Springtime 2010
Day before yesterday, April 14th, we woke up to over 3/4″ of snow on the ground and such a heavy concentration of large snow flakes falling, we could hardly see the trees in the yard. By eleven in the morning, everyone was shedding their coats and Ye Ye even changed into shorts. It has been warm ever since. For sure, Spring is here.
Then today, while walking around the grounds we saw Larry Zhou Zhi Huan and Calvin Ge Hua Wei high in one of our trees and just had to grab a picture of them.
Larry is on the left (inset) and the highest one in the tree while Calvin is on the right (inset) and of course is lower than Larry.
We told them to be careful and then on about doing some of the things that one can always find to do outside on a beautiful Spring day when all of a sudden we heard this terrible carrying on and yelling and we could tell that one of the house mother’s was really upset.
The sound seemed to be coming from the tree we were just at so we hurried back around the corner to find one of the house mothers just going on so about those boys being so high up in the tree.
When she spied Ye Ye come around the corner she begged him to tell the boys to come down and Ye Ye finally got her consoled as he explained to her; “that is what little boys do”!
There were no accidents, the little guys had fun and we are pretty sure the house mother is totally convinced now that foreigners are indeed a little ‘crazy’.
Spotlight on Lilly Zhang Lin Qing
This month we want to put the ‘spot light’ on Lilly Zhang Lin Qing, one of the first children to come into the Home of Hope back in February 2000. (Left and below right.)
Shan and I can still remember when we first saw her. It was a cold, cold day in January and we were on our first child search in the GongYi mountains.
Lilly didn’t seem very shy at all and offered to sing and dance for us right there on the street of her village. Of course our hearts went out to her immediately and she quickly became one of our children.
Through the years she has always sort of sat back and let some of the other children be in the fore front of everything, but there has always been that talent sitting there, almost dormant at times.
Now as she is in her final years of high school she has really blossomed into quite the young lady and more and more she has become a take charge person with many ideas to contribute to the activities at the Home of Hope.
Just this last weekend when we arrived at the Yellow River for Nathan’s surprise birthday bar-b-que, Nathan saw a young lady (from the back) taking charge of one of the grills and asked Hank who it was. He was pleasantly surprised when Hank told him it was Lilly.
We never cease being amazed and excited as we watch these little ones grow and develop into fine, outstanding young people and we always realize it is you the Home of Hope friends and supporters who make this work possible.
We want to include an ensemble of snapshots of Lilly taken over the years. Just click on the small arrow in the control bar at the bottom of the picture to start the show.
Happy Birthday to Ye Ye!
It was pretty easy to tell there was something going on! All of a sudden, with no formal holidays or other reasons, all the college kids except Hazel, Esther and Paul (all three a two day journey distance from the Home of Hope) and all the high school kids started showing up at the Home of Hope the weekend of the 4th.
Now by most standards that doesn’t sound so strange but Chinese high school children are so loaded with studies that they rarely have the luxury of more than a couple hours to spend at home. They generally come home, grab some clean clothes, take a shower and head back to the hard grind of studying at school.
This weekend though, they just all sort of “hang out†without there seeming to be any pressure on them to get back to school.
One could see little groups here and there talking in low voices as though they were all plotting something and it had to be kept “hush hushâ€.
On Monday the 5th, Shannie informed me she wanted to go for a ride out to the Yellow River since it was such a nice day.
When we got there we quickly spied the Home of Hope yellow bus out on one of the levies and as we got closer we could see the BBQ smoke and smell the delicious scent of chicken, lamb and hot dogs being grilled.
The children planned all of this on their own including an “after supper†get-to-gether to share in this huge birthday cake they had prepared for Ye Ye. (on the right)
As is typical with Chinese parties like this, there were speeches and memories talked about and then the children
asked Ye Ye to tell them a story, which he did. All in all it was a wonderful time!
We hope you enjoyed this update to the Home of Hope Website. Come back and visit soon!
Posted: April 19th, 2010 under Uncategorized.