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

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.)

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/

Anhui Cleft Healing Home Has Its Own Blog!

Sandy Glass, our Cleft Healing Home Coordinator, and her oldest daughter are on an airplane at this very moment, traveling to China for the Grand Opening of our new Cleft Healing Home! She has set up a blog and will be posting all about her progress while there!

We would love for you to follow along! Please follow the link below to read all about her trip:

Love Without Boundaries Cleft Healing Home Blog


If you would like to read more about the home, please visit our website:

Love Without Boundaries Cleft Healing Home

Love Doing Laundry

What? You don’t like doing laundry?

Every new parent getting ready for their first child buys clothing and then washes it all to prepare for the big event. Some of the outfits look so tiny and one knows their child will outgrow them far too quickly. The clothes always smell so good coming out of the dryer, and parents look at the outfits and just imagine holding their new child.

Well, that’s what I got to do today – four loads of new clothes for our babies at the Anhui Cleft Healing Home. We are down to the final stages of preparation, and very soon seven tiny babies with cleft will be moved to our home in Hefei.

The clothes I washed were gifts from a Baby Shower held by Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Burke VA. We HOPE the babies will outgrow the clothes quickly because that will mean we are doing our job. But we know they will get lots of use. All of the clothes are precious, but here are two of my favorites!

This should be our slogan! We know all of the babies coming to the home are fighters who think big.

Look for this shirt on a Christmas gift card next year!

Now if I only could get this excited from my own children’s dirty laundry…


Sandi Glass
Cleft Healing Home Coordinator

Cleft House Preview

Our Cleft Healing Home is really beginning to look like a home now, albeit a home under construction. With each new addition, whether it’s a staircase or tile in the kitchen, we get more and more excited because that means we are one step closer to caring for the babies who need us. We haven’t even opened our doors yet and are already more than half way full with babies who have been identified as needing care from orphanages in Anhui.

The push is on now to complete as much as possible before the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration, when everything stops for a week. The kitchen and baths have been tiled; the kitchen cabinets and appliances have been ordered and should be installed before CNY. Door and window trim has been added, as have lots and lots of shelves for storage. We have stairs now and the walls are ready for paint.

We have paint colors!! Soft shades of yellow, green and blue for the babies’ rooms.

We have rooms, beds and babies that need sponsors, as well as specific needs for the home that have not been met yet. Please email us if you would like to help (foster@lwbmail.com). Thank you for your patience as we get our website back online.

Sandi Glass

Cleft Healing Home Coordinator

Tiny Baby

Last night we received word of an urgent premature baby boy in Anhui. Baby Hua is just a couple of days old and weighs only 1kg. This child needs medical treatment so that he can grow big enough to eat on his own. Currently he is in critical condition.

With donations for children on our website down, it is very hard for us to raise funds for a child like baby Hua. The initial treatment costs for this child are going to be around $600, but more than likely this child will need longer care and treatment. Our best estimates are that he will need about $3,000 for his care.

We have wonderful friends, like Angel Covers, who are helping us raise money for these urgent children. If you would like to help baby Hua, you can either make a donation through Angel Covers, mail a check to:

Love Without Boundaries Foundation
306 S. Bryant, Ste. C-145
Edmond, OK 73034

Or you can make a credit card donation on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/51591

Please help us to continue to help the urgent babies like Hua.

Thank you so much!

Karen Maunu
Medical Director
medical@lwbmail.com

New Foster Care Program Begins

Hi all,

I am so excited to share with all of you the opening of our brand new foster care program at the Huainan SWI in the Anhui province. Many of you may recognize the name of this orphanage as being the home to one of our Believe In Me schools. Since our earliest contact with this SWI, we have seen and felt the need for a nurturing foster care program to be in place here. A few months ago, at the urging of several LWB volunteers that were visiting the SWI, the director agreed to begin a program there.

We will be starting the program with 10 of the most adorable little ones you have ever seen! We have 8 girls and 2 boys ... all born in 2007 ... that will be entering foster care sometime this week. They will be placed with foster families that are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to hold and love them. Most of you know how important the role of foster care is in a child's life. This will greatly improve their physical and emotional lives and give them a better opportunity to find their forever families through adoption.

Please look at these beautiful faces and feel free to pass on the news that these little ones are ready to be moved into foster homes. We will be double sponsoring each baby so that we can completely fund their foster care and pay for a local foster care manager to monthly spend quality time with each family. The sponsorships are $35 per month or $70 for a double sponsorship. With your sponsorship, you will receive updated photos each month and an updated development report every other month. Most of all, you will know that your loving contribution is making a HUGE difference in this baby's life.

Because of the website difficulties, potential sponsors may contact our foster care program to get the information to begin their sponsorship. Please email foster@lwbmail.com if you are interested in sponsoring one of these beautiful babies.


Thank you,

Margie Creel
Huainan Foster Care Coordinator
Love Without Boundaries
"Every Child Counts"

New Coats

As it has gotten colder here in the US, it has also gotten colder in Anhui, China. Just in time for the changing weather, every child participating in BIM III are sporting brand new coats to keep them warm. As you can see from the smiles, I think they like them!

Thank you education sponsors for keeping these children comfortable so they can experience the gift of learning. You make it possible!

Sandy Hartman
Believe in Me III Coordinator
Love Without Boundaries
“Every Child Counts”
http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/

Believe in Me III

Believe In Me III is Love Without Boundaries newest school in Anhui Province. BIM III has several classes including tutoring classes for orphans that attend public school, as well as Kindergarten-Prep for those students who will attend public kindergarten next fall. Two LWB volunteers visited this new school just last week. They were delighted with the students willingness to learn! Here’s what Sandy Hartman, Coordinator for the school has had to say:

“We have visited the programs and there is so much to report. First, we met a tutoring class. Those wonderful students are so excited to participate in tutoring. They literally run to class, throw down their book bags, pull out their pencil boxes, and get ready to study. It was so much fun to see the pure joy on their faces and their eagerness to study.

After visiting with the older tutored students, we joined the Kindergarten-Prep class. Like the older kids, these children clearly enjoyed participating in the class. They were very proud to recite some traditional Chinese poems and songs to us with lots of energy and spirit. Today the children were learning different pinyin and they were thrilled to display what they knew!

The Believe in Me III pre-school class was also amazingly enthusiastic. This morning we arrived during exercises and I think the youngest children were even louder than the kindergarten-prep children! They were so proud to demonstrate their exercises. The older children were also thrilled to display their drawings.

Our school monitor tells us that the children have changed so much since starting the programs. She said they cannot wait to arrive at school. These programs are definitely making a measured and positive difference in their lives! Thank you to every person who has supported this school with good thoughts and the funds to make it happen.”

Sandy Hartman, Coordinator for BIM III

Formula Claus

With our deepest apologies to Clement Clark Moore.

**************

Twas the night before October and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even a mouse,

When what to our wondering eyes did appear,
But a kind hearted man visiting children so dear.

All through Anhui he worked without pause,
Bringing nutrition as "Formula Claus".

He has no red suit and doesn't bring toys
but instead a full tummy to sweet girls and boys.

You can tell by their smiles that they love good "Saint Ming"
And their increase in weight really makes our heart sing.

So thanks to our friends who give children "milk money".
Because of your kindness, their future's now sunny.

***********

(okay...we already apologized for the bad poem. But thanks to all our nutrition donors for brightening the lives of some very special kids, and thanks to Zhang Ming for traveling all around Anhui playing Formula Claus)

Tiny fighter

Born last December in Anhui Province, little Wan had a rough start to her life. Born with a serious heart defect, she actually had to be resuscitated twice while she was in the hospital awaiting corrective surgery. Thank goodness, Wan is a little fighter, and her surgery was a success. When she was released back to the orphanage in June, we began sending her a nutritious infant formula and rice cereal to help her grow stronger. Oh, but she was still SO TINY!


Imagine how thrilled we were to receive follow-up photos, taken in July . Is that a double-chin?!
We just received another photograph this week, and the orphanage tells us that little Wan is still a fighter, growing stronger and more active every day.

We are so grateful to Wan’s orphanage for providing such wonderful care, and we are also grateful to our amazing nutrition supporters. This gift to Wan was made possible by donations made to our General Nutrition fund.

Believe in Me III

In 2006, Believe in Me III was just a dream. Thankfully, the dream became a reality this week and currently 67 children ranging in age from 2 ½ to 17 years old are going to benefit from that dream! Over a year ago, a group of LWB volunteers and families who have adopted from the Anhui orphanage had this seed of an idea to start a school at the orphanage. There were so many potential obstacles, but thankfully everything fell into place and that seed grew!

Believe in Me III actually consists of three parts: Montessori-style preschool, kindergarten-prep, and tutoring.

When presented with the idea of providing educational classes, the orphanage generously provided three of the rooms to use for Believe in Me III. To prepare the rooms, a group from Shanghai came to the orphanage this summer and painted the most adorable murals on the classroom and hallway walls. What did the children think when they saw the wonderful art on what used to be very plain block wall? They loved it!

This summer teachers were also hired and trained, and now classes have begun! Before BIM III, the children who could not attend public school did not have much to keep them occupied but that has changed! Can you just imagine the wheels turning in the preschoolers little heads as they learn through play? In kindergarten-prep, the children are getting prepared to attend public school next year or the year following so it has to be exciting for them as well. This is a more typical Chinese-style classroom for the children at the orphanage. This is a full-day for them so I bet they will be very tired after dinner! For the children who attend public school, the tutoring will help ensure that they can keep up with the curriculum like the other children attending from the city who have parents to encourage them. Our tutor is studying computer science at the nearby college so maybe we can even introduce computers to the older children…who knows!

There are still children waiting for a special sponsor to cover their educational costs. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or donating to a program, please let me know. Sponsorship for a child to participate in BIM III is only $20 USD a month.

I have to remember that every step will be a baby step with BIM III but I am just so overjoyed with the orphanage and Civil Affairs for allowing us to be a part of these children’s lives. Stay tuned as the project seed turned plant grows and bears lots of beautiful flowers!

Sandy Hartman
BIM III Coordinator

Critical Care

Most of you know that the way LWB raises money for the children we heal surgically is by putting them up on our website, finding sponsors for their surgery, and then notifying the orphanage that the child can be moved for their operation.

However...there are times that we cannot wait to move a child. There are many times that we are notified by orphanages that they have received newly abandoned babies who are critical. It is during those times that we are so grateful for our general medical fund, as we can immediately use those dollars to do emergency surgery. We have even told our facilitators that whenever they are called by an orphanage about a child who is critical, they don't even need to talk to us first....the life of the child is first and foremost and they can contact us after they have made the medical arrangements to save the child's life.

Last week we learned of a tiny baby girl, just a few weeks old, who had arrived at an orphanage in Anhui with severe megacolon in critical condition. Thankfully she was able to have emergency surgery that very day because of our general medical fund. We thought you would love to see baby Wa recovering from her surgery in the hospital. What a beautiful little girl who now has a chance to grow up and be adopted. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

Fuyang

After our trip to Huainan SWI early Wednesday morning, we headed off for Western Anhui in the Mobile Medical Van for Fuyang SWI. LWB and Lotus Tours have helped fund extensive renovations at the orphanage and we were able to see the new cribs, water purifier and heating system recently installed. We were actually greeted by the local TV crew and newspaper reporters.

We we taken to a room where some disabled children were waiting for us. The wonderful ACH Physio Therapists set to work evaluating the children they were shown whilst the LWB team took some time to play with the children. We were delighted by one little girl who had minimal use of her legs. She was sitting cuddling a huge soft pig and we were immediately drawn by her huge smile. As we chatted to her in English, she repeated everything we said almost perfectly back to us. She loved the stickers we had brought and was very pleased having them stuck on her hands and jumper.

We then moved on to see our Foster Care children. We currently have only 9 children in our program at Fuyang. Once again we were greeted by smiling children and doting foster parents all eager to show off their children. Again the children were delighted with their beanie babies, dresses, toys and stickers. I was very touched to see one little girl who does not talk excitedly run up to one of the Directors and hug her and then pull her by the hand into the home. Another sweet story was of an 11 year old boy who knew it was his foster mother’s birthday so he sang Happy Birthday to her and then made her a meal with noodles.

We agreed to expand the program by a few more children, so we will be seeking further sponsors in the near future.

It was then time to have a meal with the Directors and ACH staff and then off to our hotel, which I have to say I was delighted to see named ‘Buckingham Palace’. I obviously looked pleased as next morning I was presented with a Buckingham Palace mug and teapot.

Arlene Howard

Anhui Director of Operations

More from Anhui

This is part four of the travel blog from our volunteers in China now.

**********************

Maire, Julie and I woke up early and travelled to Dingyuan. As always I felt truly glad to be back in my daughter's home town. Dingyuan is a beautiful place. The fields were bright yellow and full of rape seed in bloom and the landscape dotted with little villages, fields and buffaloes. It was a glorious day as we pulled into the orphanage.

After a chat with the Directors and sharing of photos of previously adopted children, we had a tour of the orphanage. The kids were all looking great. Rosy cheeks everywhere and happy smiles. We sat and played with the children for a while and then headed off to see the foster children.

We walked around and eventually I looked down an alleyway and saw one of the foster children coming towards us holding her dad's hand. What a sight. This child is just so happy in her home. She excitedly ran towards us and then led us to her house. There, with her foster sisters and brother she kept us amused for quite a while. These foster parents are so remarkable. Their dedication to their children is unbelieveable. As we left we presented the foster mum with a bouquet of flowers......such a small gesture for such a wonderful woman!

We continued on our way, handing out stickers and beanie babies to each child. Again these were donated by British families for the children. The children absolutely loved them and I would like to thank all the people who so generously gave these items. Your kindness was appreciated.

It was such a blessing to have the Mobile Medical Team from Anhui Children's Hospital with us. They gently checked each child as we went round and noted their needs and suggested exercises to improve their mobility where necessary. To say they are a pleasure to work with would be an understatement!

On this trip, I had to say goodbye to two children in our foster care program as they will soon be adopted. All of us at LWB wish them all the best for their futures with their new families.

The day finished up with a trip out to the local reservoir, as LWB have raised funds to help lay pipes for the water to be pumped from the reservoir to the orphange. Previously the orphanage had used well water but the well was not deep. It was certainly a tranquil place and one that was rather poignant for me. It was time to take a quiet moment and think of my daughter's home town.

Wednesday it was up and out the door early for yet another orphanage visit in Anhui. We were given a warm greeting by the orphanage staff and then went to see the beautiful children. It is near to the Qing Ming Festival (where Chinese people honour their ancestors) and firecrackers were going off everywhere. We could hardly hear ourselves speak. Initially the children were a little shy of us but as soon as they realised we had stickers they were very excited. Within minutes we were surrounded by children eager to receive their very own pack of stickers. Maire did a great job in covering the children head to toe! We were all particularly pleased to see one little girl who had received heart surgery sponsored by LWB. She was a little shy to start with but that didn't stop her from following us from room to room. This little girl had been so seriously ill but was now looking great, and the orphange staff referred to her as their "little miracle."

Arlene Howard