Babies at the Gate
Each time we find a baby abandoned at our gate we are always filled with apprehension as we open the blankets, box or clothes the baby is wrapped in. The reason for the apprehension is we never know what we will find. Fortunately, most of the time the babies are babies we can keep and nurture to good health and afford them medical treatment if necessary. However, sometimes the baby has already gone to heaven or has physical problems that are beyond our scope of capabilities.
By way of explanation with our first child in this issue, we are giving our readers a look at the less happy experiences that come our way from time to time.
It is a very rare occasion when a baby is abandoned at our gate during the day time but in this case it was the middle of the day. No one saw the person who left the baby but we were able to determine by the coming and going of the staff that it happened within ten minutes of us finding the little bundle. In this case the baby was bundled up and then wrapped in a lady’s pink coat. (Top Left) They also left a bag with some powdered milk and a couple of baby bottles.
When we opened the bundle, one of our greatest fears was realized. This was a beautiful little girl. Seemed very healthy, fat and aware. However, she had no bone structure in her lower right leg and all her fingers were missing on both hands. We can deal with the hand problems but we do not have the funding to purchase the required equipment and hire the properly trained staff to help little ones like this. Sadly we had to call the officials and have them take her to an institution for these kinds of children.
Our dream is to someday find funding to allow us to open a wing for children with physical handicaps as we know we can also provide them with the love that is so important for their proper development.
Beau Xiong Zhuang
It seems like we are in a period of daytime abandonment. This was another one that was left outside our gate. We did see the person laying this one down outside our gate but they quickly ran away. When we took the bundle inside and unwrapped the blankets we found a cute little boy with only a hint of ears on each side with no openings into the ear canals. We already knew about this little guy so we actually know his date of birth. He was one of twins born at the local hospital, with the other baby being in perfect health. The parents had asked us to take him because they didn’t have any way of treating the little guy and we were in the process of trying to find out how extensive his hearing problem might be when the family took the two babies and just left the hospital, saying nothing to anyone. Two days later he was left at our gate. We called the police and told them the story but they weren’t interested in pursuing the parents for abandonment and gave us documents making him a ward of the Home of Hope.
In preliminary discussions with several doctors in Beijing, we are told they will reconstruct his ears when he is about seven years old and they feel his hearing is fine. One thing we need to pursue a little more right now is the doctors say there is no reason to make openings to the ear canal as he can hear just fine though a little muffled.
Either way he is a joy to have. He is already developing a neat little personality and it’s going to be fun watching him grow!
A footnote added September 5, 2007:
Beau is doing wonderful and he hears just fine! So in this case the doctors we consulted were correct.
Posted: February 18th, 2006 under Abandoned Babies.
Tags: abandoned, Beau-Xiong-Zhuang, nursery