Remember the story of baby Bing?

http://www.baobeifoundation.org/stories/?p=7

Bing arrived with a broken spinal bifida, which put her life in threat. She was admitted back to hospital for the 2nd time during this summer. Doctors were pretty sure she would have failure to thrive! She has been under our healing home program.  I received her recent photos and I just screamed with JOY right in front of my computer. I didn’t recognize her at all!! Did she thrive?? Oh Yes, not only that, she’s got cheeks that are hanging down and double chins that hide away her neck!! LOL

This is such rewarding moment! Wouldn’t you consider reaching out to help more sick children out there who can have a chance to become beautiful healthy children like our baby Bing?

In celebration of the success of Phillip’s surgery, a trip to the Shanghai Wild Animal Park was a must! We met lots of new furry friends on our adventure, but more important are the
friendships and memories we now share with each other through these photos.

Enjoy!

Jane Oberhellman

Off we go, rabbit ears and all . . . Phillip, Lily, Jennie, Jane

Phillip kept saying he was a “Cool Cat” in sunglasses!

Also as cool as Phillip . . . without the shades, of course!

Up close and personal with a camel ! ! ! !

Phillip commented that the camel had “really bad breath” !!

Who knew feeding Pigeons could be overwhelming !

Lily had the Pigeons eating out of the palm of her hand!

The beautiful smile of our “Sweet Lily”!

A visit to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium can be exciting for any child, however, for Philip, it means way more than anything! Philip is the 9-year old boy who came to Shanghai to remove his neuro teratoma and correct his scoliosis when the UCLA medical team were at SCMC. His surgery was the longest and most painful one. However, he’s the child that has the most joyful spirit in him. The way he talks and smiles can easily bring lots of joy to anyone around him. The news that he would be visiting the aquarium had made him so excited for days and probably brought him a few sleepless nights looking forward to that. Luckily Baobei foundaion doesn’t only have precious babies, but also precious volunteers. Thanks to Jennie and Jane, who took Philip and his sweet caregiver Lily out to the aquarium. Philip had a blast there and talked non-stopping about all kinds of fishes when I saw him the day after! He told me before the visit to the aquarium he only knew the few kinds of fishes he ate, now he learned so many more kinds!! He is thrilled that he has a lot to share now with his little friends back at the orpanage.

Well, Jennie also sent me a sweet note about their day at the aquarium! What a fun day!! Hope you enjoy reading it.

The day began when Phillip was released from the hospital to the guest hotel.  We had worried all night about how to put Phillip into the van, so it wouldn’t hurt his back, but it all worked out just fine.  So that Phillip wouldn’t have to be surrounded by girls the entire day, our driver Huang came along too.  Phillip seemed pretty excited from the moment we entered the Aquarium, but once we got to the shark tank he was estastic.  The people at the Aquarium went out of their way to accomodate him and the stroller which made the trip even more fun.  After a few hours of looking at the “fish”, we went to the Queen at Thumb Plaza for a little lunch, and then returned an exhausted Phillip and Lily back to the guest house.  Next up, the Wild Animal Park!!!  Phillip and Lily are so wonderful it has been a pleasure spending time with them.  Thanks, Jennie

Baobei’s dear friend, our neurosurgeon, Dr Bao made such a heartfelt speech at our UCLA-SCMC celebration * fundraiser dinner. For the people who didn’t get to be at the dinner that night, I think I will share what he shared. The title of his speech is called “Reach Out Your Hands”.

Dear ladies & gentlemen, good evening!

I am so honored to be invited to this special and meaningful dinner. And I am very excited to be able to stand here to share a few words with you.

First of all I would like to give thanks to Dr Lazareff and his medical team from UCLA, who spared time from their busy schedule and came all the way here to provide unconditional help. Their arrival has also given us the opportunity to get together and celebrate. Here I can see many familiar faces, and some new faces – so glad to see you all here!

I would also like to thank our Baobei Foundation, who arranged this very meaningful dinner event. “Baobei” means “precious and lovely babies”. However, it has deeper additional meaning to me. My parents have three children. My elder brother is named “Bao Dong”. “Dong” in Chinese means “east”. My name is “Bao Nan” and “Nan” in Chinese means “South”. My younger sister is “Bao xi” (”xi” means “west”). My parents were hoping to have another baby and they wanted to name him/her with the meaning of “north”. It was a pity as they were too old to have another child then. But Baobei made my parents’ dream come true because “Bei” also means “north” in Chinese. So every time when I was asked if “Baobei foundation” is my foundation because I happened to have the last name “Bao”, I told them “It is my sister instead”.

Thanks to Baobei Foundation for allowing me to have another “younger sister”. What’s more important, Charity like Baobei Foundation can give new lives to many orphaned children with hydrocephalus and spinal bifida, which will cause intelligence delay, loss of bladder/bowel control, loss of mobility if without surgery in time. Providing the right surgery in time can prevent such from happening and help the children have normal lives. However, neurosurgery itself has risk. Nerves can be damaged during surgery if not performed carefully and correctly. I believe that Shanghai Children’s Medical Center has the experienced surgeons, state-of-art facility and equipments. We provide hundreds of surgeries for spinal bifida and hydrocephalus every year and has been rated the best hospital for such surgery in China. Therefore, I am hoping that your help will enable these orphaned children to receive the best medical care from our hospital, and that they will start their new lives like anyone else sooner! (lillie shows up)

Lillie was my patient. She had brain cyst and hydrocephalus before. She had her first surgery done locally but it failed, so she was transferred to SCMC last year. When she first got here, she was scared by almost everything like a frightened kitty, crying a lot. Thanks to her healing home parents, who stepped in to giver her tender love and care. She has gone through 3 surgeries. She’s now a healthy, lively and beautiful little girl. Everyone who sees her loves her immediately, including me and my family. Therefore, I hope this is a good example to motivate you to help more children, to be like Lillie!

Once again, thanks to everyone!

Bao Nan

It is always so difficult to say goodbye to the babies who came to Shanghai for surgeries. The children who were here for the UCLA mission have started to be discharged since today. It was an emotional day for our volunteers, but one of our volunteers wrote me tonight and I like what she said: “Today was a sad day as we took 4 of the babies to the train station to begin their 30 hour journey. But, it is also the beginning of new hope and health for all of them.”

We all wish these babies a good future and hopefully everyone will find their families soon!!

It was so great to see the children after being away for 3 days! I missed everyone terribly while I was away but really big thanks to all the Baobei volunteers, who still went to see the children every day.

I was greeted today with all these happy faces. Everyone was showing great improvement. Orly, Chase, Gavin, Tyler, Shawn, Jack and Iris will be discharged already on Monday!

Jack was singing and giggling non-stopping. When I showed up in his room, he was like a happy “jumping shrimp”, trying to arch up to say hello!

Orly started to get up and walk already today!

Tyler, who was crying and fighting when I left, now all happy again. We were joking that he seemed to be smarter after surgery since he already picked up the words “mama”, “baba” and “jiejie” (sister).

Looks like Shawn is so ready to go home already as everywhere you go in the hallway, u see him hanging out with our volunteer!

Iris’s beautiful smile is back. Her caregiver also noticed that she started to have more face expression. Her arms seemed to move more as well! Her caregiver also told me that both she and Iris are not crying anymore. Wow, I hope this means the shunt is already bringing her improvement!

Gavin looks even chubbier to me. Boy, he must have slept too much these days. LOL.

Chase has developed a temper if he doesn’t get his way, but guess what, if you start to take photos, even if he was angry and crying, he would stop that and show you smile! What a smart kid!

Lucas was awarded as the bravest child this time. He told me proudly that he only cried once during this whole hospital stay. Good job young man!

Philip’s surgery was the biggest this time so he is still in a lot of pain. But this bright and sunny boy is such a happy soul, who has already talked and talked and made everyone laugh!

Precious little baby Shanna has captured Dr Bao’s heart. He brought his wife and son to the hospital today to see Shanna. They had such a sweet moment enjoying this little beauty!

What a happy day to see smiles back to these precious ones’ faces!