A different type of Butterfly House

We are so thankful for the support we receive from our neighbours. It comes in all different forms - donations of milk powder and nappies, letters of encouragement, financial support, and sweet volunteers giving their time and hearts. We love being part of a community effort - each set of arms tenderly supporting our kids is supported in turn by a whole loving "family" - both local and across the world. It's something really special.
 And we have to say - sometimes the support we receive comes in surprising and beautiful ways. Just recently, Lyn was honoured to open the Butterfly House at the botanical gardens. That's not another Butterfly Home ( though of course, that will be coming) - that's a Butterfly House - full of butterflies, not babies.

You can guess what the accessory of the day had to be. This is Lyn, and Hannah's ayi, Rose, both sporting beautiful butterfly nose decorations! They will be the big thing next season, just you wait and see.

Hannah came along too, and she posed in front of all the spectacular decorations. To be honest, Hannah was a little overwhelmed by all the pomp and ceremony. In this country, they know how to make an occasion really special. It's incredibly impressive, but for a little child, it can  all be larger than life. But Hannah's ayi was right there with her, and we were proud of the way she coped with such a stimulating environment.

 Of course, there were speeches.

And a symbolic release of butterflies. That was lots of fun. It was also meaningful for us - there is always a moment of release with each of our children. For some it is the incredibly joyful moment they go home with an adoptive family, for others the heartbreak of seeing them leave this world. But for every child, it is our job to make that journey beautiful and to love them every minute we have with them.

Great food is part of any celebration here, and this day was no exception. It's about this time that Hannah became really glad she had come along!

And the Butterfly House made a very generous donation to our Butterfly Home. In addition, they have pledged a donation of 1 Yuan for every ticket sold. So please, if you come here, go visit the Butterfly House at the Botanic Gardens. It's a beautiful place to visit, and they are kind and generous friends to us.

Television link

We have been featured on Chinese CNTV. Go have a look!

http://news.cntv.cn/china/20120119/124004.shtml

You can see Lyn speaking, and some of our sweet ayis sharing their hearts. Even if you don't understand Chinese, you can't miss the emotion they are feeling. And of course, you can see the children being very cute, even with their faces blurred.

Snugglebug

This little snugglebug is Patience, and she has not had a formal introduction on this blog yet. Patience was premature with a very low birth weight - a teeny tiny feather of a babe. We couldn't even be sure she would make it, but look at how far she has come!

 It's no secret that her ayi loves her - you can see it written all over her face. And look at how much Patience has grown. These days she is a cute little button with a head of dark hair and sparkling eyes. Actually, Patience has curls in her hair - not common in this country. She also has cerebral palsy, a condition which limits her physically, but doesn't stop her love of life. She can roll over, and lift her body up on her hands, where she likes to bob up and down like a little bird  when she is excited. It's very funny to see her experimenting with a mirror - she makes curious faces at herself, and then laughs at what she sees. She's such a happy child - you hear her laughter all over the room. At music time, she even tries to whistle along. Though she may be named  Patience, her attitude is pure joy.

We have such big dreams for Patience. We hope one day she will be adopted by loving parents who see the beauty in her smile, and rejoice in her achievements. In the meantime, we will be working to help her achieve her potential. She has lots of floor time planned for her, with games to build her core strength and fun ways to learn about cause and effect. She will be hard at work, learning and developing, but we intend to make it so much fun that she won't even even know it's work! And one day, we hope to say goodbye to our dear Patience with hearts full of love and pride, as she takes her place in her very own family. 

Happy Birthday Jesse

It's Jesse's birthday, and so it's time for another party. Of course, there has to be a beautiful cake, lots of singing, and lots of excitement. Jesse uses his fingertips to check out his cake.

It's Jesse's day, and doesn't he look the star of the show. He's sitting up very straight and tall while everyone sings Happy Birthday and wishes him well. He is such a precious child - it is our great hope that a family will recognize his beautiful soul and adopt him. Imagine...Jesse could be celebrating his next birthday as somebody's son. Wouldn't that be amazing!

And now - let the cake eating begin!!! If you love cream and sugar, these cakes are pretty wonderful. And they have fruit on top, so they are even a little bit healthy! Well.... perhaps if you only ate the fruit. But hey, birthdays are not the time to start a health kick.

Happy Birthday Jesse. May your life be full of blessings.

Looks who's standing up!

Here is precious Angel, just getting some help to grab herself some tissues. She's been cruising furniture for a while now. But these days, she can let go of any support and rely on her own balance and strength. Angel's confidence is growing - this little girl will be running around the Home in no time.

Isn't she just the cutest thing? She's standing up tall and feeling very happy with herself. And her pigtails are pretty sweet too. This girl has always had amazing hair. When she was just a little baby, she had very thick hair which grew straight up in the air. She looked like a  tiny punk rocker. Now she's perfected the pigtail look, and we think it really suits her.

We couldn't be prouder of this little girl. She has a heart full of tenacity and courage, and we just know she is going to make a difference in this world. We feel so thankful to be her family now, and we can't wait to see her united with her new family - hopefully soon!

Remembering Isobel

We've just had New Year on the Western calendar, and now we are looking forward to the crazy riotous celebration of CNY. It's an incredible time - wild, over-the-top, sometimes exhausting fun. One of the first lessons a Westerner needs to learn about CNY is that there is no "right" moment for firecrackers to go off - four o'clock in the morning seems to be a popular time! You just have to relax and enjoy the excitement. It's a time to let go of expectations and embrace the unexpected.

But New Year in any culture is also a time of reflection, and  in our Home there is  much to reflect on. We are full of joy when we think back about Finlay's story  - a  "non-surgical" child, now post-surgical, and enjoying a life with more energy, more strength, and full of hope. And Jonathon: once expected to slowly lose his abilities and finally die - now in foster care, learning new things and enjoying family life.  We love looking around and seeing Annie's smile, enjoying cuddles with Patience, and watching Jesse's growing confidence. 

However, we are a hospice facility, so there will always be faces missing from our little family. Sweet faces like Isobel's - a little girl who inspired us all with her courage and her spunky attitude. Remembering Isobel brings a pang of sadness, but also much thankfulness. Her life was short but she was cherished, and she knew love. It's sad to think that she could have missed out on that. 

Isobel came to us with advanced liver disease. She was frail and yellow, with a hugely distended abdomen. Pain was contorting her features and her personality was masked by her suffering. The little girl behind those sad eyes was unreachable. She was in her own private world and she was afraid to let anyone see inside.

We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to care for Isobel.It was a privilege to see her emerge from her sorrow.  She surprised us with her tenacity and her will to live. This little girl became the princess of the Home. She knew just how to balance cheekiness with cuteness: just cheeky enough to get the laughs, but cute enough not to get in trouble!  She was active and mobile, and loved to show everyone what she could do. Sometimes she would tease the less mobile kids by swiping their toys or pacifiers as she raced past. Sometimes she would tease the grown-ups by touching things she shouldn't! But she always flashed that impish smile which was guaranteed to melt hearts. Isobel was adored, and she knew it -  she knew that she was worthy. Knowing that truth had such an incredible impact on her short life. She came as a hopeless case , but she lived as a true princess!

Our Isobel died in July last year.  She was amazingly active and healthy up to a very short time before her death. She was never alone, and the night she passed away, she was surrounded by love. She was held and sung to, and she left this earth knowing with certainty that she was treasured. Isobel, we miss you still. You brought a splash of drama to our Home which was uniquely yours.

RIP precious girl, til we meet again.

Even though we hope for the miracle of healing for every child, sometimes the miracle of a cherished life is just as precious.

Music time

Our kids love music. Perhaps it helps that our ayis love to sing - you can often hear an ayi softly singing her little one to sleep, or cheerfully singing a happy tune with a child at play. Music is always in the background here, but at certain times of the day, it definitely takes the foreground!
These are music times: when the ayis gather all the children together in the play room for a group session. The kids really seem to enjoy these crazy sing-a-longs. Sometimes the ayis lead, and other times they use recorded music. The children each respond in their own way - some clap along, some use toys to contribute to the volume, others sing or dance. The more active kids are usually a blur when music time is happening. These picture are from before Christmas, but they show the joy of music time so beautifully.

Hannah dancing with her whole heart!

Angels hands are just a blur as she claps along.

Some of our children have quite marked physical challenges, so it's hard to see that they are responding at all. But if you look closely, you can see that their little bodies are leaning forward to catch the sounds, or rocking gently to the rhythm. Music is great therapy for these kids - the melodies and rhythms often reach them more powerfully than language can.

This is Patience, having her own private music time. What a look of complete engagement! She is listening so intently. Her aural skills are developing, and who knew therapy could be such fun!

Meet Lana

We thought it would be fun to introduce a few of the grown-up faces around Butterfly Home. This is Lana.

As you can see, Lana is heaps of fun, and she really enjoys her work!

Lana was born in Scotland, but grew up in a village in Germany. She went to primary school in Germany, and then to boarding school in Scotland as a teenager. After school, she stayed in Scotland to study Psychology, and to do a Masters degree.

So how did all this lead to Butterfly Home?  Well, Lana came to this country to study language and to teach English. Once she had settled in, she started to look around for volunteer work which might utilize her excellent qualifications. After a first visit to Butterfly Home, she was inspired to do a cycle to raise funds. Now 10 or maybe even15 km might be a good start you would think....but no! Lana and her friend Neil decided to cycle 750km. They did an amazing job: cycled the whole way without serious injuries, enjoyed some incredible experiences, raised a lot of money and promoted awareness across the country. You can read about their incredible journey here:

http://cyclingforbutterflies.com/follow

Now Lana is spending a year at Butterfly Home as a volunteer administrator. She is committing the same energy level she had for cycling to her many roles at the home. She acts as a liason for our volunteers: arranging travel, accommodation, registration and other details, as well as giving them orientation tours and help with interpretation. She has duties in administration, writing reports and supporting Lyn and Suisie in the office. Most importantly, she assesses the children's development and emotional health, setting goals, and making plans for thier therapies. Lana also makes lifebooks for our children before adoption - such an important treasure for kids going through a lot of change.

This is what Lana has to say about her  work here: " Since in BCH, for the first time I have found a job where I can be in it with my whole body and mind. I love going to work and even find myself in the BCH on my days off. Although the Butterfly Home works in devastating circumstances, there are more happy days then sad. Seeing and making the babies laugh is incredible. Every child has their individual illness which they take on very well with their cute personality. For some of them the conditions of their illness or also living in a hospice environment causes their development to be behind. I am interested in how to help the children develop better. My first developmental class at uni was about attachment and how much more vital love is than food. I believe the children survive because of the loving environment they are in."

We are so thrilled to have Lana with us, and thankful for her very valuable input. We hope that her time here continues to be incredible, and that she will take away some precious memories. We know for sure that our children and the things she has seen here will be forever in her heart. And hopefully, Lana's story will inspire others to volunteer. There are wonderful organizations all over the world, and we need all the help we can get. Requirements are simple: a bit of courage, a bit of common sense and loads of compassion. And you just might find you are amazed by how much you recieve when your heart is taken up with giving.

Jonathon's Christmas

Of course, there was one special Butterfly enjoying Christmas across the city from us - because he was celebrating Christmas with his family. Jonathon is doing so well in his foster family, and you can just see the contentment in his eyes. This year was actually his first celebration of Christmas (as far as we know). He came to Butterfly Home early in the year with the expectation that he would most likely die before Christmas even came around. Just go and look at him now:
http://drewandrachel.blogspot.com/2011/12/pink-and-green-christmas.html
It brings our hearts such joy to see this little guy with his brothers. Don't they look like the best little buddies? We are sure they have their moments, but there is something special going on here, that's for sure. Jonathon has made huge developmental strides since he was welcomed into this family - we are so incredibly grateful for the way they love him. The best miracles begin with love!