Back to School!

September is the time to go back to school! At the beginning of September, the children in our Group Home Project started getting ready to head back to school after their summer holiday. We currently have 29 children in our 6 group homes. Just over half the children (17 currently) attend our Chunmiao Education Center, and the rest of them attend local schools.

Wei and Ya are working hard at the Chunmiao Education Center

Art class at the Chunmiao Education Center

Right before the new school year started, Cai, Duo and Liang shared some of their thoughts about school with me. They attend a local school called Century Experimental School.

Cai, as the second oldest boy in the group, took charge of our little chat. After giving his answers, he made sure that both of his friends also had a chance to speak. Cai joined group home #3 in 2012. He is in grade 5 this year and his favorite part of school is seeing his friends!  He enjoys Chinese calligraphy, music and reading class.

Duo is in grade 4. He joined group home #1 in 2009. Duo is a super curious boy. He loves learning and he asks a lot of questions! He is looking forward to meeting his new teachers once his school starts. His favorite subjects are painting and reading. He dreams of going to college one day.

Liang is also in grade 4 but in a different class to Duo. Liang joined group home #4 in 2011. This will be his second year at this primary school. He enjoys art class and loves building things. He also enjoys doing his homework after school. He is a very sweet boy.

These three boys enjoy being in the same school together and plan to keep up their tradition of meeting up each break time to chat.  They are very confident that this will be another great year for them at school.  And most of all, Cai, Duo and Liang are glad to share a glimpse into their lives with you.

September 2015 Featured Child: Ying

This month we are featuring beautiful Ying. Ying arrived at the Infant Care Home in December of last year as a 2 month old baby. Ying came to us with one eye being bigger than the other, and so, we suspected that she had retinoblastoma. Due to the severity of retinoblastoma, we rushed her to see an ophthalmologist and to do further diagnostic testing for an official diagnosis. The doctors confirmed the diagnosis of retinoblastoma.

In January, Ying was admitted to the hospital to start chemotherapy and underwent an enucleation surgery  on her right eye, which meant that they would remove her eye. The surgery was successful and after her second dose of chemotherapy, she returned back home.

Over the next months, Ying continued to receive chemotherapy. Each month, she was admitted to the hospital for about a week and then would return home for 3 weeks.  She also got fitted with a prosthetic eye. Little Ying is a sweet girl. She soon started to roll over and crawl.

In August, Ying completed the final of her 6 sessions of chemo! Look at how happy she is! At her retinal checkup, the doctors confirmed that the cancer had not spread to her brain or the other eye. She will continue to have regular checkups to make sure that the cancer does not come back and spread. This little girl has gone through so much already in her short life. We hope she finds her 'forever family' soon.

August 2015 Featured Child: Cai

For August, we have decided to feature little Cai as this is his birthday month! He will turn 1 year old later this month on the 20th. Cai came to the Beijing Infant Care Home earlier this year at the end of March from central China. He was 7 months old at that time.

Cai was born with a severe heart defect and Down Syndrome. He was very frail and week, when he came to us, weighing only 8 lbs (3.7 kg).  We decided to take him to a cardiologist for a full checkup and to see when he could have surgery for his heart defect. Unfortunately, he was too tiny for surgery at that time.

Little Cai had a hard time putting on weight. His breathing was also not good and he was in and out of the hospital with pneumonia. But Cai continued to push through each day. By the end of May, he finally reached 9.3 lbs (4.2 kg) and so was admitted to the hospital for his surgery. Cai’s open heart surgery was successful and his heart defect has been fully repaired now.

However, his post-operative care was quite complicated. He lost a lot of weight during this time. And was in the ICU for a long time on a ventilator. When he finally came home to us, he was still on oxygen and could not eat by himself. We continued to provide him with the special care he needed to become stronger and healthier.

Last month, in July, Cai was able to breathe without any extra help and he also started eating on his own! All of his caregivers are so proud of this milestone!  He has also gained weight and returned to his pre-surgery weight. We know he will continue to gain weight and become stronger in the next months!

July 2015 Featured Child: Song

This month’s featured child is little Song. Song came to our Infant Care Home in Beijing earlier this year in March. He was 4 months old at that time. He came to us with an initial diagnosis of biliary atresia.

We soon got Song checked by doctors here in Beijing, who confirmed that he does have biliary atresia. Biliary atresia is a life-threatening condition in infants in which the bile ducts inside or outside the liver do not have normal openings. And so, Song needed treatment as soon as possible, or else his liver would fail.

In April, Song was able to get the Kasai procedure and he is currently recovering well from it. Kasai is a surgical procedure done for biliary atresia babies that helps to route the bile out of the liver and into the digestive system where it is needed.  It is generally not a curative or long term fix, but can buy the baby some time before he needs a liver transplant.  Since his return from the hospital, Song’s skin is less yellow in color, but still not normal. Although Song is stable now, he is still in need of a major, lifesaving medical surgery in the future.

Song is able to now roll over by himself! And he can sit up with a little support. He is a sweet boy who loves to be cuddled! Our staff pays close attention to provide the specialized nutrition that he needs in order to maximize his liver function.

We hope that Song’s adoption paperwork goes through quickly and that he finds his “forever family” soon. We wish he can be connected with a family before he reaches the point where he needs a liver transplant in order to survive.  

A New Playground!

Every child has fond memories of playing in a playground at school or at a park near home. On a Monday in June, the Group Home children attending the Chunmiao Education Learning Center arrived to school to find a new 65-square meter playground where there had previously been an empty concrete space. The playground was planned and constructed by Sean, a 17-year old high school student from a local international school. Sean has been a Boy Scout for seven years.  Boy Scouts of America is an organization for boys aged 6 to 18 who learn through service, leadership, and outdoor activities. After beginning Boy Scouts in the US, Sean moved to China two years ago and joined a local Boy Scout troop in Beijing. To earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout, a scout must plan and lead a large service project. Sean began this project when he learned that the Little Flower Learning Center was moving to a new location which did not have any formal playground.

The Chunmiao Learning Center currently has 15 children ranging from 3 years old to 12 years old. The learning center provides individualized special education, rehabilitation and psychological services to disabled children. The school is based on the Montessori education model.

For this project, Sean needed to design a plan for the playground, fund-raise, purchase material, and then build the playground! He enlisted other scout volunteers to help him with the actual building of the project.

Sean raised over 3,000 USD to fund this project. He did a total of three bake sales at his school and church and asked family and friends to contribute funds for his service project. He actually ended up raising slightly more funds than he needed to build the project, and so with the extra funds he plans to buy other supplies that the students need at the school.

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To build the actual playground, Sean first had to lay a matting, so the children would not hurt themselves while playing. He then constructed the three play structures: a log cabin, a castle, and a pirate ship-themed play structure. Lastly, Sean built a sandbox (2 meters by 2.5 meters) for the students to play in, and he built a fence around the play area to keep all the students safe. Sean really thought about everything in his plan! And we are so grateful for this new playground. The children are already enjoying playing on their new playground!

March 2015 Featured Child Post: Yu

For the month of March, we are highlighting little Yu’s story. Yu was born as a premature baby and came to the Beijing Infant Care home last October. She was 3 weeks old when she arrived, and was just 3 lbs 9 oz (1630 g). Other than being born early and needing extra care, she seemed healthy.

Like all of our premature babies, Yu needed special attention and care to become stronger and bigger. We try to provide all our tiny babies with as much kangaroo care as we can. Nannies, volunteers and staff take turns holding and loving our babies. We also use Embrace Warmers to help regulate the temperature for our premature babies. Often, premature babies do not have enough body fat to regulate their own temperature and so we need to help them do that. The picture below captures Yu staying warm with a Embrace Warmer.

Unfortunately, Yu had some feeding trouble initially. She was pretty tiny and so had a hard time drinking milk by herself. She needed to be fed via a tube. But despite this, she slowly started to gain weight. Eventually, she started drinking milk by herself as well!  And of course, she started becoming healthier and stronger!

December 2014

January 2015

 Later this month, since she no longer needs special medical care, she will be transferred to another organization. We hope she can find her forever family soon!

November 2014 Featured Child: Ning

For the month of November, our featured child is Ning. Ning came to the Infant Care Home earlier this year in July. He was one month old when he arrived. Ning was born with a cleft lip and palate and needed surgery as his treatment. When he arrived at the baby home, he was too young for surgery. So, our goal initially was to help Ning stay healthy and get big enough for his first surgery.

Slowly, Ning started to grow and become strong. He has such an easy-going personality and makes all the visitors at the Infant Care Home smile.

We hope Ning will be healthy enough to  have surgery this December.

UPDATE:

In December, Ning successfully went through surgery. Look at his beautiful smile now!

Since Ning successfully completed surgery and is healthy, he will be transitioning back to his orphanage soon. We hope that he will find his forever family soon.