Becca's Bag

With the fall fashion season right around the corner, we can't help but notice that Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Coach have a firm hold on the designer luggage market. However, there is a new carry-on bag on the scene that has been getting a lot of attention. With only 50 of these bags in production, "exclusive" is the word that best describes these bags. Designed to hold all the essentials that a baby on the go could use, we think these will soon be THE bag to have for fall: The LWB TRAVEL BAG.

Who is this that I see as a lucky, proud owner of the LWB bag? Why it is little Becca, the newest child to enter LWB foster care, sassily waving to the crowds while sporting her new bag casually on her shoulder.


Cruising the aisles in her four-wheeled steel taxi looking for treats, the LWB bag also looks stylish strategically placed at the bottom of the cart for all to see--logo side up of course.


And if all that shopping wears you out going from store to store, feel free to let your fans (foster grandma) carry your bag for you.

Olympic Bound!

LWB would like to send a HUGE thank you to Shenzhen Airlines for their support of orphaned children in China. This airline has chosen 100 children from orphanages around China to attend the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. We were so excited to learn that five of the kids in our education program in Henan province were chosen for this wonderful opportunity. One of the boys had decided to keep a diary this summer to keep track of what he did. Little did he know when he made that decision that he would have this great adventure to record!


We know all of them are going to have an absolutely amazing time.

Happy Birthday, Qing!

If you read our July newsletter, you may remember a tiny little heart baby named Qing who would be celebrating his first birthday in August. He had been through a lot; having heart surgery for a VSD and also fighting pneumonia, he just wasn't getting stronger or gaining any weight. We sent Qing some Wyeth Gold formula to help him recover, even before he left the hospital. At the end of the article, I mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing a few extra chins and fat rolls. Well . . . "ask and you shall receive!" We just received a new photo, and I cannot believe the difference after just two months of formula and one month in foster care!

Our little man has about a week's worth of formula left; so we called our formula supplier and found that they had an outlet right there in Qing's hometown. They graciously decided to give us a better price on the formula and deliver it to the orphanage in person! Happy birthday, Qing, and we look forward to seeing even more fat rolls!

Jan Champoux
Nutrition Director

Summer School Update

Remember JD, our summer school student? The look on his face in his last photos were less than enthusiastic. However, JD has begun summer studies and by all accounts is doing great. We can see by these photos that he’s studying reading, writing, and arithmetic and possibly even enjoying it. Keep up the hard work, JD! Friends from around the world are cheering you on with good thoughts and well wishes.

Linda Mitchell
LWB Education

LWB Sponsors CCAA Training on Cerebral Palsy

Recently the CCAA organized a training session for orphanage staff to learn techniques for working with children with cerebral palsy (CP). This training was sponsored by LWB and held at XinQiao Hospital in Chongqing from July 13th to the 26th.


Thirty orphanage staff members participated in the training from orphanages throughout China and each one brought a child with CP from their orphanage. The staff received information on child development for the first three days. After that their sessions included more on development theory and a half day of hands-on training.


The staff was very excited to learn from the best pediatricians and nurses in China in the field of CP. Everyone agreed that this type of training will be very useful in caring for their children with CP and improving the quality of their lives. This training was such a huge success that the CCAA will be offering another one at the end of August. Love Without Boundaries is honored to be able to be a part of trainings such as these as they improve the care orphaned children receive. With the support of our donors we truly are "changing the world one child at a time."


Kate Finco
Special Projects Director

Travels With Cindy

Cindy Wu & friend

Cindy Wu, our nutrition director in China, just returned from a tour of our nutrition programs in Anhui Province. This morning I had a ton of photos from her first stop, Xiaoxian, in my inbox. Cindy will translate her notes about the children and send them on to me later, but in the meantime I am having such fun looking at all the different expressions.

I've noticed that there are many different reactions to having a stranger like Cindy tag along on the monthly nutrition visits.

This little fellow was not at all happy to see a new face, however Cindy discovered that his affections could be bought for the price of one pretty flower.



Some kids practically burst with happiness when the meet somebody new. In my mind, I can see this little guy jumping up and down and yelling with excitement!



"I don't trust you. I will make you disappear with my incredible mind powers!"




Looks like somebody is getting ratted out here: "Honest, mister, she's the one who took that cookie!"


And then there are some who will do their very best fashion model pose for the camera. Isn't she adorable?

I can't wait to hear all about the children and see if I have accurately guessed their personalities. For now, I am thrilled to see these babies looking so engaged and healthy, thriving with their foster families, and getting the best possible start in life.


Jan Champoux
Nutrition Director

A Birthday Gift Beyond Years

One generation plants the trees under whose

shade another generation rests.

~ Chinese Proverb ~

I don’t really celebrate birthdays anymore. In fact, unless the number of years I have lived ends in a zero, I give my birthdays to my kids. They get to go to Dollar Tree and “pick out something for mom” that they wrap and play with as we grab a soft serve cone from our favorite place. Recently, I became age that could be measured in decades— the number of years ended in a zero. My husband knew to take me out for dinner, which was very nice. My parents couldn’t think of anything that would mean more to me than making a difference in the lives of children and young people that LWB serves. So they surprised me by tucking a check made out to Love Without Boundaries into a birthday card in an amount that I never would have dreamed of as a kid.

I was blown away by their generosity and ability to get this birthday gift spot on perfect! They know of my love for the children of LWB. They know that when I see any of the children served by medical, foster care, nutrition or education that I’m seeing my own children...and they wanted to be grandparents in a way to those kids in the only way that they could.


After consulting my parents, we requested that the check money be used to help partially sponsor a Mama’s Wish student, Nan. Nan is a third year university student from Qinghai studying English and Tibetan. Almost a year later, Nan’s US “auntie and uncle" (me and my husband) and "grandma and grandpa” were thrilled to receive, "ooooh," and "ahhhh" over her final grades for the year—which were ALL A's and B's. Her teachers wrote that Nan is a very diligent student and active in lots of activities. She has helped translate documents for LWB Mama’s Wish students, volunteers, and sponsors. We can’t WAIT to see this young woman graduate continue her studies next year and graduate. It will be a very happy day for all of us...and we will dream of a very beautiful tree that shades lots and lots of friends and family members that have been touched by Nan, enriched so very dearly by a college education.

LWB Volunteer

Healing Love

At the beginning of March this year, a little baby girl joined our foster care program in Zhaotong, Yunnan province. She was only a few weeks old, very weak, and had clubbed feet. I named her Claire and looked at her photos that had been sent to me by our local manager in Yunnan. Within a few weeks of joining the program, it was discovered that she had pneumonia, and she was admitted to the local hospital. The local manager sent me regular email updates about baby Claire, but, despite the hospital's best efforts, her condition worsened. Due to the severity of her condition, she was discharged from the hospital as the doctors believed they could do no more to save her life. But her foster parents refused to give up.

Back home, the young foster parents, who had no formal medical training but a heart full of love for Claire, did all they could to help her. They took turns staying up all night to care for her, rocking her gently and stroking her face. They patiently fed her small amounts of milk throughout the day and night. They talked to her and encouraged her to keep fighting. When the warmer weather came, they took her outside for fresh air and sunshine.

Most importantly, they loved her! Every day I checked my inbox for news about Claire. Three months after being sent home from the hospital, I received this picture of Claire. Just look at her now!

Her picture is a true testament to the healing love of a family. When I saw this picture, it summed up for me the Love Without Boundaries motto of "Every Child Counts." I want to thank every one of our foster care and other sponsors for believing in this motto too.

Jennifer Drake
Zhaotong Foster Care Coordinator

Fundraiser for LWB and Half The Sky

We at LWB feel that we have the best supporters. Some of those supporters are parents that adopted from China and have an interest in digital scrapbooking. They have their own forum called China Digital Scrapbooks and can be found at http://chinadigitalscrapbooks.com. The forum has been around just over one year, and many of the members are now widely recognized in the digital community for their creative work.

Last year, several members decided to create a digital scrapbook kit and enlisted some of the best designers out there to contribute to the project. The result was the Journey of the Heart collaboration kit. See http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/JOTH-Charity-Kit.aspx. All proceeds from the sale of the kit go to Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky.

Once the JOTH kit was released, one of the members decided to enlist the help of others to create quick pages using the kit. Quick pages (QPs) are already assembled pages with room for pictures and journaling. It makes it much easier for the novice digital scrapbooker to complete projects. Even seasoned scrapbookers often choose to use QPs when they want to create scrapped pages quickly. Again, 100% of the profit from sales of the QPs go to Love Without Boundaries and Half The Sky.

The project grew exponentially: There were more than 30 contributors, and a lot of thought went into the creation of each page. Many digiscrappers print their finished books at http://shutterfly.com; so special consideration was given to the margin requirements for the digital scrapbook option on Shutterfly. Of course there are other printing options out there, but adjusting for Shutterfly's margin requirements took a lot of burden off the end user.

The project team also considered different digital scrapbooking programs out on the market and wrote tutorials for them. The quick pages have been tested out and will work with the following programs and most likely any others that allow you to put a picture behind another image. The project team went to great lengths to create simple QP assembly instructions for users of these programs too:

Adobe Photoshop (7, CS2 and CS3)
Adobe Photoshop Elements (free 30 day trial available)
Microsoft Picture It!
Microsoft Digital Image Pro
Microsoft Digital Image Suite
Corel Paint Shop Pro
Macromedia Fireworks
Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus
Creating Keepsakes (for home printing only)
FotoFusion (for 8x8 printing or 12x12 at an acceptable but lower resolution than required by some online print services)

Pages can even be scrapped using Microsoft Powerpoint!!

The final Lifebook Quick Page kits come in two color schemes: Spring Blossom and Bright Jade. Each set is available with and without page titles.

To view and purchase the page kits, check out the links below:
Spring Blossom with titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Spring-Blossom.aspx
Spring Blossom without titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Spring-Blossom-No-Titles.aspx


Bright Jade with titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Bright-Jade.aspx
Bright Jade without titles: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/store/Bright-Jade-No-Titles.aspx

The kits have pages for both girl and boys, have several versions for many of the topics covered, and really do offer flexibility. Even if you don't scrap digitally, you can still download these kits and print them to use as traditional 12x12 pages that you can embellish with your own supplies. To make sure no one is overwhelmed, the people driving this project have created a Yahoo Group to provide users with support as they create their books.

This project was really a labor of love!!! Most digital designers produce no more than 12 quick pages from one kit, yet these charity kits, created from the huge original JOTH kit plus many specially-made add-ons comprise 70 different pages EACH! You really are getting some high quality pages at a bargain price.

If you are new to digital scrapbooking, you can download four free sample quick pages here: http://www.digital-scrapbook-kits.com/Freebies.aspx.

Now we, as adoptive parents, have some great kits to help us finish those all-important lifebooks to preserve our child’s history. And to think you can do this and help Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky will make these projects using these pages even more special. LWB sends a special thank you to all who have contributed to these kits and to http://digital-scrapbook-kits.com/ for their generosity.

Students Help to Change the World - One Child at a Time

Twelve Ajax High School seniors from Ontario pulled together to change the world...One child at a time.

Written by their teacher Ms. Lacy:

How it all began....two students named Jalal and Cassie were taught by Ms. Jennifer Cassano during the semester I was still on parental leave with my daughter. After learning about attachment theory, what happens around the world with children in orphanages, and, of course, learning about my daughter who became part of my family on July 31, 2006, they decided they wanted to make a difference. When I returned to work in February, Ms. Cassano and I spoke and decided we would help them to make a group. I surveyed my classes to get volunteers and that was how we formed our group that we named after your association.

"Love Without Boundaries"...I think showing them a picture of my little sweetie also helped! We all got together to make a plan, and it was decided that they would sign up each week to sell cupcakes in the front foyer every week. Students rotated from week to week, sharing the tasks of baking and selling. From February to June they did this...making the $725 they donated. We made display boards that listed facts about China and the orphanages, as well as photos I had photocopied out of a book. Also, each week they made an announcement during homeroom to raise awareness about this important cause. They are really such a wonderful group of students!!!! We had a party to celebrate in June, and of course my daughter, Lienna Mei, who attended was a big hit! They really love her and all my stories about her that are so relevant to the course I teach called "Issues in Human Growth and Development."

The students who were part of this group are: Alana, Savannah, Jennifer, Sarah, Ally, Jalal, Cassie, Jodi, Kristin, Julia, Balynn, and Brittany. The teacher advisors were Ms. Jennifer Cassano and me, Ms. Jennifer Lacy.


Thank you, Ajax High Students, for giving of yourselves every week. Any amount given helps, but what you have raised is enough to fund bed 11 at Heartbridge Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit for three full months. You have much to be proud of! Currently in that bed is a sweet little girl who is truly in need of some tender loving care. Three months of the intense medical and physical attention she will receive at Heartbridge will make such a huge difference in her life. I am confident that by taking the time and the energy to think beyond the walls of your own home and your own school that you have not only impacted the life of one precious orphaned child, but what you have learned will forever impact your lives as well. Well done!


Wendy Petersen, R.N.
Heartbridge Coordinator

Getting to Know You

Cindy Wu, our nutrition director in China, has been getting to know a LOT of children in the past few months! Right now she is on the road in Anhui, visiting our programs there. Just a few weeks ago she visited the Jinjiang orphanage in Fujian, where we provide supplemental formula to around 70 infants and toddlers. Even with all those children to meet, photograph, weigh and measure, Cindy and local manager, Daphne, were also able to share stories about their precious personalities.


Regarding the little girl in red and white, Cindy writes, “She is a curious girl. They were having dinner when we walked into the room. She stared at us even when she turned around to take food from the nanny. She looked at Daphne and me with eyes widely opened and her mouth still full with rice. When we were ready to leave, she waved bye-bye and even came over to the door to see us off.” It is wonderful to see this little angel looking so healthy!


This angelic-looking child is "a naughty girl with strong personality. Min was crying when I walked into the room. I held her up and asked her what make her cry so loud. The nanny told me that Min is very naughty, she likes to wear nanny’s shoes and walk around. The nanny told her not to do it because she didn’t want Min to fell down with the big shoes. That made her upset and she started to cry. You can see Min was happy again because she got the big shoes anyway!"


"Ya is a little beauty. She was a premature baby when she was sent to the orphanage. The nanny said actually she is very healthy now. She has very good personality and she always has a sweet smile on her face. She is the little princess of the nannies. They all love her!"

It is a great treat for our nutrition team to receive these reports. As we read about the children in our programs, we begin to feel a special connection to them. You should hear the cheering when we learn that one of "our babies" has come home to a family of their own!

(Note: The names of the children have been changed to protect their privacy.)

Happy Birthday!

Recently an Education sponsor asked how they could help their sponsored child celebrate a birthday. As birthdays for children in orphanages are so vastly different than for other children, we chatted about providing a treat to the birthday girl and all her classmates.

We decided to ask our manager in China and the teacher to choose a treat that all the kids could enjoy in honor of the birthday girl’s day. The treat turned out to be a new t-shirt for each child.

The kids loved getting an individually wrapped present and then modeling for the camera. What a fun celebration for the kids. It was indeed a happy birthday, and we hope you will enjoy the moment with us.

Linda Mitchell
Believe In Me Jingzhou Coordinator

Meet Lyn Thomas - Team LWB

Over the next few weeks, we would like to share with you the stories of some of our wonderful supporters who are participating on Team LWB in the Marine Corps Marathon to raise funds for LWB's Foster Care Program. Meet Lyn Thomas.

My name is Lyn Thomas. I am a mother of four and a runner. I have been running for four years and love it! I am very excited about running for Love Without Boundaries as it holds a special place in my heart. I have been blessed with two children from China.

My daughter is from Hubei Province and my son is from Guangdong Province. My little girl was in foster care and for that I am thankful. She was loved and cared for by her foster mother. I feel it helped her transition to our family with ease because she understood how a family works. Hugs and kisses were not a stranger to her.

My son spent fours years in an orphanage. He has had a hard time learning how to be a kid. I wish he would have had the chance to be in foster care to learn what family is all about. I am running for Jake and for all the little angels in China that need a mother's love. Go Team LWB!

Rejoice!

Budgets are tight. Gas is expensive. Food costs more. My children listen to me rant and rave about not wasting food because I just spent a ridiculous amount at the grocery store! How is it for your family? What items have you had to cut back on?

Inflation, of course, affects orphanages and foster families as well. Cribs cost twice as much as last year. The price of rice has doubled. Higher quality formula is more expensive . . . and out of reach for many orphanages. Love Without Boundaries feels the economic pinch too. Sometimes children wait to receive services. We hate when we have to say, "Sorry, we canʼt help you" or "Sorry, you will have to wait." Yet we are overjoyed about each and every child we are able to help--the lives we can save and the lives we can change.

Rejoice with us! Here are just a few of the children whose lives we are touching this year:

In these hard economic times, we are especially grateful for everyone who has made a commitment to the children in China. Thank you for your continued support.

School Daze!

Did you ever have to go to summer school? From our perspective as adults, summer school is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen learning and skills or to get ahead of the game for next school year. Right?! However, for our students, summer school feels more like work, work and well, work!

JD is one of LWB Education’s newest students. You may recall his story from our May 28th entry introducing him to LWB’s main blog readers. One of JD’s greatest needs is tutoring to help him catch up to peers in public school... which spells s-u-m-m-e-r s-c-h-o-o-l.

We had to smile at the expression on JD’s face when he posed next to all the new books and school supplies purchased for his summer tutoring sessions. "Yes, son, this is good for you," we can imagine his grandma and tutor saying. Hopefully, we will get big smiles from JD when he gets his exam papers back next school year. Stay tuned, and we will be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, think good thoughts for JD as he plunges into some summer studies.

Linda Mitchell
Associate Director of Education

Generational Gain

Families...the love and nurture they give. Our children....our gain/their gain. I’m sure this is a thought that has swept through the minds of most parents more than once in the wondrous road of parenting while quietly we "snap" a moment to store in the often dusty boxes of archival cellular matter. Stored for that unavoidable day when the cyclical changes of time have altered our terms of nurturing engagement.

A recent event had me savour just such a simple instance—my daughter learning to knit. Her Nana’s watchful eye, both encouraging and guiding as the generations easily share a moment in time...and a skill in the making.

Gosh, I do remember the tangle of wool and, yes, the doll clothes, poodle bottle covers and assorted filigree that I managed to complete before the said yarn and motion action like a vice turned tighter and tighter in my chest, snapping any continuation of this particular gift of family heritage for my generation.

The first piece: a "unique" scarf—a combination of wool, time, love, and generations. It seems that even my generation gets blended into this masterpiece as my daughter wants it to go to one of the Love Without Boundaries babies :-)

Family love and memories....what a gift we have...one we cherish and can spread the word about through the LWB Foster Care Program. To learn more about our Foster Care Program, please visit: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/foster.cfm

Julie Flynn Coleman
Loudi Foster Care Coordinator

A Dream Come True

We want to thank EVERYONE who advocated for sweet Fen to find a forever family. Thanks to everyone's efforts, we are so happy to be able to report that a family has chosen her to be their newest daughter. What a dream come true for this very special little girl who has been waiting so long to be adopted.

There were actually two girls from this orphanage who came out on the shared agency list at the same time. We were so grateful for the outpouring of support for Fen that we hope the same blessing can be given to her friend Meigan. Here is a photo of them together from Children's Day. Fen is on the left in white and Meigan is in red.
Some of you might remember my post from many years ago that talked about us sending a beautiful scrapbook back to one orphanage, with photos of all of the children who had been adopted. We had worked so hard on the book, and we thought that the aunties would love to see each child, now home in a loving family. I was making a visit to this orphanage at one point, and the staff finally shared with me that they were concerned about me coming because of this book. You see, they had put the book away and hidden it from sight because of the deep pain that it caused to all of the older children in the orphanage who had NEVER BEEN CHOSEN. They knew we had worked so hard on it, but they just didn't want to cause any more pain to the older children who had opened the book and saw the friends they once knew in the orphanage now riding on merry-go-rounds, being hugged by their new siblings, and being dressed in princess gowns with bows and barrettes in their hair. Oh my heart. I couldn't believe that I had not thought of that, and I was so sad to know that I had caused any of them pain. Lesson learned in a very hard way.

I just learned something else that has made my heart sad, and it involves Meigan. I made the mistake of asking if she really wanted to be adopted, since she is now 10. And I was told that she wants it more than anything. In fact, since this orphanage now has done adoptions for many years, several families have returned on homeland tours with their older daughters. Meigan's eyes have followed them the whole time, with a longing that the whole staff could see that she wished SHE could be the one holding onto a mama's hand, and that she could be the one who someone had chosen as their own. Each time an adoptive family has returned, there is a deep sadness in Meigan's eyes and a feeling that she just isn't good enough to be chosen. During normal days, she is a happy girl with a smile to melt any heart, but close to the surface is a feeling of, "Why did no one want ME?"

Meigan is ten years old and has the sweetest personality. She is a loving and gentle little girl, who loves her baby doll and who has the voice of an angel when she sings. She loves music and playing with her friends. Meigan was born with a spinal tumor, which was repaired as a baby. She has full range of motion with her legs and is a beautiful dancer. However, due to a complication with the surgery, she has one health issue that might make her adoption more difficult. However, many parents have helped their children successfully overcome this issue with treatment by a specialist such as Dr. Pena at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It absolutely does not have to stop her from having a full and productive life.

LWB has decided to offer a Tuan Yuan adoption grant for Meigan, in the hope that it will help allow someone to bring her home. Please help spread the news that this beautiful young girl is waiting, as we know that somewhere out there is the perfect family just waiting for such a sweet daughter. Meigan has so much to offer this world with her loving and sweet spirit, and we are all praying that her family will soon be found. Thank you so much for your help!

Amy Eldridge
Executive Director

Giving Back

“What can we do to give back to our children’s first home?” It seems this is a common question for lots of adoptive parents. This question came up in my Yangjiang SWI Yahoo group earlier this year, and we decided to pool our resources together to make a donation. Our group requested that the LWB Special Projects team ask the Yangjiang orphanage director about the needs of the children there. “Clothing!!” was the quick response.

Happy children in Yangjiang!

Our group collected donations through the LWB Orphanage Assistance Program, and, in less than two months, the YJ group raised $1,854 – enough to purchase 120 bags of cloth diapers (that’s 1,200 diapers!!) and 510 sets of summer clothing. We were SO happy that we were able to donate this much for the kids and loved the pictures that were sent to us from the orphanage staff.

Look at all the cloth diapers!

The LWB Orphanage Assistance program is a really neat program that allows families and groups to work with orphanages to meet their needs. All purchases are made in China by an LWB employee to stretch funds as far as possible. Some of the projects that other orphanage groups are undertaking include clothing, cloth diapers, cribs and beds, medical equipment, toys, indoor and outdoor play equipment, winter coats, quilts, shoes, incubators, and more.

Donations are also always welcome (and needed!) by LWB’s Orphanage Assistance General Fund. This general fund allows help to be provided to orphanages that may not have completed a lot of international adoptions and have as much parent support. This fund is also used to help with emergency needs.

Learn more about LWB’s Orphanage Assistance Program here: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/projects_orphange_assistance.cfm

Debbie Smith
Tuan Yuan Adoption Assistance Coordinator

Alaina's Art

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot,

others transform a yellow spot into the sun."

-Pablo Picasso

Please allow me to introduce you to Alaina. She is fourteen years old and deaf. For some time, Alaina spent her days at the Jingzhou Social Welfare Institute in Hubei Province because the local public school did not have an education program that fit her needs. When Love Without Boundaries opened a Believe In Me School in Alaina’s orphanage, her potential as a student was like a giant blinking neon sign: THIS YOUNG WOMAN IS INTELLIGENT AND TALENTED!

Through the generosity of two monthly sponsors, Alaina is able to attend a school for the deaf in Jingzhou. She has simply blossomed as a student and an artist. Every time our school manager reports on Alaina’s progress, he tells us how wonderful she is doing in school. It seems Alaina’s greatest challenge is that she is shy about raising her hand and letting her teachers know what she knows. However, her intelligence is clear on her test papers and academic reports.

What is amazing to see from Alaina is her prolific artwork. This is a young woman who finds happiness in creating! Her delightful, sensitive personality comes through in the subjects that she captures with pencils, crayons, and markers. We receive so many beautiful pieces of art from her that it would be a shame to keep these to ourselves.
Enjoy the efforts of this amazing young woman. She is lovely and receiving such an incredible opportunity to learn and grow toward a bright future through the love and generosity of LWB sponsors. Thank you! For more information about this program or students in need of sponsored learning opportunities please visit: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/education_jingzhou.cfm

Linda Mitchell
Believe In Me Jingzhou Coordinator

Brody

I met him first in a picture. His face was almost expressionless, the tear-stained cheeks giving the only hint of what he was feeling. As I read through his description, I became aware that life had not been kind to him. He was over two but not yet walking, and he couldn’t stand without support. Speech that is normal at this age was nonexistent for him. His rocking behavior indicated challenges with attaching to a primary caregiver. I was hopeful that foster care could turn this around, but I must admit I was afraid we might be too late.I was so happy when he was placed into a wonderful foster home at the beginning of the year. He had a couple of bouts with respiratory illnesses and high fever, but each time he bounced back. I found myself worrying about him and reading his report first each month as I received them from our China Manager. I cannot pinpoint exactly when it happened, but he had worked his way into my heart and I often thought about him and hoped he was being loved. In February, I was happy to read he was beginning to walk with the foster parent’s help, and was able to play outside with the neighbor children. Even the rocking behavior was occurring less and less often. When I visited in March, I recognized his sweet little face immediately, though he was much tinier in person than I had imagined. He willingly took my hand and we walked all around the courtyard, practicing going up and down steps and a ramp. The progress he had made was indeed amazing, but I couldn’t help but wish for a smile from that somber little face.Well, in April I received the best news ever! The picture in his report shows Brody walking down the road, maybe even trotting, with a hint of a smile on his face!I think back to that very first picture and I realize foster care has saved Brody’s life. While maybe not in the way we usually think, by taking him from a weakened condition to being fully recovered in a physical way, but in a vital way nonetheless. His foster family has taught him that he matters, that he is important, and that they care about him. Brody has learned they are willing to work with him and encourage him to be all that he can be for as long as he is able to share his life with them. Brody now has hope and a future, and what could be more life-giving than that!

To learn more about our Foster Care program, please visit: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/foster.cfm

Nancy Delpha
Associate Foster Care Director