Warning: Read with a box of tissue

The follow letter from Amy Eldridge, founder of Love Without Boundaries, has been posted on a number of forums and lists that I visit. It is a real tear jerker... I think I'll let it speak for it's self.

The Story of a Boy
Sometimes children have such a strong will to
beat the odds that their stories deserve to be told. Sometimes children
give me so much inspiration that I keep their photos by my desk in
order to feel their strength when my own is faltering. Sometimes there
are children that I know are destined to impact the world in some
wonderful way. This is the story of one such boy.

This little boy was born with a severe cleft lip and palate, and when he came into the world, he was already too tiny to survive. But he did. When the
police brought him to the orphanage, he weighed just 4 pounds. You
couldn't really call him a beautiful baby, but immediately the
orphanage knew he was a determined baby. Even as a newborn, he would
lie awake in his crib looking around. His orphanage was a poor one,
down a long rural road, and even though the women who were caring for
him were extremely kind, they were also extremely busy trying to make
sure all of the babies in their care got at least a few bottles a day.
This little boy couldn't eat well. When you are born with a cleft lip
and palate, often the simplest act of drinking from a bottle is next to
impossible. You WANT to eat, (boy do you want to eat), but when the
milk comes out fast from a regular bottle, you choke and gasp and
sometimes even give up trying. This little boy wanted to eat, he really
did, but it just wasn't working for him. And so as the months went by,
he didn't seem to grow any bigger.

The aunties and orphanage director were really worried about him, but there was no one in their town that knew about cleft lips, and so they honestly
didn't know what to do. They kept trying their best, but the baby still didn't gain weight.

In September, we took a cleft surgery team to China in order to perform
surgery on as many orphans as possible. We had heard about this little
boy from an adoptive parent who had visited the orphanage, and so we
called the director to see if he could possibly come to Luoyang. Now
that I have been in much of this province, I realize what a long
journey it can be to get city to city. We were on one side of the
province, and they were on the other. Yet when we called them to say
"we would be happy to help this baby", the orphanage was so filled with
hope for this child that they were in the car with him 30 minutes after
our phone call. Six hours later they arrived, and I will never forget
them hurrying into the room to bring him to me. They had him all
bundled up, and immediately I could see that he was far too tiny for
his age. And yet there was something so amazing about his eyes. They
stared out at you as if to say "please don't give up on me".

Our whole team fell in love with this tiny little boy. Our volunteers gave
him a warm bath, and we put him in clean clothes and wrapped him up in
a new blanket, and then we got out the cleft bottle. These bottles
cannot be bought in China. None of us have been able to figure out why
yet, but we sure are asking a lot of companies to look into it for us.
Cleft bottles are often ESSENTIAL bottles to the tiny babies with cleft
who are unable to feed well. They are soft bodied, so a caregiver can
squeeze the formula into a baby's mouth. We filled up one of these
bottles with warm formula, and "Hercules" (as he came to be known on
that mission) had the first full bottle of his life. I don't think any
of us had a dry eye when he finished.

All through the night, our volunteers rocked him and held him and
most of all fed him. One mom curled up on a cot and placed baby Hercules
right next to her to sleep. He was all bundled up and warm, and I am sure he
had some of his sweetest dreams ever that night.

By the next day, he was already looking so much better, but he was
nowhere near heavy enough to have a cleft operation. We required our babies
to be at least 10 pounds for their safety during surgery, and he was only
up to 7. He had a ways to go. When we broke the news to the orphanage staff,
they were so disappointed. They had been so hopeful that he could be
healed. We sent the aunties home with a bag full of cleft bottles and several
huge cans of the best formula we could find. We assured them that as
soon as this little boy hit 10 pounds, we would make sure he had surgery.

All of us hated to see him go. We had all enjoyed holding him, and I
think since he was the size of a newborn, all of us moms enjoyed sitting on
a cot rocking him and cooing at him. Boy did he have a tight grip! He
constantly reached out for your hand and would grab onto one finger
and refuse to let go. When he left, I have to admit that I started to
cry, wondering if he could keep that fighting spirit inside of him.
Every day after I got back home, I would pray for baby Hercules.

In December, a few months after returning from China, I got a feeling
in my heart so strong that I had to go to his orphanage. I knew that was
crazy..as we are in the process of adopting and I would be going back
again in the spring. But I heard it so clearly.."go to Henan".

When I told my husband, he was understandably skeptical. Who
wouldn't be? He knew I would be going in the spring to bring our son home, and of
course..we were saving for our adoption and an "extra" trip to China
wasn't exactly in our budget. Everyone with our foundation pays their own
way to China each time we go, and this trip definitely wasn't in the "game
plan". But over and over I kept hearing, "you need to go to Henan."

I think I told everyone the funny story about it being our 20th
wedding anniversary in December. My dear husband was trying to figure out
the best gift to give me, and when he googled "20th anniversary wedding gift",
he just stared at the results that came back, for the traditional gift
that a man gives his wife on year 20 is CHINA. Now of course the old
giftmakers meant china as in plates, but thankfully my husband looked at that
and just started laughing. God was giving him a very clear sign that his
gift for me was to head overseas. And so I did.

As I walked into the orphanage baby room in January, there was only
one baby on my mind, and he was in the second crib over. There was little
Hercules, sucking on his two fingers the same way he had on the cleft mission,
and looking just as wise as ever. Oh he was still so tiny, and as I
held him, I knew in my heart that he was getting more and more tired of
fighting.

I just can't say enough good things about the workers in this
orphanage. They told us over and over how much they wanted him to gain weight
but that he just couldn't eat well since there were so many babies and not
enough hands. "He needs one on one care", they told me. And even as
they said it, I knew exactly where he needed to be. This little boy needed to
go to Beijing, to the Hope Foster Home, where he could have his own aunty
who was trained to work with little fighters like him.

I knew that the Hills often have a long waiting list of babies with
special needs who require extra care. We have asked them many times to help
with children we meet who medically would be called "critical". With a
deep breath, I borrowed my friend's cell phone and rang Joyce
Hill. "There is this baby...." (I began as always).. "How fast can you get him here?"
(she answered right back).

As I hung up the phone, I knew that this little boy was going to make
it. I knew that HE was the little boy that we were in China for. Would
you fly all the way across the world for just one little child? I know we
all would. There is a very good reason we chose "Every Child Counts" as
our motto, and little Hercules had proven once again that each child we
can touch is a blessing beyond belief. His life and ours had crossed
months before on the cleft mission, and now they were going to continue
together until he was well.

The next day, we started our treacherous journey through the snow and
ice to the airport, with two very near misses of what could have been fatal
accidents. We sat in the airport for almost two days, with no heat
and a blizzard going on outside, and all flights out of Henan cancelled.
People around us were angry...people all around us were frustrated and
upset. But my friend and I could not stop smiling. We both had a peace inside
our hearts that I cannot even describe. It didn't matter that we were
snowed in, it didn't matter that we couldn't feel our toes anymore. All
that mattered is that we had come to China to see one tiny little boy, who
would soon be on his way to healing. We were laughing and smiling, and
we must have been so out of place amongst all of the anger and frustration
because more than one group of people came up to us to say "you are having
too much fun so let us in on your secret." To which we replied, laughing once
more to each other, "oh we are just SO HAPPY!"

Since there was a major snowstorm in the region, getting the baby to
Beijing was going to be difficult, but the orphanage said that as soon as
they could move him they would. All of the trains were sold out for the
Chinese spring festival, but they finally were able to find space on a train
leaving New Year's Day. This is a day typically spent with one's family,
and no one who can avoid it works on that day, but as I said...these aunties
want to help their babies so much that they said, "we'll take those
tickets" without a second thought. And so on New Year's Day, two aunties and
baby Hercules boarded a train to his new life. We have already received
photos and updates, and he is downing a full cleft bottle every 3 hours and
charming everyone with his wise little eyes. Until his adoption,
he is now "home". And I know he is going to thrive because I have seen the
strength inside him.

I told you that I have photos all around me of children that have
beaten the odds. Their faces stare out at me from my office walls, and
sometimes when I am up late at night, I will take a moment to look at each one of
them and say a prayer of thanksgiving that they are in this world. One of my
dear friends told me that it is impossible to fully measure the worth of
one person's life, because that person will go on to touch others, who
will touch others...in a never ending cycle of humanity. Now Hercules'
photo stares out at me, and I pray for him each day and know he will "do
great things" on this earth. Maybe he will be a doctor, maybe he will be
the one to invent a cure for cancer, maybe he will be a loving and gentle
daddy someday. I cannot wait to watch him grow. I hope someday I will see him
adopted, and that his family can tell him how many people loved him
and prayed for him when he was just a tiny baby boy. How his aunties
drove so far in September with tender hope in their hearts that our doctors
could heal him....how two moms from America flew all the way to China to
make sure he was doing okay...how his caregivers agreed to leave their own
families on New Year's Day to travel by train to Beijing, clinging once more to
the hope that he could find help. And he did. That's a pretty good story
already for a little boy just nine months old, don't you think? And
as I stare at his photo tonight..I know with such certainty that it is
just the beginning of a TRUE story of great things to come.

With a very grateful heart,

Amy