We were so thrilled to see Baby Jessica leave the ICU this week to join Hope and Helen on the 5th FLOOR.  Doesn’t she look beautiful?  Maybe we’ll see these darling girls on 5th AVENUE someday.  Isn’t it amazing that they may even have that chance?  Thanks for partnering with us to give them hope for the future.  Please visit the girls in beds 5 (Hope), 15 (Helen) and 23 (Jessica) next week, and bring a piece of fruit for their dedicated ayis too.  We’re grateful for all you do!

This is Baby Jessica who just came out of ICU.  Her ayi seems super sweet….and so does she  The ayi’s were also all so cooperative and helpful in taking the pictures.

This is Baby Hope

This is Baby Helen

Mae-Ling Tien, Puxi resident and philanthropist, hosted a wonderful fundraising luncheon for Baobei today.   It was great to see many new faces supporting our foundation by attending this event.  It not only raised awareness for what we do, but was successful in contributing 12,000 RMB to Baobei!  Thank you, Mae-Ling!   We always need people like you to help raise money for surgeries.

Look at Baby Hanna.  About 5 months old now, she is thriving in her healing home environment while she continues to get her health checks for hydrocephalus in Shanghai.  We HAD to post this photo because Hanna is always in pink.  But doesn’t she also look so darling in brown?  She certainly is “One in a Million” as her shirt says!  Rumor has it she is shopping at the newly opened Shanghai Barbie store this weekend.  I’m sure she won’t find anything that’s NOT pink there!

Look at these girls (Yang, Bing and Dou)! They’ve enjoyed a great day seeing and playing with each other. These girls are receiving some good healing care including corrective braces/shoes and physical therapy. Their healing home parents also enjoy meeting each other and sharing the progress these girls are making.

As many of you recall, last June we heard about this new born baby boy with an infected spinal bifida. The next day he arrived in Shanghai real early in the morning with a caregiver from the orphanage. I remember that morning it was raining so hard, the caregiver wrapped the baby in layers to protect him from getting wet. When I opened the layers, I saw this tiny precious life, who barely opened his eyes and slowly moved his tiny skiny legs. The orphanage chose his name based on the meaning of “A fighting soldier”. The moment I saw his sac on his back, I knew right away why they picked that name for him. As we can’t really share the orphans’ real Chinese names we usually come up with American names for them. In order to keep the same meaning and the good wishes from his orphanage, I looked up the internet and decided to name this precious life “Andrew”, which means “man, warrior”.

Because Andrew’s spinal tumor was already infected, his surgery is highly risky. He was running fever even before the surgery already. Dr Bao didn’t think we could wait til the fever’s gone for surgery because the infection would just go further that way into his central neuro system. So we decided to give him surgery while he was still having fever. The day I walked him down to the OR I was so nervous and sad.. as I wasn’t sure if he was going to come out safe. But Andrew, our fighting soldier, fought the battle and came out of the OR sleeping sound with pink cheeks. He spent almost a month after that at the ICU and finally in July, he was discharged.

After his discharge, Andrew spent his summer at the Nursing Basket’s Shanghai Baby Healing Home. This home is run and supported by a group of Chinese women, who are incredible loving people. Andrew received very good care from them and started to thrive under their care. Unfortunately two months later, his post-surgery check up showed that he had developed hydrocephalus. He was rushed back to the hospital again for surgery, where he received a shunt to drain the fluid. He was back to ICU. His recovery was tough as he was back on infection again. The doctors even called me in one day to have me sign a paper to state that I was aware and prepared that Andrew probably wouldn’t make it. Every day went by like a year as I was waiting anxiously for some good news. Finally this day had come when the doctor happily announced to me that Andrew’s white blood cell count had finally dropped back to normal and we could take him back. After this whole month’s stay at the hospital, Andrew had lost all his baby fat and turned into real tiny and skinny again. Poor baby.

Trish, one of our very caring and supportive volunteers, stepped in to offer Andrew her loving home as Andrew’s healing home. Andrew went home with Trish and we were all eager to see him put back on some weight.

However, in Nov, it looked like Andrew’s original infection from his spinal bifida was back again. His CT confirmed the bad news, but luckily the shunt wasn’t infected yet. To be safe, we decided to remove the shunt before it got worse.  Poor baby, he was back to the hospital the 3rd time to have his shunt removed. Trish stayed at the hospital with Andrew day and night to care for him. A lot of kind people came to visit and even brought with donation to him when they heard of him back to the hospital. Our fighting soldier was definitely not alone. He was showered with love and prayers.

Andrew went back to Trish’s home after this hospital stay. We had to wait for his infection to be completely cleared to put a new shunt in. Unfortunately this was when I had to relocate away from Shanghai. I wish I could stay longer to see Andrew complete his treatment, but I also know that he is in good hands and he is very much loved. I continue to receive emails with pictures and update on Andrew from Shanghai. To my comfort, I was finally told that Andrew went back to the hospital the 4th time and got a new shunt! I also received some recent photos of him and I just couldn’t recognize him. This baby, who used to be so sick and so malnourished, although he has been fighting against his on and off infection and being sick for such a long time, he has turned to a very health-looking and chubby handsome boy. I heard that even the nurses at the hospital, who knew Andrew since the first day he came in, couldn’t believe their eyes. I really hope that this means Andrew’s strong enough now to stand against infection’s attack. I have to say that this precious life has touched my heart deeply, seeing how he fought through all his sickness and all these hospital stays. He has truly lived out of the meaning of his name for us and showed us that he is a real fighting soldier.

In my heart I pray that Andrew would never have to go back to the hospital again. He deserves some normal childhood life from now on. I am so thankful for all the people who have been following up and helping Andrew. Please continue to keep Andrew, and his healing home parents Trish and her husband in your thoughts.