Amazing what some LOVE can do to a baby

One of the best parts of Starfish is seeing the amazing changes that happen in a year with the children. Of course there are the things like walking and talking but to see a frail baby change into Miss Chubby is amazing. When I volunteered last year we had 2 really small babies. There was 3 month old Grace who only fit the smallest of preemie clothes. When she cried you could barely hear her and it sounded like she was gasping for air. She was a very happy baby and would mainly sleep and stare at you. And she had already been at Starfish for about a month when I came. She was long and skinny. Amanda said she had been a lot smaller when she came. Yeah. I thought that was impossible. 

Know Grace is standing up. She doesn't really want to walk and will cry if her nannies try to help her walk, stand, etc. If she tries to do it though it's a whole different story. If you talk to her she'll give you the big Grace smile. She loves to talk gibberish and sing a song while she does some head banging. She's super smart and when she has her pigtail we all call her Gracie-Lou-Who. :) 

Chris was the other one. He hadn't even been at Starfish for 24 hours when we came. He was 3 months old and newborn was just a little big on him. We called him our "little old man". It was so sad to see him cringe at human touch for the first few days that we were there. Soon he got it and all he wanted was to be held. He was a little jaundice when we got there but after a whole week out in the courtyard he looked a lot better. And he didn't seem that jaundice compared to Sam. By the time we left, a week later, Chris was talking and had already gained a pound. He was sooo cute that if I had to choose another baby besides Mia he would have totally been mine. 

 Now Chris is the king of the walkers. Christy's, one of the assistants,  parents act like his Grandparents and give him all the love he can get. He talks up a storm now and is adorable. He can crawl and he will only walk if his "mama" isn't there. He knows that he will be picked up if he asks. :) He always moving. He's got the cutest smile and his voice is kind of low so it's fun to hear him talk. It took him a couple weeks to get used to me, but by the time I left he was totally fine going to "jie jie".

If I had been told that only 2 babies would make it out of our 6 I would have never put Chris and Grace on the list of survivors. They were so small and fragile. Honestly, Paul and Mia would have been the ones I expected to survive. But things happen and you just have to leave it in God's hands sometimes. The important part, and Starfish's goal, is to love the babies before they can meet their forever families. And those babies got tons of loving in the isolation room.