A Look into what Qing is up to these days

When you enter room 4 at the Infant Care Home, you often see Qing sitting in a booster seat. At first glance, you will never guess that he cannot see. As soon as you come near him, he detects your presence and enjoys the extra attention.

Although Qing is a big boy, he doesn’t have too much strength or muscle control. So our staff and volunteers are helping him to learn to move around and use his hands and feet. His cataracts and developmental delays are serious obstacles, but we are seeing him make some progress.

Look at him! He is so happy to be cuddled.

With all the extra attention, Qing is slowly learning to turn over by himself! He is continuing to develop in his own way. We hope that he will soon be able to get a treatment plan in place for his eye problems. As the Chinese saying goes, Jia You (keep trying) sweet Qing!

It's all about the toy...

The Infant Care Home is usually peaceful and quiet after lunch. The toddlers, full from their meal, return to their room for nap-time. Last week, Hong and Qiu decided that they would like to play for a bit before taking their naps. So we took out some toys for them to play with. Obviously, they both go towards the exact same toy!

Hong and Qiu look around…..is anyone going to intervene and help us?!

We decided that this was the perfect opportunity for these two little ones to learn about sharing. So we waited to see what they would do. These two cuties continued to fight over the toy, although there was the exact same toy by their side!

So as you can imagine, there was some crying.  Precious Qiu uncertainly looked over at Hong, not sure how long she needed to cry for!

And then, they suddenly realized “Oh, there are two identical toys in front of us! We can both play with one!”

It’s no longer all about the toy! Hong and Qiu are happy playing together again!

In fact, they even shook hands and made up!

What a productive day it has been! Hong and Qiu learned the importance of sharing…or at least until the next toy shows up!

November 2015 Featured Child: Juan

For the month of November, our featured child is joyful Juan. Juan came to our Infant Care Home in September of last year. She was five months old at that time.  Little Juan was born with a complex heart defect and needed surgery as soon as possible. Despite her medical condition, Juan was a joyful little girl when she arrived.  Doesn’t see look so happy?

Soon after her arrival, like we do with all of our new arrivals, we took Juan to the hospital for a checkup and to create a specialized treatment plan. The doctors suggested that since Juan’s condition was very complicated, she would need multiple surgeries to fix her heart problem. So, shortly after her arrival, she was admitted for her first heart surgery. Her surgery went smoothly, and she soon returned back home.  Over the next few months, we watched as little Juan continued to grow and become stronger. Doesn’t she have the cutest smile?

Towards the end of April, Juan was ready for her second heart surgery. We were able to raise enough funds for her to be admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately, there were some complications with her recovery and she ended up staying in the hospital for over a month.  In early June, when Juan finally returned home, we were all so happy to have her back! It took her a little while to warm up to all of us again, but within no time, she was back to her usual cheerful self!

In the middle of October, Juan transferred to our group home #4.  She loves her new foster parents and is enjoying all the extra attention from her foster family.  We hope that she will find her forever family soon! It’s a miracle to see her grow so much in a year!

Juan with her foster mama