Henry: Postscript Update

Monday, August 11, 2008

Postscript Update

Late this afternoon we returned briefly to the hospital where Henry's lip sutures were quickly removed to let his skin heal in the area surrounding them. In four to six weeks our team will try the lip adhesion again. "This is a delay not a setback," said our wise old expert, quite matter of factly, after closely surveying the affected tissue. The interior palate area surgery continues to hold, although it will be vulnerable for a few more weeks and those clunky, uncomfortable arm mitts will need to stay on. A kind friend summarized the situation best: the smile they gave us last week just wasn't the permanent one Henry was supposed to have. So for a little longer we'll have his original smile, which had always been just fine to us as temporary.

3 comments:

Sharon said...: Hey guys! Just catching up...we are two weeks post-op for Hudson's palate surgery. They also did a nose lift and lip revision. Recovery was rough but he is doing well now.
Sorry to hear you will need to re-do his lip but as you say....he is so loved and all will be fine in time.; August 11, 2008 at 11:03 PM
mumma to many said...: Ouch it looks sore to me and Henry looks like such a trooper!
Positive wishes heading your way across the ocean!
Hugs Ruth in NZ; August 12, 2008 at 2:41 AM
The Montieth Family said...: Oh poor Henry was just doing what ALL toddlers do, I know of many who have fallen into tables (including my own Emma)! I feel so sorry for him that he caught his lip though! :(

He sure does look sore in that picture and not happy about those arm bands I am sure! Yet, he just has this aura of strength about him in these pictures. With Henry's strength and the wisdom of his surgeon...the 3rd time will be a charm! : ) In the mean time he is as handsome as ever, quite the ladies man in the making! ; P

Blessings,
The Montieth Family
Megan, Greg and Emma
(Making Progress on Our I171H Approval for Sophie, Week 24 & Hopefully the LAST One).; August 12, 2008 at 5:15 PM

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How This All Began

It was a typically dusty afternoon on September 11, 2006 in a dry, hardscrabble, terraced plateau region of Gansu Province in northwest China. There in Jingchuan County south of the city of Pingliang, a driver named Tian Wu Ping had just dropped off a fare at a roadside hotel called the Tian Yuan Guest House when something caught his eye on the east side of the crossroad and next to a refuse bin.

It looked at first like a bundle of rags but turned out to be an infant wrapped in an old cotton quilt, a small baby boy who appeared to be newborn. Tian picked up the child and called the local police. The baby had been abandoned. He was missing part of his face below his nose. Born with a serious cleft anomaly, he had no bone structure between the upper bridge of his nose and his lower jaw, and no separation between his oral and nasal/sinus cavities.

Moreover, the child had been left by the roadside without the usual effects. No red cloth note indicating a birth date. No bottle, cup, or packet of formula. No infant clothes. The police drove him north to Pingliang and turned him over to the prefecture Civil Affairs Bureau, which placed him with the Pingliang City Social Welfare Institute. The staff at this orphanage named him Liang Xiao (Small) Wei (Big).

On admittance, a doctor noted that Xiao Wei was indeed just a day or two old and underweight at 5 lbs. Then this frail little child took his place among about 80 other children then at the orphanage. Another exam at five months showed that despite the issues that can accompany his condition, Xiao Wei was small but growing. So the orphanage staff posed him for a few photos and prepared a dossier of paperwork to send off to Beijing, to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA), for his case to be accepted into the CCAA’s waiting child program.

China's waiting child program seeks to find homes internationally for orphaned or abandoned children with special needs that might otherwise make finding a family highly unlikely. These can include treatable medical issues such as congenital heart disease, Hepatitis B, cleft issues, or spina bifuda. Some waiting children have more severe issues.

Not all abandoned children with special needs become waiting children. Not all waiting children find homes.