Kids Ran Away From Her

MeiLan was 11 when the woman she always knew as her Grandmother told her she was adopted.  Grandma Lu raised MeiLan as her own, after she was found abandoned on the street because her cleft lip and palate.

Grandma Lu says, “I always told her to be strong.  I said don’t feel insecure because of your mouth.”

But kids ran from her, like she was a monster.  Once, a boy spat on her.  While MeiLan hid her emotions when this happened, she could barely look at herself in the mirror.

She confesses, “Deep down, I wanted to be beautiful. I hated myself and I felt like a joke.”

She loved fairytales and dreamed of having a mouth like the movie stars she saw on TV.

“I hoped that I’d meet a fairy and she’d touch my mouth and make me all better!” MeiLan shares.

But when MeiLan’s adoptive dad died, she lost hope that she’d ever get surgery and be beautiful. So, she started working in the fields. She’d never gone to school and could barely write her name.

“I had no friends, no future,” MeiLan expresses with sadness.  “I felt like a bird without wings.”

Then a neighbor told MeiLan’s grandma about CBN.  We quickly payed for cleft lip and palate surgery.

“I’m experiencing a very different life now.   I can finally go to school. I feel pretty,” MeiLan exclaims.  She concludes, “I can look at myself in the mirror and smile with confidence, like a movie star.  I’m so happy and free! It’s all because of you, CBN.  You gave me a new life!”