She was taken to Beijing for treatment of the congenital disorder she was born with and today, is a healthy, bubbly five-year-old who calls Singapore home.

Ms Tania Hoahing, 37, her adoptive mother, was living in Beijing and helping out in a medical orphanage when she first set eyes on Tian Bao.

Just two weeks old, Tian Bao had been taken there when the village hospital and local orphanage could not care for her, or locate her family.

Ms Hoahing said the woman running the orphanage had her hands full, 'so she just asked me to take Tian Bao home'.

And she did - for good.

That was just the beginning. In 2004, about a year after arriving in China with her husband, from whom she is now separated, Ms Hoahing started her own medical home - Blue Sky Healing Home - to help children and orphans with medical conditions. The Beijing home has taken care of 88 children to date.

Ms Hoahing, who returned to Singapore in May and runs the medical home from here, calls them 'her children' and rattles off their names and health conditions by heart. There is Fu Xia with clubbed feet; Xiao Mei, born with her bladder outside her body; and Xiao Dai, who is still awaiting treatment for missing ribs - just to name a few.

She scrolls through online pictures of them with the pride of a mother showing off her first-born. 'All my kids are great,' she said.

The disappointment is that only eight have managed to find families to take them in: none in Singapore, most in United States.

'There was a child who had to have urine drained out every three hours and had to poop into a bag, and we thought he would never be adopted,' said Ms Hoahing. But two American schoolteachers said they were willing to deal with his condition, and he now lives there with them.

As a medical foster home for sick children, Blue Sky does not keep any in long-term foster care, but sends them back to their original orphanages once they are better.

Ms Hoahing said it did not cost much to set up the home. She rented a house for $700 a month, and paid her staff of six about $100 to $500 each a month.

She bore the start-up costs herself and raised the rest. Operating costs, staff wages and money for surgery and treatment came from foundations and donations from Ms Hoahing's friends, family and other expatriate families living in Beijing.

From just one house with six babies, Blue Sky has expanded to three houses with 20 staff and 20 babies in north-east Beijing.

The organisation's annual operating cost now is about $100,000, which includes rental, staff salaries and supplies for the children.

Ms Hoahing has no regular donors, except for one of her cousins. But she does not worry about funding.

Smiling, she said: 'It will come in. At worst I'll have to call relations and start approaching and begging people.'

From Singapore, she monitors the organisation's website, handles adoptions, and liaises with foundations and hospitals around the world to get the children the medical care they need.

The full-time mum - her biological child Sasha is two years old and Tian Bao is now named Giulia - does not draw a salary for her work with Blue Sky, and would ideally like to keep it that way.

She is currently living off her savings, until she decides what else to do.

'This is my life's passion. I hope to always work in this area,' she said.

simlinoi@sph.com.sg

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