Yesterday I received baby Faith’s recent photos and some update from her foster mother. While reading it, my mind kept flashing back to the memory when she first arrived. I still have hard time believing this is the same baby who arrived at critical condition 2 months ago. She’s so healthy and beautiful now! Hope you enjoy the note her foster mother wrote:

“Faith is doing wonderfully. We continue to be blessed by her smile, her warmth and her amazing energy. As I have told you Faith is thriving and getting bigger by the day. She continues to enjoy music time (She loves Tosca) and ‘tummy time’ to strengthen her neck muscles. She loves the outdoors and has frequented many of the Shanghai restaurants. She is also somewhat of  a rock star. Tons of people stop to look at her and tell me how beautiful she is.”

Y is a little girl under Baobei’s “healing home” program. She has gone through 4 major surgeries because of GI issues, therefore, despite of her orphanage’s effort to get her fed up, she still had weak and skinny legs and couldn’t stand when she first arrived in Shanghai. But she has been making huge progress now at her Shanghai healing home under the care by an incredible Chinese couple. They recently sent me Y’s latest photos and they really got me laughing into tears, especially hearing she loves Kongfu movie too!

Watching how the babies get healed and chubby is always part of the joy about my work. As most of you know, this summer Baobei Foundation has quite a few urgent cases, where the babies are mostly preemies. They were not just sick, but also tiny, only around 4 - 5lbs. On the days when these babies were discharged, we knew our work wasn’t accomplished yet. We need to get them chubby!

As you might see from our previous post on Baby Hui, that was the baby who arrived at 5lbs including the weight of a big spinal tumor. She’s now our little “meat-ball” baby as you can see her pictures showing the changes in the previous posts.

Baby Bing is another premature baby with spinal bifida we have helped. She was also introduced at one of our previous posts. She has been always the miracle baby who shows us her desire to live. Despite of her long-broken spinal bifida, she fought through the surgery and lived. However, this summer we were quite worried about her size as she was just growing slow. We took her back to see the doctor and I remember how the doctor believed it would be difficult and it would be a slow and long wait before she can show some chubbiness! The doctor suggested we take her to see the nutritionist. I wonder if Baby Bing overheard our conversation with the doctor, two days before we met the nutritionist she started to drink crazy from her bottle. She also started to show double chins! When we finally saw the nutritionist, Bing laid on the exam table and impressed the nutritionist by turning her body to the side, lifting up her head while laying on her tummy like she was convincing the nutritionist that she’s strong! Wow, she was also as flexible as a gymnastic girl! The nutritionist was so happy and said “she’s doing great! She’s eating well too! Nothing to worry about. She’s showing great desire to live well!” Oh yeah, that last comment we can’t agree more with! We have witnessed how this little girl has gone from impossible to possible. We know it is her eagerness to explore life that keeps her fighting and going!

Our current baby at SCMC is Zoe from Guangdong province. She had a teratoma on her buttocks. Her Chinese name given by her orphanage means “good luck” and “happiness” because they wanted her surgery to go very well.

Zoe’s good-meaning Chinese name certainly has brought her much luck and happiness. If you know what August 8th of 2008 means to Chinese people, then you know how lucky it was to have her surgery on that day. Yes, that’s the date when the Olympics started in Beijing. That’s the date when thousands and thousands of new couples registered their marriage. That’s also the date when many young mothers rather had a C-section to welcome their new babies. Well, for us, we feel lucky that the surgeons performed the surgery for Zoe in the morning of 08-08-08 at 8am. That was the moment that other parents at the hospital wished that their children awaiting for surgeries could be wheeled into OR because it was considered the luckiest time.

Zoe’s surgery went very well. Usually it took two incisions to remove a big teratoma like that, but her surgeons this time managed to remove it with only one incision. So for sure the recover has been less painful. Zoe herself is also a very happy and brave baby. Her easy personality definitely helps to speed up her recovery too. She already gave beautiful smile on the second day after surgery. She enjoyed her toy, which is her little buddy. We are so excited to learn from the surgeon that she can be discharged in another 2 - 3 days! That’s quite surprising to me as none of the teratoma cases in the past I knew of could be discharged this early. Good job Zoe!! She certainly lives up to the meaning of her name.

Baobei Foundation is partnering with a healing home called “Nursing Basket” that’s located in Pudong Shanghai. NB is run by a group of Shanghai young mothers who are passionate about giving a loving home for orphans during pre- and post-surgery care. So far we have two Baobei babies under their care.

Yesterday, some staff from SCMC were invited by Baobei to give a training to the NB caregivers. Dr Hu, chief resident from the pediatric surgery department gave a really useful lesson about first-aid, such as what to do when babies get burned, choked and bitten, etc.. Nurse Hong, who has years of working experience in NICU, shared with the caregivers information about daily care, such as skin care, feeding, post-surgery positioning, etc.. Head Nurse Meng from pediatric surgery department was also there. She checked on each child carefully and gave the caregivers tips on how to care for them regarding each one’s specific need. The feedback from the caregivers was great and they asked a lot of questions too, which were all patiently answered. Dr Bao, our neurosurgeon from SCMC also checked on the kids at a previous visit and gave some very good advice. Both the doctors and nurses promised to come back to the healing home on regular basis to help in whatever way they can.

It is always very encouraging to see that so many people in the Shanghai community are showing their love to orphans to raise awareness and to improve the quality of medical care provided to orphans. Our goal is not just the number of the surgeries we can provide. We want to do our best to guarantee the quality of care for each child Baobei decide to take in. With the physical involvement from the hospital staff, local volunteers and the NB shanghai mothers, this goal is becoming possible.

Can you believe these pictures are from the same baby? Remember Baby Hui? I was already so amazed by how healthier she looked when it was a month after her surgery. Look at her now, 2 months after her surgery, she’s already getting so strong on her legs and started to crawl! Despite of the fact that she has to come back to the hospital every day for dressing change for more than 2 months, she is still getting so much healthier and stronger. I just can’t believe that’s the same baby I saw in April. I nickname her “little meatball” now. LOL