GongYi Home of Hope

Each year we have to have our Chinese Visa renewed. The process is rather lengthy and it includes one or more visits to the “Chinese Immigration Hospital for Communicable Disease” for physical checks, one or more visits to the Chinese Security Police and an interview with a leader of the Immigration Bureau.

This year for some reason, the director of the Immigration Hospital took a real interest in our being in China so long. He wanted to know how we started the Home of Hope.. why we chose GongYi then XuZhou then PingYu.

We visited for about an hour and felt we had a very productive visit and had made a new friend.

One of the things we have been worried about is as the years pile up on our age, the more difficult getting a long term visa becomes. China functions on relationships so making friends with this man was a good thing. However, it wasn’t over.

A few days ago, the Visa Bureau called and said their various directors wanted to come visit the Home of Hope. Three men came and each of them is the head of their particular bureau. They were sincerely interested in the Home of Hopes (we have two in Henan Province… GongYi and PingYu) and wanted to know what they could do to help.

We were a little unprepared for their insistence on wanting to help…. it is a cultural thing in China to offer help but usually it is just nice words. These leaders were indeed serious so we suggested they find various cultural activities the children could participate in, such as trips to the ZhengZhou zoo, or the People’s Hall where they have the various Beijing, Henan and other varieties of opera or even educational trips to Botanical Gardens or the Yellow River. They thought these were awesome ideas and said they would start working up a schedule of activities right away. They also wanted to know how to donate money and food and of course we told them the process.

The men from the immigration bureau were really sad that they came during a school day so most of our children were gone and they didn’t get to see them. Sad that is until we took them to the Nursery and they fell in love with Happy and Sissy!

Happy is our little “Albino” baby (above) and Sissy (left) is presently the youngest child at the Home of Hope.

They were especially taken with Happy. Happy normally wears dark glasses all the time except when she is sleeping. But for some reason, once she got comfortable with these new strangers, she didn’t want to wear her dark glasses and really wanted to clown around for the visitors.

She likes to bang on the piano so she got to do that for a little while and the immigration people were totally taken with her personality. In the picture above (with the dark glasses), Happy is enjoying some of Sissy’s birthday cake.

Sissy turned one year old in August and we had a small birthday party for her and gave her a small cake to share with the other little ones.

She wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it at first, but after she got a taste of the icing it was hard to keep her out of the cake! As is typical with all children at that age she wanted to get her hands right down into the cake!

One unexpected surprise last week was a visit from Julie. (On the left… when she first arrived at the Home of Hope.)

Julie was in the second group of children to come into the Home of Hope in 2000. She has always been so sweet and just plain fun to be around.

But as is normal, Julie got married this Spring and of course she now lives far enough away that we don’t see her that often. When she does come to visit it is always a treat.

Well, this time she came to “show” us she was going to be a Mom. She is so excited to be three months along but she doesn’t want to know the gender of the baby… want’s it to be a surprise!

Please remember Julie and all of us in your prayers.

Blessings from China!