The SFCV Journal

I posted a couple of new albums on our Picasa site yesterday: http://picasaweb.google.com/PhilipHaydenFoundation.  I’ll try to get a few more up next week, and someone asked for videos of their sponsored kids.  We can’t do that for every kid, but I will try to post some “by house” videos in the next week or so: http://www.youtube.com/user/chinaorphans.

Thank you for loving on our kids!

I love these little monkeys trying to escape from their cage, or what we adults like to call “safeguards!” Mich, Adam, Charlotte & Evan are led by their fearless three-year-old leader, Christopher (center).

Tiffany

Luke

Since I returned from home leave, I’ve been meaning to write about the kids who started walking in December.  Mostly because three of the kids, Luke, Ginger & Tiffany Mei-mei, are fragile heart babies living in Samaritan’s House.  This is a far bigger deal for me, I think, than the nannies.  I like to think it’s because they’ve been helping the kids learn to walk, but their glances at my cheers are always a little, “Most babies walk eventually, Leah.  You don’t have to applaud & scream every time.”

But, as true as this may be, these are some terribly fragile kids who are WALKING!  Ginger just successfully came through a hernia surgery, and she has heart surgery planned for May.  Luke, until a few months ago, looked uncomfortable even just sitting for the pressure of his bad heart.  And Mei-mei, at four, just began pulling herself and taking steps.  The blueness of her skin is discouraging, and there is nothing the doctors can do for her heart, but she pulled herself up anyway.

It’s these small celebrations that I love about day-to-day life in the village.

Our babies don’t get chubby all on their own; it takes a pretty steady diet of formula to make that happen.  And chubby do they get!  Within months, our smallest are transformed into rolly-poly chubness.  But in the last few weeks, the price of formula has significantly jumped, and in the last few months, the number of babies in our home has jumped by nine. We need some help.

If you know of anyone coming to the Beijing area who could bring in regular or soy formula for our children’s village, we’d much appreciate it.  Our staff & drivers are in Beijing often enough, we can even send someone in to pick it up.  We prefer the Nestle brand (in China) but any brand from the West is appreciated.  This need will be current through at least June.  Though we can purchase regular formula here, soy formula needs to be brought in from the West.

Another need, though not quite as dire, is for XL diapers.  We have an amazing team in Hong Kong that started a Hong Kong PHF Diaper Club, and they help supply our diapers each month.  We are forever grateful, especially as the nannies’ salaries, prices for food, and medical care has all risen in the last few months.  It has greatly alleviated our house budgets to cover those increases.  But, their company doesn’t make XL diapers.  We have some larger children, mostly House of Love kids like Judah & Xander, who still need diapers.   Again, if you know of anyone coming in who could help us purchase XL diapers, we’d much appreciate it!

UPDATE (2009.03.05): We use NESTLE or LACTOGEN brands for formula.  SOY is more difficult to get in China, but at this time, we can use both regular and soy.  Apparently there is more than one size for XL; size 6 (16+ kg) would be helpful.  Thank you!

The Best Valentine's Present Ever

情人节快乐  Qing Ren Jie Kuai Le!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Above is pictured my now most favorite Valentine present ever!  Little Lambs Primary School students visited the main office yesterday to deliver their handmade jewelry along with a cheery “qing ren jie kuai le” to all the office staff.  Love those kids!

* Ginger is now in hospital.  She will be here for the next couple of weeks to be evaluated for her upcoming surgeries.  She has a hernia, an abdomen deformity, and a heart defect that will all need to be corrected. We still need to raise about US$7500 for her surgery.  We were so excited to see the surgeons in their newly opened wing at Huaxin Hospital; they are good surgeons, and they have been faithful PHF partners!

* Lily-Diana returns from the hospital today.  Doctors inserted a new shunt, and we hope this one takes!  This little one has a glint in her eye that we hope gets her into lots of trouble when she’s older!

* Five-month-old Sam went into hospital. He currently has a colostomy bag, but the surgeons are confident they can do the necessary corrections.  We had to pay US$3000 to get him admitted; we may need to pay more.  Please pray for this little life!  He is new to us, so we are still getting to know him.

* We were so blessed to have a quiet Spring Festival, but I am sad to report that Pattie Fu Yuanle passed away quite suddenly due to an infection related to her megacolon.  We were so grateful to Taxi Wang, who transported her in, missing his own holiday celebrations; for the doctors who found her a bed in the hospital and treated her that night; and the medical team for responding so quickly.  We had another little girl a couple of years ago who had the same problem and the same result.  It’s hard when we are not sure what we could have done differently, but we trust that she is safe and comforted in our Father’s arms.

* Thank you for your continued prayers!  God continues to show us favor, and we continue to serve.

Friends often ask for Ling Ling’s story; she is older than most of the children, but she has only lived with us a for a few years.  It seemed a good time to tell it.

During the National Day holiday in 2005, our resident physician, Dr. Bill Moody, was walking to the office when he saw a little girl at the entrance to Langfang Children’s Village (LCV). He said, “Hi” to her, and she followed him through the gate. As she held his hand and walked to the office, he didn’t think anything was unusual until she didn’t leave. He then realized that she was alone. Dr. Moody called Christina Li and PHF founder Tim Baker for help. It became increasingly clear that the little girl was intellectually impaired and that she had been abandoned.

As we’ve always done when a child has been abandoned at our gate, we first called the local police. While waiting for them to arrive, we learned that her name was Lingling, and she was eleven years old. When the police arrived, they questioned her further. She told them that she was from a place called Dikou in Langfang, and even told us her father’s name. The police were hopeful to find her family based on this information, but it was late. They asked us if we would keep her until the girl’s family could be located.
Knowing we had no extra room in our children’s homes, Tim called his co-laborer Risa Tramel. He prayed that if Risa would agree to take Lingling into her home, then he would know Lingling had been brought here for a reason. As soon as Risa arrived, she took one look at Lingling and said yes. Lingling spent her first night at the Tramel’s house where they cooked for her, helped her take a bath and gave her clean, warm clothes to wear. She seemed quite content to be there, exploring and asking about everything she found. She also repeated nearly everything said to her.
The next day the police returned and brought Lingling’s father, who was from a village called Caoci in the Wuqing district of Tianjin. It’s about 15 km from LCV. He claimed that she had wandered away from home by herself then said he wasn’t even Lingling’s real father. She had been found by his mother-in-law abandoned on a train when she was very little. He told us that his mother-in-law had cared for Lingling all these years and was known as “Grandma.” Her “grandma” now feels that she is too old to take good care of Lingling anymore; Lingling had wandered away from home a number of times.
Her foster father asked the police if they knew of someone who could take care of Lingling and asked PHF, after seeing how well-treated she had been, if they could take care of her. Tim said they’d be happy to help if the foster father thought it was best, but a legal way to give custody to PHF would have to be found first.
It was decided the foster father would take her home until the proper paperwork could be found and completed. Two days later, with all the paper work finished, Lingling moved to our children’s village in Langfang; she would stay there until our first home, House of Blessings, was opened at Shepherd’s Field Children’s village.
She is happy. As big sister in House of Blessings, she loves doting on the little kids, occasionally bossing them around.  As younger sister to Stacey and Wendy, she loves following them around and asking all the time what they are doing.  She attended preschool, but she was recently graduated through kindergarten to a classroom of same-aged children at Little Lambs.  She is thriving and takes full advantage of the space, spending hours on the playground each week.  When an assortment of puppies and kittens were abandoned at Shepherd’s Field, Lingling was quick to participate in caring for them, making sure they are fed and cuddled.
Lingling’s situation is unique to the work of PHF. Unlike most of the children in our village, she will require a lifetime commitment of care. We are privileged to be in a position to provide that.

Eleven-year-old Joseph is meticulous in his habits. He always folds his blankets and clothes more carefully than his housemates; he even puts his shoes in the same place everyday. The ayis playfully call him the boy with soldier discipline.

When Joseph first arrived at PHF in Fall 2005, he was so weak that he could not walk and talked in a very quiet voice. Compared to the other children, his Chinese writing and math abilities were very also low. He soon caught up in the classroom, but his heart problem continued to slow him down physically. Joseph has a problem called pulmonary atresia (small blood vessels going to the lungs instead of the pulmonary arteries) which results in very low oxygen in the blood. Though he has always enjoyed spending time with people, talking quickly wore him out, so he kept quiet.  His frequent smiles were the only sign that he was having a good time. But despite his enjoyment, an excess of visitors caused Joseph to become sweaty and pale, forcing him to leave the room for a rest.

On September 4th, 2006, less than a year after his arrival and just months after his condition was declared inoperable, two surgeons left a Huaxin Heart Hospital operating room trading compliments on the corrections they’d made on his frail heart.  Dr. Wu, a good friend of PHF’s work, and his mentor, Australian Dr. Peter Polhner, had worked for hours inserting a special shunt that improved Joseph’s blood flow to his lungs.  Even right after surgery, his color was much better.  Though Joseph still needs a second surgery and he still needs therapy for his speech, his health has much improved in the past couple of years.  Doctors had hoped to do his final corrective surgery in the spring of 2008, which could make him completely well, but they’ve had to postpone this indefinitely.

These days, more than two years after his first surgery, it brings such joy to see Joseph at the SFCV courtyard chasing a soccer ball with classmate Seth or singing during a team’s VBS activity.  He is very immature for his age, but Teacher Wang has done a great job teaching him and helping behave like an older boy.  He does well in school, loves people, and had great fun at the Olympics last summer.  Joseph’s best friend, Elijah, was recently adopted; he misses him and hopes for his own family someday.  We look forward to the many good things still to come in Joseph’s story.

Some friends of ours, Jessica & Brad, have been teaching at one of Langfang’s universities, and they bring their Chinese university students and foreign teaching colleagues every month to love on our kids.  They have chosen our House of Blessings as Their house to serve in, and we are so grateful for their time.  I love LOVE the video Brad put together and wanted to share.  If this link doesn’t work, look for user Bard203 at Youtube & PHF 10-28-08.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBUUMNEfUjs

Yes, it’s belated.  But, today is the first day of Spring in China!  And the fireworks are still exploding all around us.  And, we still hope good things for all our friends in this Year of the Ox!

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