On Friday, December 30th, to add to the already ‘busy-ness’ and excitement that always surrounds this time of year, we were blessed with a new little girl! (Left)

An elderly couple were out for their early morning walk and found this little one abandoned on the steps of a vacant building.  Of course they were at a loss as to what to do so they took her to their local village doctor who suggested they bring her to the Home of Hope Orphanage.  And we are glad they did!

This little one smiles all the time so we decided to give her the English name “Happy” and her Chinese name is Xiong Le (熊乐) which also means “Happy”.  We took Happy Xiong Le to the hospital as soon as we had her all cleaned up and she was given an excellent report as far as her immediate health is concerned.  One problem… she is has Albinism and so will in all likely hood have some vision problems as she gets older.  It is so cute…. a little Chinese baby with white hair, white skin and red eyes!… along with a normally, bright smile!

We weren’t sure how the staff would accept Happy as this is the first time we have received a child with Albinism and one never ceases to be surprised with some of the local superstitions that surround almost any subject one can imagine!  However, everyone thinks Happy is just adorable and even in the top left corner of this group of snapshots to the right, that is little Morris’ hand holding Happy’s bottle… feeding her!

The doctor guesses that Happy is about three months old so we are designating October 1st as her birthday.  Of course, Happy does not have a sponsor so if you would like to sponsor or support her you can do so by going to our support page on our website at: http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/donations/  Your offering will be greatly appreciated and will go toward giving the child you choose a much better life, full of hope!

MITCHIE LIU FENG NING
The little guy to the left is Mitchie Liu Feng Ning (刘丰宁) who came to us in the Summer of 2011.  His father passed away from muscular distrophy and his mother, though alive, has mental problems brought on by high fever.

Mitchie is a great little guy.  Very smart and gentle.  He likes to observe everything going on around him and is quite adept at getting along with all the other children.

Since he has been at the Home of Hope we have all learned to appreciate his being around and I personally like to catch his ready smile as often as I can!  Welcome Mitchie!

WATER STERILIZER

The Gongyi Home of Hope was blessed by a gift from Dion and George Russell (see the picture of the plaque to the right) a short time ago.  For years we have either had to boil our water or purchase sterilized water for drinking.  Both processes were very costly.  With this new system that was donated to us, the water goes through the sterilizer and is ready for drinking immediately.

We are very grateful for this awesome gift of clean water and this is something that provides benefit to each and every person at the Home of Hope.

Thank You Dion and George Russell!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We purchased our orphanage van in 2002 and it has been a great workhorse with many, daily trips to school, doctor visits, hospital visits and marketing seven days a week!  The van has had two engine replacements and in general has seen it’s better days.  In addition to that,  China has a law regarding “van type” vehicles that says they must be scrapped after ten years of use.  This means two things that are quite detrimental to us!  First of all, we can’t buy another used vehicle as it too would quickly fall under the 10 year rule.  The second thing is that even though we could cripple along with our present van, the law will make us scrap it Spring of this year.  We have to purchase a new van!  For doing that we need your help.

A new van costs $17,500.00 and the orphanage simply can’t do without a van.  We are shooting for 100 people to give $100.00 each toward the purchase of a new van and 15 people to give $500.00 toward the purchase.  Of course if a person wished to give a different amount, either more or less, that would be greatly appreciated and a great help as well.  This is something we MUST do!  We will be lost without a service van.

Anything you can do, large or small will be so helpful at this time and appreciated more than you will ever know. 

To make a donation please go to our website’s  “Donation”  page.

Blessings and deepest Thanks!

The Last Days of Summer
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Liu Feng Ning – Eight Years Old – So many of the situations we run into here just don’t make sense to us but we are always happy to be able to help the little ones that seem to be the results or ‘victims’ of these stange arrangements..

Liu Feng Ning came to us with a father who is deceased and a mother with major mental problems. The only other living family is an elderly grandmother, (see top photo and below) who is disabled and after our investigation into the facts, we determined she is truly not able to care for Feng Ning and of course this situation will worsen as the grandmother gets older.

Due to the fact that all his relatives are either physically or mentally disabled, Fing Ning’s village leader (above, shown signing the custodial agreements with the Home of Hope) is his legal guardian so he is the one who signs all the agreements with the Home of Hope giving the Home of Hope custodial rights and responsibilities for the care of Feng Ning. This is the procedure we follow with each of the Home of Hope children.

The village leader explained to us that the marriage between Feng Ning’s parents was arranged by their respective familie’s despite the mother having developed mental problems from high fevers brough on by Encephalitis at an early age and the father having Spinal Meningitis. Less than a year after Feng Ning’s birth the father passed away leaving the baby to be cared for by the members of the village.
As the little guy got older, fewer people agreed to care for him so the village turned to the Home of Hope to see if we would take him in and raise him. We willingly agreed to do so! We know, very soon that his looks of bewilderment and concern will turn into smiles! Already the other children of the Home of Hope have taken him ‘under wing’ and are showing him the ropes and letting him know he has a new family. Above left, Feng Ning is shown with Ron Zhou Zhi Jie.

As you can see, he is already enjoying the benefits of living at the Home of Hope…. He said, “This food is AWESOME!” We do believe this is the first time we have seen a child roll their eyes back in pure enjoyment of the food they were eating! If you would like to sponsor Liu Feng Ning, you can do so by clicking on our Sponsor a Child link, either here or the above selection menu.

Soon to Arrive

Summer Work

In Abby Joy’s case, there were only three nuns left at the convent where she was dropped off, and from what we could determine, the youngest of the nuns was over seventy five years old. The nuns cared for her for a few days but quickly realized they weren’t able to give her the proper attention she needed, especially with her cleft condition, so they called and asked if we could take her in. Of course we were happy to comply and Abby Joy has been here with us ever since. The nuns still come to visit her about two times a year but now there are only two left and we know that soon the other two will be gone as well. When they do pass on, the convent will be closed. Abby Joy is a “joy” to have around!

CHILDREN’S DAY

The Chinese are really big on Children’s day and so the various schools our children attend had parties and shows to commemorate this year’s “Day of the Child”. We elected to show our representation at the Kindergarten children’s show and it was really neat.

To the left are Ron and Caleb performing a Kung Fu routine all children are taught in Chinese schools.

Here the children are performing some type of dance with Mary taking center stage. She has come a long way from the little newborn abandoned at our gate with a foot twisted around to more than 90 degrees!

All of the children had some part in the program but since there was so much movement we weren’t able to get very many good pictures. It was cute to see who was afraid or shy and who was ready to just jump out front and be part of everything. It is such a thrill to watch as each year brings a new dimension into the personality of each child as they grow, develop and learn new things!

In this picture are (left to right) Dawn, Jacob, one of their classmates and Rachel. We think the little guy toward the back with his back to the camera is Beau. With his hearing impairment, he often just dances to his own music. He really is a neat kid! His picture is also the fourth one down on the right (above).

It looks a little bit like Dawn and Jacob are having a conversation between themselves which one could imagine goes something like… “Do we really want to go out there in front of all those people?”

Next year, Morris will be in Kindergarten so we will be doing this all over gain.

APPRECIATION – We are so grateful for your willingness to join with us in making the Home of Hope Orphanages a success. Thank you so much for your contributions in keeping this awesome work going from month to month and year to year. We know there are times when it is very difficult for you, as we know you have many other obligations. Yet you continue to sacrifice for the children of rural China who, without your compassion and help, would never know the meaning of “Hope”.

We hope you have enjoyed another small glimpse into life at the Home of Hope orphanage in GongYi, China. We covet your prayers as we continue to serve the children in rural China. We just received an email from a lady who has been wanting to help us establish the next Home of Hope in a Jewish settlement near Kaifeng. We have mentioned this before and thought that perhaps it was not going to materialize but now it appears things could begin to move ahead rather quickly.

Again, Thank You for all you do for the less fortunate children of China!

Jacob (on the left) was left at our gate, January 4, 2007 which makes him about three and a half years old (best guess – he was a new born when found) and Beau (on the right) was left at our gate February 28 2006 (also a new-born) which makes him about four years and four months old (again, best guess!)

These two little guys are generally into everything together! If one is into ‘something’, then so is the other one. They do have their little disputes from time to time, but they are very rare.

The other evening we were sitting outside in the ‘approaching night’s’ cool after spending a hot day working on our new ‘shop’ teaching building. We were visiting with all the children, laughing and talking about just anything that came up when all of a sudden we spied little Beau pushing Jacob around in our Chinese style ‘wheel barrow’. They are both so short and tiny it just struck us funny so we started snapping pictures.

Beau pushed Jacob for awhile and then they would change places and Jacob would push Beau for awhile. Just unbelievably cute!

If you go back into our archives to the pages that talk about when these two came, you will remember that Jacob came with absolutely nothing wrong with his little body. He is still as healthy as a horse! Beau, on the other hand, was born without ears or any openings to his ear canal.

Over time we have discovered that he can hear and we are trying to find a Chinese doctor who will give him the surgery(s) necessary to correct his hearing and then plastic surgery to repair his ears.

These two are just absolutely fun to watch! Anytime!

Water Fun

Several years ago, the children and Ye Ye made a fish pond to add a nice touch to our landscape at the Home of Hope. It wasn’t long though, that we figured out the children could use that pond as a wading/swimming area in the summer.

We added a filter and chlorinator and now each summer they fend off the heat by spending time in the pond.

Today was no exception. It was hot and some of the children spent several hours in the water simply having summer fun.

Jumping off the bridge!

Let’s do it all together!

Water Fight!

Friends Bearing Gifts

A few months back (see previous post “Visitors from ShangHai”) two groups of High School students from Shanghai came to visit. What was unique about these young people is most of them are children of ‘Non-Chinese’ foreigners living or working in China.

We had a great visit and then they returned to ShangHai. As is the general rule, we didn’t expect to hear from them again, at least not for a long while.

Surprisingly, one of the students, a fifteen year old named Sophie was really touched by the children of the Home of Hope and set out to raise funds for the Home of Hope children and to collect clothes and toys from everyone she knew.

One day she called and said she and her family would like to visit on Saturday and on the Friday before we should be expecting a truck with several boxes. Goodness… in our wildest dreams we never thought it would be a truck with so many boxes!

True to her word, the next day Sophie arrived with her Mom and Dad, two cousins and here brother. This awesome family helped open the boxes and distribute the clothes and toys to all the children (we had a lot left to put in our storage room for future distribution), then they stayed for many hours playing with the children and spreading a lot of love all around! We were so impressed and the children were ecstatic and talked about their visit for days! Still talking about it, matter of fact.

Above is Sophie with her two cousins passing out individual bags of goodies she had put together for each one of the Home of Hope children! You can see all the boxes “yet to be opened” in the background.

There wasn’t a child left out! You see the tiny ones walking around with their new goodies in their little arms and the older children as well, holding tight onto their new treasures!

Above some of the children pose for a picture with Sophie and her family standing in the back and below we have Sophie with her family. Bruce and Autumn got into the picture. It seemed like Sophie’s dad and Bruce really hit it off and of course Autumn always makes friends with everyone!

From left to right are: Sophie’s cousin Janni, her brother Christopher, her Mom Dorthe and Dad Anders, Sophie and her other cousin Jan with Autumn and Bruce in front.

We were truly impressed with this family and totally moved by Sophie’s caring heart!

We hope you enjoyed this update. If you would like to help the Home of Hope children in any way, you can visit our Current Needs page.

You can also visit our Donation Page.

Thank You from all of us at the Home of Hope – With a grateful heart!

NEW BEDS FOR THE CHILDREN

Some time ago we realized the children’s beds were in dire need of replacement. Some more than others, as you can probably imagine. After ten years of use, all the beds at the Gongyi Home of Hope have started to deteriorate in various degrees of wear. Fortunately, a church in California along with a kind lady in Mississippi provided the funds for new beds.

Interestingly enough, providing beds for over fifty children is not something that is easily accomplished. There are no wholesale houses where one can go order fifty or sixty beds and to achieve any kind of quality (greatly needed due to being used by a lot of energetic children) one has to make sure the materials being used are good enough to provide long term use.

This was not the first time we have had to replace beds. The end of 2008 we had to replace quite a few of our beds which had already deteriorated beyond use. The funding for that project came from a church in Texas and was greatly appreciated. This time however, all the remaining beds needed to be replaced.

To insure the quality of materials, we first had to go to the lumber mill and order the milling of the wood to our specifications. One thing neat about this is, we see the actual log the material is going to come out of before the milling process starts.




Once the timber is milled, we go through it, one piece at a time, selecting the wood we can use and rejecting that which has large knots or splits or pockets of sap. We then pay for what we take based on a pricing schedule similar to that calculated on “board feet”. Of course here they use the metric system.

Once the wood is selected, it is loaded on carts pulled by donkeys and hauled several killometers to the wood working factory where it will be processed into the final beds.

This takes quite a few trips by donkey carts. No matter how long we are here, we never get used to seeing the contrast of heavy laden donkey carts going down the State highway along side modern busses, trucks and cars.

We always have quite a bit of sympathy for the donkeys because we know their fate! Once they are old and can’t work any longer they are then butchered and used for meat dishes. Quite tasty actually! (Grin)

HOME OF HOPE PING PONG TOURNAMENT

In China, the main time of celebration is the Chinese New Years, often referred to as “Spring Festival”. This celebration/holiday is scheduled based on the Lunar calendar, so as far as the Western calendar is concerned, it never comes on the same date. This year it actually starts on the 14th of February (Valentines Day).

During this time, everything shuts down (we mean everything except emergency services) for a minimum of five days starting with the first day of the holiday. The schools also shut down for at least a month so right now, all the Home of Hope children are home including all the college kids.

This allows us to have many activities with all the children which is somewhat difficult to do during the school year. A typical day during the normal school year, the high school and middle school students get home after 6:30 PM (leaving for school between 5:30 and 6:00 AM) and of course the college kids only come home on special occasions.

Shortly after Christmas, we decided to have a Ping Pong tournament, open to all the children and based on a handicap system to make it as fair as possible for each child. Almost all the boys and several of the girls signed up for the tournament. Nathan was the judge and Ben Godard (the director of the Home of Hope #3 in PingYu) helped with the score keeper chores, as we had two tables going at the same time. We want to do this again during this New Years break!

Those children not actually playing in the tournament came to watch, so we had a large gallery of ‘observers’ cheering on the participants.

Above right, are the three finalists, (left to right) Wayne Li Meng Di, John Yao Shu Xing and Adam Zhang Lang. We were all quite impressed with their skills at the game. John has grown so tall over the last year and it seemed as if he had no equal with his ability to reach all areas of the playing surface.

Wayne is a different type of player. Nothing fancy but with a serious and steady defense. Adam is a very aggressive player using a lot of English and slams. This made for a very interesting series of play-off games.

In the end it came down to a final play-off game between John and Wayne.
Initially, we were a little worried that no matter how hard we tried, the hanidicap system we were using wouldn’t give each child an equal shot a victory, but it really worked out well.

The final series of games between John and Wayne were very close with the point spread of the scores being just a few points seperating the two.

John came out on top as the winner of the tournament and all the children said they wanted us to do it again very soon with many of the girls saying they would join in the fun the next time..

We hope you enjoyed this update. We will be bringing you more stories and information during and after the Chinese New Years Holidays. (Spring Festival) Blessings!

With there being just eight days before Christmas everyone is getting excited and ready for the great day. The small children as well as the larger children are preparing little programs to present at our Christmas Eve ‘Get-together’.

The kitchen staff is preparing for the special Christmas dinner (Chinese Style.. No turkey intended! ) and the Rec-Room is being decorated.

The Rec-Room which is normally used as a study hall in the evenings and a play room during the day and off-study periods, is now locked and off limits except to those children and staff doing the decorating. We have transferred our study hall location to the dining hall during this time and it works quite well once the evening supper is eaten and the dishes are cleared away.

As more wrapped gifts show up under the tree the children do everything they can to sneak a peek in the door when someone goes in and out…. typical to children everywhere! We can’t say what the gifts are that are being wrapped because many of our children browse our website on a frequent basis. We will post the outcome after Christmas.

The children in the Home of Hope Kindergarten and Primary School are making Christmas related decorations to hang EVERYWHERE! In the above picture are Rose Xiong Ai, Mosie Xiong En, Autumn Xiong Duo and Ruthie Xiong Shan, showing off the Christmas Stocking decorations they made themselves. In reading the story below, which does not have such a happy outcome, remember that each one of the four children you see above were abandoned children who, thanks to you and all who support the Home of Hope organization, have a great future before them!

Of course, having Christmas for fifty-two children, staff and Home of Hope alumni (those children who have grown up and are now on their own, but who “come home” for Christmas each year, does have it’s extra expenses. If you would like to contribute toward this you can do so by going to our “Donate Now” page.

During all this excitement and hustle and bustle of preparations we were brought back to the reality of why we are here (as is usually what happens).

Yesterday afternoon we were visited by this lady and her husband along with their baby. They wanted us to take their baby and raise it since they simply can’t’ take care of it nor, after almost a year, do they any longer have the will to try. Their basic statement was either we take the baby or they were going to abandon it.

The little girl is almost one year old and has a medical condition that makes it impossible for us to take her in here at the Home of Hope.

This whole situation made us very sad and at the same time made us realize how fortunate all of us are at the Home of Hope and how no matter how much we do to help, it is never enough. There are always people out there who have reached the end of their rope…. have no hope for the future… not even for tomorrow. These realities cause us deep reflection on how fortunate we are to be able to celebrate the meaning of Christmas and how we must continue to reach out to help those we can, no matter how difficult it is or how tired we become.

The day after the episode above, the kindergarten children came over to see us during their recess. Little Rose Xiong Ai (she is on the left in the group picture above) handed us a note with writing on both sides. (See the pictures of the note below – top is the front side and the bottom is the back side.) As she shyly handed it to us, we asked her if she had done this all by herself. She nodded in affirmation. After reading the note the question had to be asked again due to the content. After all, Rose is just barely six years old.

She again confirmed that she had done it all by herself and then her kindergarten mates chimed in and confirmed it as well.

The translation is under each page.

Ye Ye, (Grandpa Nathan) I want to say something to you.
You work so hard. Everyday you are so busy you can’t rest. You are so busy yet you find time to take Xiong Duo (Autumn) and Xiong En (Mosie) to ZhengZhou to see the dentist. Also, every day you make us happy.

I hope you to be joyful. I hope you to be happy. I am making ready a gift for you. I love you very much.

You take care of so many Home of Hope children by working so hard.

It is things like this that simply make our hearts sing and bring focus to what we are doing here. (The picture at the left is of Rose Xiong Ai shortly after she was abandoned at our gate, June 12, 2003 – almost 7 years ago)

Of course we get tired and there are times when we get discouraged and even wonder if what we are doing is having an impact on the children at all. Then something like this takes place and we realize that in fact… it is!

We had to go to Hong Kong to do some work with the Chinese Consulate regarding our long term visas and when we got back, our car which we left at the airport, had over fourteen inches of snow built up on it. Amazing for our area.

In the picture above and left to right are Ruthie, Gracie, Mary in the front… Rose in the back, Autumn, Abby Joy and Isaac with Mosie behind Autumn and Rose.

The following Slideshow was made from pictures taken over a 48 hour period while the snow was falling and getting deeper and deeper.

If it hasn’t already done so, this Slideshow may take a couple of minutes to download, depending on your server speed, but it is well worth the wait.

Sweet Potato Harvest

The children love to cook their own sweet potatoes over an open fire. I suppose one would call that “roasted” or some thing like that. Anyway, to make them even better, they grow their own. We haven’t actually taken a count but it seems like they harvest them about two or three times a year.

However, we have noticed that one of the motivations for their getting out and harvesting what is ready is more than the desire to have roasted sweet potatoes.

Our small truck farm area is not fenced and since this is a social country, everything belongs to everyone. About the time we notice increased activity with the local villagers coming to our sweet potato patch and gathering potatoes for themselves, the Home of Hope children get out and have a major harvest. Makes sense to us.

“Rachel, Rachel” – “Come here Ye Ye”

It wasn’t long ago that little Rachel (abandoned at our gate at birth) would burst into tears whenever Ye Ye would come around. We often thought it was because she associated spending time with Ye Ye to her trips to Beijing for surgery. Now it is totally opposite. Every time she sees Ye Ye (Nathan) anywhere, she calls to him to come and play or hold her or whatever.

This time Nathan was walking down the hall outside the Nursery and she saw him and (even though it was nap time) she jumped up and started calling out to Ye Ye to come and play. Nathan was on the way to take some pictures so had his camera and grabbed a couple of shots in passing! What a doll!

Of course Aaron (also abandoned at our gate at birth) was also awake and started laughing and begging to have his picture taken as well so he was accommodated! It is such a joy to watch these little “Real People” grow and develop their own individual personalities, habits and traits. Fun and heart warming beyond imagination!

“We need your help!”

Hard times have come on the Home of Hope orphanages primarily due to the economic slowdowns in the countries where our support comes from. At the same time, strong inflation is hitting China and the dollar to RMB exchange rate is depreciating. We are in the process of determining where we can cut back on less critical operational expenses while at the same time the start up of the PingYu facility is taking off this month. We could use your help. You can go to our “Donate Now” page to make a contribution. Anything you can do to help the work here, either large or small, will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You and blessings!

Yesterday, our first and second grade tutors asked if they could take the children to the park for their PE and Study Hall classes and we agreed as long as they would take the camera and get a few pictures of the children during the outing. They did and we thought we would post some of them.

In the picture above we are focusing on, left to right – Autumn, Rose, Ruthie, Isaac and Moses. These children were all newborns, abandoned and either found on the street by the police and brought to us, or abandoned at our gate, usually during the night hours.

We want to “thank” those who have helped with ‘contributions of love’ for the Home of Hope this month and over the years. Lately, we have felt the pressure of the combination of continuing our current growth at the existing facilities while at the same time gearing up for the ‘Start Up’ of PingYu. However, we feel strongly that this is the time and place for the third Home of Hope and as we continue to believe for guidance in this project we know that provisions will come in.

Your participation in the Vision for the lost and needy from the mountains and rural area of Gongyi is so greatly appreciated and though we say this a lot, we know that without your involvement in the work here, we could not continue, so again, Thank You!

We thought we would show you one more picture from the field trip with insets of each child when they first came to the Home of Hope so you can see just how much your contributions toward their life has truly accomplished. These little guys are smart, loving and just exciting to be around. You have not only made their life possible but have also made it possible for each one of them to have the surgeries necessary to take care of the various reasons they were abandoned in the first place.

Watching them grow and sharing God’s love with them is another reason why we are so very appreciative for your helping to make all of this possible.

Thank You and Blessings!

P.S. – As a footnote, the weather bureau says that day after tomorrow the temperatures are suppose to drop over forty degrees. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Not only did our college kids head back to school, but in conjunction with our “in house” kindergarten, first and second grades, we have also started a pre kindergarten aged toddlers learning center. We don’t load the little ones up with too heavy a criteria but we are encouraging them to write and draw and sing and dance. This will prepare them for starting Kindergarten next year. So far they all really enjoy this new addition to their little lives and were all excited when “Ye Ye” (Nathan) walked in to take their picture.

Ye Ye’s next stop was the Kindergarten and the children were doing exercises with the teacher where she would ask them questions and the children would raise their hands if they had the answer. Of course Ye Ye’s appearance in their class disrupted everything.

Ye Ye’s next stop on this picture taking expedition was to the first grade class. Above left to right are Rose, Autumn and Isaac.

The class room is set up for using the ACE curriculum including each child having his/her own “office” (the individual “desk” cubicles you see). In following the ACE program, each child studies at his own pace so most of the time total silence is required so one child doesn’t interfere with the other children. When a child needs help from the teacher, he/she raises his/her flag and the teacher will then give them one on one help.

We have been really happy with the results of our Kindergarten and First and Second grade classes. The children study in Chinese half the day keeping in line with the same subjects the normal Chinese schools teach at these grade levels. They study, Chinese writing, Chinese speaking, Social Studies, Math, Art and Music.

The other half of the day they study in English and their English studies are again, reading, writing, grammar and math.

NEW BABY

While Nathan was in the States to escort Shannon back to China, a new baby was dropped off outside our gate during the night. This little guy only has one problem and that is a “not so severe” cleft lip and cleft palate. All of his other vitals are very good. Strong heart, good lungs and very responsive to sounds and touch. We named him Enoch (Meaning: Dedicated and Enlightened) and he will have his first surgery in January or February.

If you would like to contribute to either Enoch’s monthly sponsorship or to his upcoming surgeries (three will be required) you can do so by going to our donations page.

ORTHODONTICS

As many of you, who have been following the Home of Hope for awhile are aware, our cleft lip and cleft palate children will eventually have to undergo orthodontic treatment to straighten their bite, jaw and teeth.

This last month this treatment started for both Autumn Xiong Duo and Moses Xiong en.

Above Autumn is showing off the mechanical brace that is slowly pulling her jaw and mouth into alignment. There is also a retainer inside her mouth to assist in proper teeth alignment.

Autumn does really well with her treatment including removing the device herself each time to eat and brush her teeth and also putting it back on each time.

Moses‘ situation is more severe than Autumn’s so for now, he needs assistance in removing the mouth piece at each mealtime and for cleaning and brushing his teeth. Other than that, he does really well with the device although he hates to go out in public with it on. That is reversal from what we thought it would be with Autumn not caring if people see her in hers. Mosie really hates to be seen in public with it on.

Orthodontic work is relatively expensive and we have quite a few more children who will need the same treatment. If you would like to help financially with these projects you can do so at our “How I Can Help” section of this web site.

We will keep this site updated as much as possible.

Thank you so much for visiting us!