Source: People's Daily - Ningxia Channel
"Zeze (pseudonym), let's get dressed and go out!"
Just after the summer solstice, the weather is getting warmer, taking her son Zeze downstairs to play is one of the things that "mother" Li Yuexia has to do every day, but wearing clothes is a seemingly ordinary small thing, and she is often sweating. "Come, squeeze your little hand into a fist, awesome, and then stretch your arm..." Li Yuexia guided Zeze to get dressed, and her mouth kept talking.
At this time, the eldest daughter (pseudonym) standing in the living room pointed to her shoes and babbled, as if she wanted to go out quickly.
Sawazawa and Yuu are two special children. Zeze is 6 years old this year, is a child with cerebral palsy, life can not take care of themselves; you are 12 years old this year, is a child with Down syndrome, eating and dressing can be done independently, but the understanding and communication skills are still very poor. Their "mother" Li Yuexia is a foster mother in Huifeng Village, Yongning County, Yinchuan City, Ningxia, including Youniu and Zeze, who has fostered orphans and disabled children in 4 children's welfare homes for 20 years. "I don't know how I stuck with it, I just like children and feel like I'm related to these children." Talking about this matter, Li Yuexia's eyes often burst into tears.
Li Yuexia is playing with toys with her two children. People's Daily Photo by Gao Jiawei
Because of their congenital illness, Youniu and Zeze were abandoned by their biological parents as soon as they were born, and later adopted in the Ningxia Children's Welfare Institute.
"Compared with centralized support in welfare homes, children in foster care are more secure, and returning to the family is more conducive to their healthy growth." Wang Jin, director of the Family Foster Care Service Center of the Ningxia Children's Welfare Institute, said that family foster care is a new model of raising orphans and disabled children, funded by the government, and some orphans and disabled children are fostered in families with conditions.
Benefiting from this new model, the four children have come to Li Yuexia's home.
"A bowl of rice takes an hour to eat, and when you cry, your lips turn purple." Li Yuexia recalled the scene when Zeze first came, holding it like a match, the child's muscles were very stiff and his neck was very soft, and he couldn't lift it at all. It is said that children can eat long, Li Yuexia looked for Chinese medicine tuina, according to the recipe to make nutritious meals. When the child could not eat meat, she got up early every morning to boil bone broth; when the child could not bite the fruit, she squeezed the fruit into juice and fed it spoon by spoon.
One afternoon in the summer of 2019, Sawazawa, who suffered from congenital heart disease, relapsed, and 55-year-old Li Yuexia stood guard at the entrance of the ICU for three days and three nights.
Although they are not flesh and blood, they are still parents.
"You have to go through special education courses every day, and Zeze also has to undergo rehabilitation training." Li Yuexia said she not only needs to be the mother of her children, but also as their accompanying and rehabilitation trainer.
With 20 spring and autumn to guard the growth of 4 children, Li Yuexia's efforts are unimaginable to ordinary people, and the cute children also give back to her in their own way. Zeze can now walk on the ground, and his hands can also be open to grasp things, looking like a normal child.
"She couldn't speak, but she brought me a bouquet of flowers from school and danced the dance she learned." The day before Mother's Day in 2021, Li Yuexia received a holiday gift from the girl, and she hugged the girl tightly and cried silently.
Youyi is dancing a newly learned dance for Li Yuexia. People's Daily Photo by Gao Jiawei
In Huifeng Village, Yongning County, Yinchuan City, there are many "foster mothers" like this. There are currently 84 orphans and disabled children living in 48 households. Over the past 20 years, a total of 334 children have lived in 102 families.
In 2001, when the Ningxia Children's Welfare Institute was carrying out family foster care in Yongning County, Wang Shumin, then the director of women in Huifeng Village, took Wang Jin to visit the village and give popularization to the villagers. "Because most of the people who need foster care are orphans and disabled children, many villagers are reluctant to do so." Wang Jin said.
"No matter how much you say, you might as well do it yourself." Wang Shumin saw the situation and took the initiative to find Wang Jin to apply for foster care, and also became a foster mother. Up to now, she has raised 5 children in foster care. Now Kang Kang (pseudonym) and Li Li (pseudonym) still live with her, compared to other children, Kang Kang and Li Li can communicate with Wang Shumin simply, and often do some small things at home.
Kang Kang and Li Li are seriously making games. People's Daily Photo by Gao Jiawei
It is precisely because of the leaders such as Li Yuexia and Wang Shumin that this love has been continuously passed on, and more and more villagers in Huifeng Village have joined the ranks of family foster care. It has gradually become the first foster village in Ningxia that is famous for families of orphans and disabled children.
"According to the rules of family foster care, when these orphans and disabled children reach the age of 18, they have to return to live in social welfare institutions." Wang Jin said that taking care of children is hard, but the difference is like a death.
"I have to see the two children sent to the welfare home every year, and I don't dare to think about what I should do when Zeze is gone, they are even closer than my own!" Li Yuexia said with red eyes.
"The album is full of pictures of children, so take it out and look at it." Wang Shumin's mobile phone was already full of photos, but he was reluctant to delete any of them.
On one side, they become mother and son; without blood connection, they are like relatives, and the greatest power in the world is maternal love, and this maternal love that transcends blood is the great love of the world.