Life-Giving Love

" The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things.

But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."

-Mother Teresa

It's been a long time since we had to say no...

We often have children on our waiting lists, but in the past we knew that it was only a matter of time before a bed would open and they'd come to join our ever-growing family. But now it's a little different... Our surgery funds are severely depleted, and though we're waiting on some grant applications to be decided, right now they are all still pending.

So when we got a call last week about 2 little girls who needed heart surgeries, we had to say no... And its the hardest thing we've done in a while.

Losing a baby after they've had their surgery is tragic, but its even worse when a child never gets a chance. We're hopeful that this "no" is really "wait a while," but until our surgery fund is replenished, we will not be able to bring in more complex cases. And it's the children with complex cases that need surgery the most! Children like Cora and Robert and Chase and Debra; they are the ones whose only physical chance for survival hinges on their ability to get surgery, and the only way they'll get surgery is if we help them!  And those are the ones who you already know and love!  Just think about how many still wait...

So friends, we're calling for your help. The other day, you raised the money needed to send our kids on a field trip in less than 24 hours. What if we dreamed a bit bigger? What if we called upon you, our online community, to save a life? A heart surgery costs between $5,000-$10,000 here in China. What if you worked together to give a child the life-saving surgery they need? What if you gave 3 or 5 children their surgeries?

So here is my challenge... can you, by May 1, raise funds to pay for one complicated heart surgery? Let's make it personal... How about Kiah's? Can you work together to raise $8,000 to pay for her VSD and ASD surgery?

She's worth it, don't you think?

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Wanna help? Here's what you can do:

• Give to our surgery fund.  Designate Kiah's name if you want it to go towards this 'lil collaborative effort.
• Visit our surgeries needed page and take a look at the other children who need operations. Maybe someone else will jump out at you; perhaps your church, school, business, or community organization will want to 'adopt' a child's surgery.
• Post about this on your blog. Twitter about it. Share it with your facebook friends.  Tell your MOPs group.  Invite others to join you in meeting this challenge.
• Have an idea of a way to spread the word or raise funds for this cause? Send your ideas to carrie@newdaycreations.com.

I'll keep you updated on our progress!!

We don't normally use the blog for fund raising... and I promise that's not what it's going to turn into. But we just had to turn away two babies and that's heartbreaking. So heartbreaking, in fact, that we're changing our tactics a bit and asking for your help.