There is a beautiful seven year old boy in Guangdong province who is in need of his own mom and dad to love him. His medical need is that he was burned as a child, but he has not let that stop him from going to kindergarten, making lots of friends, and charming the socks off of everyone who meets him. Right in his adoption file it says that he can make a friend out of anyone in 30 minutes flat. This little boy only has a few days left before his file is due to go back to China.....unchosen. Isn't that a horrible word? Unchosen. It is hard to believe that any child would have to carry that label.
This particular little boy weighs heavy on my heart tonight for a reason I want to explain. You see....his orphanage first contacted us to see if we could help him medically with his burns. But as soon as we heard about how smart he was and how personable, we convinced the orphanage that his real hope was in being adopted. The orphanage wasn't sure. They didn't think anyone would want to adopt an older boy, and one with burns on his body. But we assured them that somewhere there was a family waiting for a little boy just like him. And so the orphanage agreed. But then the province was also unsure, and so we once again said, "we know there will be a family". Finally his file was sent up to Beijing and then on to a US adoption agency. And no family has yet been found.
I think it is important for me to interject a story here, and my apologies to my friend Lisa for not getting her permission first to tell it. I hope she will forgive me. When I was first getting started with my work in China, one of the orphanages we helped did not do many special needs adoptions. They didn't think that the kids would be chosen, and so many of the children were getting older and watching only the healthy babies leave for their new homes. They would hear the aunties say to the babies, "oh today is a lucky day....you will have a family to love you." And the preschoolers and older kids would think to themselves....'it must be wonderful to have a family pick you.'
Well, we were going to do a heart surgery for one little girl in this orphanage, and so I asked for a photo of her so that we could raise funds. This orphanage didn't have a lot of nice clothing, so for this special photograph they wanted the little girl to look nice. Another little girl in the orphanage, named Yan, who was just three years old, had been given a beautiful red coat by a volunteer, and she loved that red coat and wore it all the time. The aunties went and took off her red coat to put on the child with heart disease for her photo, and Yan burst into tears crying. The aunties scolded her and said, "Yan, you must share your red coat...don't be selfish", but Yan kept crying and crying and kept trying to climb over the gate to get out in the hallway where the photo was being taken. Finally one aunty had heard enough, and so she walked over to Yan to take her back into the room. As she got closer, she realized that Yan was NOT crying because the other little girl was wearing her coat. No, not at all. Yan was crying while saying over and over, "take MY picture...please take MY picture. I want a family....take my picture so I can have a family, too. "
You see, at the ripe old age of three, Yan had already learned that the only way a baby got a family was by having her picture taken first. And she wanted a family of her own so badly, that she was crying to her aunties to please take her photo, too.
I wanted to share this story because the reason I am so sad that Joey hasn't found a home yet doesn't have anything to do with the fact that we told his orphanage a family would be found, or that we told provincial that certainly there was a family for him. I am sad thinking about Joey because I know exactly what happened when they prepared his adoption file earlier this year. I have been in orphanages when they do the files, and each and every time the aunties try to make the kids look at cute as possible. They say things like, 'smile pretty so a family will pick you." I am sad when I think about Joey's file, because I know he had probably gotten used to the idea that there would not be a family coming for him because of his burns....and then we went and placed hope back into his heart. I am sure he knew exactly why the orphanage was taking his photos that day, and I am sure the staff told him to look as handsome and clever as possible so that a family would choose him. Tonight I am thinking about this handsome little boy who is probably wondering each day now if his photo was good enough for a family to choose him.
So far.....no one has.
If you know anyone who might be open to adding a little boy to their family, please let them know about Joey. More information about him can be found here:
http://www.swa.net/children.phpI still want to believe that there is someone out there who is wanting a little boy to love and read stories to. Surely there is someone out there who would want to teach him to fish, show him how to hit a baseball, and who would let him ride on their shoulders feeling like he was the king of the world. Surely somewhere there is a family who can give Joey the unbelievable gift of knowing he is CHOSEN, so that he can finally be home where he belongs.
In addition to performing these life changing surgeries on these children, Dr. Buckmiller will be working with Shanghai Children’s Medical Center (SCMC) to help build a cleft surgery program. We are always looking for the best places to send our children for surgery, where they receive the best surgical care and after surgery treatment. SCMC is one of these wonderful hospitals that does just that. Up until now, they have had premiere surgical departments in neurosurgery, heart surgery, anal and colon surgeries, and many other general surgery areas. We trust their doctors completely when we send a child to them. They have not had a surgeon dedicated to cleft surgeries, but are now working to change that. One of their plastic surgeons has been studying at other local hospitals and plans to work closely with the Arkansas team when we are there. We are planning to continue this exchange into next year when we send additional cleft teams to this hospital.
Nancy Delpha
He has no red suit and doesn't bring toys
Believe in Me III actually consists of three parts: Montessori-style preschool, kindergarten-prep, and tutoring.
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! 
I know a world where every child is loved and cherished from birth and where there is no pain is only in fairy tales. But today is a good reminder that anything we can do to show kindness and love to innocent children is essential. Love is a blessing that the world can never have enough of. 
Heather Hough
She has put together a very nice kit called Faded Sapphire with colors and elements that can be used in many ways. I happen to own a few of Carrie Stephens' kits and have enjoyed working with them.
Oh, he's definitely the super daddy - he and his wife worked as the best team ever to "spoil" these boys into heaven! You would see them carrying the boys around in the hallway all the time. The boys were so attached to them that they couldn't even put them down for one second, but this couple was so patient and so loving. They did anything to make the boys happy. And people in the hospital even noticed that the boys slowly turned to look like her and her husband. The couple were so pleased and proud when they heard that.
I am so thankful to her Chinese foster mother who took such good care of her during her hospital stay and allowed her to "mess up" and tried out her son's high-tech gears. And I can't be prouder of my high-tech baby buddy!!
As summer draws to a close, many of us are busy preparing to send our little ones off to school, some of them for the first time. We take our supply list provided by the school and fill our carts with notebooks and pencils, backpacks and lunch boxes, glue and scissors, and a wide variety of other supplies. Then, on another day, once we’ve had time to recover, we schlep back out to mall for the back-to-school sales and spend hours waiting outside dressing rooms for our kids to choose the perfect wardrobe. This year my oldest daughter and I were debating over one of the clothing choices she made and I was so proud of her when she told me, “I have my own fashion sense, and that’s good enough for me.” Brava! She got the outfit she was wanting, even though the colors clashed.
Unfortunately, there are far too many children in this world who have no one to shop with them before school. Many can’t even go to school, either because they have a medical condition which prevents them from attending public school, or because their families cannot afford school fees.
Four years ago today, I typed up an application to begin a new charity with four of my friends and hand carried it to our state capitol to turn it in. I can remember standing in the Secretary of State’s office thinking how unreal it all seemed that we were going to form a foundation. Would anyone believe in what we were doing? Would orphanages accept our help? Could a foundation really be run by all volunteers? What has happened in the last four years is beyond any of our wildest dreams. We truly thought we would give it our all to help "a few children" each month, and now there are over 2000 children who receive services from LWB each year.
Off to break out the cookies and milk! I hope everyone who reads this today will celebrate with us as well. Here's to FORTY more years of touching children's lives.
We had a fashion show in the hallway today. Guess who's the model - Chloe! Chloe had a really big and painful surgery. After laying in bed for over 10 days, she is finally allowed to stand up. We can't wait to dress her up and she definitely enjoys cute dresses, including this one from today. She enjoyed showing off and "yelling" for attention from audience. So we took her out to the hallway while she still has the urine bag. Her caregiver was carrying it for her but she looked at it and baby talked the caregiver to give her the bag instead. Once she got the bag, she carried it like it's her little purse, happily she was ready to pose for pics! You can imagine all the audience she drew in the hallway and everyone gave her applause. Some other little crying babies even started to laugh in their parents' arms.
Jie is finally feeling better after going through the most painful first few days. Her parents already put him on the pillow while he's laying on his tummy. They took him around for little tour here and there. We also had a good time blowing bubbles, even tho Jie had to lay on his tummy, his eyes followed the bubbles and from time to time he was cracking up and had this loud and clear baby laugh. The parents are so kind that they even tried to help out our orphaned patients, such as feeding or holding, the father even volunteered to go out to buy food for the caregivers who couldn't go out. The whole group is absolutely one great team, helping each other out.
