I vividly remember my younger brother's first month because it coincided with my family's move to a new state. I was 4.5 years old at the time, and my mother left him with my aunt and my 9 month-old cousin and took me to a public sprinkler pad as a special treat for being a big sister. The outing took longer than expected, leading my mother to become agitated because she needed to nurse my brother. When we got home, my aunt was just about to nurse my brother. I remember being very impressed. At that age, I had not yet learned about wet nurses, so I did not know that a woman could breastfeed another woman's baby. In a world with formula, babies rarely need a wet nurse service when their mothers are unable or unwilling to breastfeed. In the face of cataclysmic events, however, there are a lot less options for babies.

Most people are familiar with China's worst natural disaster in a generation, the May 12 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people. According to The Citizen, several orphans have been put in an orphanage that does not have any formula, but they are thriving thanks to the help of a police officer named Jiang Xiaojuan. "'The woman from the quake-ravaged town of Jiangyou has just had a child herself,' the Western Urban Daily said. 'She is nursing the children of three women who were left homeless by the quake and are too traumatised to give milk, as well as five orphans, the report said."

Reuters UK reported that Jiang left her baby with her parents in order to take care of these children who would otherwise have died. While it is often said that no good deed goes unpunished, in this case Officer Jiang was promoted. So where's the punishment? Apparently, some people feel that her actions did not merit a promotion. "'Many people voiced objections when the Jiangyou government sought public opinion after making the promotion,' Xinhua said. 'They said an official position should not be used to promote a moral model.'"

Others disagree. Jose Wanrinho wrote, "I'm sure she would be surprised by news of her promotion because I don't think she had expected it nor did she wanted it. But nevertheless, I doubt she will turn the offer down either. I'm sure she would be doing the same thing over and over again whenever she is able to extend her help even if she did got the promotion. So instead of protesting that she shouldn't get promoted just because she had performed a good deed, they should change their views and judge things in a different way. Yes, merits are important when someone is being considered to get a promotion but I think different situations require different outcomes and in this case, I think her promotion was fully justified. A promotion is just an increase of your position in a job, but it is the job that you are doing that matters the most and I think Mrs Jiang will continue to serve her community well as a public servant. I just hope that we will hear more kind deeds such as this one whenever there is a disaster happening anywhere in the world for that matter. Ordinary people can do extra ordinary things as demonstrated by Mrs Jiang. It’s a mystery women don’t often speak of publicly, what it’s like to nourish another human being or many from one’s own blood and bones. It is I think, one of the greatest honors in the world. It’s people like Jiang who really represent the true spirit of modern China, the compassionate soul."

Despite the news reports reflecting public opinion taking issue with Jiang's promotion, I was hard pressed to actually find any bloggers who criticized this promotion. In fact what I found were numerous blogs posts filled with admiration for what she did. The bloggers are focusing on the same thing that I see: a police officer is responsible for protecting the health and welfare of a jurisdiction's citizenry, and one who goes above and beyond what is normally expected to do so deserves promotion.

Alex Elliot also blogs at Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting