Giving the Gift of Hope and Healing

Yuehang could hardly wait to have a little brother…until he saw him for the first time.

Mr. Li recalls, “He turned away and cried and said to me, ‘Dad, he’s not my brother. He doesn’t look anything like me.’”  

Zhao had a cleft lip and palate.

Mr. Li says, “I told his brother, ‘Even though he has health problems, as a brother, you must love him even more.’”

But when neighbors saw Zhao, they mocked him.

His mother remembers, “They pointed to him and said, ‘Please don’t take this broken-mouthed doll out. He’ll spoil other kids’ childhoods.  One guy actually asked me, ‘Did you eat rabbits when you were pregnant? And that’s why you have a baby with a cleft lip?’  I ran home with him in my arms. I held him tight and cried.”

From then on, the couple kept their son at home.

“He was like a bird in captivity. He couldn’t see the sun,” Mr. Li remembers.

Mrs. Li shares, “When he looked at himself in the mirror, he covered his mouth and cried. Once he broke the mirror in anger.  He must not have liked the way he looked.  Sometimes, he held my hand and cried.  When I looked at his tears, I was very sad.”

Meanwhile, his brother kept him company.

“He acted like a superhero, “Mrs. Li explains.  “He’d wave and say, ‘Brother, I’ll protect you. I’ll help you get rid of all the bad guys.’”

Mr. Li worked two jobs to save money for surgery and finally thought he could afford it.

“I was very happy,” Mr. Li says.  “But the doctor said it wasn’t enough.  I didn’t know what to do. Then, one day, a man in a nearby village told me that a child he knew also had a cleft lip and palate. He said CBN helped him and maybe if we contacted them, they could help us.”

The Lis contacted CBN, and we paid for Zhou’s cleft lip surgery.

“His operation went very well. I almost didn’t recognize him when I first saw him,” exclaims Mrs. Li.

“Now his mouth looks normal.  He eats a lot and has a lot of strength.,” Mr. Li states.  “Yi’s brother said, ‘Dad, if he continues to gain weight, I may not be able to carry him anymore.’”  He concludes, “Without CBN donors, my son would still be living in the dark. You gave him light and freedom. You made his future bright, and you gave hope to our whole family.”