Which Photo Do You Think is Cutest? We Could Not Choose.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Play time helps the long hours waiting for heart surgery go faster.

One of the things we are committed to as the Preemptive Love Coalition is our Family Services Program.

We do more than fund heart surgeries; we invest our lives in the families we serve.

We typically spend months with a family after identifying their child and selecting him or her for surgery. We are on the ground in Istanbul, Turkey when children arrive for heart surgery. We are Americans living in Iraq, in the hospitals with moms and dads during the long, confusing hours leading up to surgery. And we are in the homes of most of our children for six months after surgery to ensure proper followthrough, post-operative check ups, etc. Somewhere along the way, we start talking about “those kids” as “our kids.” And that’s when everything changes.

Mohammad Fwad is one of our kids. He didn’t just show up at the hospital after the TV station announced the beginning of our Remedy Mission like hundreds others we had never met.

He was on our list and we have been in his home for months. He’s one of ours… he is one of yours! He is scheduled for surgery on Sunday. Please stay tuned!

Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #Remedy or #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq this week via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.