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News – September 2005
Dear Friends and Supporters, We are very pleased to welcome Lee and Becky Plummer, from England who are volunteering with us for at least 1 year. Lee and Becky have headed up teams of young people to visit and volunteer with us for short periods several times over the last 5 years and now they are here to stay for a while. Lee will help with maintenance, administration and pastoral care of volunteer groups. Becky will be our full time pre-school teacher and also help her husband with administration. We look forward to their time here being fruitful and a significant influence on both our lives and those of the children. We also welcome Faith Needham who will take over the baby sponsorship program from Tami Fargeland while Tami is taking a break due to having her 3rd baby. Please continue to use the email address tami@hopefosterhome.com should you have any queries about sponsoring our children.
Foster Home Shun Yi, BeijingThe babies
Two more beautiful children, SaraGrace Dang Jian Chao and Ellie Dang Jian Fang, have left us to be adopted. Both are from Datong, Shanxi Province. This month has been another crazy one with kids requiring surgeries within and outside China. Tong Qun Qun has had her cleft palate repaired and her huge tonsils removed by a US team of surgeons brought to China by Love Without Boundaries. She is doing well and has adoptive parents waiting to take her home. Luke has only recently returned home after spending 2 months in a local hospital. The defect of his lower spine was not closed and we will be seeking the opinion of our visiting UCLA neurosurgeon when he comes in December. Lois Fu Chun Yi who had complications after here first neurosurgery, required an insertion of a shunt, as the pressure in her head from hydrocephalus was rising. She is now home with us and doing well so far. David Dang Shan Qiang was rushed back to Singapore to correct a stricture that developed in his breathing tube after heart surgery last month. Dang Zi Run has just left with Christina for Australia for craniofacial surgery. Justine Fu Mei Xin, 3 weeks old with multiple congenital defects, was admitted to hospital here in Beijing briefly but her prognosis is very poor. She was returned to our Special Care Unit where she will be loved and kept pain-free. We have brought in two new children:
VolunteersWe thank Hazel Hare and Ellen for volunteering at our PCU this month and also for assessing each of our children’s needs for physical therapy, Cheryl Hunt for coming and teaching our supervisors massage therapy to use on the babies, Sarah Zuchswert for helping with the pre-school, Don White and his team from Singapore for producing a video of our work, and Graham Carle and his huge team of 25 from New Zealand for doing all manner of tasks that were needed.
Shun Yi Outreach Foster ProgramThe 12 children in the outreach program are doing well and regular visits continue. Mary Fu Wen Fei, born with a form of muscular dystrophy and has difficulty swallowing was losing weight and we have advised her foster mother to change her feeding methods and be more patient. We are weighing her weekly instead of monthly and some progress has been made. Her mother loves her dearly and Mary clearly responds to this.
NHF Special Care Unit, Henan ProvinceLittle Fu Jin Tian with severe cerebral palsy died peacefully on September 4. Lucy Fu Zhi Wen who had a bowel operation before she was brought to us, died on September 25. We had new admissions, Ethan Fu Si Nian a one-year-old boy also with severe cerebral palsy. He is quite ill. Fu Yong Peng, a newborn with bilateral cleft lips and palate, is doing well. Fu Mei Zhou, about 1 year old, with cerebral palsy and a high fever of 106°, only survived several hours after admission and died peacefully. 45 children have now been through this Unit since we opened on Jan 1 this year. Sadly, two children, Amanda Fu Chun Duo and Peter Fu Dong Lin, had to be returned to the orphanage to make room for the more seriously ill children. Much as it grieves us to do this, we just do not have enough beds to keep them all. We feel that all the progress that Amanda and Peter have made while with our loving staff, has been wasted and they have now regressed, emotionally and physically. We checked on them and this was evident after 3 days of being returned to the orphanage. It’s very depressing.
Love Without Boundaries Special Care UnitWork on this Unit is progressing at a rapid pace and it’s going well so far. The Directors of Love Without Boundaries have visited the site and have been pleased with the progress. Three out of the 10 rooms have been sponsored. Thank you.
Our Thanks
Our NeedsWe have no major needs at this point other than sponsorship of rooms in our new LWB Special Care Unit. Details are here, or email us if you are interested in helping in this way.
With gratitude, Joyce and Robin Hill.
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