First-Time Mother Is Desperate for Answers

Mrs. Yang could hardly wait to give birth to her first child, Ke.  She planned to throw a traditional Chinese blessing banquet for him when he turned a month old.  But it never happened because Ke was born with a cleft lip and palate.

She explains, “I knew if people saw him, they wouldn’t bless him.  They’d laugh and say he was a monster.”

Mrs. Yang had to take care of Ke herself because her husband works out of town. To protect Ke, she kept him home a lot and covered him when they went out. Still, someone managed to see him.

She asked me, ‘Did you eat rabbit when you were pregnant.  And now your baby is cursed by a rabbit?’” Mrs. Yang recounts.  “After that, the whole village knew about Ke’s cleft lip.”

It was hard for him to eat, and at six months, he was small, malnourished, and always sick.

“I hardly ever saw him smile,” his mother recollects.  “The doctor said maybe it was because of the gap in his lip that his respiratory tract was so susceptible to infection.”

A fortune teller said the reason Ke had problems was because he was haunted by dead people.  The man suggested building a small bridge and having the first person to cross it give Ke a nickname.

“I took the advice,” Mrs. Yang shares.  “And a man gave Ke the nickname ‘Strong Tiger.’  All I had to do was call him that, and he'd be healthy.”

Instead, Ke landed in the hospital with pneumonia.  After this, the Yangs diligently tried to borrow money for cleft lip surgery, but it cost too much.  So, Mrs. Yang searched online for help and found Operation Blessing.  We helped to make Ke’s surgery possible.

Mrs. Yang exclaims, “When I told my husband the good news on the phone, he was so excited that he cried.  Now my son looks good.  His life is full of sunshine, and I don't have to hide him anymore.”

Ke recently turned one.  And Mrs. Yang was finally able to throw him a party.

“Some people hardly recognized him and they apologized for the things they said.  They gave him a lot of blessings,” Mrs. Yang says.  She concludes, “But I know God’s are all that matter because Operation Blessing volunteers told me God always loved my baby.  So, I’m grateful to Him. And I thank the Operation Blessing donors for giving Ke a bright future.”