation Week is celebrated in the United States the first full week in May, highlighed by Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, May 6th.

Love Without Boundaries is so grateful to the sponsors and donors that make access to teachers and education possible for hundreds of orphaned and impoverished children in China, In appreciation we are offering an LWB Education gift card and unique photo frame magnets just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week.

While supplies last, for a minimum donation of $20, LWB will send one LWB Education Gift card and two LWB Education magnetized photo frames to thank the teachers you know that devote their lives to education.





To receive this special offer follow this link: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/education_gift_cards.cfm

Type TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY OFFER in the “note” box.

Linda Mitchell
Associate Director of Education

Home Sweet Home

On March 28th two young women who have lived in an orphanage their entire lives took a huge step toward independence by moving into their own apartment.
These young ladies have worked hard to graduate from high school and attend college. They are both now employed and have decided it is time to become more independent. LWB is assisting these young ladies in their endeavor by providing rent assistance, help with furnishing their apartment, and hiring a “house mom” to live with them for a time and teach them life skills such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, negotiating, and social interaction with neighbors and landlord.
As you can see, the girls had fun on their shopping spree picking out items for their new home.
We are able to help these courageous young women because of our generous donors who have supported them every step of their journey, and we want to say THANK YOU!

Karen McGinty
Shantou Education Coordinator

Let's Go Fly a Kite

During the month of March, we hired a teacher to work with the children in Kaifeng, Henan. This teacher will work primarily with the older students living in the SWI. The students need the help with homework in order to maintain good grades.

This past weekend the teacher and students had a great time flying kites during the Qingming Festival of China, where people visit grave sites and go to the countryside to see the new green. After a day of kite flying, the group went to the market to buy sweet potatoes for their evening barbecue. The kids reported that they had a wonderful time, even though the sweet potatoes did not turn out!

Missy Ridley
Education Director

IT IS WARMER IN ZHAOTONG, YUNNAN!

During the snowstorms in China this past winter our Orphanage Assistance program received several donations to ‘help wherever needed’.

I would like to share with you where some of those donations went. In early March we were told Zhaotong SWI could use some help. All of the children of this orphanage are in foster homes through LWB but they were in need of some blankets and warm clothing. Using the donations we received we were able to purchase a quilt for each child (33), 93 sets of clothes (shirts and pants), 48 pair of long pants and 16 bags of cloth diapers!

The director of Zhaotong was very grateful to LWB and all the wonderful donors who helped make this possible. I think you can see how happy the ayis are in the photos and those babies look toasty warm all bundled up in their winter clothing. Thank you to everyone who made this possible.

If you would like more information about Orphanage Assistance please contact us at: orphanageassistance@lwbmail.com

Thank you!!

Kate Finco

Special Projects Director

Love Without Boundaries

www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

'Every Child Counts'

Yuan, and Very Special Girl

When a team of LWB volunteers was in Henan last October, we met a very special little girl who had recently lost her family. Her name is Yuan, and some of you know her as the little girl who had the huge tumors on her face and who received one surgery in Shanghai during our medical mission there in November. Yuan has an incredibly sweet spirit, that just shines from her eyes, and she wants so much to have a family to love her forever.


Her facial tumors are quite severe, and our medical team wanted to provide her with the best care possible. To do this, we consulted with surgeons and physicians from several countries, and most agreed that Yuan most likely has Neurofibromatosis (NF), which is a disorder where children form multiple tumors (usually not malignant) on their skin, muscle, and bones. Sadly, there is no cure. Many children with this condition face the risk of isolation and extreme loneliness as they withdraw from a world which often cannot overlook such disfigurements. Already we have learned from our staff in China that Yuan wants so badly to go to school and play with friends, but it is very difficult for her to be accepted.


We truly believe that Yuan’s best chance at happiness is to find an adoptive family who will welcome her into their home and help show her that she is indeed a beautiful child with such a sweet and loving heart. We know her adoption placement might be difficult, but one thing is for certain….we believe in the amazing power of love. Her orphanage has agreed to file her adoption paperwork, which should be sent around June. We are asking you today to please keep Yuan in your prayers. We are all hoping that there is a family somewhere who will open their hearts to this child who simply wants to have a mom and dad to love her. If we learn that her paperwork has been accepted at the national level for adoption, we will post an update.

Puppy Love for Love's Journey Two

I returned home from taking the kids to school to find that my son’s Labrador puppy, Jack, had taken an interest in my treasured copy of Love’s Journey 2 while I was gone just those few minutes. I can’t imagine what drew Jack to that book in particular. There are others on the coffee table – why my beautiful Love’s Journey 2? I keep a number of books on my coffee table in two stacks, one on each end. Of course, Love’s Journey 2 is on top of the stack closest to “my” chair which is likely why Jack just happened to pick that treasured volume to enjoy in my absence.

My beautiful book has a few pages torn though thankfully none of the pages are ruined. The dust cover took the brunt of Jack’s interest and was completely destroyed. Sadly, there was nothing to do except gather the pieces and carry them to the trash. After completing that task, I sat on the floor and looked through the pages of the book for additional damage. I was once again captured by the beautiful photos. So many smiling children and so many grateful parents! The sheer joy rising from those pages is riveting. Every time I open this beautiful book my heart is captured anew.

As I flipped through the pages my eye was caught by an essay, “Meeting My Daughter.” This essay speaks beautifully about the long wait for a child and the flutters of excitement in the moments just before their daughter is placed in her mother’s arms for the first time. A page later I found myself giggling at the “Top 11 Reasons for a ‘Wait’” bringing a bit of comic relief to the wait that only adoptive parents can truly appreciate. Turning yet a few more pages brought tears came to my eyes as I read an essay about a 3-year old little girl named YaYa living in an orphanage. YaYa begged the aunties to take her picture so her mommy and daddy could find her. Flipping pages I was again laughing as I read about a family eating breakfast in a Beijing restaurant and hoping to learn the results of the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament – their inquiries and eventual charades resulted in the bewildered restaurant staff delivering a bottle of Tabasco sauce to their table. Pages later I was overcome with wonder reading the story of a three-year-old little girl who told her mother a sister named Obedience was waiting for her in China. Months went by before the mother just happened to visit a list of Waiting Children and clicked on one of those precious photos to find that the child was a little girl named Obedience! My soul was lifted by page after page of beautiful children and the amazing stories written by parents, children, loving foster parents, and aunties.

My morning started off badly with the discovery that a puppy’s interest in one of my favorite books had forever left its mark on it, but the mark Love’s Journey 2 has left on my heart continues undamaged. I can’t think of a better way to begin my workday at Love Without Boundaries than to have enjoyed a few moments alone with Love’s Journey 2, dust cover intact or otherwise. I hope that if you own a copy of this incredible book that you’ll take a moment to enjoy its pages today. If you do not yet own this book then I hope you’ll consider purchasing a copy either for yourself or as a Mother’s Day gift for someone special. Love’s Journey 2 is a treasure for parents and an heirloom for children. I do recommend that if you have a new puppy in your family you might want to keep this particular coffee table book off the coffee table!

To order Love’s Journey 2 please visit the LWB store at http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/lwbshop/StoreFront. Not only will you have an opportunity to add Love’s Journey 2 to your home, but there are many special Mother’s Day gifts for the mothers and mothers-to-be in your life. The gifts will bring joy to Mom and all proceeds from every purchase will bring care to the children in China through the programs of Love Without Boundaries.

Debbie Smith
Tuan Yuan Adoption Assistance Coordinator

Believe In Me School, Jingzhou in Hubei Province

Believe in my eyes bright and alert, ready to understand.

Believe in my mouth excited to reply to my teacher’s questions.

Believe in my hand writing in Chinese and Pinyin

Believe In Me and all that I can do

Because I love learning


Thank you, Love Without Boundaries Education Sponsors and Donors


Children like JZ who attends the Love Without Boundaries Believe In Me School, Jingzhou in Hubei Province await sponsors to make a love of learning possible.


To sponsor a student please go to:

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/education_jingzhou.cfm

Linda Mitchell
Wife to Doug, mom to Laura, Jenna, James and David
Associate Education Director
Love Without Boundaries Foundation

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/

Susie, Shay, and the Loudi Gang

I recently returned from a trip to Loudi in Hunan province where I visited a unique LWB program in which we are overseeing regular physical therapy intervention for a number of special needs children. This is an excerpt from my trip journal:

The day was nothing short of amazing. Where do I begin??? How about at breakfast where the only thing I recognized on the breakfast buffet was fried rice. I had that and a sticky bun and several other things that I can't name for you, simply because I don't know what they were. No oatmeal or Cheerios here!

After breakfast, we drove out to the countryside to visit the foster home of two of my PT kids, Susie and Shay, both beautiful girls. I had brought a pediatric walker along for Susie to try out. When we arrived, the girls were both outside the home sitting in their baby walkers. They were like a really cute greeting committee in miniature. I said hi to them and hung back a bit while they got used to the sight of me. One was quick to smile; the other slower to warm up. I was anxious to give the walker a try, so we started out with that right away after introductions. The thrill on that little girls face when we took her first few steps was worth the price of the trip to see. Susie's got a lot of practicing to do before she's even close to using that walker on her own, but she did much better than I could have guessed she would do. She got the idea of stepping right away, and was truly delighted when she did it. Fun, fun, fun!


Shay also experienced several exciting events during our visit. She got to try out some brand new leg braces we had brought for her to allow her to practice standing. When she was satisfied that this standing thing was pretty cool, we introduced stepping. Boy was she ecstatic about that. Look at that smile!


We then spent the next bit of time working with the girls and the PT on treatment ideas and showing the foster mom how she can help out between PT visits. She was really receptive to what I suggested and seems to be doing a great job with the kids. Before I left, I had earned great big smiles from both girls. It was a great way to start off the day.


Our next stop was at another rural foster home with many special needs kids in their care. We worked with each one to determine something specific the PT could work on to progress them in their development and improve their condition. This took several hours, I think, and then we were in for a huge treat. The orphanage staff had cooked up a magnificent meal for us right there in the home. We ate in front of the families shrine to their ancestors. The vegetables in the dishes were mainly wild vegetables they went out and picked while we were working with the kids. The bamboo root in one dish was actually pulled from the ground about 20 feet from the front door! Several of the dishes were Loudi specialties. It was truly very special - and quite delicious!


Our last stop was back into the city where the last grouping of children would be seen. They had arranged for the children from the orphanage as well as a couple foster care kids who all live near each other to meet at one home for us to see. One child there is a teen named Hannah receiving PT and tutoring with support from LWB. We talked about what she would like to do when she "grows up." After some discussion, Hannah commented that she could clean well because she was trained in this very early. This will actually probably be perfect for her, so I really encouraged her to continue to keep on working at her exercises so her legs will be strong enough for her to do this to earn a wage. She seemed to like the sound of that. This is Hannah with Yvonne, one of the LWB China staff.

The PT, PT assistant and I talked for a bit longer about ideas for the kids and what I'd like to see them focusing on and working toward, and then we called it a day - a very full day.

I'm certainly not doing the day justice in my recounting of it. The PTs seems so very open to suggestion and instruction, the children were beautiful and amazing, and the orphanage staff expressed such appreciation. Have I mentioned yet how fabulous the day was?

--
Melissa Widenhofer
Loudi Tutoring Program Coordinator
Loudi PT Program Assistant
Love Without Boundaries
www.lovewithoutboundaries.com