Toys

When I was a young child, I wanted to grow up to be Mrs. Santa Claus. This is because I wanted to have access to Santa’s giant sack containing every kind of toy in the world. I grew out of the Mrs. Claus phase by the time I was 6, but I doubt the excitement over seeing new toys ever really leaves a person.







It occurred to me this morning that I am creating new
Santa Clauses with our Foster Care Managers as they are being sent a variety toys and books, for every age group, to carry around with them when they do their monthly visit.


I can just see the curiosity on the children’s faces wondering what will come out of the sack. And the best part is that every child will get a new toy. But I am getting ahead of myself here on how this all started.

In order to more closely monitor developmental progress in the children, we have revised our foster care report format. The Henan programs were the first to try out the new format on our April reports.

The new report has several sections which include movement, vision & hearing, language, cognitive, and social development. The new format has been useful in determining where the children are developmentally. They also give the foster families ideas for age-appropriate activities to promote development. Each age group has different developmental milestones to check their progress against. The reports vary every other month so that the children have 2 months to work on their progress before they are tested again.

As we know from experience, children who have spent their first months in an institution may be somewhat delayed due to the lack of one-on-one attention that families can provide. We are hopeful that these new reports can more closely monitor the development of our foster children and we can intervene when necessary to get the best care for the kids as early as possible.

Much of a child's development centers on play. We have learned that many of the children do not have toys in the home that help promote their development and learning.


So, we are providing the foster care children age-appropriate toys so that they can be encouraged to develop to the best of their ability.

This will be a learning process for all of us to see if this format will help the children. We are hopeful that it will a the first step on the road to a brighter tomorrow.


Note: please disregard the child eating the book that we sent. This program is still in the trial stages.












For more information about our Foster Care Programs please go to:
http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/foster.cfm

"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

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

The "Stuff" of Real Life

A friend recently sent me an email about the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic. This email had a quiz at the top. It asked me to name the five wealthiest people in the world, ten people who had won the Nobel prize, the last five Heisman trophy winners, and the last ten Academy Award winners for best actor. I failed miserably. The quiz went on, however. It then asked me to name my favorite teacher, to name three friends who have helped me through a difficult time, and to name five people who have made me feel special. Now these were questions I could answer easily. The point of the email was this:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. Quite simply, they are the ones that care.

As always, it made me think of our LWB friends and how each and every one of you care so deeply for those children who live as orphans. You are the ones truly making a difference in the lives of these kids. People who give their hard earned funding to charities aren’t often profiled as heroes, but you should be. So much of our media coverage concentrates on Hollywood celebrities or all that is “wrong” with the world, while every single day we get to see the amazing things that happen when people make the decision to help children in need.

We learned this week that a little girl we have been helping medically has had her file sent for adoption to the CCAA. This little girl was from a rural orphanage that doesn’t do adoptions, and so her future was uncertain. Thanks to a woman who happened to meet her while in China, we were able to arrange the medical care she needed. It never would have happened without a generous group of people who donated to her care. Following her treatment, we were able to work with her orphanage to make sure her adoption file was completed. Thanks to people who cared, her entire future has now been changed. That might not be the “stuff” of headline news, but it certainly is the stuff of real life to this child.

Thank you all for caring so deeply. Together we can make a difference, one child at a time.

Amy Eldridge
www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

Update on Christmas Babies

Remember the two little boys born on Christmas Eve, in separate Chinese cities, both with large spinal tumors? We received so many emails from people who were praying for these sweet boys, so we wanted to update you and give the great news that both boys are doing so well following their surgeries!

Little Jin had such a huge tumor, but Dr. Bao at Shanghai Children's was able to remove it successfully. He is back in Anhui now and doing very well. Isn't this the cutest photo of him? Little Bei from Henan was the one whose spinal tumor had broken open, possibly during his birth. His surgery also went well, and he was discharged from the hospital before CNY. We are so grateful that he was able to have immediate surgery. THANK YOU to everyone who kept these tiny babies in their thoughts and prayers. We will continue to follow their recoveries and make sure they are doing well.

Urgent heart needs

For the first time in LWB history, we have had to turn away a child in need of urgent heart surgery due to a lack of medical funding. I know what a very, very difficult moment this was for our medical team.

I know that so many orphanages are contacting us now each day for help that we most likely will never be able to keep up with the number of children who are waiting for life saving surgery....but to me that just means we have to work even harder to spread the word that it truly IS possible to save the life of a child by giving whatever one can.

I have put together a short video with some of the heart children we have been asked to help this year. A huge thank you to Lance Musgrave for allowing me to use his song, "Waiting", to help show that thousands of children do just that each day. In orphanages throughout China, children are waiting right now for their chance at life. You can view it on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/v/ceAmyu1FpBc




No donation to our medical program is too small. Every dollar given is used to help bring the gift of healing to some of the most vulnerable children in the world. You can visit our medical sponsorship page today at http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/SponsorMedical.php

Yang is Moving

Miracles happen often around here, but there aren’t too many children as special as Yang. Yang was our very first resident of Heartbridge, arriving last October. She was so tiny and so sick. There were so things wrong with her little heart. On January 24, she received her life-saving heart surgery. You can read more about her story in this blog on that date in the article titled “Sweet Baby Yang”.

You would never believe that this is the same child. Yang is now doing so well and is thriving! She will now be leaving Heartbridge for regular foster care. She no longer needs this intensive medical care she was getting. In fact, she won’t need another heart surgery for 3-4 years and her orphanage is now putting her paperwork together for adoption.

This child is truly a miracle and a fighter. She has overcome so much and is an example to us all on what strength one little baby can have.

Baby Tao is Smiling!

Last Friday, this tiny baby had heart surgery. Before her surgery, she was so weak and her auntie said that she really never smiled. A volunteer, who has been checking on her daily, has said that she is changing with each passing day. He has been amazed with how the surgery has revitalized her. She is starting to fill out and her color is so good. Yesterday, she started smiling to her auntie, but he wasn't lucky enough to see it. Today when he was there he got to see it this beautiful smile over and over! Heart surgeries make such an amazing difference to a child. Look at what it has done for sweet baby Tao!