Once in a while a story comes along that must be shared:

I was reading the alumni magazine of Franciscan University (FUS) and ran across a profile written by Emily Stimpson about a graduate named Shannon Walsh. When Shannon was an undergraduate, she read a book for one of her classes about a Chinese mother’s suffering under the one-child policy called, A Mother’s Ordeal by Steven Mosher. The book made an impact and she began to pray for China every day.

Eighteen months later, after graduation, Shannon began to pray about her desire to work in a Chinese orphanage. She immediately received -- and I mean immediately (ten minutes later) -- a phone call from a friend, offering her the opportunity she’d been praying for. Four weeks later, she was on China’s east coast, working for a small, privately run orphanage. “She was the only American, the only English speaker and the only Catholic,” writes Stimpson.

It was overwhelming in many ways and included an experience with a baby named Max, who arrived with a cleft palate and couldn’t drink from a bottle. Although the staff advised her to let him be, Shannon believed God wanted Max to live so she fed him from a dropper and he slept with her at night. He grew healthy and strong enough for surgery. And he survived.

After a couple of years, she returned home to the U.S. to recover and rest. Then she went back to work for ChinaCare Foundation in Beijing, which primarily took in special needs babies who had been abandoned.

The orphanage had a problem. Some of the children were beyond help and were simply going to die. The orphanage questioned the wisdom of keeping them since their beds could be used for children in better shape. They considered sending the dying kids back to the state.

Shannon knew what that would mean: Terrible conditions for the babies, who would end up dying alone. So she proposed a solution: She would open a home for these children. Through the generous donations of friends and fellow FUS alumni, she raised enough money to open the doors of Loving Heart Home in February 2007. Soon, with some new renovations, they’ll be able to accommodate 20 babies.

The babies are cared for by Shannon and 15 local women. (Some women from the West have also come to help.) No one has medical training, they just do their best to love and care for the kids. And every now and then, one of the babies makes it. Shannon and company raise money to provide surgery or other medical treatments the children may need.

Shannon is quoted at the end of the story:

These babies are going to die whether we take care of them or not, but if we’re not loving them and caring for them, nobody will... Nobody will cry when they die. We cry.

The story of Shannon and Loving Heart Home is a beautiful testament to what one person can do when she follows God and the desires He puts in her heart.