Abandoned in an Asian land, sick and malnourished, her chances were not good from the start. Five dollars worth of medicine could have saved her, but it wasn’t available in her native country. In 1974, Gary and Cris Embleton fought to save her.

Some years after Lori Jo’s death, Cris read about another child fighting for her life. Heidi would soon die unless her heart was repaired and the surgical procedure was unavailable in her native land. If Cris could help it, Heidi would not lose her fight; she would find a way to bring Heidi to the U.S. for surgery. Cris recruited a surgeon and a hospital, then volunteers to take care of immigration and other logistical issues and then donated airfare and an escort to bring the child to America. It all came together for this one child. Heidi made her journey, and her heart was healed. She returned home to Guatemala a happy and healthy child.

In 1979, Healing the Children began to take shape. By 1981, requests for help were coming in from all over the world and more formal organization was necessary. So Cris and Gary Embleton, Naomi Bronstein, and Maureen O’Keefe founded Healing the Children as a nonprofit corporation.

Today, 13 HTC chapters operate in 24 states and there are approved foreign contacts in many countries. The work that seemed natural and inevitable to a grieving mother in 1979 continues today. Children have come from Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Croatia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greece, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Zaire, and many countries in Central and South America and Caribbean Island nations as Healing the Children pursues its work of "healing the children… one child at a time."