Our Little Bin!

If you are 'a new kid on my blog', you may not know that Apert Syndrome is a rare congenital disorder caused by a genetic defect on chromosome 10. We have two children with Apert Syndrome at Xining Children's Home.

Sixteen-year-old BinBin is absolutely charming and regularly wraps his friends, carers, brothers and sisters around his surgically separated little finger.

Six years ago, another baby with Apert Syndrome arrived at Xining Children’s Home. The staff were so struck by the new baby’s resemblance to BinBin that they started calling the new baby ‘Xiao Bin’, or Little Bin. That name has stuck fast!

Xiao Bin’s character is every bit as charming as BinBin’s!  He lives in Xin Ning Court with his foster parents and foster brother and sisters: 13-year-old Hua, 11–year-old Ji, and eight-year-old Zheng Yan.   Xiao Bin is six, which makes him the baby of the family, and of course they treat him as their baby.  His big sisters absolutely adore him! They spoil him by helping him do his share of the household chores.  It takes a firm word from his foster mother, Mrs. Jin, to get the often mischievous boy to do as he is told. Fortunately he is well disciplined!

Every morning Xiao Bin goes off school where he is studying K3, along with several other children from Xin Ning Court.  Only children functioning at fairly high levels, and who are able to care for themselves can attend public school in Xining, so we are thrilled that Xiao Bin is able to integrate with the community. He is a little shy with strangers, but his confidence picks up amazingly when he is with his brother and sisters.

Placing children into families, even if these are small group homes, dramatically lifts their levels of self confidence because they receive a higher level of individual attention.  Importantly, the feeling of belonging to a family and being loved by a mama and a papa is the best thing that has happened to them so far in their lives.

Thank you for helping us make these small group homes possible.