Blessed...and hoping to pass it on.

The wee guy is from Hai Duong Province.  He was blessed to live the first months of his life in what can only be described as an ideal orphanage setting, as ideal as an orphanage can be in my opinion anyway.  The baby rooms had 3 nannies and 9 babies.  Each nanny cared consistently for the same 3 babies.  Do the math.  That kind of ratio rocks the orphanage world.  And that kind of consistent attention from a single caring adult can make a world of difference.

This woman was Ben's world before me.  She means the world to me.

Benjaminh's caregiver for 7 months and 6 days.  Under her care and attention he grew from a wee newborn of 6 and a bit  pounds to a whopping 7 month-er of about 19 pounds.

  

She carried him around upright practically all the time because he was sickly.  She fed him upright because he was sickly.  She fed him a small amount hourly around the clock because he was sickly.  She told me, through a translator, that my son was sickly, as his 19 pounds leaped about on my lap chortling and cooing and giving great eye contact (to her...not me, sweet Ben adored his nanny).  His wrist roles had wrist rolls.  This woman, without special specialists and doctors and speech paths used her own intuition to provide for my son exactly what he needed to combat his aspiration /swallowing delays and reflux problems in the absence of medical support.

Well, my little Manh and I are putting on the fancy clothes (a size 4 Ao Dai on my 22 month old thank you very much) and heading out to a Gala Fundraiser for a different sort of Vietnamese orphanage setting the whole while saying thanks for the blessings that filled Benjaminh's early days. 

Vung Tau 3, in Ba Ria, presently houses around 19 babies under the age of 2 years with a nanny staff of 2 (at a time, in 8 hour shifts I believe).  A third nanny comes in for a few hours in the afternoon.  Do the math.  They need so much.  Nannies, nanny training, a washer and dryer, a refrigerator, and the list goes on and on.  A Canadian woman, spending time at Vung Tau 3 right this very minute, is thrilled with the loving attention the babies receive from such a committed but severely limited staff.  She is seeing first hand the glaring need for so much more for the babies and older children residing there.

So Ben and I are going to dinner.  On April 9th.  We will dress in our finest, eat a huge meal, have a few beverages at the included bar, bid on auction items, spend time with waiting parents, purchase a few small items from the fund raising vendors present, and hope.  Hope that those of us living over here, in 3 bedroom homes housing 2 or 3 or 4 people, living in relative comfort, living with rather than without, will come out to the gala for an evening of fun in order to make a huge difference in the lives of children existing in relative discomfort and living without.

In January 2009 we traveled much of our homecoming trip alongside little Miss A.  A Vung Tau baby who did without.  A baby that did not have any fat at all let alone wrist fat on wrist fat.  A baby that had not been held and had learned to do without being held.  I can close my eyes and see her sweet face and her thin little wrist.  She haunts me quite frankly.  Last year's fundraising efforts changed the lives of the children at Vung Tau 1 and 2.  It's number 3's turn.

Let's create airport homecomings that look like this, shall we?  Loved and open to love.