Isn’t Garfield the cat who says, “I hate Mondays!”?  Although he wasn’t showing it, maybe Baby Joseph was saying the same thing this week Monday when he had to get all prepared for his morning procedure.  The nurse was shaving his head, and Jessica and Joseph’s ayi were washing it so he would be all ready to get a brain drain- really!  (Dr. Bao was taking some fluid off his brain to reduce pressure and prepare him for his future shunt surgery.)  Jospeh was perfectly calm during his preparation.  He is still so young (1.5 months) but thriving in the excellent care of his ayi and the SCMC staff.  He is on the 5th floor if you would like to visit this week.

Yang Yang is already one year old!  Happy Birthday sweet baobei!  Yang is growing so quickly these days.  She recently starting crawling and is very into Barney!  Her wonderful healing home family had a little party to celebrate…

Yang and her Baobei sisters, Dou (Makayla) and Bing Bing…

No first birthday would be complete without a bath in chocolate cake!!!

Blessings to you, Baby Yang Yang!

Jacob is a little boy who has been in Shanghai for months, going through 3 major surgeries and has been in and out of the hospital quite a few times. His situation and condition made it impossible for him to be on long distant travel to go back to where he was from, thankfully the Brookharts in Shanghai offered their loving home for Jacob as he heals. Through their effort, Jacob was finally strong and stable enough to return to his other loving foster family, who have been longing for him to go back in Kunming.

This week, the Brookharts sent us a note and shared such a beautiful but certainly not easy experience they have had while having Jacob at their care. We are so thankful for their big hearts and their sacrifice during this challenging time. The result of their effort is definitely very encouraging for all of us when we read what they sent us as below:

Our time with Jacob can be summed up as having been a time of challenge and also a time of inconceivable blessing to our household.  The friends we’ve met and people we know who have “come together” for him has been eye-opening and particularly touching to us.  When we thought we didn’t know what we were doing, or how we’d make it through so many months of uncertainty, we witnessed every step of the way being provided - FOR EVERYTHING:

Look at sweet Baby Christine!  Even though she got a head shave and is bald as a cue ball, isn’t she almost as cute as her ayi?  This ayi (first time coming to Shanghai!) is so loving and is often seen with Christine lying on her chest, as if she were her own.  Christine is fighting off a cold right now, but otherwise is healing very well and will go to an eagerly waiting healing home later this week after she is discharged from SCMC.

And Joseph… just look at his chubby cheeks and big eyes!  Can you believe he is only a month old?  His ayi is keeping him well-fed and all-bundled-up warm!  She won’t let anyone hold him without first being tightly swaddled in a blanket.  She knows how to handle new borns, for sure!  Joseph is fighting off an infection, but otherwise is healing well.  He does have hydrocephalus and will likely be staying at SCMC for another week or so  while Dr. Bao “installs” his shunt to drain off this excess fluid in his head.  We have found Joseph a caring healing home family to take him when he is ready to be discharged.

Today, like so many other days, I went to SCMC to meet a person interested in seeing what Baobei is all about.  I never really know what will come of these visits, but today was especially surprising…

Sajitha, from Infosys, heard about Baobei from one of our dedicated volunteers, Margaret .  She came today with Ajay, the team leader, and five other colleagues who are from an Infosys department called ‘MFG’.  Within MFG, these kind hearted people have created a team called ‘MFG Reach’, a social consciousness group with a desire to give back to the local community.  As part of MFG Reach activities, they searched for orphans in Shanghai who were in need, and landed on Baobei Foundation.

Sajitha said, “After reading and hearing about the needs of Baobei orphans, we really felt the need to do something and thought of a monetary donation. We sent across a few emails to the entire Infosys China, and the volunteers from MFG Reach team went to each and every cubicle to collect donations.”

They told their colleagues no donation was too small (nor too big), and today they came to present 11,000 RMB to Baobei Foundation!  Thank you Sajitha, Ajay and colleagues!  You have essentially paid for Baby Joseph’s upcoming shunt surgery- a life saving surgery for him!

The generous people from Infosys’s MFG Reach Group

If you work for a company in Shanghai and would like to raise money with your colleagues, please let us know how we can help.  There is nothing more impactful than visiting SCMC to see the orphans whose lives are being saved by generous donations like the one from Infosys today.  I love the tag line for Infosys- “Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values”.  Isn’t it nice to see a company living out who they say they are?

Thanks to our dear baobei donors, baby Christine has gone through her life-saving surgery and can be discharged already next week! The surgery went very well and the recovery has been smooth. Although she’s not even a month old yet, whenever she’s awake she is trying her “baby talk”. She is curious about everything and loves to explore as you can see she moves her head left and right.. She’s pretty strong too. As she has to lay on her tummy while healing, she keeps lifting up her head already! Way to go Christine! What a sweet and lively soul!