CNN: Boy abandoned to the dogs gets surgery in the US

"NEW YORK (AP) -- From the right side, Daniel Wachira looks like any other bubbly 4-year-old, but Daniel was abandoned at birth and left on a trash heap in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was mauled by dogs and nearly killed.

The left side of his face is missing and he is in the United States for surgery to replace the missing jawbone, cheek and ear.

"Three minutes later, it would have been in the jugular," said Larry Jones, who with his wife, Frances, founded the Christian relief organization Feed the Children in 1979. The couple serve as Daniel's legal guardians. "He would have been gone."

The Joneses, of Oklahoma City, will head to Houston for 11 hours of surgery -- the
first of several grueling operations Daniel will have over the next 10 years -- on June 1.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Sean Boutros and other doctors at Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital are donating their services, estimated at $1 million in U.S. dollars.

Because of the shape of his mouth, Daniel has trouble forming words. But he is fluent in English and Swahili, and, sitting on the carpet in the Joneses' Midtown hotel, sang "Jesus Loves Me" in both languages.

His life so far is a Bible story -- part Moses among the bullrushes, part Daniel in the lion's den.

And, like the Biblical Adam, he will lose a rib. "They're going to take a rib out of his side and put it in his jaw so that his teeth will grow properly," Larry Jones said.

Doctors also plan to take some muscle from Daniel's shoulder to form a cheek. And in a few years, when his head is more nearly grown, they hope to make an ear out of another rib.

'I'll be a big boy'
Frances Jones said Daniel is just starting to know he is different.

"He told me that his face was broken one day," she said. "I said, 'Oh, maybe somebody could fix your face.' And he said, 'I really want that.' He said, 'I'll be a big boy."'

A good Samaritan rescued Daniel from the dogs and took him to the police. They took him to a hospital in Nairobi, where he spent eight months. He was brought to the Frances Jones Abandoned Baby Center, an orphanage run by Feed the Children in Nairobi, where he lived until flying to the United States with the Joneses two months ago.

His future is unknown. The Joneses travel frequently for Feed the Children, which provides food and other supplies to families in all 50 U.S. states and around the world, and they are in their 60s with two grown children.

"It's been a long time since we had a 4-year-old in our home," Frances Jones said.

They may seek a family to adopt Daniel. "We're taking it a step at a time," Larry Jones said.

Frances Jones said she spent a year and a half soliciting financial backing to make Daniel's surgery possible. Plane tickets were donated by the airlines, and other expenses will be borne by members of Houston megachurch Lakewood Church.

"How can you say no to this child when you see him?" she asked."

Yahoo!News/AP: Soldier on leave from Iraq meets his third grade penpals

"By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 12, 4:14 AM ET


SMITHTOWN, N.Y. - Third-graders at the St. Patrick School know nothing of roadside bombs or the insurgents in Iraq. They only know their pen pal, Sgt. Travis Collier, is serving there.
Collier ? home from Iraq on a two-week leave ? interrupted the students' math lesson Thursday with a surprise visit after flying all night from his home in Murrieta, Calif., to thank the children for their letters and gifts.

"We are the luckiest kids in America right now!" shrieked Katie Curry.

Gina Giamundo gushed: "I was, like, so excited! I was so happy that he came, I was about to cry. It's just a great dream come true."

Shortly after 10 a.m., teacher Elise Perri asked her 26 pupils to pay attention for a special announcement.

"I'm going to introduce to you Sgt. Travis Collier," she said to wide eyes and gasps. "He came all the way from Iraq to see you."

Collier walked in, sharply dressed in his Army uniform, ready for any drill sergeant's inspection.

"You guys get all my letters?" he asked. "Yes," they answered.

"All my soldiers in Iraq loved all the candy, all the socks, all the stuff you guys gave. It was real nice," he continued.

Then he presented the class with a red-white-and-blue banner, headlined "Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005-2006. St. Patrick School." Below it were the names of all 26 children in the class.

After meeting the third-graders, it was off to the auditorium, where Collier was cheered by the entire student body at a rally that featured the marching band and cheerleaders.

The relationship started last December. Holly Hayban wanted to correspond with a soldier in Iraq. Her mom, Bonnie, suggested the son of her business associate, Ryndi Collier.

Holly wrote to Sgt. Collier, then showed her friends his response. In the weeks and months that followed, the class sent letters and treats.

"My eyes were filled with tears and I was, like, so happy," Holly said after meeting the soldier. "I said 'hi' and I gave him a hug and stuff. It's pretty awesome."

Collier, 22, who is assigned to a bridge-building engineers unit, said he flew from Kuwait to Germany, then to Atlanta and St. Louis. Then he drove home to California, and got on a plane to New York ? at his own expense ? for the one-day visit. He goes back to Iraq on May 18.

He shrugged when asked why he wrote to each child.

"If they took time to write me, I can find at least part of my day," he said. "I mean I wouldn't have time some days, I'd be out on a mission. ... But anytime I had five minutes to myself, I'd just pull out a pen and paper and try to write a letter, put them all together and send them out."

In their letters, the children asked him about his favorite color (red) and whether he had any pets (a dog named Rufus.) They had no questions about war tactics or casualties.

"It's kind of a relief," he said. "It's basic one-on-one conversation without political views, without you know, 'This is the way I feel about the war,' none of that. It's simple fun."

Holly's mother, who helped plan the surprise, called the sergeant a hero.

"For him to individually write and continue a relationship with children when he is out on missions, and everyday his life is in jeopardy, that to me shows more than character."