Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Updates


Baby Huan is back from the hospital. The surgery went well, and the director of the baby home even says Huan looks prettier than before. Don't you think she looks healthier?


Baby Die's name means butterfly in Chinese (and don't worry--it's pronounced quite differently than it reads in English too). This little one, who arrived earlier this month, is headed to the hospital today to get a diagnosis for her orthopedic deformities.


We also had several new babies arrive just this week. Baby Meng was born with anal atresia, and Baby Chen, a cleft lip and palate baby, is stable but has jaundice.



In Loving Memory- Qiao

November 21-23, 2010


Baby Qiao arrived weighing just 3 pounds, very weak and dehydrated, and appeared to have a very serious heart defect. He passed away yesterday. Rest in peace, little one.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

In Loving Memory- Lei and Ping





















Baby Lei passed away earlier this week after fighting a bad respiratory infection. On Thursday, Baby Ping also went to join Jesus, a particularly tough passing because she had held on for so long. We will miss both of them. Rest in peace, little ones.

Loyal readers may notice that we've recently had a higher number of babies pass away lately. As winter starts and little ones are abandoned in the cold, our window for saving them gets much smaller. The babies are also more vulnerable to sickness during this time, so it's a difficult time overall. Having more babies pass away is especially hard for those working closely with them. As we continue to save as many lives as we are able, please keep our workers in your thoughts and prayers when these little ones don't make it.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

New Arrivals - Die, Bing and Lei








Three new babies arrived this week. Bing and Lei are newborn boys with cleft lip and palate. Both are also very small (about 5 lbs each). They are quite fragile, but little Bing seems to be much less stable than his cribmate Lei. Baby Die is 4 months old and she has some serious orthopedic problems with her legs, but we are not sure of the exact diagnosis or treatment yet. We will keep you updated on how they are doing.



Thursday, November 11, 2010

MeiMei


When babies are admitted to our home for hospice care, it means that our goal is to make them as comfortable as possible for their last days. How exciting, then, when a baby here for hospice care doesn't fade but gets stronger! MeiMei was that way. Around the new year of 2009, she got very sick and we almost lost her. A staff member decided to start treating her sickness very aggressively since at that point it wasn't much more of a risk. She recovered, but we knew if she got sick again it would probably be it, but she simply never got sick again.

A year and a half ago, she couldn't even sit up. Now she's one of the older babies in the home and even tries to comfort others when they're crying in their cribs; she'll go over and pat them soothingly. She is still young and has a cleft palate, Down's Syndrome, and a heart defect to contend with, but isn't her smile precious? We are hoping to see her in a forever family soon.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Baby Ye


We think Baby Ye was 10 days old when she got to Little Flower, and we know she was only 1.4 kilograms. The shaved part of her hair indicates that she spent time in a hospital in her short time before coming to us, but other than being a tiny preemie, she seems to be a normal baby girl. Her size is difficult to believe; Ye’s head is no bigger than my palm, though it is difficult to judge the exact size currently because she’s completely wrapped up in blankets. They are protecting her from her own body’s inability to regulate its own temperature; the bundled girl looks quite snug under her cap and layers of small blankets. Her body struggles to get itself the oxygen it needs, but she is hooked up to an oxygen tank that gently manages it for her. The game for her right now is to wait and survive. She recently went through a bout of pneumonia but is currently doing well. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as we enter into the winter season.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

In Loving Memory - Baby Fei








Our cute little Baby Fei went home to Jesus today. He just couldn't hold on till he got big enough for surgery. We'll miss you, little guy!




Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Baby Ping


Baby Ping weighed in at 1.75 kilograms the day after she arrived at our baby home in April but appeared otherwise healthy. She went through a cycle of becoming sick then getting better before getting sick again. She arrived with the tiniest eyes, looking small even for such a tiny frame. The baby home director, Raphaela, laughingly remembers joking about Ping being an alien because her head was so oddly shaped. Ping's ankle also had an abnormal dip in it, as if something was missing, and her right hand had a slight deformity with the thumb. Overall, though, she was mostly battling the general difficulty of being born prematurely. Until about four months of age, she even slept curled up in a tiny ball, as if she was still in her mother's womb.


On August 6th, she died--no heartbeat or discernible oxygen level--before suddenly breathing in 10 minutes later. At that point, Raphaela redoubled her efforts to stabilize Ping. Miraculously, Ping's eyes were again filled with life, a moment Raphaela will not soon forget.


Since then, Ping has gained weight, though she still has an oxygen tube (which she tries to pull out often enough that it must be gently taped to her cheeks). She has difficulty feeding because she bites at the bottle nipple instead of sucking, though Raphaela has observed her sucking her thumb happily, indicating that she does at least have the ability. This difficulty has been cause for concern, though, and she was being feed via feeding tube until recently. We are hesitant to put her back on the feeding tube just yet as we hope she will still develop a normal feeding ability without it. We are hoping for a winter free from sickness, but she is currently fighting another bout. Join us in hoping and praying for a healthy next few months for Baby Ping!

Baby Huan


One of our newest arrivals is Baby Huan. She arrived at our Beijing home in October and was 5.5 pounds. Her tiny face and thin lips make her look a bit like a elf, an observation that makes us smile. This little one was born with anal atresia and was able to gain enough weight in her short time here to be reconsidered for surgery. She's now in the hospital and is expected to be there only 10 days, a quick turn around for a Chinese hospital. As a special blessing, she is going to be treated in the ICU during the whole stay, meaning that we don't need to provide a caretaker for her from our staff. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she recovers.