The Smallest Moments

I want you to imagine an Easter Sunday morning in a rural part of China. Two wonderful volunteers for LWB had been invited to share a meal that day at a local family’s home with the orphanage director. They sat on assorted stools placed on the cement floor and looked out at the countryside and rice paddies through wide open doors. There was no other furniture in the room, except a shrine to honor ancestors.

One hen nested in a cardboard box behind the door while others pecked at the crumbs that had fallen from the table. The volunteers soon learned that while they ate…...a tiny baby slept in the furthest back room. He had been abandoned with an abdominal surgical scar and a misshaped head.

The volunteers were told he was four months old, but they immediately could see that he was the size of a newborn. Wondering what his fate would be in the rural countryside if he wasn’t seen by a doctor, the volunteers asked if he could be sent to the hospital for a full evaluation. Thanks to some wonderful supporters, he was able to be moved right away. That tiny little boy spent a month in the hospital receiving needed medical care, and then was moved to an LWB foster care program to live with one of our very best mommas. He was loved completely in that home for the next 2 years.

This past December, he was adopted to the United States, and his mom just wrote to us asking if we had any information on her son. There is always so much joy when we learn that a child we have helped has been united with a loving family. This child, however, brought both joy to our hearts but also a realization that the smallest of moments can change the course of one’s life forever. What if the invitation to eat in the rural home had not been extended to our volunteers? They would never have seen the tiny baby in the back room. What if they had chosen to not speak up and say “we think he needs care”? Or what if the funding had not been available at that moment to move him to the hospital for a month long stay?

But the beautiful thing in this story is that the volunteers did share that humble Sunday meal, and they were taken to the back bedroom to meet a little baby. Everything came together in the perfect way for one more child to be given a second chance at a healthy life. And when that happens……I can only close my eyes and give the sincerest thanks for everyone who takes the time to care about the children around the world who are orphaned.



To everyone who volunteers, who lifts prayers, who gives of their hearts and their funds to those in need……THANK YOU. You may never even know how your gifts have changed the course of someone’s life, but I hope this story shows that when we step out in love, beautiful things can happen. I think life is filled with these moments that we might think are insignificant at the time, but which allow tiny miracles of hope to shine through. And how wonderful is that?

Amy