Monday, April 18, 2011

Playing with babies

While my Mom was in Shanghai we got to visit Shanghai Healing Home.  I volunteer at SHH occassionally and have mentioned to her more than once how the place impressed me -- it is the incredible project of a woman who saw a need and took action.  This action led her to open a small orphanage primarily for babies with cleft palates.  These orphans have an alarming mortality rate within the regular system due to their difficulty eating.  SHH has lower caregiver-to-baby ratios which gives them a chance to get healthy enough to begin the series of surgeries required to repair their lips/palates. 

We had a fun morning playing with these cuties ... when holding them it is heart breaking to realize that without the help of SHH they might have only become another sad statistic. 




2 comments:

Lori said...

Wow, how cute that I can see them smiling in their eyes.

Molly W. said...

What beautiful babies! Makes me want to hop on a plane and snuggle each one!