January/2011
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Hope for the Most Vulnerable

The Healing Homes Program

Jan newsletter

This month's newsletter features our Healing Homes program which saves and changes the lives of the most vulnerable children.  Please take a minute to download the newsletter to read the complete stories included in this email and these additional stories and features:

  • Healing in a Season of Hope - Jan tours Heartbridge and FHH
  • Kudos! - Donors helping to bring hope  
  • Welcome Home! - Welcome to newly adopted kids

Download the complete newsletter by clicking here.

Healing Homes ~ Hope, Happiness, and Longevity

 
Healing Homes...  just think of those two words.   What do they conjure up for you as we head into this Chinese New Year - traditionally a time to celebrate family affairs, a time of reunion and thanksgiving?

Below is a collage of all our children who graduated from our healing homes last year, and those simple words, "healing" and "home," are shown in each and every child's face.  I immediately see healing (i.e., the new smiles from cleft surgeries), but I also see emotional healing.  Look into their eyes.  Can you see the brightness, the curiosity, the mischief, the love... the joys of home?  I can.  So let this picture paint those words a thousand fold.

collage

58 children were loved, cherished, healed and graduated in 2010 from our three healing homes!  

 

We look forward to seeing what 2011 and the Year of the Rabbit will bring. With now four healing homes, we have even more arms to offer tender nurture to more children.  In reading about the Year of the Rabbit, I read that it's a year to go to a quiet spot and have rest, a placid year much welcomed after the ferocious Year of the Tiger. We will certainly offer such rest and recuperation to our tiny fragile charges!

Traditional wishes for this important Chinese celebration are happiness, wealth, and longevity. We certainly witnessed each of these wishes coming true in our homes in 2010, as we all know that true wealth is found through real love.

Stories of Hope From Our Healing Homes 

 

MacyMacy arrived at the Fujian Healing Home on October 30th.  She was pale and weak and in need of some TLC. Very shy and timid, smiles were difficult to catch. But in just a few short weeks she is beaming, gaining weight, and in overall better health....

 

 

ReyceWe all know our health is our wealth, but it takes on extra meaning when the nurturing to health received in one of our homes means that a child can continue to grow and know love in his or her very own family. Often this simple cleft repair surgery means a child's file gets processed for adoption.

One of our 2010 Anhui Cleft Healing Home graduates has found the wealth of such loving arms!  Reyce arrived at ACHH in July of 2009 at just one month old....

 

In early November of last year, LWB Foster Care team members wPeterere visiting an orphanage in Henan Province.  They discovered a tiny three month old infant with a cleft lip and palate who was in an especially vulnerable and fragile state.  Peter, as he was named, was one of 20 babies being cared for by one taxed caregiver.  If an intervention was not quickly made, Peter could lose his fight for life.... 

 

Read about Macy, Reyce and Peter by clicking here.

 

New Fundraiser Tees Available at AdoptionBug! adoption bug tees

 

LWB has a new fundraiser webpage with AdoptionBug.com featuring adoption-related tee-shirts in a variety of patterns and colors.  LWB receives 45% of the proceeds of shirts purchased only from the LWB fundraiser page.   Check out these great tees and help change lives with your purchase!   

 

Quick Links 

 

The Healing Homes Program

Anhui Cleft Healing Home

Henan Cleft Healing Home

Fujian Healing Home

Heartbridge Pediatric Healing Unit

 

 

Volume 7, Issue 1
LWB logo
In This Issue
Healing Homes
Stories of Hope
New Fundraiser Tees
Quick Links
LWB Spain Wins TV Contest

LWB Spain Wins TV "Lipdub" Contest! 

 

LWB Spain was fortunate to get to the final round of a contest to win 10,000 Euro for the charity. This stage involved making a "lipdub" (synchronized lip singing) to the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey.  My daughter Robyn and I, being the mad things we are, flew from Dublin to join in and had an absolutely fantastic time in Irun, Spain.  Jone Gereka, in particular, was ASTOUNDING - organizing the complete production with only ten days' notice!

Lipdub

We awoke at 6 a.m. and arrived at the Piazza by 8:20 a.m., all piling into the local coffee shop to gather thoughts, laugh, and eat Spanish omelettes. It was FREEZING cold, but as we peeped out the window we could see the square fill with the most amazing people - ALL gathered round to help LWB Spain win this contest for children in China born with cleft lip and palate.  It was truly heart-warming.  I tried to snap some photos, but never the best with a camera, I fell short of capturing all the colour and wonder of that day. Let me try to think... Red noses, people in traditional Basque costumes, old world priests, nurses, aunties and babies,  painters, motor bikers, dancers, Spanish dancers, traditional instrument players, old and young, adoptive families, canoeists, ballerinas, traditional theatre actors, newspaper readers, grannies with strollers... the list is endless!!! They ALL had a moment to "do their bit" and sing the words out!

It was such an uplifting experience to meet our Spanish volunteers and to talk and laugh together. What a small world when we all have a common bond!

The finished lipdub went out live on January 3rd, part of a two hour television special where five charities competed for that valued first prize. Jone, family, and friends were all there. LWB got a full ten minutes of air time, featuring the cleft homes, adoption, and even showing a few clips of other volunteers from around the globe who also got into the swing with a bar or two of the song.

Tension mounted as the SMS voting time finished and all waited to see the outcome. Yes!! Smiles and shouts of joy rang out as LWB Spain was declared the winner, making possible new smiles for the children with cleft when they receive their surgeries. Thank you for the efforts of the many, many who came out on that cold, sunny day in Irun, Spain!

 

Julie Flynn Coleman

Healing Homes Director

 

JoseSadly, just hours after the contest, Jone's father passed away unexpectedly.  In his honor, LWB has named the newest resident of ACHH after him.  Donations for baby Jos may be made in honor of Jos Goreka by clicking here.

Thank you to all of our faithful donors and friends!  Together, we are changing lives!