Photo Shoot

A couple of days ago, I went over to the foster family home to take pictures of Dou and Qing who were very excited to have their pictures taken. I was entranced by their cuteness during the photo shoot.

By Louis

My Little Angel

My little angel, she's so innocent and so cute! She has Down syndrome and a heart defect. She was very weak when she arrived. After taking care of her, she became stronger. I like her because she's one of the sweetest babies. She smiles when you play with her and she has the biggest smile! She's so adorable! When she smiles it's so big that her eyes close shut. She always gives you her best smile, so full and complete.


At one point, she went to another place for surgery. They had to keep her separated from the staff for a few days. When she was finally allowed out she saw her favorite staff member and her eyes suddenly filled with tears. I know she's aware of the love she's received.

Later on, I wanted to stop volunteering because I was so tired. I saw my little angel there and thought, 'You don't care if I go! You'll just forget me.' But, when I looked into her eyes, they made me want to stay. I couldn't refuse her. Her eyes seemed to say, 'Don't go, don't go!' How could I leave her alone? She needed me. So that's one of the biggest reasons why I stayed.

I think normally that Down syndrome babies might be considered less by society. But, being with her, you wouldn't think about anything else, just how precious she is. She's no different; if anything she can bring more happiness because of her talent for love, which is why I call her an angel. What I feel for her is this: First, I fell in love with her because she was so weak and needed our care. But, what she brought to me was happiness and smiles; she definitely gave me more than I gave to her.

Now she's much healthier and stronger. Also, she's been adopted by a really good family! So I know that they saw what I saw in her.

By Theresa

What Matters Most

There is a girl in our infant care facility; she has hydrocephalus, it's like having a big water balloon for a head. She never stands up, she is unable to. Sometimes she shakes her whole body; she screams a lot every time she shakes, it must hurt a lot. If you hold her hands though when she's screaming, it's very easy to get her to calm down and stop shaking. All she needs when she is screaming is to know that someone is there, holding her hands. She makes me think a lot.

Sometimes we think we aren't rich, so there's nothing we can do. But it's not about money, it's about us. What these children need is love, just holding their hands, giving ourselves to them. Letting them know that we are there for them and that is enough.

By Coco

Baby Nü Learns to Crochet

Baby Wang Update

Baby Wang arrived in mid-January in critical condition. This little one was abandoned with ambiguous genitalia, but his most urgent problem was a history of constant vomiting and severe dehydration. The orphanage was located in a remote area without access to a high standard of medical care. They had the baby admitted to the hospital, but after several weeks they still had no diagnosis or treatment plan. Not knowing what else to do, the baby was discharged back to orphanage care. It became clear after several days that the orphanage was unable to deal with the severity of this baby's problems, so they asked if we might help.

We agreed to accept the baby and transferred to our main medical home at once. When little Wang arrived, he was already 6 weeks old, but was barely over 5 lbs. When we discussed this baby with our medical consultants, the baby's unusual symptoms (ambiguous genitalia and severe malnourishment and dehydration) rang a bell with one pediatrician. She suggested we see if this might be something called congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

Because the test for this condition is both expensive and difficult to obtain here, doctors recommended that we assume this was the problem and treat as such. Baby Wang began drug treatment for the adrenal hyperplasia and has been under the watchful eye of an expert dietician who is working to combat many weeks of malnourishment.

We are delighted to say little Wang has responded wonderfully, which confirms the doctor's suspicions of the original diagnosis. At this point it is still unsure if Wang is actually a boy or a girl, but chromosome testing later will answer this question. For now, we are just so glad that Wang is on the road to a normal and healthy life. See how much he has changed!

A Big Girl Now!

Mei Mei came to the hospice as a very, very fragile infant with a serious heart defect. Surgeons do not feel that this defect can be repaired, so we did not expect her to live very long. However, she has defied all expectations and just keeps on going! Of course, she is very delayed due to her Down Syndrome, but she is getting there - just on her own timeline. She recently turned three years old, and is able to roll over (and over and over and over - her preferred method of locomotion) as well as sit and crawl. She loves to clap her hands and she loves her meals (even though they go into her feeding tube and she never actually gets to "taste" them). But most of all, she loves her little buddy, Kuan. She and Kuan are best friends.

Curly Feet

That is what lots of people called clubbed feet. And they are, all curled up, just like the baby was inside mom. Except, those little feet shouldn't be all curled up once baby is born, so our job is to fix them. And it is one of the most gratifying things we do!

We just started correcting the feet of little Min, who arrived last week. We'll apply a series of casts to gradually stretch the feet into the correct position. He'll need a very minor (out patient) surgery to nip the Achilles tendon when we are almost done, and then once he heals from that he'll get a special pair of corrective shoes that are attached to a brace that will help hold the position as he grows. Once he's 3 or 4 years old he won't even need that any more (till that time he'll need to wear his brace while sleeping) and then he'll be just like all the other kids!


So this little fellow got his first set of casts on Thursday. Here are his little feet before we started. His got the maximum score for the club foot deformity, so this is not a mild case:

He didn't seem to mind the casting at all (in fact, he only cried when we had to change his diaper in the middle of the process) and actually fell asleep as we were finishing. That is the beauty of the Ponseti method of club foot correction - it's non invasive, does not involve painful surgery or upset the baby's routines at all. And it works! We have been using the Ponseti method on all of our club foot babies for 6 years now and have seen some amazing transformations. Here is Min just as we were finishing, waiting for his plaster casts to dry:

Doesn't he look peaceful? We'll post more updates as we change his casts so you can see the progress too.