Born in 2013, Liane came to the attention of our China staff when she was one year old. She was living in a rural area of China with her grandparents while her parents sought work far away in a city. Liane had been born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate which greatly hampered her ability to drink from a bottle.
Liane’s grandparents could not afford the cleft repair surgery that she needed. Fortunately, the timing was perfect for Liane to participate in our 2014 Cleft Exchange.
Liane’s grandparents loved her dearly and told our team how difficult it had been to feed her because of her open lip and palate. Obviously, they had done a splendid job because Liane was one happy and chubby baby.
Those full and rosy cheeks were the product of spooning formula into her mouth, one teaspoon at a time. Simply incredible!
The doctors volunteering for our Cleft Exchange did a beautiful job of repairing Liane’s lip, and she recovered quickly and returned home with her grandparents.
One year later, Liane met up with our Cleft Exchange team once again to have her open palate repaired. Closing her palate made eating easier still and helped with her speech development.
All these years later, we were able to follow up on little Liane. She continues to live with her beloved grandparents and is now a 3rd-grade student who is completely accepted by her friends and the local community. We hear that she is a very sweet girl. Doesn’t she look it?
Countless stories of hope and healing like Liane’s have unfolded since LWB held its very first Cleft Exchange in 2004. Since that time, international medical teams visiting three different countries have helped over 1,000 children receive surgery for cleft lips and palates.
We give thanks to all the incredible people who have supported our work to help children born with cleft. We continue to be committed to helping wherever we can with this medical need, providing special cleft feeding bottles, surgeries, post-op care in our healing homes, and general cleft education.
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