Ailing orphans find haven in Shanghai

Babies get treatment, hope and care to raise chance of adoption

One-year-old Liu Junmeng recently waved goodbye to her five "mothers" and "father" in Shanghai to go to Henan (her birthplace) for a passport photo, and she is expected to arrive in the United Stated on Saturday to live with her adoptive family.

Just 11 month ago, she had been left at an orphanage in Henan, probably because she had a cleft lip.

From there, she joined 11 other infants with birth defects in a house in southwest Shanghai, the Lupin Foster Home. The infants were waiting for, or recovering from, surgery.

"Meng Meng (Liu Junmeng) had her surgery (to correct her cleft lip) last October and her adoption papers were finalized at the beginning of November. That was one of our happiest moments - to experience this kind of life-changing result," said Du Wei, one of the six founders of Lupin Foster Home.

Decorated like a mini kindergarten, the foster home, an NGO, opened a year ago to care for sick, orphaned infants from remote areas of China, to help raise funds for their surgeries in Shanghai and to offer a free, cozy place for them to recover.