Mei Mei's Baby

Mei Mei's family sent a package for her. She didn't seem very excited about opening it up.

In fact, we had to encourage her to stick around and see what was inside.

The first thing we lifted out was a baby doll. Mei Mei loves babies, real and pretend, so we thought she would be excited. But after a brief glance she set it aside.


She did take a few minutes to examine the rest of the package, including a new sleeper:

And some stacking cups:

The stacking cups were the only thing she really seemed to want. She spent a long time playing with them that morning.


We set her gifts aside, and a few days later presented the baby again. This time she was very excited and cuddled her baby tight, patting softly:

She carried her baby around all morning:

And then she saw the baby seat wasn't occupied. A perfect place to set her baby!

But how to fasten that safety belt? Challenging indeed!

She'd seen the nannies do it, but they made it look so easy!

Almost...

There! Applause for such a great accomplishment.


Mei Mei treasures her little baby, just the way she has seen her nannies care for the other little ones in the home.



Mei Mei, you really are a big girl now!

Meet the nannies

It is easy to see that our caregivers are the backbone of our program - without these dedicated women we could not do what we do. They spend countless hours feeding, bathing, changing diapers, administering medications, and most of all, comforting little people who have no one else to love them.

Although we cannot offer a high salary or other attractive benefits, we like to give them each something special at Chinese New Year. This year we will give each nanny a small bottle of hand lotion, a bag of candy, and two photos. Each nanny will receive a picture of herself working, and one of her special baby. It's not much, but we hope this small gift will tell them how much we appreciate the work they do.

The photos below are the some of the ones we will be printing and presenting to our caregivers in the next few days. If you cannot visit us in person, here is a chance to see some of the beautiful faces of Little Flower.

By now you are probably wondering how many nannies there are, and why we need so many? We have three shifts of caregivers each day, and each shift is caring for approximately 30 special need and medically fragile infants. We need 10-15 nannies working each shift to provide the special care that these babies require.

Morning shift nannies:

Afternoon shift nannies:

Night shift nannies:


Nannies, managers and volunteers:

Little Ai Ai goes home

Baby Ai Ai's rough start began even before she was born. Her mother suffered serious, life threatening health complications. The doctors decided that it would be best to deliver the baby early so that the mother might have a better chance. Unfortunately, Ai Ai's mother died right after she was born.

Little Ai Ai was not only born prematurely, but doctors also discovered that she had intestinal atresia and needed emergency surgery for that. Her recovery from that surgery was slow and difficult, and her father was not able to stay home and provide the skilled nursing care that she required.

Someone put this family in touch with Little Flower, and we agreed to help Ai Ai until she was strong and healthy enough to rejoin her father. Ai Ai was just three months old in May when she arrived, very tiny and frail but with the biggest and most beautiful alert little eyes:


We cared for Ai Ai for a short time before her health worsened again and she was hospitalized once more in critical condition. This hospitalization was a lengthy one, and she had additional surgeries while she was there. In September she was finally discharged back to us when she was 7 months old.


From that time she made incredible progress, growing stronger and more beautiful every day.

Her dad came to visit her whenever he could:

We started talking to Ai Ai's dad about her going home with him, but he was so worried about her special feeding and nursing care requirements. Every time we suggested that she was healthy enough to go home she would get sick again and his confidence would take another dive.


At Christmastime we agreed that she would go home with him when he went home for Chinese New Year in January. Little Ai Ai spent her first Christmas at Little Flower:


By that time she was sitting very well and starting to crawl:





Her father finalized his travel plans, and all too soon it was time to say goodbye. Ai's special nanny was very happy for her, but will miss her so much!



"Little Ai, are you ready to leave now?"



She left with her dad, bundled in clothing from her nannies:


A few days later we got these photos from her dad. They arrived back safely in Sichuan and Ai is happy and adjusting well. She will probably stay with her father's sister's family after the holiday when her dad goes back to work.




Ai Ai, we will miss you so much. Wishing you and your family the very best in 2012 and beyond!