GongYi Home of Hope

On November 19th we received a call from the local hospital telling us they had another abandoned baby. We went and found a beautiful little baby boy we quickly named Isaac. He has a major cleft lip with a portion of his upper palate attached to the lower section of his nose. He is schedule for his first of five required surgeries on the 19th of February. He is healthy and very alert except for the problem with the cleft lip. Today he ate 6 ounces of formula at one sitting.. He is doing great.

November Birthdays

At the beginning of November we started something new at the Home of Hope. Every Sunday night we celebrate all the birthdays for the previous week. This month we had several. Glen and Esther both share the same birthday of November 21st. They had a beautiful cake and each of them received a nice card signed by all their brothers and sisters in the Home of Hope. YeYe (Grandpa [Nathan Bell]) is the last to sign the card and the children can’t wait to find someone to translate the words that YeYe writes on the card.

Little Ruthie Xiong Shan had her first birthday and was a little confused about all the “goings on.” Some very special friends in the United States who have developed a real love for Ruthie sent her some awesome birthday gifts.

She doesn’t like the flash on the camera and the digital camera we use has a pre flash that is designed to take the red out of people’s eyes caused by the flash. This always alerts Ruthie that a flash is about to take place and she closes her eyes and turns her head making it so difficult to get a good picture. We got lucky here.

June’s Birthday was on November 9th. This was the first time she had ever had a cake made in her honor and she was so happy. You can see the big smile on her face as she cuts pieces of cake for all the other children in the Home of Hope.

One of the traditions in China is to have a cake fight after the preliminaries are over. They did it on June’s Birthday.. later she was covered with pink and white creamed icing!

This was also Jerry and Hazel‘s birthday. Jerry’s birthday is on November 4th and Hazel’s birthday is also on November 4th. We checked and double checked the personal information cards of these children this month as it is really coincidental that two pairs of children have birthdays on the same day in the same month. It is such a joy to observe the difference in these children from a little over a year ago when they came to us the first time.

Other Events

Remembering the difficulties of last winter… the days without electricity and because we heated with electricity… no heat.. we decided to install a coal fired boiler system to heat the facilities for the Home of Hope.

The boiler was delivered in early November and has made such a difference. The coal will be a substantial cost savings over the electric and that savings will more than cover the expense of installing the unit. A big “Thank You” to all of you who contributed to make this system a reality.

Above is Roland Ashby, director of Strategic Alliance, and an eighty plus year old lady. If you look real close you can see her feet were bound as a child.

On November 28th some dear friends of the Home of Hope arrived in Gongyi, China all the way from San Antonio, Texas. They brought gifts to the children and more importantly A LOT OF LOVE!.

The group had lunch with the children and said they really enjoyed it. The fare was Chinese dumplings and Hot and Sour Soup. The children love to watch the foreigners try to eat with the chopsticks. They often think it is the first time they have ever tried it.

There were a lot of pictures taken during this visit but we really liked this one. It is probably the first time anyone ever just sat down, laid back and rested in the three wheel cart the Home of Hope staff uses to go to the market every day to buy groceries.

November also saw the calendar move around and all the children were given preventative injections as suggested by the Chinese Medical Association here in Gongyi. The service was provided free by the Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Gongyi that we have developed a good relationship with.