NEW CLEFT BLOG IS UP!!!


Our 2006 cleft mission is underway! Please visit our new blog at http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/ and share in the happy stories of children receiving the gift of a new smile.

We just received updated photos of 4 of the orphans our team operated on in Luoyang last September. We are incredibly pleased with how marvelous the children look 6 months post surgery. We know that at least one of these boys has found his forever family and hopefully will be coming home to the USA later this year. This is our dream for all the beautiful children who have met. We are very excited to report that many of the same team from Luoyang will be returning to China with Love Without Boundaries for another cleft trip in October. For this trip, we are bring 3 talented and experienced surgeons to operate on orphans from orphanages throughout China. We will be updating this site as plans unfold. Please check back to this blog and follow with us as we send our fourth surgical team to China.

It is mid-October and we have completed most of the details that needed to be handled when you sponsor a cleft trip overseas. We have talked to several of our volunteers and some have shared that 3 weeks later, they are still processing all that they have seen and felt. You cannot go to China and not somehow be forever changed. The images of the children, the orphanage, the families, the teamwork, the laughter, and the tears….they are still fresh in our minds and hearts.




One hundred six. That is the final number of children who were able to receive a cleft surgery on this trip to Luoyang. It has never been about the number of children who we were able to help for each child is precious and deserving in their own right, deserving of a brighter future. But we cannot help but be amazed by the number of children who have touched our lives. And for the first time for our foundation, we helped children with their dental needs. Between the two dentists, 69 children were evaluated by the dentists and had appropriate dental treatment. One hundred six and sixty nine seem like such small numbers when you think about China. But to us, these numbers mean dozens and dozens of children’s names and faces who touched our hearts. We will not forget.

We are deeply grateful to many people who made this trip possible. First of all we want to thank Director Pei of Luoyang Social Welfare Institute in Henan, China. He has done wonders for the children under his watchful care. Thank you for letting us come to your orphanage and help the children. We also want to thank Henan Civil Affairs for their assistance in bringing cleft children in Henan to our attention. We knew as soon as we saw their photos that they are truly spectacular children. Thank you.

We at Love Without Boundaries also want to thank our China Representative, Karen Mai, for her outstanding job she did as a facilitator, representative, and translator. Karen put in countless hours on this surgical trip and made numerous phone calls and trips to Luoyang all in the name of helping children. She is the only one who was in Luoyang for the entire 2 week mission. We are eternally grateful for her expertise, we are inspired by her dedication, and we are touched by her loving-kindness. Thank you Karen.

We know that a trip like this would not have been possible if it were not for the sponsors of the children and the generous donors of supplies. Your generosity has overwhelmed us. Love Without Boundaries has the best supporters. Thank you!

And of course we have a huge and thankful heart for our dedicated volunteers. Most of these volunteers had never been to China or participated in a surgical trip. It was an honor to bring you to China to show you the people and children that we at Love Without Boundaries have come to love. We are proud of every single one of you and we know that each of you gave 150%. Thank you!



Dr. Lisa Buckmiller - surgeon – AR
Dr. Mark Ray - surgeon – AR
Dr Kirt Simmons - dentist/orthodontist – AR
Dr. Lisa David- surgeon-NC
Dr. Louis Argenta-surgeon- NC
Dr. Claire Sanger- surgeon- NC
Dr. Chad Pfohl-oral surgeon- TN
Dr. Glen Weidenbacher - pediatrician – MN
Dr. Alan Reitz - anesthesiologist – MN
Dr. Walter Maurer - anesthesiologist – OH
Dr. Patti Kymer – anesthesiologist – AR
Dr. Jacob Smith – ENT Resident - AR
Chales Pohl - anesthetist – AR
Pamela Maurer - anesthetist – OH
Daisy Dailey - OR nurse – AR
Shelly Kremer-leBlanc – OR nurse – MN
Karla Boehmke - surgical tech – MN
Martha Huschka – surgical tech – MN
DeeAnn Nord - PACU RN – MN
Frances Knight - PACU RN – AR
Teresa Weidenbacher - RN – MN
Carol Just - RN – OK
Kathy Thompson - RN – MN
Ida Vessel – RN – MN
Donna Stier – RN – MN
Kathy Holm – RN – MN
Kerry Dixon – RN – MN
Maureen Brogan – RN – CA
Todd Taylor - EMT – CA
Kelly Lundberg - speech pathologist – WA
Amy Eldridge –LWB Admin. – OK
Karen Maunu - team coordinator – MN
Angela Taylor – volunteer – CA
Johnny Just - volunteer – OK
Gail Pohl - volunteer – AR
Laura Massenat - volunteer – OK
Lorrel Whiting - volunteer – WA
Betsy Hughs - volunteer – OR
Andrea Hainsworth - volunteer – WA
Michele Freeman - volunteer – MN
Heidi Reitz- volunteer-MN
Charlie Koch – volunteer – MN
Kathi Hodapp – volunteer – NV
Heather Wright – volunteer – CA
Teri Waite – volunteer – NV
Jerry Wang – volunteer – TX
Connie Wood - anesthetist – MN
Joseph Argenta – medical student – NC
Mary Kay Boell - OR nurse – MN
Sue Pierzynowski - OR nurse – MN
Joyce Haggerty - OR nurse – MN
Nancy McDermott – PACU – MN
Joanne Caldwell – PACU – MN
Cindy Mato - RN – WA
Wendy Seto - RN – NJ
Margaret Klaehn - RN - OH
Elizabeth Coulter – RN – WA
Dianne Lindsey – RN – AL
Brian Lindsey – RN - AL
Angela Carswell – LWB Admin. – NC
LeeAnn Mill – team coordinator – CO
Alyssa Shaughnessy - volunteer – MO
Nancy Brown - volunteer – MO
Pamela Brandsma - volunteer – IL
Jackie Day - volunteer – OK
Wanda Slater - volunteer – OK
Judith Needham - volunteer – PA
Cathy Mashinter - volunteer – Canada
Ashley Sandiford - volunteer – Canada
Mariel Childes – volunteer – SC
Kristen Childes – volunteer – SC
James Argenta – volunteer – NC
Michele Mosner – volunteer – NJ
Karen Mai – LWB China Rep &translator

www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

Our final day........


Our morning was started off as most mornings had, with discharging patients. It was a day filled with mixed emotions for our team members. Extreme happiness to see so many children smiling and feeling so much better before they left, and yet tears for all of us to see them go.

We all wondered, how many times you can fall in love with a child? We saw it happen so many times this week. There were just so many wonderful children we met. We discharged 16 children today and all of them went home with their families or with their caretakers. The teenage girl who had been burned was so incredibly warm and kind to her nurses. A true friendship had been formed and they have all vowed to stay in touch. We translated a small note she had wrote to them, telling them how much she loved them and how thankful she was.


Our bubbly and adorable five year old girl left today with her family. Her hair had been put up in brightly colored pigtails and she was grinning from ear to ear today. It is hard to believe that only two days ago she had her palate repaired and she already has a smile on her face.

Our tiniest patients also were released. Our teenage girls on our team have been so taken with these young babies and held and rocked them until the last minute. They just couldn't stop smiling whenever they were holding them. We know these children felt the love from these girls.

One single mother was so gratful for her four year old son's palate repair, that her tears never stopped flowing this morning. She must have thanked all of our team members a hundred times. Even our younger children were waving and grinning as they left the orphanage. One by one we saw them all leave, onto their new lives.

After the last child was released, we quickly finished the task of tearing down the ward. Within just a few hours, it was complete. As the remaining team members walked from the orphanage, we all left with very full hearts. We realized how exhausting this week had been, but how INCREDIBLY rewarding it was.
In the afternoon, our entire team spent the day touring the beautiful city of Louyang. We all needed this time to relax and process all that we had seen and experienced this week. We visited the Longmen Grotto Caves along a beautiful river and saw a beautiful old temple and all did some shopping. We realized how important this time was for our team to reconnect as a group before we leave tomorrow.

We appreciate your patience in waiting for Team 2’s blog reports. We had so many computer problems in China, but we can now update everyone on the remaining days of our trip.

Today, (Thursday) is our last day of surgeries and we have a light schedule. All of our children are lip patients and we have four tiny babies from the Louyang orphanage. These four little ones have stolen the hearts of many of our team members. We are continually hearing, “I want this one” and “No, that is my baby”. These children sure are loved by all of us.

Our second burn patient, a beautiful teenage girl, has also found a special place in our hearts. She has encountered such tragedy in her life, yet her spirit is still so strong and her smile warms your heart when you meet her. She is making fast friends with all of us and it will be hard to see her leave tomorrow. We all wish we could do so much more and follow so many of these children and help enrich their lives.

As our surgical staff and PACU nurses finished the last surgeries, there was great satisfaction among us all. Between both Team 1 and Team 2, we have changed the lives of over 100 children. How amazing is that! Our medical staff left the orphanage for some much needed down time. They have all worked so incredibly hard this week and have given so much to all of the children they have met.

There were many, many tears today, as we discharged our patients from yesterday’s surgeries. The majority of our patients were rural families. We have several single fathers who had found abandoned boys who were cleft affected. One father found a small boy in a knee deep field of grass. Another father found an older disabled boy wandering the streets and has taken him home. These amazing men have taken these children in and loved them like their own sons. The stories they have shared about their love for these children has touched us all. The long journeys they have made to bring their children so they can receive surgery shows what commitment they have. They are so caring and nurturing to these children. Truly, truly incredible men!!

Our “essentials” team quickly went into action to begin to break our surgical ward down. Supplies had to be boxed, medical equipment was put into bags for team members to return this to the US, and the ward was cleaned and prepared for future teams who may use the unit. We were amazed at how quickly this process went.

We received a wonderful treat from the Director of the orphanage tonight. We all enjoyed a wonderful Chinese dinner and then were brought back to the orphanage, where a huge stage had been set up in from of the orphanage. We were entertained for several hours with cultural dances and singing. The children’s choir from the orphanage performed, along with several special needs children. A beautiful swan dance was performed by a young man with only one leg……it was amazing. The young children made us all smile with their animal sound songs and dance. It was a wonderful way to end a long week of surgeries.

We have one more day in Louyang and then the team will be returning home. We know it will be hard to say good bye to so many wonderful people and children we have met.

Day 4 for Luoying team 2. We all are feeling the exhaustion factor and we have had some really hard cases this past 24 hours. Many children come in frightened, of course, and we have had a few real tigers today. Poor babies, walking into a strange building and giving over their very lives to the hands of strangers who look, talk, smell and act differently than anyone they have ever seen in their little lives. They are so vulnerable.

Of course, then there are the exceptions to that with the children who make friends everywhere they go. Our little Due from Xinjiang is such an example. We all had such a hard time today saying goodbye to her. She has won all of our hearts. She made her rounds to say goodbye to everyone and gave many hugs and kisses along the way. We all wish we could bring her home.
It was goodbye day for Cui also, and everyone on staff made the effort to come out to hug her and say goodbye. She is now a beautiful girl with a beautiful smile and a chance for a future. This one child is worth it all. She will do something wonderful. You just know that when you are in her presence. She has something great to accomplish in her lifetime. We are so lucky to have been such a small part of her future.

Our orphanage kids are really warming up to the staff and making friends along the way. One little boy from the older kids floor has taken over the recovery room and has the nurses in stitches all the time. Today Nancy gave him her surgical hat and stethoscope and he was definitely one happy camper. The look on his face said "HEY, I AM IN CHARGE HERE!!!" We were all cracking up and rolling on the floor. This is what is making memories for us all. These little moments of intimate contact with another world that opens its doors for the good of the children.

Tomorrow is our last day of surgery. We have been incredibly busy so we are looking forward to slowing down, but we have also been so intensely involved in this venture that we know it will leave a huge hole in our hearts to break our unit down. We know it cannot go on forever, but in many ways we wish it were not the end. We all talk about beginnings rather than endings. That is the gift that this mission has given to us all.

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

Team Two is once again having internet difficulties. Thank you for understanding that this is beyond their control. They had another successful day of surgeries and we are all looking forward to hearing the stories of the last two days.




Until they are back online, please enjoy some of the photos from Team One. 110 children have been healed. One team member who just returned, told me this wonderful story. She said that the 16 year old boy with unrepaired cleft lip had very successful surgery. That first night, he asked the night nurse to tell him which of the babies had looked like him before surgery. When she pointed out a small child, he sat next to that baby's bed with his hand on the little one for an hour or so .

We are all still processing all of the emotions and stories we experienced while in China. There was daily laughter and daily tears, daily problems to solve and daily moments where we celebrated the beauty of these children.

We hope that the next installment will arrive tomorrow! Until then, enjoy the photos. Most are of the children, but I couldn't resist adding one of the teeth of Henan (all extracted from our dentist....ouch!)

Day Three for team two…..where to start? The best place would be at the beginning of our day.
As our team enters the orphanage, we are always greeted at the gate by several families hoping to receive medical care for their child. For these families, seeing an American medical team gives them a glimmer of hope for their son or daughter.

As the team quickly heads up to the surgical floor, we are stopped by a local mother holding her four year old boy. She rushes to us to show us her beautiful son, Qian. We recognize her as she had come the day before hoping for a palate surgery for him. We had asked her to return today to be evaluated, as our surgery slots are quickly filling up and we can only accept a few more children. Her eyes immediately well up with tears and she begins to sob uncontrollably. The boy, who is worried for his mother, now begins to cry also. We assured her we will try and fit her child into our schedule after he is evaluated. But her emotions took over and it was difficult to calm her. As her crying escalates, the screening room quickly fills up with other patients who are needing to have blood work and screening for their surgeries. You could feel the intensity in the room, as we begin to sort out the children. And so our day has begins…..

The most difficult part of our job is choosing what children receive surgery. Every child we see is deserving. Every single one. We review every child and try and fit the child into our criteria. Our second child today was so tiny, so we weigh the baby…….only 9 pounds. We know this child has to be 10 pounds. We quickly say we had better check the scales, maybe they are wrong. Maybe they are a little off. We know we only need one more pound and the baby might qualify. We weigh the baby again…..still 9 pounds. We tell the father who has brought him, the baby is too small, he doesn’t weigh enough. He quickly puts on the child’s coat and then another coat and places the child back on the scale, with a hopeful grin. We apologize and tell him we can not give his child surgery. He quietly takes his child and leaves the room, with tears rolling down his cheeks. He graciously smiles and walks away. The pain we all shared with this father was intense. As our own tears began to flow, we all felt we wish we could do more. If only we could do one more.

And so we continue on. We meet every family and hear their story. We look into the eyes of every child……those beautiful dark eyes. We weigh, and measure and listen and talk. And then, another child is selected for surgery. What a moment this is!! We share the excitement and overwhelming joy with every family who is chosen. These are our happiest moments. Every family is so thankful and kind. We know the surgery their child will receive will change their life forever.

As our morning continues, the surgical area is bustling with activity. Our recovery area if filled with children and their families who will be discharged today.

Children who will soon leave and begin a new step in their life. In the same room, we have 10 children who received surgery the day before and are being comforted by their parents and caregivers. And standing at the doorway are eager eyes of the children who wait for today’s surgeries. Ten new children. The nurses and "essentials" (as we now call our non medical people) quickly go to their assigned area. Our wonderful night shift is ready to leave, as a new group is coming on to help. Our doctors begin making rounds and evaluating the patients. Our surgical team and PACU nurses quickly prepare for the days upcoming surgeries.

A few special team members start out their day by shopping for a new outfit for Cui Cui to wear home tomorrow when she is discharged? All our loving moms wanted to see her dressed in something new and wonderful to start her new life.

We stand back and look at this process and are in awe. In only two days, a total group of strangers has come together from all over the United States, giving of their time and money to help these children. This week has shown us all what the power of love has and what miracles love can accomplish.

Team 2 9/20/05

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

Day three for team 2 has brought many wonderful surprises. Our team is well oiled today and working like clockwork. Drs. Argenta, David and Sanger have done work today that has made much magic. Today was surgery day for our little girl from Xinjiang who has a facial deformity which has misshapen her beautiful little face and caused an ear deformity that is quite severe. She is absolutely beautiful and has the personality that would melt huge icebergs! Dr. Argenta did a side cleft repair on her mouth which none of us had ever seen. Her cleft was to the side of her jaw rather than the top and it had caused a lot of pulling and misshaping of her face. She came out of surgery with a smile on her face and a perfect relaxed lip and cheek for the first time in her life. We gave her a mirror when she came into the recovery room and she just glowed. Even though she was in some big pain she was one happy little girl!! We all had to leave the room and shed tears to see that kind of pure happiness.

Next up on the miracle list was Dr. David’s surgery on the severe burn survivor. This young man was orphaned when a fireworks factory sadly exploded and killed his entire family as well as burning him over a large part of his body. The surgery that he is receiving is to close his eye sockets to prevent further damage to his eyes. His scarring is very severe and we all wish there was more that we could do for him. Dr. David and Argenta will make a cast to carry back to the US to make a mask for him to wear that will hopefully lessen the scarring over a period of time. We are all praying that it will help. He is a quiet little boy who has already been through so very much in his short life.

The children are sailing through surgery today. We are much better organized today and our nurses are watching the children in the ward so closely. They are helping the kids drink as much as possible as the more hydrated a child is, the less pain they have. The kids are literally bounding up by the next morning. Even the doctors are impressed.

Our greatest story today is about Cui Cui. Cui Cui is a young girl 19 years old whose peasant father brought to the orphanage seeking a repair for his daughter who he obviously adores. She has been the dearest young woman and she has touched all of our hearts. We cannot wait to see how beautiful she is when she is done with surgery. She had a very severe bi-lateral cleft which I am sure has caused her much pain and teasing. In spite of her cleft she just shines with goodness and kindness and we have all fallen head over heels in love with her. Last night we found that Cui Cui is sitting soon for her college board exams. She will be graduating this year and is a top student in her class. Her father is so proud of her and has devoted his life to his three children who he says will all graduate from college to break the circle of poverty. He is a humble and inspirational man who has brought most of us to tears in admiration of his spirit.

As a group, all of team two has bonded to make this girl’s dreams come true and have decided to sponsor Cui Cui’s education and her future. We have agreed to start a fund so that next year when she starts school she will have all the funding she needs to achieve her dream of a degree in science and engineering. She is brilliant. I am so proud of this team and their spirit. Cui Cui has brought a spirit to our team that we could never have found without her. Her father fell to his knees thanking us for this honor. We fell to our knees thanking him for the honor of being allowed to participate in his dream.


Team 2 – 9/19/05

Greetings from Beautiful Luoyang where the legend of the peonies and the history of the temples is reason enough to visit. Known as the city of temples, Luoyang is one of China's ancient capitol cities. The people of Luoyang are very kind and caring and have made us feel welcome already. The children here are beautiful. Today is Sunday and they are out playing and enjoying their day out of school.

Team 2 has arrived and we are making things happen! Thanks to all the many hard workers of team one who stayed on longer to transition us over smoothly. We are beginning to get our stride set and things are moving along. Our wonderful doctors and nurses are already hard at work with 14 children today. We have seen the miracles at work just in our first day.

One young mother arrived early this morning having come from quite a distance with her own mother and her beautiful little girl with cleft lip and palate. Now this may sound like business as usual, but the mother could not speak and her daughter was blind as well as a cleft child. The grandmother was so pleased that we are able to give her granddaughter the opportunity her mother had to communicate and have a chance for a good future.Every day we have come to the orphanage to find groups of parents with their children standing at the gates waiting to try to talk with our staff. We have tried to see and speak to them all, but how heart-breaking to have to say "we are over our limit of surgeries for the week". We all keep trying to add "Just one more" and so far we have found a way to make that happen. It is an unspoken sadness that within 24 hours we will have to say "no more". None of us want to be the one to draw that line. If it were up to our awesome doctors, we would go on until the last minute. Thursday night will come too quickly I know...

Time Flies When Lives Are Being Changed
Thursday September 15 & Friday September 16, 2005





I have to apologize for not being able to blog yesterday. Thursday and Friday blended into one 48 hour day, and there just wasn't a spare moment to write. There were just too many amazing stories to list them all at once. To do so would turn a blog into an actual book.

Thursday morning got off to a great start, and the surgeries started early in the morning. When we were discharging patients, we saw out of the corner of our eye one momma packing up her bag. She and her daughter were there one moment and gone the next. We found her still up on the patient ward floor, and tried to explain that she could NOT leave until she was properly discharged. Well, as soon as we turned our backs to discharge another patient, she and her daughter disappeared. They must have snuck down the back stairs. When we noticed that she was missing and knew that she had not received her discharge orders, we sent Todd out to look for her. He ran down six flights of stairs and looked both ways for them, to no avail. He came up and told us she was gone.

About an hour later, when we were discharging the last patient for that day, Todd just happened to be looking out the sixth floor window and suddenly he yelled, “THAT'S HER!” and we all quickly looked out. Sure enough, she and her momma were walking on the street below. We all started screaming “GO! GO! GO!” and Todd took off like superman down the stairs with us singing the Mission Impossible theme for special effects. This time he caught our little escapee and she was properly discharged and all instructions for post op care were given in Chinese. WHEW!

We discharged 10 more patients, and only had one other small glitch when the older elevator in the orphanage broke down with some orphanage aunties and their babies inside. Thankfully that problem was solved quickly and we were able to get them out and safely down to the first floor.

The last 48 hours have been VERY emotional to all of us as the numbers of children coming to see our team continue to increase. All of the team was crying when a peasant farmer arrived in Luoyang with his six year old daughter who has complex bilateral cleft lip. The father told us that he had found the little girl six years ago as a baby, and that he had decided to take her in and be her father. He told us that when he had decided to send her to school this year, she was beaten by the bullies in school for looking so different. So he stopped sending her to school and now she works the fields with him each day. He asked if she could have surgery that day, and when it was explained that the surgeries for Friday were full, and no surgeries would take place on Saturday as the teams switched, the father became very sad. He explained that he had to leave his crops in order to come and they would not survive without him. We promised this man that she could have surgery on Sunday, and asked for his phone number so that we could contact him. He had never used a telephone before. He told us that he could not stay for surgery on Sunday, because his fields needed to be worked. We offered to keep the little girl with us on her own so he could return back to his fields, and so he agreed to ask the little girl if that would be okay. When asked, the little girl got very sad and said “please don't leave me.” So this father, who loves his adopted daughter so much, chose to help her over his work.

An 11-12 year old girl also walked in off the street, and asked if she could be healed. When the team told her that she could definitely have surgery, she began to cry because she could not believe that her face would finally be healed. We told her and her dad to please go back to their home and we would call them, but yet again, there is no phone. The mom stayed behind to work the fields while she sent her husband and daughter off on the long journey to Luoyang. We have no way to contact her. It brings tears to my eyes to think of this peasant mother waiting back at home, working in the fields.......as a mother myself, I am sure every moment of the day she is wondering “will they choose her? Can my daughter finally be helped?” Isn't it a wonderful thought to think of this man and his daughter walking up the path to their house and greeting the momma once she is healed. How I wish I could be there that day!

Another couple arrived with a little baby girl that they had recently adopted. We were all so touched that this family had chosen a girl with cleft to adopt. The interesting thing is that they very proudly pulled out their adoption decree and it is the same exact one that international adoptive families receive!I just have to mention that the local people in Luoyang have been so incredibly kind to our team, and they want to help in any way possible. So many people have seen the newspaper article, and have shown up asking how they can help our team, even though they have no money to give. A woman who runs a small laundry shop up the street from the orphanage came to see us and told us she was so touched that she wanted to do all of our patient bedding and towels for us. She only wanted the cost that it took to wash them, so it was 80% cheaper than the first laundry store we were using. A taxi driver came up to the orphanage and told us he also felt that he had to help these children, and so he offered to be “on call” outside the orphanage to drive us for free when needed.

And then there is the art. As most of you know, we hold an annual art auction to raise funds for heart surgeries. We are coming home with some truly spectacular pieces, and they were given to us to help orphans. In the hotel lobby there is an art shop, and the owner of the store is actually the head of the city arts council. She has been so touched by our team helping the children that she told us she wanted to donate one of her peony paintings. We assumed she meant a small picture. When we went to speak with her and pick up the picture, she presented our foundation with a painted horizontal scroll that took four people to unroll. We took a photo of four of our team members standing behind it to hold it up. It is one of the most beautiful paintings of Chinese flowers I have ever seen. I hope it heals a heart baby next year!

One of our translators is a young man named Daniel who is a graduate of a fine arts college. We have become very good friends with him. When we found out that his main job is to be an artist, we told him about how we heal children with art. The next day he brought his portfolio to us, and we learned that he does oil paintings of landscapes and people. They are AMAZING. He said he would be honored to donate to our auction and that he would ask his friends from the art school to do the same. So the cleft mission will end up also helping to heal children with heart disease.I also have to put in a huge thank you to our dedicated nurses. I may not have mentioned it, but we had several of them succumb to what we think was food poisoning. And yet they kept wanting to help. Just to give you an example, one nurse (Teresa) was severely ill one day, but she asked to be hooked up to an IV. She took 3 IV bags of fluid and then was right back on the job. The dedication of these team members is something to experience. The love they have developed for the orphans in Luoyang is so touching. They decided to pool their money and buy MiaoMiao, the older orphan helping us, a new bicycle as hers had been stolen.

Some of our team members had the best time on Thursday night. They took the older orphans out to McDonalds for their first Happy Meal. It was so cute because many of them had on new shirts for this special outing, and the shirts still had the creases from the packaging they were in. Kerry Dixon, who helped arrange this, told me that they did not know what to do with the hamburgers, and most crinkled up their noses at the idea of eating meat on bread. But they LOVED the French Fries! She said they were so artistic. With each French fry they ate, they would take their ketchup packet and squeeze out a doodle or design on each one. Kerry said it was just amazing because sometimes it is hard to take even two kids to McDonalds, and they took a whole bus and the kids sat still in their seats and were so polite.

The hardest part of the last few days has been turning people away. These farmers want to heal their children so desperately, and my heart goes out to them because I would do the exact same thing for my child. We had to make up a sheet saying “we are sorry, but your child cannot be seen by our team. We are only accepting palate patients at this point who are age five and under”. One dad received the news began crying. He said, “please take my son.....he is just two years over, and we are too poor to ever help him.” The mom also got on her knees and was begging. There just are not enough days left to do every patient. It has broken all of our hearts. We have had such complete highs and such complete lows. All of us were crying when a woman came with a 28 day old baby who was soon to become an orphan if the cleft was not repaired. The mom was crying so hard asking us to help her keep her baby. She said “I love my little girl, please help me keep my little girl.” But even in the US, her baby would be too small for cleft surgery. She was crying so very hard and kissing her baby's forehead, and so we made the decision that we had to pay for her surgery locally. It is very hard to realize that we will most likely never know the outcome of this woman and her child. We sent her away with enough funds to go to the hospital in 2 more months when the baby would be old enough, but she had told us that she was getting so much pressure to not keep this little girl who had cleft.

These are the stories.....this is what we have lived and felt all the way to the center of our hearts. These are Chinese families who cherish their children and who are desperate to see them be healed so that they are not ostracized in their villages. We have helped so many...60 children healed as of Friday night......and yet I think all us are feeling like we just didn't do enough. It was an impossible task. And so once again we come back to our motto.....that every child counts. And I hope that each of our team members can look back on this mission and know that the 60 children that Team One transformed are 60 beautiful little blessings. We worked as late as we could could each night, but there are still so many waiting. So we must take joy in the 60, yet our hearts will never forget the many, many more who came all the way to Luoyang with such hope. They have touched our lives forever.

This is my last post from China. As I type this, Team One is at the airport getting ready to start the long journey home. Team 2 arrived in Beijing last night, and are on their way to Luoyang today to start surgeries on Sunday. I pray that their time in China is as awe inspiring and life impacting as ours was. Thank you again for taking them time to read our journals and to follow along on our journey.

Touching lives, one child at a time......THIS IS OUR STORY OF HOPE.

This report is from Wednesday. We apologize for the internet problems. I had typed up a complete blog entry that was very long and detailed and when I went to upload it, something happened to our internet connection and I lost it all. At 1 a.m., after an 18 hour day, that is not what you want to happen. I hope I can remember some of the highlights....after another day of surgery it seems like a week ago! I will try my best. We will call this section: "Ring ring…..Ring ring……. "

Can you guess how many times a cell phone can ring in one day? If you guessed thousands and thousands, you would have guessed right. At least that is how it has seemed today after our phone number was published in the paper. We learned today that the circulation of the newspapers we were in is approximately 11 million people. Eleven. For those of you unfamiliar with China, the Henan province is the most populous in all of China, with over 100 million people. Today I think we heard from a lot of them!

Every time our facilitator would hang up from one call, another would immediately come in. Whenever she got busy helping out one of our team, when she returned to her phone it would say “Missed Calls: 45” or “Missed Calls: 92”. When people couldn’t reach her on the cell, they began text messaging, and they would explain in detail why their child needed to be seen by our team. The word overwhelming doesn’t begin to describe it. It would be impossible for our team to see even a fraction of the children whose ayis and parents called. This was very, very hard for our team to know.

Wednesday morning began with our first shift discharging the next set of patients to go home. Once again, there were already tears in the early a.m. as both the aunties and our team members shared tears of joy over the looks of the new babies, yet tears of sadness over knowing that we were saying goodbye to these children whom we had gotten to know and love for the three days they were with our team. The Guangxi aunties all wanted to have a photo with Karen Mai, our main facilitator, and the foster moms were so emotional when they thanked us for helping their babies. We said goodbye to them, but then unfortunately they quickly came back. We had one to keep one baby in the ward for 24 extra hours since he had developed a small infection around his incision, and because of that they had missed their train the day before. When they had gone to the train station today, they discovered that ALL train seats were sold out for five days. They were so concerned over how they would get home. At first we thought they could fly home, but then we discovered that they did not have the proper identification for the babies to take a plane. Finally after many phone calls and discussion, it was decided that a van would drive them to Zhengzhou, two hours away, where they could catch a train back to Guangxi.

The mom who had wanted to have a single photo of her child was next up to our discharge desk. This is the most wonderful family. The grandmother came today to help her daughter get the baby home, and when she walked into the post op ward, she began to cry. She was overwhelmed at how her grandson looked. After we discharged them, they walked down the six flights of stairs and then a few moments later I saw the grandmother making her way back up. She had a small bag in her hand, and she pressed it into mine and said "thank you". Inside were four small cherry tomatoes.......it was all she could give, and it was such a precious gift to me.

The next family to discharge was the one with the little girl who had cheeks galore. The father could not stop saying “thank you thank you”. I asked them if they had received a blanket and a toy for their child and he said he had not taken it because he thought it was our team's. I took them back into our supply room and asked them to pick a blanket and a toy. I wish I could properly explain how carefully they chose. This was such a rare gift to them. They went through every blanket until they found just the perfect quilt for their cherished daughter, and then I took them to the stuffed animal box and asked them to choose. The mom would pick up one after another and the father would shake his head “bu” (no). Finally the mom found the biggest toy in the box….a soft stuffed dog. YES….this was the one fit for his daughter. They carried their new gifts out to the landing, and then it was time to say goodbye. The mom and I made eye contact and then she began to weep…..with complete gratitude. So of course our discharge team began to cry, too. As they slowly started down the steps, the kept saying “goodbye goodbye”, and I could only wonder where they were going and what their future holds. I will never forget that little girl and how very PROUD her parents were of her.

Before I forget, before surgeries started today, Dr. Buckmiller was doing a pre-op check and she found her “baby”. I think you agree that BingBing would steal anyone’s heart. It is a shame that she obviously never eats. :-) After a final hug, Dr. B headed to the OR and another surgery day began.

The team finished another ten cases today, and all of the kids look great. We did some older children today, and when the moms saw their children’s new faces they were crying so very hard. I have to say that these families have touched my heart in a way that I can never describe. As you know, so many children with cleft become orphans, and so to see these families who have made the decision to keep their children, even though they probably live in rural areas where this condition is not understood…..it is a wonderful thing. The devotion and love that the parents have has impacted all of our team. The very hardest part has been when we have to turn a child down. We have identified so many heart patients, and unfortunately these children need to have their cleft lips repaired in a hospital with a heart center and not in an orphanage OR. Telling the families “no” is devastating. The mothers have dropped to their knees pleading with us to please heal their children, and today one father whose son did not qualify began weeping. How I wish we could help them all.

The patients who were done on Tuesday are all doing incredibly well. The beautiful little girl who almost skipped into the OR is already smiling and dancing for us. She loves her hospital gown so much! We had volunteers make all of the gowns, and they are so cute. The gowns, the blankets, the toys…..every single person who gave of themselves for this mission is such a part of these kids’ happiness. THANK YOU! I learned her story today and I think it is a beautiful one. We were asking the woman with her if she was an orphan, and the mom at first refused to answer yet we knew that she was in foster care. Finally the mom pulled one of us over and said, "she has no idea that I am not her true momma, so please show her as having a family". How many times can I say that I love foster care?

As I walked through the post op ward, I had to stop for a moment just to enjoy the activities of the room. Everywhere I looked babies were being rocked or their foreheads were being stroked. Nurses were checking to make sure everyone was doing great and other team members were blowing bubbles and coaxing smiles. Just to my left was a little girl who made me laugh out loud. She was sporting her very best birthday suit while going potty, yet the one accessory she couldn’t do without was her pink beads. Simply priceless.

We did have something happen today that was both funny yet horrible at the same time. After almost a full day of surgery, everyone in the OR began to say that their eyes were hurting and feeling like they were burned. Then someone noticed that the anesthesiologist's face was bright red. They quickly learned that there is a huge UV light in the OR that is used to sterilize the room between cases, and it had accidentally been switched on during the morning. Essentially, our team had been operating all day long in a tanning booth. While at first it seemed funny, quickly we realized that almost everyone in the OR had burned eyes and were all blinking back tears because of the way they stung. Before we realized the severity of this, we did snap a quick picture of Dr. Ray and Jake showing off their surgical tans. Jake has a red face with a perfect rectangle white area around his mouth where his surgical mask was. He said it was the first time he ever got sunburn while operating. If you look closely, you can see the "scrub" tan line. Dr. Ray is looking very tan, isn't he? I don't know whether to end that with a :-) or a :-(

As I wrote earlier, we have been flooded with patients, and people are walking in off the street. Peasant farmers have abandoned their fields to come see our team in the hopes we can help their child. I will admit that our screening room hallway did get to the point of being overwhelmed, yet our pre-op screening volunteers patiently logged in every child and took their photo and history, and they did it all with a smile. I can never thank the team enough for being so loving and kind to every single child they meet.

Well, I have volumes more I could write but time is very short. Your support and prayers are so very much appreciated. It is giving all of us strength to know that thoughts of love for these kids are coming from all over the world.

Another Great Day

Day three of surgeries ended with ten more children having surgery. I wish I could report that nothing broke today :-), but the autoclave sterilizer stopped working during the night shift. Thankfully the parts were able to be bought early in the a.m., and surgeries were able to begin as scheduled. One of our team members joked that you know you have been going for a lot of supplies when you get in a taxi in China and give the driver directions on how to get where you need to go!

The word has started to spread in the city that our team is here doing surgeries. Early in the morning we had a lovely young woman walk in from the street and tell us that she spoke very good English and was so touched by what was happening that she would like to be an LWB volunteer for the mission. We quickly put her to work and she was a great help in interpreting instructions to the aunties.

Right as we were getting ready to begin our first discharges, we were notified that both the local television and newspaper reporters had arrived at the SWI to find out what was happening. After getting a quick tour of our "hospital", they decided to do a documentary on our team and so their video crew took lots of footage of the surgeries, the post op ward and of COURSE the beautiful children. The question that kept being asked over and over again was "WHY?" "Why are you here, giving up your time and your finances to help these children?" The first time I was asked, I had to stop and think of how one answers that question in a sound bite. Why did 42 people fly all the way to the other side of the earth, using their vacation days and buying their own tickets, to work 10-18 hour days? I am sure the reasons are many, but I finally told the reporter that at the core of all of our team's hearts was a deep love for children, and that I knew that while we were giving a lot of ourselves, we were gaining so much more by being allowed to be a part of such a trip.

The next question was again a deep one...."what do you hope you accomplish by coming here?" Thankfully the reporter gave me a moment to collect my thoughts, and I finally told him that I hoped our story inspired others to do whatever they can to brighten the lives of children, but even more importantly, I told them that as he knew, many children in China become orphans simply because they are born with cleft lips. I told him that perhaps our being there would help inform people that children with cleft can be given a whole new smile with just an hour long operation.

The reporters were amazed at the before and after images of the children, and they took lots of pictures of the children and our doctors. The news article will have our phone number, so we honestly have no idea if we will show up for work tomorrow with people lining up to see our team. We did have one 12 year old whose grandmother brought her in today. Most likely we won't know until tomorrow afternoon what the effect of so much publicity will be.

Our team has continued to become great friends. Last night a group ventured out on their own to get a local dinner. The restaurant they chose was one that serves a Chinese favorite, hot pot. Unfortunately, once the team was all seated and ready to order, they realized that not one person who worked there spoke English and the menus had no English translations. At first they tried to draw a picture of little grains of rice, and then they kept saying "chicken? chicken?" to no avail. Finally one of the nurses hooked her hands under her armpits and started making clucking sounds. THAT was the way to communicate! They reported that the food they received was absolutely delicious. The food in Luoyang has been really good. Each day a local restaurant delivers a wide variety of Chinese dishes, but we did get some American style comfort food today by ordering in KFC for the team.

One sad thing that happened last night is that one of our nurses unfortunately became very ill, and we are all hoping Teresa gets better soon. I know how very hard it can be to be sick when you are away from home.

Back to the patients being discharged....this morning we sent the first day's kids home. One little boy from Guangxi and one from Jiangxi both had a little bit of swelling around the repair site, so we decided to keep each of them one more day. The rest were given their blanket (THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who donated a blanket....the aunties absolutely LOVE that their kids get a brand new special blankie), and they also got to take their beanie baby that most were holding onto tightly. While it was a bit hard to see them go because we had come to know and love their own unique personalities, all of us are hoping to see them again soon on waiting child lists being given a chance to have their own families.

We had a very special treat today when four of the children that LWB sponsored for surgery came to see us on the 6th floor. One little girl had received congenital cataract surgery and her aunty told me that she can see now. Another was a little girl who had a large eye tumor removed. While it was hard to see that her eye was removed, I am hopeful that in the future she can receive an artificial eye. The little boy who has the rare heart defect that is even more complex than TOF came with his foster mother. He has been gaining weight, and we sent her home with a special formula that is geared for children aged 6 and up, and we told her that we think he will be ready for surgery by October. We will most likely send him to Hangzhou Children's Hospital to be healed. The final boy was little Liang. In all the photos we have of him, he is wearing long sleeves. Today, he arrived in a short sleeved short and we learned that he is missing his arm. It was great to see how wonderful he looks after having his VSD surgery. This little boy is FILLED with personality. He was grinning at us and we quickly found a matchbox car and beanie baby for him which he really loved. Right before they were ready to leave, his aunty told us "this child is very smart". She then said, "he can sing Chinese opera in the most beautiful way". Well, that little boy stood in front of all of us strangers and began to belt out a complete Chinese opera song in a perfect pitched voice. All of us stood around him spellbound and when he hit his final note, the whole post op ward broke into spontaneous applause. I asked the aunty if they could please stay just a moment longer and whether he could go with me into the OR to serenade the surgeons. She agreed.

We quickly walked back to the OR and again he walked into a complete unknown and stood before all of these foreigners in surgical scrubs and masks. He raised his little hand and then gave a little wiggle of his hips, and then opened his mouth and began to sing. It was a beautiful thing, and I believe it was a moment that no one in that room will ever forget. How I hope that this precious little boy finds a home. There just aren't words to describe how my heart felt to see this beautiful little boy, orphaned his entire life and surviving open heart surgery....standing innocently in front of us, lifting his voice with such a sweet song.

There is an older girl who lives in the orphanage that our whole team has fallen in love with. She has severe scoliosis, but she has not let it stop her. Her English is wonderful and her positive attitude nonstop. She has been working 16 hour days along with our team, and this afternoon she sat in with our surgeons and sang to them as they worked. At one point she started singing "Do Re Mi" from the Sound of Music, and suddenly we heard harmony as one of our docs joined in to sing bass.

Two of our team members have had birthdays this week, so we sent out for a birthday cake to celebrate. We ended up with two of the most incredible cakes I have ever seen, one with a complete Chinese dragon made out of icing on the top and one with a finely detailed white horse. They were true works of art.

Yesterday's surgery patients were all feeling pretty well today. One little toddler boy was running so fast up and down the hallways that our team members couldn't keep up as they chased him. The moms who have brought children continue to be very emotional over their children's new faces. We realized today that many of these families are so very poor, and so they do not even have a photo of their child. One very dedicated mom, who I don't think has slept a minute she has been here, saw us taking a post op photo of her little girl and asked if she could please have one, too. We quickly printed out a copy for her and tonight before I left she was staring intently at this very treasured photo. As I walk among the cots taking photos of the children, if I forget to snap a picture of a child, the aunty or mom quickly lets me know! They are so very proud of these kids. Over and over we hear, "thank you, thank you".....and I wish my Chinese was better so that I could thank THEM for being here with the kids. We know the post op ward is crowded and not ideal, but no one is complaining at all.

Today we had two older girls on our schedule. The seven year old is so beautiful, and she really enjoyed the day today while waiting for her surgery. She liked her new stuffed animal and was playing peek a boo with our team members each time they walked past her pre op room. Finally late in the afternoon it was her turn for surgery. Anesthesia went to find her and bring her back to the OR, and she walked back to the surgical room with a huge grin on her face. I asked if I could take her photo and she happily posed for a picture. As soon as I snapped it she asked if she could see it and gave a HUGE smile when she saw it on my digital camera. She walked right into the OR without a moment's hesitation.

There were many, many funny moments today that probably are funnier since we are tired. Todd Taylor, our official "super man" has kept us all in stitches. Yesterday he found some local headbands that he bought for our art auction next summer, that had huge peony flowers on them. He was wearing them as he worked and it was quite a lovely accessory for him. We have sent him out for so many supplies that he is becoming a pro at explaining to the local store owners what he needs even though he speaks no Chinese and they speak no English. Some of the nurses wanted to do something fun with the teenage orphans so they wanted nail polish to paint the girls' toes. Off went Todd (who is this tall, linebacker looking guy) to find nail polish. When he finally got across to the clerk that he wanted to paint his fingernails, everyone in the store was laughing so hard. I am not sure WHAT was going through their heads, but after that purchase was completed, they asked if he might be interested in some lipstick for himself! Today's assignment was more disposable diapers, and we are glad he is not now in prison somewhere as the way he communicated his needs was by first doing a pantomine of rocking a baby and then hitting himself between the legs. I can thankfully report that he didn't cause the clerk to run from him screaming. :-)

We will post more tomorrow. There are 13 on the schedule but we might not be able to get to them all. There is one very special little boy to us. When one of our facilitators was bringing a boy from the Anhui province for surgery by train, he noticed a very young couple with a beautiful little boy with severe cleft. When he began speaking with them, they told him that they were too poor to afford the surgery fees for their child and that many of their family members treated their child differently because of the way his face appeared. Our facilitator told them about our team and asked if they would like to stop in Luoyang to have their child's smile transformed. They were so very grateful, and immediately arranged to come see us. Now when they return to their home in the Sichuan province, their family will see a very different little boy, all from a chance encounter on a train heading west.

The Rhythm is Found....

and what a wonderful thing it is! 9 more babies have had successful surgery.

Would you like the good news or the bad news? Let's just start with the bad and get it over with. I think the last thing a doctor wants to hear in their OR is the sound "boom", but unfortunately that is the sound we heard today. We have no idea what happened, whether it was a voltage surge or some bizarre hiccup with the oxygen tank, but an essential tubing piece of one of our anesthesia machines blew out today. Unfortunately, that machine is now out of commission. All of our anesthesia docs put their heads together, however, and solved the problem within an hour so that surgeries could continue. I hope no one gets tired of me saying these are INCREDIBLE TEAM MEMBERS! Dr. Kymer and Dr. Walter have such positive attitudes, and Charlie Pohl, who is doing anesthesia, never bats an eye when life's little "surprises" happen. (like your anesthesia machine going boom). His wife Gail is helping the oral surgeon who has been busy from morning to night. She has been the ultimate grandma to the kids, and I can honestly say I have never seen kids HAPPIER to go to the dentist, and she is a major reason. Today she was wearing stickers on her forehead just like the kids they treated.

I wish I could post more about all of the happenings on the night shift, but they come in at 11 p.m. when I am heading out, and I get to the orphanage at 7 a.m. when they are leaving, so I am only hearing that they are having a great time rocking and monitoring kids. I did hear that Jerry, one of our team members from Texas, found a baby who was pre-surgery who spent the whole night sucking on his 3rd and 4th fingers, thus doing the "hook 'em Horns" symbol all night. It was great of this little guy to make Jerry feel so at home! :-) We had the best of intentions to include notes from every single team, but we are JUST SO BUSY! As I said, I know it will takes weeks to remember every incredible moment that has happened.

All of the babies from Sunday's surgeries are doing great and each hour their lips look better and better as the swelling subsides. While yesterday most of them slept much of the day post surgery, today their cute personalities reappeared. We had a few who continued to enjoy a good long snooze, however!

We had to run out today for a medical supply run to buy some essential things like more surgical blades, tongue depressors, and syringes. The van drove and drove and drove to get to the medical supply warehouse, and it was fascinating to walk past one aisle that was state of the art surgical equipment and then turn the corner to find another aisle filled with dried snakes and crushed turtle shells. East meets West. Things here are just so inexpensive. We bought 500 syringes, 200 tongue blades, 200 surgical scalpel blades, medicine cups, cleft palate marking pens, anesthesia masks and more for a whole $60 US.

What's that? Time for more post op photos? I am happy to oblige.

As most of you know, one of our surgeons is the head of the cleft department at Children's in Arkansas as well as being the head of the vascular anomaly center. Before the trip, she had people from around the world contacting her to see if they could come see her while she was in China, and so today in between cleft surgeries, she saw some vascular patients. One girl from an orphanage in another province that we have been following suffers from severe lymphedema of her leg, and we were all so happy that she was able to travel to see our team. Dr. Buckmiller was able to evaluate her and give us a treatment plan.

Dr. Weidenbacher, our pediatrician, was kept very busy today evaluating kids and helping us to make long term plans for some of the children with special needs. One of our heart babies from the art auction, who was unable to have heart surgery this summer because he needed to put on a few more pounds, was brought in today for an evaluation. Dr. Weidenbacher feels he will probably be ready for surgery by November. This little boy was so full of personality! He has been in foster care for the last few months and his foster mom loves him very much. She told us quite proudly that he gets THREE eggs a day and that she goes to market to get fresh milk every day so that he can gain the strength he needs. I can't describe the feeling of working on the files of children in China for surgeries and then actually meeting them in person. How amazing to fall in love with a child's photo and then actually be able to pick them up and wrap your arms around them. There just aren't words.

I think the phrase that has been said more than any other on this trip is, "isn't this child BEAUTIFUL?" Every time a new patient is brought in for evaluation, we all turn to each other and say, "isn't she (he) BEAUTIFUL?" But each one has a personality all their own. We all could only laugh and laugh at the little boy in PACU who had such a pouty face while he slept that it was just priceless. We haven't found any who don't LOVE to be cuddled. I can honestly say our non-med team members haven't had a moment where they weren't needed because their rocking and loving is of course just as essential as all the medical care they are receiving. We are definitely giving the most TLC possible.

One of our patients for tomorrow is a darling four year old girl who will have a palate repair. She has thought that this whole experience is like a trip to Disneyworld. She has loved playing peek a boo and running in the hallway and of course our big box of TOYS. Tonight she rummaged through and found a plastic pair of sunglasses, which she had to model for us. I think you will agree that she looks smashing. Tomorrow the team is doing several older children, and they are adorable. One little seven year old boy is practicing his English and he is so polite. When Dr. Ray examined him to qualify him for surgery, at the end of it he smiled and said, "thank you very much". He hasn't loosened his grip on his matchbox car he received in two days. I just about got him to put it down when he saw a magnadoodle, but the car won out.

As you know, older orphans are especially important to LWB. Our hearts are always with those children who were never chosen for adoption. Tonight, one of our team members invited all of the teens from the Luoyang SWI on a 'field trip' of our hospital. The kids were having a great time going to each station learning every part of cleft surgery, from the OR to the post op ward.

Our team continues to become closer and closer friends. I am sure these are friendships that will not soon be forgotten, as we are all sharing a very life changing experience. Thank you for your words of encouragement and support. They mean so very much to us. And thank you AS ALWAYS for caring so deeply for these incredible and oh so important kids.

First babies done

Midday report....the surgeries have begun and so far everything has gone so well. QunQun was the first patient....she was here bright and early and looked so cute in her little dress and ponytail. We were able to deliver a special care package that her mommy-to-be sent to her and she must have looked at the photos of her family a thousand times. Each time I looked over she was paging through the book. She was playing happily right up until it was time for them to take her back to the OR. I was able to watch some of her palate surgery. She had a wonderful repair. During the surgery it was discovered that she had HUGE tonsils, so rather than revise her lip it was decided that it was in her best interest to remove her tonsils instead. She looked so tiny lying on the operating room table, but she came out of anesthesia quite well and was then moved to the PACU unit and then onto the ward. When I left her she was being held and was awake looking around. Dr. Ray did a wonderful job with her!

Nan from Guangxi was Dr. Buckmiller's first case. This nine month old had a complex bilateral cleft and she really did an amazing job on his lip. He looked so wonderful after surgery that we had to flip open his chart to look at the pre-op photo in order to remember what he had looked like before. The Guangxi aunties are very kind and very attached to the babies, and it was wonderful to see his aunty come in to see "the new him". He looks WONDERFUL!!! He had a slower time waking up. We joked that it was probably the best sleep he had had in awhile, so he just didn't want to quit dreaming yet. But he was awake and in the arms of one of our nurses the last time I saw him.

Next up was a little girl from Guangxi for Dr. Buckmiller. This is the little one who had to have the IV last night so we all hoped she would qualify. She did beautifully and her repair went perfectly. Her nose looks so great. I am so thankful that this team of docs agreed to help us in China because they are all just so talented and the lip and nose repairs are remarkable.

The nurses are keeping everyone smiling and laughing. Frances Knight made up "cheerleading posters" that she hung on the window of the OR after the first surgery. The first one said "1 down, 150 to go". The other was giving a perfect "10" for the repairs. Each time I look around I see another team member falling in love.....pretty easy to do when your patients are all so loveable.

Dr. Simmons, the oral surgeon, has been BUSY today. We asked the director of the orphanage to send all children from 3 to 18 to have a dental exam. The kids were lined up out the door and it was SO cute to see the tiny ones in their split pants and the older ones all waving and smiling at us as they waited. Each one hopped up in the chair and opened wide. Each child got stickers when they were done, and they were all proudly displaying them on their shirts, their arms, even their foreheads! We brought out some Kix for them to enjoy and I was so touched by how polite all of the preschoolers were. Each handful of cereal they enjoyed would be followed by a hearty "XIE XIE!!" (thank you).

Lots more new children arrived today for pre-op. One cute little boy who is 8 came for his palate repair, and the look on his face when he got his very own matchbox car was just great. We found a gameboy for him to play and every time I passed him he gave me the thumbs up sign. I think he is getting very good at Donkey Kong. The pre-op volunteers were keeping very busy with the pediatrician screening the children. The last time I went to that area there was a whole line of aunties holding babies waiting for their physicals to be done.

Everyone is being so patient, and I think we have just about run out of patient folders. We hope to track every child we see to make sure they all receive their surgeries at some point.

We had to order more cribs today, as most of the children are smaller than we expected on these first few days. Everyone seems to understand the need to be flexible, and I loved walking down the hallway seeing the team members blowing bubbles with the kids or giving high fives.

The team members who don't work until second shift told me that they had a very enjoyable morning walking around Luoyang and meeting the local people. There is a beautiful park right by the hotel. All of the orphanage staff have been so incredibly kind to our team. Director Pei has helped us get anything we need, and I could write pages about how smoothly they have helped make things.

Well, I need to get back to the surgeries, but I wanted to let everyone know that things are going very well. Stay tuned!

BEAUTIFUL BABIES

AMAZING. There is no better word to describe the miraculous transformations that I was able to observe today. Absolutely, positively....amazing. I'll buy a pack of gum for the first person who can identify the baby to the left!!

I can tell you how good the repairs have been....after one baby from Guilin came out of surgery, I walked by her crib and thought to myself, "I didn't know we were doing three palates today..." and then I leaned down and realized that she had been a LIP patient. She looked so perfect that you couldn't even see her stitches, and her nose had been repaired so evenly that I thought she had her lip surgery months ago and was in for a palate. I just stood there in awe looking at her before photo and then looking down on this child whose cleft had been healed.

There were so many memorable moments today. I'll just list a few off the top of my head as time in precious, but how about the little toddler from Shangrao who was just toddling everywhere in the orphanage and we were all thinking "oh how cute", and then one of the nurses came up to tell me that little squirt had been toddling around pulling all of the patient namecards off the cribs. He had a whole stack by the time he was caught! :-)

Or the foster mom from Guilin who is so in love with the little boy in her care that when it was time for him to go back to surgery, she was crying and kissing him over and over again, and then she cried and cried when he came OUT of surgery because he looked so very different than the little boy with cleft she had fallen in love with. I was so thankful that Kerry Dixon was on our team, who has a child who went through cleft surgery. Kerry told the mom that she understood completely how you fall in love with the way a baby with cleft looks, and how difficult it CAN be to suddenly be handed a child whose appearance has changed. Kerry spent such a long time reassuring this mother, but everytime I looked over at this child, the foster mom was still crying.

Or the foster mom who was so concerned about her baby....and one of our team members, Todd Taylor, went over to see the baby and put his hand on the baby for a moment. A few minutes later the baby coughed, and immediately the aunty told our translator that she didn't want "that man" to touch her baby again because he made her baby sick. I don't know if that is funny or not when you read it, but it was funny to us who are going on little sleep! :-)

Or the moment when a water main broke in Luoyang and we lost all running water in the orphanage. We started using bottled water for the surgeons to scrub before their cases. Thankfully it is back on!

Or learning of a new child to the orphanage who was very blue and being able to arrange immediate heart surgery for him in the morning.

Or Ling Guang Jie's foster dad, among ALL of the female aunties, rocking and holding and caring for his foster son. That little boy wants NO ONE but his daddy and there is something so touching watching this elderly daddy care for this child.

Or evaluating orphan after orphan, who were all more on the small side, and then having our first poor, rural family arrive with Mr. Buddha himself. Photo enclosed. :-)

Or one of our facilitators meeting a child on a train to Sichuan who truly needed cleft surgery and then arranging for that child to travel to Luoyang to have surgery with our team.

We are finding our rhythm, and the team has become very good friends. We have laughed, we have cried, we have put our heads together to solve any problems that have come up. What do you do when there are no IV poles? Our team figured it out in minutes. Up went the ropes secured to the walls, and hangers were cut up to become hooks, and within an hour we had enough support for 40 IV bags. This is TEAMWORK in every sense of the word. I cannot wait for tomorrow. (please know that is figurative since it is already tomorrow). :-) Shangrao and Luoyang children are next up. I'll keep you posted!

We have an OR

I wish I could write volumes here, because that is what this day deserves, but since it is almost 1 a.m. and we begin again in just a few hours, I will have to keep it short.

We had a great flight to Henan, and were met at the airport by several officials from Henan Civil Affairs. Everything was going great until we realized that one suitcase was missing......and that suitcase just happened to be the one with Dr. Ray's instruments. Out of all the bags, that was of course the one that decided to stay in Beijing. Thankfully, we were able to track it down quickly and have it delivered to Zhengzhou, where officials arranged for it to be sent by car the 120 miles to Luoyang. It arrived safely tonight about 8 p.m. Hooray!

When we first walked into the orphanage, I think all of us were thinking "we have a huge task ahead of us". There were literally hundreds of boxes of supplies, from the cots to sterile drapes to diapers. Every box had to be sorted, shelves had to be built, rooms had to be scrubbed down, and so much more. Our team has been INCREDIBLE! So many smiling faces and people saying "tell me what needs to be done". I bet everyone is sleeping well tonight because this team worked HARD. The PACU nurses set up their recovery area, with monitors and cots and all the supplies they need. The surgery nurses and docs had a huge task of organizing everything for anesthesia and the operations. They worked non stop and each time I would enter the room, there was a little more floor showing! By the time I walked out of the orphanage at 11 p.m. tonight, every single item had its place....row after row of pain medications, antibiotics, IV materials....truly amazing to see the before and after.

There were three rooms simply filled with boxes, and our cleaning team donned their rubber gloves and old work clothes and began to scrub everything down with bleach. Five cribs and cots were added to each of the rooms, new sheets, pillows, and a wonderful homemade quilt for each baby was added. On went the patient chart holders, and suddenly we had three pre op areas that looked great. People were sorting bags so that each child would get a new blanket, a beanie baby and their diapers and the assembly line was working in overtime. The floor nurses organized every last item they would need. Runners were sent to buy apple sauce and juice and plastic spoons and bowls, diapers, tshirts, towels to dry off the kids after their baths, even mops. It was quite a shopping list! It took them almost four hours to find it all. I could go on and on and on about how hard everyone was working because we all knew that we needed every last item in place by 7 a.m. tomorrow, and I am happy to say that they did it!

Can I talk about the babies? Well that is the reason we are here. I think one of the most amazing moments was when we were sitting in the Beijing airport waiting for our flight and we looked over and saw the cutest little Chinese girl. Suddenly, it dawned on us that the little girl was one of our patients!! QunQun, who was supposed to come on our first cleft mission, was sitting just a few feet from us. I can't describe the feeling of walking over to see her and having her throw out her arms to us.....she wanted to say hello to us all. She is such a tiny little thing, but walking everywhere now and oh so cute. She will be baby number one on the surgery schedule tomorrow, to have her palate repaired.

The babies from Shangrao and Guilin came for pre-ops around 3. It was a quite a sight to see all of the aunties unload from the bus each carrying a baby. The children did so great! They each got a new toy and I didn't meet a single one who didn't have a huge smile on their face the moment you tickled their tummy and said "peek a boo". Most of them were unsure about our doctors....all right, I'll be honest and say there were more than a fair share of tears during that part, but they got a thorough check up by the pediatrician and surgeons, and each child was photographed and their file was compiled. At the end of the pre-ops, 12 babies were picked for surgery tomorrow. The aunties took the children out for dinner and they all arrived back in the orphanage to spend the night around 9. They were all wide awake and looking around at their new home for the next few days. We had their beds waiting. Solid foods were allowed until midnight, so we broke out the Kix cereal and made some new friends right away. Oh the power of cereal balls when you are trying to win over a baby!

I could go on and on, but I probably should get a few hours of sleep (and I do hope I am writing with coherent sentences here!) Tomorrow I hope to have comments from the team members about the children in their care, so it should be much more interesting than what I write.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for these kids. They have such spirit, and all of the hours of hard work melt away when you look at their beautiful faces and they give you one of those absolutely enormous grins. Tomorrow 12 babies will have their lives changed forever. I can't wait to see the results of the surgeries.

Good night precious babies. I hope right now you are all sleeping tight. I know you are wrapped in blankets made with so much love, and we promise that tomorrow we will give you our very best tender loving care.

Quick update....one of the babies needed an IV tonight and Todd Taylor wins the superman award for waking up and heading to the orphanage at midnight to help (our nursing shifts weren't assigned until the day the surgeries began) even after working nonstop the whole entire day. He got the IV started and hopefully she will be feeling much better tomorrow and will still qualify for surgery. This team AMAZES me (I think I have said that already).

Good night! Or good morning!

Safe in China

Team one has made it safely to China! Most of the group either arrived in Beijing early Friday morning or Friday afternoon. The early group was able to take a quick tour of this beautiful capitol city while the group landing late in the afternoon quickly checked into the hotel and got ready for our first meeting. It was so wonderful to finally meet the people who would be helping to make these cleft surgeries a reality.

Now that we are safely here, I can tell you that we had just a wee little problem with the surgical instruments getting stuck in Chicago. They were supposed to be delivered to Oklahoma early in the week so that they could be packed and go over in our suitcases, but they just didn't arrive. Luckily, several of us were flying out of Chicago, so with the help of a lot of wonderful people, we were able to solve this problem. A huge thanks to Nancy Brown who had them couriered to the O'Hare Hilton, to Bruce Finch who worked with United to make sure they understood that we would be adding medical instruments midway through our journey, and another huge thanks to Scott and Jo Flynn who ran to Target to buy two huge rolling duffel bags for us to pack the supplies in and who then dropped the bags at O'hare so they would be waiting for us. Because of their help, it was no problem at all to arrive in Chicago, run over to the Hilton, pick up the surgical instruments and then check them on their way to Beijing. And thanks for crossing those fingers and toes.....all of the suitcases arrived safely in China and we were able to load 45 huge pieces of luggage onto a truck heading overnight to Luoyang. All of our supplies will be waiting for us in Henan when we arrive tomorrow.

Michael Han, from Always and Forever Adoption Homeland Tours met us all at the airport and somehow managed to corral our huge group into our bus to downtown. He is an incredibly kind man who had all of our transfer details worked out. I kept thinking on the bus ride into the city how blessed we have been to make so many friends who are willing to go the extra mile to help children in China.

We had our team meeting and dinner tonight, where we all got a little more acquainted and talked through the patient files, pre and post op reports, and other important details of the mission. We got a report from Luoyang that the 12 babies coming from Guangxi and Jiangxi have all arrived safely and the kids' pre op labs all went great. We also learned that the kids were all smiling and happy with their caregivers, even after such a long journey. All of us cannot wait to meet our precious patients!

At the close of the dinner, the team made a very special toast to Dr. John Padilla, the wonderful humanitarian that we have dedicated this mission to. Even though he is unable to be with us physically, I know that he is with us in spirit, and his compassion and tender kindness towards children will be part of every cleft surgery we perform. John, we are trying our best to keep your dream alive.

Tomorrow morning we start off at 6 a.m. We have to catch a flight to Luoyang, where we will quickly check into our hotel and then head to the orphanage to organize supplies and do the first pre-op evaluations of the children. It will be another very busy day.

More tomorrow from Henan!

Off to China

Everyone's bags are packed and our team has begun heading to China. We will all meet up in Beijing at 6 p.m. on Friday night. It will be wonderful to finally put faces with names and to meet the people who have so generously given of their time, talents, and finances to fly all the way to China to help change the lives of children.

Some of our team is already in Luoyang, putting the final touches on the OR room and double checking the patient lists. We learned today that the weather has cooled down a bit, now to a comfortable 88 degrees.

The babies who are coming from other provinces are also on their way. The Guangxi babies boarded their soft sleeper train this morning, and the Jiangxi babies leave this afternoon. The photo from today was taken of the Guangxi babies and their caregivers before they got on the train. I hope you will look at those beautiful faces and wish for safe travels for them. I know they will get tender loving care when they arrive in Henan.

Our next post will be from Beijing. Please pray that all of our luggage makes it to Beijing on time! We have medical instruments and supplies galore that ALL needs to get there when we do. Cross those fingers, toes, and even those eyes please! :-)

Thanks again for all of the support in making "no nos" and hospital gowns and blankets for the children, and for sending toys and stuffed animals and sponsorship funds so that EVERY child who meets the medical criteria can have surgery. People even sent gameboys for the older kids to play before it is their turn, and they have sent the kindest notes wishing us well and sending lots of love and good wishes to all of the children who we will soon meet.

More from Beijing!

We are just one week out from our second cleft surgery mission to China. This year's trip will be the historic city of Luoyang in the Henan Province. Over 250 children have been identified for surgery, and our hope is that at least 150 of them can be healed during our mission.

Our team of 75 doctors, nurses, dentists, and non-medical volunteers have their bags packed and their passports ready. Our team members are coming from all over the United States and Canada. Team One will board their airplanes to China on September 8th. Team Two will follow the next week on September 15th.

Please check this site daily for information on the day's events and the children that we know will touch all of our lives.