GongYi Home of Hope

Ever since the Home of Hope Orphanage opened in February 2000, we have needed and have been looking for sponsors for our children.

A short time after we opened, Joe and Darlene (above with Lily in the center) began to sponsor Lily Zhang Lin Qing and have been doing so ever since.

Joe and Darlene have visited the Home of Hope several times over the years and stay in close contact with Lily (an early picture of Lily on the right) as she grows up and into a fine young lady.
Since Joe and Darlene have been here on several occasions to visit, the other children (not just Lily) feel like they know them and so when they do come the other children gather around them and talk and visit as if they were long lost friends. In the picture to the left, left to right are: Darlene, Lily, Joy, Joe, Adam, Gail, Lydia, Joseph and Jenny.

We are so grateful to Joe and Darlene and those like them who have taken on the “Joy” of being a sponsor for one of our ‘so’ deserving children. Thank you so much and we know as the children get older (as in Lily’s case) they too will begin to express their appreciation for what has been done.

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More Visitors

On or about the 13th of October, it became somewhat common knowledge around the Gongyi Home of Hope that Bob and Cindy Sayre and their daughter Christi were going to visit.

Bob (to the right) and Cindy (below left) are the Administrators of our XuZhou Home of Hope and their daughter Christi is going to be teaching at one of the schools in XuZhou.
We had yet to put two and two together in the fact that October 17th was Shannie’s birthday. Bob and Cindy come to the ZhengZhou area on occasion as there is a periodic “Fellowship” in ZhengZhou with other foreigners of like belief. During these visits they always come the additional 40 Killometers to Gongyi to visit for a few hours or so. Sometimes they will stay overnight and they are always a joy to have!

Now that Christi (to the right) is back in China she too comes to Gongyi on occasion and the children who are in her age range dearly love her visits.

Bob and Cindy along with their three children lived in Gongyi for over a year as they studied ‘life in China’ and learned about the operations and procedures of the Home of Hope prior to going to XuZhou as the administrators. During this time many of the Home of Hope children became close friends with Christi and her brothers so the children are always happy when they can visit.

Nai Nai’s Birthday

Jenny Yang Jing Feng with Nai Nai

It was on the 15th of October or there about when Hank, our oldest boy at the Home of Hope, came and asked for help in giving Nai Nai a surprise for her birthday.

He did not go into much detail except to tell me my part in this was to simply arrange to take her out to lunch on her birthday. Instead of taking her to a restaurant I should take her to the park at the Yellow River and look for the Home of Hope’s van. I agreed to do what I could. It was not difficult to keep the secret since there was little known about what was happening anyway.

Everything went according to plan. Shannie thought we were going out for a Birthday lunch and when we got to the area along the Yellow River there were balloons lining the area and we saw the two, hand-written posters (Left and Right) so it was obvious something was going on. There were no children visible as they were all hiding behind some large rocks the Chinese Corp of Engineers keep stacked along the river side to help with flood control. (If you can’t see the words, you can click on the posters to see an enlarged image.)

All of a sudden, all the children ‘popped up’ from where they were hiding and it was quite a surprise since all of the college students were away at their respective schools and were not expected back home until around Christmas time. They had all asked for leave and had come home during the previous night and stayed at our maintenance man and his wife’s home so we would not know they were back.

The high school and middle school students had taken off from school, so all of the children were there except the smaller children who were not included due to concerns it may be too cold for them at the river.

Rather quickly, realization set in that not only were all the children there but Hai Tao and his wife (the Home of Hope maintenance man who also has a small BBQ restaurant he and his wife operate together) were grilling, Hot Dogs, Goat Keebobs and Chicken Wings.

The food started to appear (above) and what a spread it was!

Not only did we have the grilled meat but we had Bananas, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Boiled Tripe, Lettuce, Apples, Bread with Coke, Sprite and Juice to drink.

The most important thing though, was all the children being there together on this day of major surprises.

As the hugs and excitement of seeing each other again began to subside, it was finally time to eat and everyone gathered around and we had an awesome “Birthday Lunch” together.

During the course of the afternoon, Hank (who was given the responsibility of organizing the day since he has graduated from college and now works in the Home of Hope office) informed me I had one more thing to do.

Since all the children could not be at this event with the younger children staying home, they did not bring a birthday cake to the Yellow River but rather were going to have the cake and another short party at the Home of Hope after the children had all had their supper. I was to create some excuse and bring Shannon to the children’s dining hall after 7:00 PM.

There were many touching moments during the day but probably the most touching was when little Isaac Ma Shi Hao came up during the evening’s festivities (the two small inserts above in the red shirt hugging Shannie) and said he wanted to say something to “Nai Nai”. He proceeded to tell her how much he appreciated her and loved her and thanked her for being his Mom.

Isaac is seven years old and has been at the Home of Hope since birth.

Our children all get weekly allowances to teach them how to save and manage their money. The small ones get a small amount and as the children advance in school their allotted amount increases depending on which grade they are in.

They are taught to purchase their own minor school supplies and such and emphatically encouraged to save their money.

In this case, all the children pooled some of their saved allowances for Nai Nai’s party. We thought that was just so cool! We were very proud of our children for accomplishing this. There was not one penny paid from the Home of Hope for the entire celebration from picnic, BBQ and the evening cake and party.

All in all it was a really great day. A wonderful birthday for Shannon as she had never had a surprise birthday before in her life and the surprise and happiness can be shown on her face as she thanked all the children for this wonderful day!

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