Made for Love - The Power of Play

For most of our caregivers and teachers, a crucial part of our day-to-day work is playing with the children.  Peek-a-boo, pulling turnips, wheels-on-the-bus, hide-and-seek, are just a few of our all-time favorites.

Play is a lot of fun, but it is much more than that! For young children, most of their important learning takes place in play. We try to create every possibility for the children in our care to play. Over the years, we have seen firsthand how play transforms young lives, unlocks potential and nurtures the skills they need to thrive.

Play is the most natural way that young children learn and explore. When they build a tower with blocks or solve a puzzle, they learn to problem-solve and sharpen their thinking. 

When they play ball games and giggle together outside, they learn to collaborate, to develop motor skills, and to exercise perseverance. When they spend hours digging holes in the garden or making mud pies, they are learning about nature and using their imagination and creativity. 

Language and social skills flourish during play, too, for example when children discuss what to do and negotiate rules in play (“I'll be the mommy, you be the baby.”).  When they are engaged in rough-and-tumble play, we see empathy and a sense of togetherness starting to take root. 

Through play, children discover how the world around them works and how they fit in. When a little one holds a doll tight and pretends to bathe her gently, that child is re-experiencing her everyday life of love and care while imagining what it feels like to be a caregiver, to show compassion and to be responsible. This is an essential tool for emotional development.

For children who have faced trauma and loss, play provides a safe space to process their feelings and regulate their emotions. When a child dresses up as Ultraman and shouts “Believe in the light!”, he is exploring what it feels like to be courageous, to stand up to evil, and to be resilient.

Unfortunately, play does not come naturally for many children who have suffered from early deprivation and emotional neglect. Even if they are surrounded by toys, they are very likely to just examine the toys, toss them around, or grab them from their peers’ hands, rather than concentrating on them and playing collaboratively with others. Therefore, it is critical that we as adults invite children to play with us and model for them how to play.

Playing together gives us opportunities to model important skills like concentrating, problem-solving (“How can I get my tower even taller?”), and social skills (for example, turn-taking). We also help the children to co-regulate with us. We use our imagination and get creative together, until these things begin to come naturally to them. 

Play is the foundation of learning and growth for children. We strive to give children the tools to learn, grow, and heal, and to create spaces that encourage joyful, purposeful play, so that they can become more confident, creative, and connected.

Two years with little YX!

 Little YX was abandoned within hours of her birth two years ago in June.  

She was born with congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN), which is also called a giant hairy nevus.  In YX’s case, this large black birthmark covers more than half of her torso and is also evident on parts of her scalp and extremities.  We can only guess that her family was unable to accept such a visible disfiguration and felt that had no choice but to leave her where she would be found and taken to an orphanage.

Although these lesions are benign, they have a very high risk for becoming precancerous or malignant.  Half of all children who are born with them will be diagnosed with a malignancy by age two, and nearly three quarters will receive that diagnosis by age 7.  As soon as she arrived at the orphanage the staff asked if we might be able to accept her for care.  We knew that she would benefit immensely from the nurturing, attentive care in our baby home.  

YX is receiving regular screening consults to watch for any dangerous changes to her skin.  Her caregivers are also monitoring closely to watch for any warning signs.

Little YX is now a healthy, curious toddler who loves the activities in our early learning center classes. 

While she is thriving in our care, we hope and pray that someday she will be able to join a family of her own.  

We are very grateful to all who support us in our work.  Because of you, we are able to provide love, nurturing and life-changing medical treatment to children like YX. 

Launchpad - Getting Started

 Our very first Launchpad home is in north central China.  Last year, when YJ first approached us with his doubts and concerns for the future, there were two more young men who had previously been cared for in Little Flower homes who also joined the discussion.  One more young man also from the same orphanage heard about our plans.  He was intrigued, and he asked if we could consider allowing him to join our Launchpad home as well.

After the boys discussed their plans with the orphanage leaders and received approval to proceed, our first task was to find a suitable apartment to rent.  While there are many inexpensive housing options in outlying areas, we were limited to a rather central location in the city so that the boys could easily get back and forth to their vocational center, shopping, church etc. without having to make multiple transfers on the bus or subway.  An even higher priority was finding housing that was handicapped accessible. 

 With two of the four in wheelchairs and one dependent on crutches, we knew that having to navigate stairs or narrow doorways would be a problem.  We involved the boys in the search; letting them browse the available listings and contact agents directly.  They considered many different homes before finally, we found just what we were looking for!

We had hoped to get a furnished rental, but since that didn't happen we started shopping for furniture.  The boys did some research, and it turned out that IKEA was the best option for inexpensive, durable, basic furnishings.  They worked out exactly what pieces were needed, how much it would cost, and put together a detailed list for approval by our accounting department.  We were able to get some of the large appliances and kitchen wares donated, and soon the empty apartment was filled with many flat packed boxes of furniture ready to assemble.  It was a very daunting task, and the boys had no real experience with this kind of project!

Fortunately, several kindhearted volunteers offered to supervise and assist in the furniture assembly.  After many long hours of hard work, their new home was ready!

While all of this was going on, we were also searching for a set of house parents who could help guide our young men along the path to independence.  This proved much more difficult than we expected, but we finally found Mr. Sun and Mrs. Qin (women in China do not take their husband's surname when they marry), who have a long history of helping to care for disabled children as foster parents.

This fall has been a period of adjustment, with the boys and house parents getting to know each other, each settling in to their roles and responsibilities in the family.  

The boys spend their days at a nearby vocational training center, and the house parents also volunteer there helping to prepare lunch for the students and staff.  

There have certainly been some rough patches and many conflicts; as we discussed in our last post what we are doing involves big changes and lots of hard work!  But we are all so excited to be started along the path to our goals, and we can't wait to see what the future holds!  

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