for Hope and Healing

...early March, 2009...

A baby boy lay in his crib in the orphanage, too weak to turn himself over due to his congenital heart condition.  The orphanage staff, concerned with how frequently he was having cyanotic spells tried to arrange surgery in province, but discovered that the hospitals there didn't have the resources to perform the delicate open heart surgery he needed.  Out of options, the orphanage made a phone call across the country to ask for help.  The organization they called was adequately funded and had room to take on another heart case and said yes, to send the child to them.

And that is the simple ~ or complex actually ~ story of how my wee one found himself some two thousand miles from his birth city in a foster home so that he could have his heart surgery.

While he likely would have survived to have surgery post-adoption, being able have his life changing surgery at nine months gave him a tremendous boost.  Today unless it is summer and he's running around shirtless ~ or he lifts his shirt to proudly tell you that when he was a baby his heart was sick and doctors made him all better ~ you'd never know that he had once been so frail.  He runs, jumps and climbs with his older brother without missing a beat.  In fact, his heart repair was done so well that at our most recent visit to cardiology, he was dismissed for two years.

For his surgery being funded before we even knew about him, we will always be grateful.  And we will always look for ways to give back to the Chinese orphan care community...

Our family has been looking for ways to exercise together to encourage a family healthy lifestyle.  So when we found out about a nearby 5K walkathon, we were all ears.  And that it combined our desire to exercise together with our passion to help care for Chinese orphans?  Well...we couldn't get signed up fast enough!

On Sunday, April 7th, our family will join forces with much of our Sunday night fellowship group and walk (or scooter) a 5K to raise awareness and funds for Love Without Boundaries, specifically for their Healing Home projects.

While Daniel wasn't in a LWB Healing Home, (he was at New Day Foster Home) both places are similar in nature.  They exist to care for children that the rest of the world gives up on...

In their own words, "LWB's Healing Homes Program helps orphaned children with serious medical issues needing specialized care. These children are extremely vulnerable, due to being born with medical needs that often cannot be met in an institutional setting. LWB's healing homes are staffed with specially trained nannies who devote their time to the careful nurturing of these children."  

(italicized text taken from the LWB Healing Homes page)

If you have about four minutes, I encourage you to click on the photo below to watch a video featuring LWB's first Healing Home, the Heartbridge Healing Home.  You'll see, this is indeed a place for healing!

photo taken from the LWB blog ~ Helping Healing Homes With Gracie
the child pictured above was cared for at Heartbridge Healing Home

And so we come before you, friends, family and bloggy buddies to ask for you to consider sponsoring our family as we walk.  We set a goal of $1200.  Initially I thought to do $600, which of course would be $100 from each of us.  But then I figured that we'd trust God to double our efforts, for the sake of His little ones, so $1200 it is.

There are many ways to get money to Love Without Boundaries if you choose to sponsor us:
Just so you know, LWB  is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax exempt.  In 2010 they delivered over one million dollars of direct humanitarian aid to children, while maintaining an overhead of less than 10%.

* You can write a check out to Love Without Boundaries (with Fireworks and Fireflies and 2013 Walk for Hope and Healing in the memo line) and mail it to me.  We'll bundle it up with any money we collect in person ~ yes, Ian is taking the sponsor sheet to work with him like an old-school fund-rasier ~ and mail it to LWB the day after the walk.

* You can write a check to Love Without Boundaries, just put  Fireworks and Fireflies and 2013 Walk for Hope and Healing in the memo line (so that we are notified and can thank you from the bottom of our hearts for caring for China's children) and mail it directly to them at:  Love Without Boundaries, P.O. Box  25016,  Oklahoma City, OK, 73125

* You can go to TeamLWB events page and find us there to donate online.  There you will find us listed as Fireworks and Fireflies.

If you are able to sponsor us in any way, thank you!  We have living proof that programs like these bless lives!