GongYi Home of Hope

Nathan knew something was in the air but wasn’t sure what and then the children came over and told him it was time for his birthday party.

The above picture was the gift the children had arranged for their Ye Ye and even though they had made the picture that day at around lunch time they had managed to organize it without our knowing anything about it… Now that’s quite a chore since the picture was taken in front of our house. This is one of the rare occasions when all the children were home and even the college students managed to get home for the birthday festivities.

When we walked in, all the children were there, seated and obviously in a high spirit of celebration. It was really cute. As we looked around the dining room, now set up for a birthday party, it was obvious that the college age children were totally responsible for this and not some of the staff.

We noticed that the soda cans were arranged in a heart. Above left, the heart and above right, Sam and Hank with the soda cans.

Hank and Sam did the work of the ‘Masters of Ceremony’ – and did an excellent job with Hank speaking Chinese and Sam translating – and there were many speeches given by various children about what the Home of Hope meant to them.

Then Hank talked about how the college students were all away at college now and that the other children now needed to take up the role of being the example for the younger children. Hank went on to explain that even though he and the other six college students were away at school and after they graduated would be finding jobs and going out into society on their own, the Home of Hope would always be their home and all of the children would always be brothers and sisters to each other.

He then called the oldest child of each age group to the front and had them give a short speech to their individual age group about how they needed to continue the Home of Hope tradition of learning good character and doing well in school. How they all needed to study hard and prepare for going out into the society as individual success stories.. to be able to contribute to society rather than just be ‘takers’ from society. There were both tears and laughter making this birthday a very touching and moving experience.

First he called Jim (above left) to represent the high school students and then Gail (above right) to represent the middle school students.

Then little Tony came up and represented the primary school students. It is amazing what these children can say at times. It was all very touching.

Then they called Ye Ye (Nathan) to the front and presented him with his birthday gift… it was the above group picture all framed and ready for hanging on the wall.

Nathan was very surprised and was so happy to receive such a wonderful gift for his birthday.

Then it was time for the cake. The cake had “Happy Birthday – You are the light of our life” written on it.

Then Ye Ye said a few words and thanked all the children for the lovely birthday party and proceeded to tell them how he appreciated the beautiful words on the cake but the truth is that God was the light of our life and if it was not for God brining us all together none of this would have ever happened.

Earlier, the college students had asked to take Nathan out for his birthday so we all went out to eat (including Ben and Michelle Godard working at the Gongyi Home of Hope in training for managing Home of Hope number three to be opened soon). The above picture was taken at the restaurant and the children paid for the meal with their allowance money they had saved. Left to right, top to bottom is Hank, Sam, David, Julie, Logan, Holly, Nathan and Michelle Godard.

It is like these children really want to get the message through that they are not small children any longer and they really want to help in any way possible to make the Home of Hope a better and better place.

You the viewer can look at these pictures and enjoy them but how we wish you could look at the faces of the individual children with all the memories we have that span the last nine years as these ‘once little ones’ have grown and developed into the awesome young adults they have now become.

All in all it was a wonderful birthday for Nathan and it was just one more thing to reinforce the fact that all of this is really, really worth the effort. Not that the children prepare the birthday party on their own, but it is the idea behind it. The Home of Hope has truly become a large family with so much love and mutual appreciation at all the various age levels. A great and beautiful time!