The first thing you can’t help but notice about Fei is that he is more blue than any four-month-old baby should be. He is kept on oxygen, otherwise he turns even more blue. The hue of his skin is not the thing that will suck you in, though; that is his eyes. His big, dark eyes seem to take in everything, especially anything to do with a bottle. He is fluid regulated because his body cannot handle too much liquid at a time, so he is always excited to eat. His eyes watch the whole room closely, and if something catches his fancy, the thin skin on his forehead wrinkles as he makes an expression of interest. The thin wisps of hair on his head cannot hide the distinct wrinkles, nor would I want them to; they give his face an odd sense of age and wisdom, despite his abnormally small frame. The tube running across his face below his nose only seems to confirm this illusion of old age. His eyes, though, break the illusion and remind us that the young catch so much, see much more than we think. Baby Fei sees a group of loving people comforting and caring for him as he fights to get stronger.
Fei was born with half of a normal heart, only one atrium and one ventricle. There are also defects with the arteries in his heart, a problem with a corrective surgery that is difficult and dangerous. Right now, he is not healthy enough to have the surgery, but he has only a slim chance of getting strong enough for the surgery with his current difficulties. It’s a difficult position but not uncommon with the little ones who find themselves at Little Flower. We will do what we can for Fei and hope that he gets stronger despite all the strikes against him.
