GongYi Home of Hope

It was about 4:00 AM and we were in Beijing after getting Aaron Xiong Wei all settled in at the care facility where he will be for the next six weeks. ( see Aaron Xiong Wei to Beijing ) The phone rang, slowly bringing us out of a well deserved rest.

It was the guard at the Home of Hope calling to tell me there was an abandoned baby outside our gate.

Most of the staff on duty that night were relatively new and had never handled a situation like this. We carefully walked them through the process (by phone) from calling the police out to verify the baby had indeed been abandoned at our gate, to getting him settled in the nursery’s sick room for the night… after a bath and good feeding. We always put the new arrivals in the sick room until we are sure they have nothing contagious that could affect the other nursery children.

We also instructed them to take pictures of the entire process and in the morning they were to take him to the hospital for the normal exam we give all our incoming newbies… we check for hepatitis, aids and other forms of physical ailments and handicaps.

Being new to the situation, they failed to take this little guy’s picture while he was still in the cardboard box he arrived in so after his bath, they put him back in the box and took the above pictures.

We were hesitant to show these pictures since they were not taken in ‘real time’, rather about forty minutes after his arrival. However, we decided that with this explanation included it would be good for our friends and supporters to see how he actually arrived.

While all of this excitement was going on in Gongyi, we were finally getting up and getting to the train station to return home. Mosie and Ruthie were excited about the idea of a new brother arriving at the Home of Hope and kept saying they couldn’t wait to get home to see him.

By the time we arrived back in Gongyi, his physical exams were over and now we are only waiting for the results of his blood tests. This travel time gave us a chance to think about a name for this little guy and as always we chose the Chinese name first which is Xiong Qi. The meaning of this name is “Stands firm” so we then gave him the English name “Daniel“.

Upon arriving back home we made a bee line to the Nursery and there he was… Daniel Xiong Qi all safe and clean… bundled up in new pajamas and sleeping soundly, although appearing to be ready to wake up and cry for his lunch.

Welcome to the Home of Hope Daniel… with your new family!