Taotao was one who eventually succumbed.
"Everyone called him 'Radish'. His arms and legs were particularly thin and that made his head seem even bigger," says Lin Ying, who is in charge of "mothers" team.
Taotao weighed 4 kilos when he arrived at the home at one year old as a result of complex congenital heart disease (CCHD).
But he was a cute little boy in everyone's eyes.
"A few months after Taotao settled here, he had major surgery. Most of us couldn't believe he would survive it, but he did," Lin recalls. But just as he seem to be improving, he died during minor surgery aged 2 and a half.
Chen Fang was heartbroken when she heard the news. A year later, she still weeps when she remembers him.
Death can never be a taboo here. Taotao's urn was buried on a mountain where Little Flower staff still pray for him, says a staff member.
For CCHD patients, the death rate can be as high as 15 percent, says Liu Dong.
By August this year, the home had received 2,496 babies, including 211 premature orphans and 28 premature babies from poor families.
The survival rate from surgery was 95 percent.
Liu Dong is pleased with giving these babies a second chance to live, but what concerns him more is that many parents still give up their children.
Liu, 41, has a son and a daughter. When he gets a call - even in the middle of the night - he rushes to a hospital to persuade other parents not to abandon hope for their children.
But Liu says parents are not to blame. The expense of treating a severely disabled child can bring a family to ruin.
He told the father of a sick baby that one heart operation would cost 50,000 yuan. The father sighed: "I'm sorry, but my family is already 80,000 yuan in debt."
Liu once worked in a hospital in the United States, so he knows how China's healthcare system still lags behind.
"The social support system is more complete in the West. If a mother gives birth to an intellectually-impaired baby, the next day social workers will come to her home and offer help. On the third day charity groups will provide advice. She and her husband can go to work as welfare institutions will help to care for their baby," says Liu.
"But parents in China don't know who to turn to and how to cope with a sick child. They end up with at least one parent leaving his or her job and attending the baby at home."
That's why so many of China's disabled orphans are adopted by foreign families, Liu adds.
"To help families, surgeons cannot just perform surgery," says Liu. After doing many operations for free, Liu decided to join a more complex social support system.
In 2010, Chunmiao Children's Aid Foundation (CF) was established.
"Love and professional care - both are needed" is Liu's motto. He is proud of his foundation team, which boasts 34 professional volunteers, all experts from the best departments of Beijing's renowned hospitals.
"Over the years, we haven't expanded our program. There are still 55 beds in the home. It's money-consuming and we need a huge investment. Also, I'm thinking of other ways to help the orphans," he explains.
"Why do these premature orphans survive? Besides the hugs from their 'kangaroo mothers', they have breast milk from other volunteer mothers, which contains natural antibodies and helps them grow better."
He recalls how, at first, a lorry driver collected the breast milk and stored it in a refrigerator. Now most volunteers bring the milk in themselves.
Theoretically, the average care time for a premature baby is six months, but most stay longer because the medical conditions at local children's homes are poor. While waiting to be adopted, some orphans join a foster family and start school which are two other programs CF developed to help them.
Liu says orphans are an issue for all of society. His vision is that all children's homes will have a Little Flower program, not just for orphans, but for poor families.
"That may finally end the vicious circle of abandoning babies," Liu says.
