GongYi Home of Hope

As everyone was excitedly getting ready for the Chinese New Years celebration, no one expected the surprise that came our way on the 20th of January… just four days before the official start of the New Year’s celebration (sometimes referred to as Spring Festival) in China.

At about 8:30 AM our gate guard called and said he had found a bundle outside the gate. We hurried over and there it was! All wrapped up in six layers of blankets to shield it from the cold (it was about zero outside). As is our custom we asked the guard many questions about where the bundle was laying and if he saw anyone drop it off and so on.

We slowly started to unwrap the bundle and our normal concerns and apprehensions set in as they always do. “What would we find?” “Would the baby be healthy?” “Would the baby be cleft lip?” Would the baby fall under the parameters that we have to follow regarding the health of the babies we can keep and the ones we are not able to help?”

All of these questions as we unwrapped layer after layer until finally a little head appeared. Right away we could see this little one was cleft lipped but we still didn’t know about the condition of it’s palate so we kept removing blankets and then it’s baby clothes until we could check everything on “his” (turned out to be a little, baby boy) little body.
Ten toes, eight fingers and two thumbs… Good! Legs seem sound… Hands and arms seem normal… no “birth trauma” visible to his little head. Just the cleft lip problem… Now let’s make him cry so we can see inside his mouth.

He wouldn’t cooperate at first but finally he did and there it was… the cleft palate. This is something we have grown accustomed to seeing after these many years in China, and it is something that is very treatable with surgery and help with learning to speak clearly.

We were actually quite happy to see this because it is rare for 100% healthy babies to be abandoned at our gate. We have had several but most of the time the abandoned little ones have some type physical problem.

This last six months has been extremely hard on us as we have had eight babies abandoned at our gate who have either passed away shortly after being discovered or had a major physical problem that we are not equipped to deal with or which are not allowed to keep based on our agreements with the government.

That is why when we discovered this little guy had a cleft lip – cleft palate problem we felt some sense of relief since this is an operable situation and in our experience the cleft lip – cleft palate babies are usually pretty healthy other than that single, small problem. The most difficult part of the cleft palate baby is in the feeding while they are still in the “new born” stage. They have to drink their formula very slowly so they often fall asleep before they have taken in as much as they should.

In the picture above you can see the small note and the 100 Yuan bank note that was found inside the baby’s blankets. The note asks us to take care of the baby with love and kindness and states that he was born five days before which puts his birthday at January 15th, the same birthday as Nathan’s father. Since we already have a child named John, we decided to call him Morris after Nathan’s father’s middle name. His Chinese name is Xiong Hui (Full of light) not to be confused with “Charity”. Charity’s name is also Xiong Hui (Virtuous) but the Chinese character’s are different giving the two names two entirely different meanings.

If you would like to contribute to the life of Morris Xiong Hui and be involved with him from the very beginning you can do so by going to our donations site.

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New Years Fun

Those of you who have been part of the Home of Hope family for several years are aware that Chinese New Years is the biggest time of celebration in China. During the New Years “week” those Home of Hope children who have friends or distant family in the villages where they came from, go back to visit for a day or two.

Those Home of Hope children who have no known family or village roots don’t go anywhere during this time so we always try to do something special for them. This year a new “arcade” facility opened in Gongyi and we decided to take the children there for an afternoon of fun and games.

As you can see in the picture above as well as the following pictures, they really had a good time. There were bumper cars, air hockey, several different types of rides and other games to play.

When it came time to leave, the owner said he wanted to donate the fee as a New Years gift to the Home of Hope. So nice!

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Temporary Workers!

In keeping with the New Year’s Holiday, we try to allow our staff as much time off as possible so during the days when some of the children go back to their villages to visit… a time when our work load demand is not as great, we allow some of the staff to have off as well. However, it leaves a condition of not being so fair as they all want time off, but we can’t accommodate everyone because this is an orphanage and demands 24 hours a day service from the work force.

To alleviate the problem and keep all the staff happy, this year we called on our eleven college students to work during the New Year’s… which several of them with no place to go, gladly agreed to do.

Hank, Brian and David took care of the kitchen duties while Julie, Logan, Holly, Esther and Linda helped out in the nursery and also in taking care of the younger children who have moved out of the Nursery. We were so proud of these young people as they did an amazing job! Actually, better than the staff in some areas!

Logan on the left, Esther on the right

Holly Hou San Juan on the left, Julie Zhang Yan Yan on the right

Hank on the left, Nathan and David on the right

We want to again express our deepest appreciation for your prayers and support. These last few months have been quite a challenging time for us with both social and financial adversities brought on by the current economic situations in China, the States and other parts of the world. It is such a comfort to know you are standing with us and are a true part of the work here. The efforts we put forth together are already starting to show great results in the lives of our children.

Thank you so much! From all of us here in China, to you and yours!

We send you best wishes for this New Year and pray that God will bless you abundantly….. As the Chinese New Year’s greeting says… “Good Health, Good Success, Great Happiness and Good Luck!”… in other words.. “Be Blessed!”

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