September 21, 2009

A “Luckey” Boy

Imagine your little boy with hemophilia abandoned, left in an orphanage, with no factor. It seems impossible, inhuman. You can only imagine the depths of despair or fear that cause parents to abandon their child.

Lu Feng, age 8, was abandoned when his parents learned he had hemophilia. In China, families are permitted only one child. This doesn’t stop parents from abandoning one if it is not desirable. Girls get abandoned, and so do physically defective children, especially when there is no treatment for him. Lu Feng has been in an orphanage most of his young life.

We were contacted by the adoption agency: would anyone in the hemophilia community be interested? We sent out an email in March, and within one week we had serious replies. Eventually, one family was selected … the Luckeys of Michigan. Their son Jay has hemophilia and an inhibitor. I met Dave and Shari a few years ago at a consumer meeting. Nice people: intelligent, warm, educated and informed.

I was thrilled to hear they had been selected! But big barriers remained. Step 1, we had to get factor to Lu Feng, to keep him healthy until he made it “home,” to America. That was easily done. We have excellent contacts in China from our humanitarian work there. Delin Kong, person with hemophilia and one of the founders of the Hemophilia Home of China, immediately got in touch with the orphanages and doctors, and we had the shipment approved.

Step 2: raise money. The Luckeys used every bit of their life savings, $13,000, to put towards the adoption. But the expenses required at least $10,000 more dollars, a fortune for them. The adoption agency created an Active.com page, and we offered to alert the entire community from our database, over 3,000 US families with hemophilia. Within five minutes we had money coming in. Within hours, thousands. Within 30 hours, we had raised over $15,000.

Clearly, there is something about saving the life of one child that is compelling. And the US hemophilia community cares deeply about children with hemophilia in developing countries.

Lu Feng has a family, at long last. His new brother and sisters are waiting to meet him in Michigan. The Luckeys were overwhelmed by the outpouring they experienced. Dave says, “I can truly say that I am humbled by the generosity. We had been worried about how we would finance the remainder and were going to have to use our home equity line of credit. Obviously that was making us fairly nervous. I wish I had words to express our gratitude but I can honestly say there are none that would justly convey the emotion.”

Thanks to everyone who donated! You have helped to completely change the life of one little boy, who, left parentless in China, faced certain early death. He now has a shot at life, and in America! But above all, thanks to Dave and Shari for opening their hearts and home and lives to welcome Lu Feng.

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