It might be Wordless Wednesday for New Day Foster Home, but not here...
Maybe some folks can't help having favorites and this little fellow is one of mine. Because of medical help, good nutrition and especially lots of love, he's changed from a sick, broken-hearted infant to this impish toddler.
New Day cares for around fifty Chinese orphans with special medical needs ranging from relatively mild cleft palates to severe congenital heart disease and more. They also work very hard for orphan outreach, supplying lifesaving formula to impoverished orphanages throughout the provinces.
Another favorite organization is Love Without Boundaries: What they've done in less than twenty years is nothing short of amazing. Their high regard for the Chinese culture does much to heighten in-country awareness of the orphan plight. And they work diligently to help fund lifesaving surgeries so that Chinese children don't have to be abandoned to ensure adequate care.
LWB and New Day also both fund foster family programs, ensuring that many of these kids don't have to live in institutionalized settings: The results are much healthier, secure and HAPPIER children who are better prepared for family life if/when they are adopted.
In China and many other countries, even things as treatable as cleft palate are not only stigmatized but life threatening: The time and special feeding equipment for these babies is often in short supply. And while these groups both advocate for adoption, they aren't agencies. But they each work very hard to increase awareness for the availability of in-country adoptions.
NDFH is not a very big organization, but the work they do with high risk babies is fraught with heartbreak and disappointment. We appreciate the updates on the kids through their blog and Facebook. When their charges can finally be adopted into loving forever families, it seems as big as miracles get.
Postscript, per status quo, we know this won't apply to the great majority of our readers, but to anyone who even thinks about commenting to the effect that American babies should be considered first, well, in light of the fact that these particular groups are faith-based, we'll avoid making the first comment that comes to mind. (But it's a lulu.)
Instead, know this: While we fully realize that any orphan has a hard lot, there are places where being without parents is flat out a virtual death sentence. It's just not the case in our country.
Besides, what kind of human being looks at any child and thinks about things like the sheer accident of one's birth country? (That was rhetorical: We know what kind of human thinks that stuff: The kind who believes in gigantic walls. On second thought, with that in mind, you should have a special affinity for China since they built the original one.)
Back to Freddie. This little boy has come a very long way.
Thanks for having a peek at a faraway place that matters greatly to us.
http://newdayfosterhome.blogspot.com/2016/05/wordless-wednesday-fabulous-freddy.html
