Help for JD

Occasionally LWB learns of families who are living in such difficult circumstances that they are barely getting by. Recently we were asked if there was any way that we could help a little boy living in the Hunan province. JD was born with cleft lip and had lived 10 years without it being repaired. Many years ago, he was picked up in the street by a warm-hearted man who had special needs himself (he had only one hand and leg.) He took JD home with him and raised him as his son. This man had also taken in an older girl who had been orphaned as well, and together they formed a loving family through adoption.




Sadly, four years ago, this man passed away and so now the two children are living with his elderly mother. So many people have suggested to the grandmother that she should send JD away to another home, but she cannot even think of doing that because she feels he is truly her grandson. A middle school teacher in their town heard about JD and asked LWB if there was any way we could provide free surgery for him so that he could face the world with a new smile. In partnership with the new Operation Smile hospital in Hangzhou, we were able to arrange for this surgery to be done.



Our hearts were so touched by the love of this family that we wanted to learn more about their situation. We learned that this family is under tremendous financial strain. JD’s elder sister, who is just 16, is now the sole financial provider of the family. Grandmother, who is in her eighties, is doing her best to grow rice for the family to live on, but it is not enough. JD is small for his age most likely because they are often only eating 2 meals of rice a day. He is also not doing very well academically due to the long distance he must walk to school each day (over 3 km) and the lack of funds for sufficient nutrition and school supplies.

LWB has committed to helping this family formed and surviving through adoption! A total of $600 per year will supply all that JD and his family need to provide opportunities for academic success. Two sponsors are needed to donate $25 per month to provide:

· School Supplies

· Clothing,
· Nutritional Support
· Tutors

These items and services will strengthen JD’s opportunity to become a strong and independent member of his community when he reaches adulthood. We believe this is truly an opportunity for two sponsors to completely change the life of a child.

JD’s sponsors will receive photos and updates of his health and academic progress quarterly. Sponsors will also be able to write short notes of encouragement to JD and his family.

To learn how to help JD please go to http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/SponsorEducationChild.cfm

Goodbye Charlie

One of the hazards of volunteering for LWB is that it is hard not to become attached to the children in our programs as we read about them every month and watch them blossom and grow. Of course there is nothing better than the news that a child has been chosen off a list and will soon have a forever family. From what we have been told, next month we will also have to say goodbye to another child in our program. His name is Charlie and you may recognize him as he is one of the kids whose photo appears on the homepage when the pictures randomly change. I always looked forward to reading his reports and seeing a photo of his deep brown eyes.



Charlie is a typical 4 year-old little boy full of fun and mischief. He is in our Anhui foster care program. Charlie is also a LWB Medical Child. I met Charlie in Hefei in October 2006 when he came for an evaluation by the cleft team. My “office” was in the same room where they did the pediatric screening for cleft surgery. I would always wander over to the examination table every couple of minutes to lend a hand…aka a good excuse not do my own computer work because it was more fun to hang out with the kids. I remember Charlie very well because he was quite social and older than the other babies who came for surgery. He was such a good little boy when Dr. Melloy was examining him. She was moving his legs all around, bending his knees, moving his hips one way then the other to get his range of motion. Charlie didn’t fuss at all. He just had this look on his face, “wake me when this is over lady.” He had been diagnosed as having CP but on examination Dr. Melloy felt his physical limitations were the result of polio. This diagnosis has not stopped Charlie and on his foster care reports it says and he can run fast, although one leg does trail behind.



I am so happy to report that next month Charlie will soon be with a forever family and will be living in sunny Spain! What lucky parents to have such a treasure in a son. Charlie's adoptive parents sent a gift to him and when LWB Foster Care volunteers visited his program last month they were able to deliver it to him. It was awesome to read about Charlie as they reported the excited look on his face as he opened his treasures. I am sorry for the loss the foster family will feel as they have done an outstanding job raising Charlie.





Goodbye Charlie, we will miss you. We wish for you a wonderful life.







Heidi Reitz
Foster Care Director

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

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

Surgery Mission - Final Day

Hong was the first child on the surgery schedule today. He came back from surgery with his eyes wide open and was so alert. We had not had a baby come down to the ward from surgery so awake. He and his ayi were looking at each other and she kissed him over and over.

Shuai was our last bilateral repair of the week. He is our very quiet baby and is so good. The repair of his lip was absolutely amazing!!

Our two Guangdong babies, Xian and Xuan are two of the sweetest babies. So many volunteers have fallen in love with them. Many volunteers have claimed these girls as “their own”. One of the Shanghai volunteers has come in each night to hold and cuddle Xuan. The volunteer has been working hard to make her legs stronger and just hugs and cuddles her each night. You can already feel the bond that they share. Xuan loves to look at the colorful photos that hang on the walls in the hall and is always looking around. Xian loves to grab her own feet and is also so alert. Both of these babies are just so sweet and most of the volunteers had to go take a peek at how they had changed post surgery.

Ping was the very last surgery of the day. All morning she was giving huge grins. Everyone took turns holding her and she had the absolutely largest grin. She was enjoying the attention so much that she seemed to forget she was hungry. What a happy baby!!!

For lunch each day, a restaurant called the House of Flour has delivered and donated the most delicious lunches. These lunches have consisted of sandwiches, salads, rice dishes, and pasta – something different every day. We have also received treats of cheesecake and other wonderful desserts with the lunches. Today we were honored to have the owner and the chef come and deliver our meals in person. They got to see and hold some of the babies and we were able to tell them in person how grateful we are for their generosity!

Yuan Yuan continues to feel better. Today she ate lunch, played with bubbles, and played a tickle game. A group of volunteers went to Walmart today to get her a new wardrobe of girly girl clothes. It was like Christmas for her as she looked at them. They would hold them up to her and say how pretty she was and she would get huge grin. She also was back to saying Nihao and shaking everyone’s hands. Everyone just melts. At the end of today she surprised us all by walking down the hall to where we were. She is slightly unsteady on her feet but over all is back to the fun and ever smiling Yuan Yuan that we all fell in love with the first day.

Little Yu was very busy again today. You can tell that she would like to be eating more than just formula. She happened to find our snack room today and kept getting a treat to take to her ayi. When her ayi wouldn’t open it, she would get another one. Between cookies and buns, I think her ayi had a pile of about 10 things. She also played the upside down peek-a-boo game with our facilitator Stephanie. Stephanie had her belly laughing, the first time we had see this from her serious busy look.

Emily, one of our nurses, took Tao into our storage room. She placed him on a blanket to play with him. He enjoyed throwing the toys all over the room instead of playing with them and by the time he was done, the room was in total destruction. What a silly little boy. What a change from the tiny little baby we received this summer that had a heart defect and a cleft lip and palate. Now this child is almost totally healed – what an incredible change to see this big happy baby.

At the end of the day today there was a festive spirit in the air. Everyone one is celebrating the completion of a hugely successful mission. It is a bitter sweet evening as we have made so many new friends. We were reminded that no matter how big the ocean or how different the cultures, when it comes down to it we are all just people who love these sweet kids.

In the evening, we all had a wonderful banquet – all the doctors, nurses and volunteers from both the US and China. You could see and feel the friendships that were made this week, as we were able to celebrate all of the success of the lives that have been changed forever. Almost 30 children have received life-changing surgery. Our dinner was celebrated in a restaurant that was in the large world globe that sits on the edge of the river. We all talked about how we had seen this large round building the night before on our river cruise. How fitting it was to be in this restaurant because being on a trip like this, it really makes you feel how small the world is. Even though we are from countries on opposite sides of the earth, we are all just people united by our dedication to helping children.

Karen Maunu
Wendy Petersen

Surgery Mission - Day Five

Isn't this a cute picture of Gong Lu and her new friend? It has been another wonderful day of surgeries in Shanghai.

You can tell that some of the kids from the first couple of surgery days are beginning to feel much better by the amount of activity in the children who have already been healed. The babies are eating more and are so busy. Two of these children are Sara Jiao and Yu, who are both about 18 months old. Both of these little girls were from the same orphanage in Henan and are only two months apart. Sara Jiao is at Hope in Beijing, however, and Yu is in foster care in Henan. We tried to see if they would play together. Other than looking at each other closely, they weren’t interested. Both of these little girls have a big group of fans who snap photos of them and follow them around.

A volunteer brought up a toy puppy that moves and barks. Sara Jiao in her cute little pigtails absolutely loved it. She would follow behind it as it moved laughing and chasing it, but the minute it would stop and bark, she would turn and run. Another time, Wendy went into see her. She brought Wendy three bottles of water one at a time and then put them back on the table, one at a time. She also enjoyed running up and down the hall with her little black boots.

Yu, the little girl whose lip was attached to her gum, was also feeling better. It was great to see her feeling better and back to her same little self. She has just enough of an attitude to keep everyone amused. She walks up and down the halls swinging her arms and checking things out. She had fun playing in the closet, going in and out, shutting the door. Later, she was playing in the hall with a ball.

Long, a baby who had surgery yesterday was really fussy today. As his ayi was walking down the hall with him, she had tears in her eyes. She is so worried that he is in too much pain. It is so touching every time we see the ayis fussing over the children in their care. This mission has been filled with so many compassionate and caring aunties.

One of the adorable babies that had surgery today was a beautiful little baby boy from Zhejiang named Jia. He has the sweetest little face and big eyes. If you old him facing out, he loves to take his right foot and twirls it in a circle. It doesn’t matter who holds him, he just loves to do this.

The most touching story of the day was Yuan Yuan. This girl and her ayi continue to touch everyone. Today she was much more awake and I even received a smile from her. Her ayi refuses to leave her side and she took a nap this afternoon by sitting in a chair and resting her head on the bed. I was able to deliver a beautiful afghan that a wonderful supporter sent right before we left. This woman was so touched by Yuan Yuan, that she made this beautiful blanket and stitched her name on it. She loved her special blanket as we tucked her in.

Late this afternoon, the ayis tried on a box of clothes donated by the Shanghai expats. This group has thought of everything, including thanking the ladies who work SO hard each and every day in orphanages to care for the kids. Don White, one of our board members, helped this group of women. How funny it looked to see him helping all of these ladies choose their clothes. One ayi tried on an outfit that consisted of a vest and a jacket. Don complimented her on how great she looked and she just beamed.

The hospital took us all on a river cruise on the Huangpu River right through the heart of Shanghai this evening. We all were so taken by how beautiful this city is. The lights of the Bund and the skyscrapers were quite spectacular. What a wonderful treat this was to all of us.

In total five smiles were made new – three bilaterals and two unilaterals. It is hard to believe there is just one more day of surgeries. The first 8 children from Hope foster home just left for the train station. 10 caretakers, 8 babies, and 10 suitcases have left the building. How fun to see everyone leave so excited and so anxious to get back home. It will be wonderful to see each and everyone one of these babies find their permanent homes in the coming year.

We received an email from one of the expats who has been coming to rock the babies. Her lovely words sum up this week.

I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful this experience is for me. The babies are an amazing blessing and so resilient. I think the Ayis have shown themselves to be wonderful caring women. I see it in their faces as they hold and play with their children. As well as the sadness and fear in their eyes as they await them after surgery. I personally have enjoyed seeing what just a few hrs of love and affection can do to the children. I am happy to put a smile on their face each day. They are so deserving of the opportunity that LWB has given them and I only wish more love for them all.

Wendy Peterson
Medical Trips Coordinator

Karen Maunu
Medical Director

Cleft surgery update

Hi All,

We had another wonderful month helping children with cleft lips and palates! Six more children in September were given the splendid gift of a healed lip or palate through the generosity of our donors. We are so grateful to them for changing these children's lives forever!

We had 4 lip repairs at Anhui Children's Hospital and two palate repairs in Chongqing. Little Si was a child who particularly touched my heart this month. She had pneumonia last month and had to be hospitalized so she could heal. She recovered quickly under the care at the hospital and was finally able to have her surgery. Doesn't she look cute? Si came to the hospital somewhat thin but now has filled out beautifully. The individualized care, the extra nutrition and her surgery have helped set her up to thrive! I can't wait to see her adopted by a loving family.

Just one more month until our fourth cleft surgery mission begins in China. So many babies will get their chance at a new smile the first week of November. Stay tuned for more news on that!

Patti Kellett

Cleft Surgery Coordinator

"Strongness"

People always say"Life is fragile", but to me sometines it is not true. I have met many special need babies, whose lives should be much weaker than the ordinary ones, but their strongness amazed me! This cute little baby Tao is a typical one. You might still remember him as the most joyous baby.

He was born with cleft, heart defect, and as he was too little , these conditions caused him pneumonia for about one month, and he stayed in ICU for about one month. Even in sickness in ICU, he didn't forget to give the doctors and nurses his beautiful smile.

I still remembered the first time I met him, that was during his IV, which was put on his head. Once he saw me, his eyes followed me everywhere. He was so tiny and so loveable! He is very open-minded too. Unlike other babies, he is fine with anybody holding him!

Thanks to our generous sponsors, he was sent to Hangzhou to have heart surgery so quickly and smoothly. Now he is back with 3 teeth newly grown. Didn't you notice that he smiled sweeter now? Hopefully, he can join in our cleft mission this year! I know more people would LOVE to hold him just like me!

Stephanie Wang

LWB Facilitator

A day at Shanghai Children's

We are so grateful for John Dai, who visited the children having surgery in Shanghai each day for us and who would send wonderful reports on their progress. Today, instead of telling a story in words, we thought we would simply tell the story of a typical day at the hospital in pictures. Enjoy! (although we do have to comment on the stylish Mohawk hairdo that the aunty gave Hao while waiting for surgery!)

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!

A Hero to All

June 1st is national Children’s Day in China….a day to celebrate the beauty and wonder of childhood. All across China there will be festivals and events to mark this very important day. To those of us at LWB, Children’s Day has an even deeper meaning to us. June 1st was the day that the world was graced by the birth of Dr. John Padilla, one of the most compassionate, humble, and generous men I have ever had the honor of meeting. John was on our very first cleft surgery team to China, where he touched the lives of 50 incredible kids. Tragically, a few months after that trip, he lost his life in a plane accident. All of us who were given the gift of working with him will never, ever forget his passion for children in need.

I know I have told this story before, but in honor of this great man I want to tell it again. In late 2003, when we were just a few months old as a foundation, I was approached by a medical team who said they wanted to set up a cleft mission to China. I never in a million years would have attempted something as complex as sending a team of physicians to a foreign country in our first year as a foundation, especially since my resume was one line long....."mom". But this medical group wanted to go, they told me they would handle it, and so I told them I would arrange a hospital. I flew to China in February of 2004, ironed out all the details with the hospital, signed a contract, contacted 12 orphanages to have them send children.....everything was set.

And then the unthinkable happened. Just two months before the mission, the team backed out. And we had children that we knew were from rural orphanages who would not get surgical care unless we came, and we had a signed contract with a hospital to pay for the surgery block time.....I had all of these photos of the kids needing surgery, and I knew we had little people counting on us to come.

It was an incredibly stress filled day. When someone tells you "are you sitting down?" you know it isn't good news, and that is what they said when they called to tell me they would not be going to China.

Phone calls flew back and forth between our board members as we agonized over what we should do. Should we cancel? Should we attempt this on our own? Where would we find doctors with just two months left when most mission trips are planned almost a year out? With each new phone call we had a different answer. It was off....it was on....the kids needed us.....we couldn't handle this.

Finally I just went to my car and sat there and started crying. And I turned it all over to God. I said "if you want these babies healed, then we need a miracle”.

The very next day I received a phone call from Dr. John Padilla, who told me he had heard we were heading to China and if there was any way on a future trip he could go, he wanted to volunteer his services. He told me of how he had helped kids from Kosovo and Mexico and South America, and so I took a deep breath and said "could you go in eight weeks?" He laughed, said "let me call you back", and within an hour he had cleared his schedule and committed not only himself, but his surgical team. All at his own expense.

I cannot tell you how many times I called John in those eight weeks up to the trip. I was a mom....trying to organize an international medical mission.....and I would call him saying "what about customs?......what about sterilization of instruments? what about lighting and retractors?" and he would always kindly tell me it would all be okay.

The first day of the surgeries, it was very tense as we tried to figure out the schedule and who was on which surgical team, all in two different languages. While the whole team of doctors both from the US and China stood around in the chaos, John picked up the first baby and said "okay, let's go" and he walked back to the OR leaving all of us with our mouths open. But then we took a deep breath and hurried after him, knowing it was time to begin.

I never told him about praying for a miracle. I wish I had. To have been sent the gift of his surgical abilities in addition to receiving the gift of this man who LOVED kids and who won over an entire Chinese hospital staff with his easy going nature.....that was my miracle. Over and over he showed his true compassion. I remember one tiny baby girl that no one wanted to operate on. The local doctors said she was a lost cause because she was too sick and too tiny. And John looked at them and said "this is a human life and we have to try". That little girl has the most beautiful face now, and she began to thrive after she could eat properly for the first time. I believe with all my heart that he saved not only her smile but her life.

John had made a promise to me that he would travel every year to China, and he was working with us on coming up with a model to form a cleft center in China, providing free medical care so that parents would never have to make the agonizing decision to abandon a baby born with cleft. He talked about that dream with me on our second day in China. He kept saying "what if we tried this? what if we made a regional center?" and I kept saying "John, you have to realize that we are a small foundation and we pay all of our own expenses”. And he would smile that incredible smile and say, “Amy….dream big, dream big, dream big”.

Today as I write this blog, I remember a man who was truly one of my heroes. A man who loved children and understood that by giving from the heart, by stepping out of our comfort zone and taking risks to care about these tiny little faces that many of us only know in pictures.........we really can change lives and bring hope to children all around this earth. John lived his life believing that the only real failure was not trying. He believed with all his heart that if we just try, one life at a time, to show others that there is hope, and that others do care, that the world truly will be a better place.

Dr. Padilla, we will never forget all that you did for children throughout the world. Every baby that we heal through our John Padilla Cleft Fund is in your honor, and every child healed on one of our cleft missions carries a piece of your legacy.

“Dream big, dream big, dream big.” Oh John, I promise we're trying. Happy birthday, dear friend. We will never forget you.

Amy Eldridge

LWB

Gator Smiles

There is an incredible group of college students at the University of Florida who have made a HUGE difference for kids with cleft. Dedicated to helping these children, they have named themselves, Gator Smiles.

In January, a very enthusiastic young lady named Stephanie established the club. She created this club after meeting twin girls from China who both had repaired cleft lip and palates. These two little girls were both healed on the first ever cleft trip that LWB organized in 2004. Their story touched her deeply and she saw how this surgery changed their lives forever. She just knew she wanted to do something to help, and Gator Smiles was born.

So far, Gator Smiles has had over 50 members join and they are continuing to grow. This group has worked so hard this past semester having collected over $3000 for cleft affected children. Their fundraising goals have been so ambitious and will now change the lives of over 7 children. Some of the activities that they have done to raise money include a bake sale, carwash, a penny wars, Home-Interior Décor sales, a band party, a 5K walk/run, and a Pizza Hut end-of-the-year party.

Qing is one of the children that has now been changed because of their generosity and hard work. This beautiful baby boy was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. In April, he had his life changed forever and will now have a chance of finding a family of his very own. What a gift these college students have given this child!