GongYi Home of Hope

For whatever reason, this year everyone has really been wanting snow. We aren’t sure if it is all the news of the big snows in the US and other parts of the world or a lack of rain, sleet or snow during this lengthy drought we are experiencing here in central China or maybe even listening to too much Bing Crosby over the Christmas Holidays – Dreaming of a White Christmas or a ‘white anything’… but everyone has been wanting snow…

……so it was with great delight we woke up a few mornings ago to find these little white things floating around in the air… and we knew that no one had shot up Mr. Wang’s chickens next door since guns aren’t allowed…. WOW… it was snowing!

It wasn’t long until the noises of children (and grown ups) at play could be heard all around the Home of Hope!

Very Quickly the fun began! Above is David Zhang Hai Tao (Also show directly below) showing the little ones how to make snow angels.
David is one of the Home of Hope Alumni and after graduating from college went to work full time as translator and assistant to Ben and Michelle Godard at our Ping Yu Home of Hope facility. He is wonderful with the children, great to have around and always a real friend!

David has spent quite a bit of time here in GongYi this last two months because after Nathan has his heart situation and while in the hospital for the AngioPlasty, (two stints) David came to stay with him. In Chinese hospitals someone from the family must stay with the patient 24 hours a day. After Nathan was released David went back to PingYu but a short time later it was Chinese New Years so he came “back home”.

Everyone really got into the swing of things and even though it was really, really cold (look at Gail‘s face) everyone had a great time… by the way… our great blizzard???? Two inches!

Above are Shirley, Mosie and Gail. Pretty soon the younger children started coming out and getting into the Blizzard of 2011- (Did I say we only had two inches? )
On the right, fixing to jump into the “let’s get cold and wet” with the other children are, Caleb, Dawn, Grace (in back), Jacob, Rachel and Beau with Jenny standing in the back as well. Jenny was helping with the younger children since several of the staff were still on their Chinese New Years vacation break.

Beau is the little guy who came to us with no ears. He can hear however, he just doesn’t have ear openings and he has little ‘nubs’ of ears. We are looking into some type of hearing aid until they are able to correct this problem by surgery when he is a little older.

Check Out Our Shoes
Sometimes we don’t want to see some of this. There isn’t one pair of winter boots in the lot… and they all have them… Wow… there is even on pair of lined, Croc house shoes… Oh well… still remember when we were kids and at times wonder how we made it at all!

Little Rosie
Another one of the little ones (she’s not so little now) abandoned at our gate in the middle of the night when she was a new born. She is a very, very intelligent little girl and all of her peers hold her as the ‘yard stick’ for success in school. They all try to beat her test scores, but never do! Rose was abandoned due to having a cleft lip – cleft palate condition and as you can see, it’s barely noticeable now. It’s so sad these little ones will never know their real Moms and Dads, being abandoned for such a simple reason that can easily be corrected by surgery. So… the Home of Hope does the very best we can to be that missing Mom and Dad to all these children.
Lydia, kneeling in the roses!Lilly, sitting in the roses!Shirley, semi sitting – kneeling in the roses! Now why is it, all summer long we can’t get these girls to do anything in the roses… No clipping the roses… No weeding the weeds… No turning the soil…. But let a little old snow come and they want to model in the rose garden!

Actually, the above three are in High School and they took over a lot of the chores during the Chinese New Years while the staff was on holiday. They ran the kitchen, Shirley was excellent with the little children and organizing much of what goes on behind the scenes at the Home of Hope and Lilly and Lydia were fantastic cooks!

In the picture to the left, starting at the back row (photo on the left) is David, Brian and Dennis. Middle row, left to right – Kelly, Shirley, Gail and Calvin. In the front are Joy, Autumn and Rose with Mosie left back, trying to get in the picture but a little late!

Kelly is a GongYi person who came to work for us years ago here in GongYi. Her English is excellent as are her administrative abilities so when we opened the XuZhou facility, Kelly went to work with Bob and Cindy Sayer and she has been there ever since. But her heart is always in GongYi of course. She comes to visit as often as she can.

There were so many things going on during this small bit of snow we received… In the picture to the right, Rose (facing) and Mosie (back to the camera) are playing “tug of war” with something to do with the snow while Calvin looks on. At one point there was this major snow fight going on with more than twenty of the children participating and it was quite an awesome thing to watch.

During the “Snow Battle” Calvin made up this one, huge snowball (maybe ten to twelve inches in diameter and nailed David with it. For a few seconds David’s entire head was white! Of course, Calvin took off and it was some time before he came back around… He knew what was in store!

Home of Hope Tree Huggers: Shirley, Joy, Gail, Rose, Autumn and Shirley again.

Of course the little ones really enjoyed the snow but they didn’t get in to all the rambunctious behavior the older children did. Pictured above are: Gracie, Caleb and Mary and below are: Jacob, Dawn and Rachel.

We hope you have enjoyed our little so-journ into our “snow storm day” in GongYi China. Of course the snow is all gone now and most of the children have started back to school now that the Chinese New Years is over and things are quite back to normal at the GongYi Home of Hope.

One thing is most evident as we are fortunate enough to be here and observe these children growing up and truly enjoying life… despite their so unfortunate circumstances, the children are really happy!

So for Lilly, Gail, Shirley and all the children and staff…. all of us at the Home of Hope, we wish you an awesome day and will see you soon with another report from the Home of Hope in GongYi, China.