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!

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!

Let it Snow!

All winter long the children have been asking and asking when it was going to snow. Unlike past winters when we received more than our share of snow, rain and heavy winds, this winter has simply been cold. Nothing more. No snow.. very little rain or drizzle… some high winds but not even enough of that to talk about… just cold, cold, cold! We were very aware of that too because our utility costs (heating and hot water) have been way up this winter. Finally on the 27th of February it started to drizzle and then a short time later it turned into a very minor snow.

School had already started back up so the only children here during the daytime were the children in our own school and our kindergarten. The kindergarten children were not allowed outside due to the extreme cold but we did let our first graders who were not down with colds go out to enjoy what little bit of the snow they could. The fact that there was only 1/2″ to 3/4″ of snow didn’t matter to them at all. In no time there were small snowballs flying around as well as Jaxin Godard (Ben and Michelle Godard’s son), Moses Xiong En, Ruthie Xiong Shan, and Autumn Xiong Duo had built a small snowman complete with eyes, ears, nose and mouth they had fabricated from sticks and other things they had found.

Even though it has been many years and a long time since we have felt the excitement at seeing snow the way six, seven and eight year olds do, their joy was contagious and so we thought we would share it with our readers.

New Year’s Fireworks

Another part of the ‘wind-down’ to New Years or as they say in China, “the beginning of Spring” (though it sure doesn’t feel like it right now) is the annual fireworks display the Government puts on for the people of Gongyi and the surrounding villages.

It is one of the most amazing displays we have ever seen before coming to China. Of course we have read that fireworks have their origin in China (true or not we don’t know for sure) so it is only natural they would have a great show. There were major fireworks going off constantly for the better part of an hour. There was even one that when it exploded way up in the heavens, dropped hundreds of glowing lanterns as well as many designs in the sky including hearts and such developed from the exploding pieces. Everyone had a great time!

Hazel Goes to Beijing

A long time ago we started our children’s e-mail pen pal program and it wasn’t long until a lovely couple in Germany made contact with Hazel Ge Hua Zhi. They have built a great relationship over time and when the couple decided to come to China for a visit they called us and asked if Hazel could spend a few days with them while they were here. We agreed.

Hazel went to Beijing to meet her friends and she had a great time! We are sure she had never seen anything like what she experienced in Beijng. From the nice hotel she stayed in to the love she was shown by a couple she had only met via e-mail.

…. from the Grand Piano they had in the lobby of the hotel they stayed in where she was allowed to show what she has learned on the piano, to actually being able to visit the Great Wall of China… a dream never realized by many Chinese people.

Hazel came back with many great experiences to share with us! We were really glad she had a chance to make the trip!

We hope you have enjoyed this short update. We will add more very soon.

If you would like to contribute to the lives of the children of the Home of Hope, please go to our donations page.

At about 8:30 AM our gate guard called and said he had found a bundle outside the gate. We hurried over and there it was! All wrapped up in six layers of blankets to shield it from the cold (it was about zero outside). As is our custom we asked the guard many questions about where the bundle was laying and if he saw anyone drop it off and so on.

We slowly started to unwrap the bundle and our normal concerns and apprehensions set in as they always do. “What would we find?” “Would the baby be healthy?” “Would the baby be cleft lip?” Would the baby fall under the parameters that we have to follow regarding the health of the babies we can keep and the ones we are not able to help?”

All of these questions as we unwrapped layer after layer until finally a little head appeared. Right away we could see this little one was cleft lipped but we still didn’t know about the condition of it’s palate so we kept removing blankets and then it’s baby clothes until we could check everything on “his” (turned out to be a little, baby boy) little body.
Ten toes, eight fingers and two thumbs… Good! Legs seem sound… Hands and arms seem normal… no “birth trauma” visible to his little head. Just the cleft lip problem… Now let’s make him cry so we can see inside his mouth.

He wouldn’t cooperate at first but finally he did and there it was… the cleft palate. This is something we have grown accustomed to seeing after these many years in China, and it is something that is very treatable with surgery and help with learning to speak clearly.

We were actually quite happy to see this because it is rare for 100% healthy babies to be abandoned at our gate. We have had several but most of the time the abandoned little ones have some type physical problem.

This last six months has been extremely hard on us as we have had eight babies abandoned at our gate who have either passed away shortly after being discovered or had a major physical problem that we are not equipped to deal with or which are not allowed to keep based on our agreements with the government.

That is why when we discovered this little guy had a cleft lip – cleft palate problem we felt some sense of relief since this is an operable situation and in our experience the cleft lip – cleft palate babies are usually pretty healthy other than that single, small problem. The most difficult part of the cleft palate baby is in the feeding while they are still in the “new born” stage. They have to drink their formula very slowly so they often fall asleep before they have taken in as much as they should.

In the picture above you can see the small note and the 100 Yuan bank note that was found inside the baby’s blankets. The note asks us to take care of the baby with love and kindness and states that he was born five days before which puts his birthday at January 15th, the same birthday as Nathan’s father. Since we already have a child named John, we decided to call him Morris after Nathan’s father’s middle name. His Chinese name is Xiong Hui (Full of light) not to be confused with “Charity”. Charity’s name is also Xiong Hui (Virtuous) but the Chinese character’s are different giving the two names two entirely different meanings.

If you would like to contribute to the life of Morris Xiong Hui and be involved with him from the very beginning you can do so by going to our donations site.

New Years Fun

Those of you who have been part of the Home of Hope family for several years are aware that Chinese New Years is the biggest time of celebration in China. During the New Years “week” those Home of Hope children who have friends or distant family in the villages where they came from, go back to visit for a day or two.

Those Home of Hope children who have no known family or village roots don’t go anywhere during this time so we always try to do something special for them. This year a new “arcade” facility opened in Gongyi and we decided to take the children there for an afternoon of fun and games.

As you can see in the picture above as well as the following pictures, they really had a good time. There were bumper cars, air hockey, several different types of rides and other games to play.

When it came time to leave, the owner said he wanted to donate the fee as a New Years gift to the Home of Hope. So nice!

Temporary Workers!

In keeping with the New Year’s Holiday, we try to allow our staff as much time off as possible so during the days when some of the children go back to their villages to visit… a time when our work load demand is not as great, we allow some of the staff to have off as well. However, it leaves a condition of not being so fair as they all want time off, but we can’t accommodate everyone because this is an orphanage and demands 24 hours a day service from the work force.

To alleviate the problem and keep all the staff happy, this year we called on our eleven college students to work during the New Year’s… which several of them with no place to go, gladly agreed to do.

Hank, Brian and David took care of the kitchen duties while Julie, Logan, Holly, Esther and Linda helped out in the nursery and also in taking care of the younger children who have moved out of the Nursery. We were so proud of these young people as they did an amazing job! Actually, better than the staff in some areas!

Logan on the left, Esther on the right

Holly Hou San Juan on the left, Julie Zhang Yan Yan on the right

Hank on the left, Nathan and David on the right

We want to again express our deepest appreciation for your prayers and support. These last few months have been quite a challenging time for us with both social and financial adversities brought on by the current economic situations in China, the States and other parts of the world. It is such a comfort to know you are standing with us and are a true part of the work here. The efforts we put forth together are already starting to show great results in the lives of our children.

Thank you so much! From all of us here in China, to you and yours!

We send you best wishes for this New Year and pray that God will bless you abundantly….. As the Chinese New Year’s greeting says… “Good Health, Good Success, Great Happiness and Good Luck!”… in other words.. “Be Blessed!”

A few days ago, Michael Yang Wen Bo (11 years old), Calvin Ge Hua Wei (14 years old), Peter Ma Hong Qi (10 years old) and Joseph Li Shi Yan (13 years old) decided to play “hooky” from school in the afternoon.

As he does everyday, our bus driver took them to school (along with the other children) and dropped them off at the front of the school and watched them all walk toward the main building. Little did he know that as soon as he drove away, the “Fearsome Foursome” turned and ran to a construction site near their school where they encountered a challenging wall to climb. Very soon, climbing wasn’t enough and their outing turned to the game “King of the Mountain”. As anyone who has ever played “King of the Mountain” knows, if your on top, everyone is going to try to make you go to the bottom. That is what happened to Calvin Ge Hua Wei and the result was two broken arms. He is recovering just fine!

Prayer/Memory Bracelet

Above is a picture of our Home of Hope Prayer/Memory Bracelet which we would like to send to all our Home of Hope friends while supply lasts. On one side is our web site address and on the other side the words “Home of Hope”. There are three sizes available. Large and medium for adults and small for children.

If you would like to receive your own bracelet to help remember us and as a reminder to pray for us, please drop us a note to:

Home of Hope Orphanage
DufuBan, YongAn Lu, LiGou Cun
Gongyi Shi, Henan 451200
China

Please include your mailing address and indicate quantity, color and size, we would love to send this to you to keep as a daily reminder that you are part of the Home of Hope in China. (Limit four per household please. Organizations i.e. churches and clubs can request larger quantities.)

It has been quite some time since we included any pictures of the area we live and work in. Needless to say, in keeping up with the rapid economic growth in China, Gongyi has also developed quite a bit in the nine years we have been here. Of course, the growth is mostly in the government sector while the individual people have seen little by way of personal economic growth. Lack of employment and poverty still abounds in our area.

Whenever we go out to take pictures we cannot help but take a few snaps of the elderly around the area. One can’t help but wonder what all is stored in their memories… from the last Emperor in China, the Cultural Revolution and now the modernization of China. One thing they always ask is “How much do I have to pay you to take my picture?” When we tell them “nothing” they give us a large, toothless smile and then offer their best pose.

In the two above, notice the silver bracelets on the elderly lady. This indicates she is not from such a poor family. We do see this occasionally but not so often.

Unlike most homes in the Western Culture, the common Chinese house has little by way of amenities. Consequently during summer and winter, the older people spend most of their daylight hours sitting around outside, visiting with friends and neighbors and playing Mahjong or Chinese Chess.

The two ladies above agreed to let me take their picture. As you can see, the one on the left was very shy and the one on the right seemed a little angry that I wasn’t paying her for taking her picture!

Of course these two men are spending their day playing chess. You can see these two men at the same place day after day doing the same thing.

The following pictures give one a glimpse of how the 21st Century is rapidly covering up the ancient landmarks in our area.

If you look at the above pictures very carefully, you will see how modern development (in this case, the valley is being filled with dirt in preparation for some high rise buildings – top picture) is moving in and covering up the old cave dwellings. A small truck farm is being covered up along with some additional cave dwellings and cave storage facilities in the middle picture and in the bottom picture a High School that was built about thirty years ago is also going by the way of modernization development. Until last year some of our children attended this same High School.

Additional Snapshots

On the left is a “Cabbage” delivery truck and on the right is a common Gongyi taxi. Also, many people who are out of work and yet own motorcycles wait on the street corners and give people rides to the destination of their choice for a few Yuan less than what a “taxi” would charge.

Surprise Visitors

Last Saturday morning, quite early, there was a knock on our door. No knowing who was there, we decided to surprise the person by opening the door with camera in hand.

As it turned out it was Julie, David and Brian visiting from college for the weekend. We were so happy to see them!

We hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for visiting.

As soon as the children start getting out of school for the summer, we not only do chores together but we play together as well. Some of the things we do are preliminary trials of some of the activities at the youth camp.

David (on the left) has the part time job of being pond/pool guard when the children nine and under are enjoying the water. We have various scheduled times when the children ten and over can swim… nine and under can swim and certain times are set aside for the nursery children and their house nannies.

David does not need to be on guard while the ten and above children are swimming since the pool/pond is only two and a half feet deep in the deepest part so during those times he continues to work on other maintenance items at the Home of Hope although part of his pool/pond guard duties include keeping the water “skimmed”, checking the chlorination and PH balance three times a day and keeping the bottom vacuumed.

Of course like children the world over, the Home of Hope children love playing in the water. Above two pictures show Jaxin and Eli Godard, Moses and Isaac in the water while the older boys (not their turn) look on.

Sack Races, Human Wheel Barrow Races,Tug-of-war, Watermelon Eating Contest and Spin around the Stick

Most of the following pictures are self explanatory showing the activities we had one afternoon to celebrate the children being out of school for the summer. (Sack races… no sacks… just one foot of each person tied to the other person’s foot)

Adam and Mathew………………………………….Zak and Bruce

Mosie and Jaxin……………………………………….Ruthie and Joy

Isaac, Autumn, Mosie and Jaxin…………………Mosie and Jaxin

Autumn and Rose, Isaac and Grace…………..Michael and Tony

Mathew and Adam…………………………………..Lily and Rena

Heidi and Shirley………………………………………Shirley and Autumn

Mosie and Jaxin (Tony in back)…………………Vincent and Joseph

Adam with the ball…………………………………..Whole group watching a “swisher”!

The following pictures show a new game we had not played before at the Home of Hope. It was introduced by Christopher Green (shown in the pictures), a short term volunteer. The children really bonded with him.

The game is a lot of fun in that the child has to put his nose on the end of the stick as shown and then walk round and round the stick. It seems the object of the game is to walk until one falls down from dizziness… however, we think there was some type competition involved… we just could not figure out what it was.

Gracie’s turn……………………………………………Isaac’s turn

Ruthie’s turn……………………………………………Joy’s turn

Dizzy Enough Already!

Can you handle it Zak?……………………………..I think I can

No hands Henry……………………………...………Now it’s a race!

Enough! Enough… No more watermelon please! I’m stuffed!

Thank You for visiting our short excursion into the Home of Hope early summer. We hope you enjoyed your visit and we hope you come back again soon!

Thank You!

Nathan knew something was in the air but wasn’t sure what and then the children came over and told him it was time for his birthday party.

The above picture was the gift the children had arranged for their Ye Ye and even though they had made the picture that day at around lunch time they had managed to organize it without our knowing anything about it… Now that’s quite a chore since the picture was taken in front of our house. This is one of the rare occasions when all the children were home and even the college students managed to get home for the birthday festivities.

When we walked in, all the children were there, seated and obviously in a high spirit of celebration. It was really cute. As we looked around the dining room, now set up for a birthday party, it was obvious that the college age children were totally responsible for this and not some of the staff.

We noticed that the soda cans were arranged in a heart. Above left, the heart and above right, Sam and Hank with the soda cans.

Hank and Sam did the work of the ‘Masters of Ceremony’ – and did an excellent job with Hank speaking Chinese and Sam translating – and there were many speeches given by various children about what the Home of Hope meant to them.

Then Hank talked about how the college students were all away at college now and that the other children now needed to take up the role of being the example for the younger children. Hank went on to explain that even though he and the other six college students were away at school and after they graduated would be finding jobs and going out into society on their own, the Home of Hope would always be their home and all of the children would always be brothers and sisters to each other.

He then called the oldest child of each age group to the front and had them give a short speech to their individual age group about how they needed to continue the Home of Hope tradition of learning good character and doing well in school. How they all needed to study hard and prepare for going out into the society as individual success stories.. to be able to contribute to society rather than just be ‘takers’ from society. There were both tears and laughter making this birthday a very touching and moving experience.

First he called Jim (above left) to represent the high school students and then Gail (above right) to represent the middle school students.

Then little Tony came up and represented the primary school students. It is amazing what these children can say at times. It was all very touching.

Then they called Ye Ye (Nathan) to the front and presented him with his birthday gift… it was the above group picture all framed and ready for hanging on the wall.

Nathan was very surprised and was so happy to receive such a wonderful gift for his birthday.

Then it was time for the cake. The cake had “Happy Birthday – You are the light of our life” written on it.

Then Ye Ye said a few words and thanked all the children for the lovely birthday party and proceeded to tell them how he appreciated the beautiful words on the cake but the truth is that God was the light of our life and if it was not for God brining us all together none of this would have ever happened.

Earlier, the college students had asked to take Nathan out for his birthday so we all went out to eat (including Ben and Michelle Godard working at the Gongyi Home of Hope in training for managing Home of Hope number three to be opened soon). The above picture was taken at the restaurant and the children paid for the meal with their allowance money they had saved. Left to right, top to bottom is Hank, Sam, David, Julie, Logan, Holly, Nathan and Michelle Godard.

It is like these children really want to get the message through that they are not small children any longer and they really want to help in any way possible to make the Home of Hope a better and better place.

You the viewer can look at these pictures and enjoy them but how we wish you could look at the faces of the individual children with all the memories we have that span the last nine years as these ‘once little ones’ have grown and developed into the awesome young adults they have now become.

All in all it was a wonderful birthday for Nathan and it was just one more thing to reinforce the fact that all of this is really, really worth the effort. Not that the children prepare the birthday party on their own, but it is the idea behind it. The Home of Hope has truly become a large family with so much love and mutual appreciation at all the various age levels. A great and beautiful time!

The older children were the most fun to watch…. and they took all the pictures since Ye Ye (Nathan) is still confined to a wheel chair. We thought we would just share some of the “Snow Pics” with you.

There is always something magical about snow pictures and magic obviously got to our older children. First of all they were happy to be home from their various universities… (they are all on China’s New Year’s break) and secondly the snow was coming down very hard always adding a spirit of Joy and calling to everyone… “come play with me!”

In the pictures above (left) is a shot of the Home of Hope front yard on the East side. On the right is a shot of the main building. Girl’s dorms are on the second floor and the boy’s are on the first floor.

On the left is another shot of the Home of Hope front yard with the kitchen, dining hall and study area building in the background.

Autumn Xiong Duo (left) and Isaac Ma Shi Hao (right) also outside enjoying the snow. We wondered what they were thinking since this is the first time they have experienced this.

Rose Xiong Ai on the left and Dennis, Gracie, Rose, Issac and Autumn pose in the snow.

Holly, Logan and Julie (left) – Holly, Logan and Esther on the right.

Logan showing her artistic (?????) ability with a snow sculpture.

Logan and Heidi (sisters) – Logan, David and Esther

Mosie on the left and Esther on the right.

Dennis on the left and David on the right… both spending time with “Mike” the Home of Hope mascot.

We hope you enjoyed this small peek into one aspect of daily life at the Home of Hope.

Blessings!

Growing up in the South Central part of Texas, our most familiar and fondest memories of a White Christmas are those expressed by Bing Crosby. So it was really exciting to wake up on the 24th of December and find everything hiding under a soft and gentle covering of powdery snow. We always celebrate Christmas on the 24th due to various school conflicts with some of the children so for all practical purposes we had snow on Christmas day! Since Christmas is relatively new to the children they had no clue why everyone was so excited about snow on Christmas day but very soon it caught on. (In the picture above Moses Xiong En and Ruthie Xiong Shan are enjoying a walk in the snow on Christmas [eve] morning)

While the kitchen staff was busy preparing the large Christmas (Chinese Style) dinner, in other parts of the Home of Hope little groups were gathered together practicing their various performances for the Christmas get-to-gether to be held after dinner.

In the picture to the left, Nathan is working with Sam and Rena on their part in the skit “Life House Everything” being performed by the HOH university students. In the skit Sam plays God and Rena is one of God’s new creations. A film clip of the skit will be posted on this page as soon as possible. Meantime, if you are not familiar with the skit “Life House Everything” you can see it being performed by another group at YouTube. The Home of Hope college students did it just about perfect.

In mid afternoon we went to check on how the Christmas dinner preparations were coming along and found the dining room all decorated and ready.

For those interested in what a Chinese style Christmas Dinner is like, here are some of the menu items…… Sweet and Sour Fish, Goat-Ke-Bobs, Baked Chicken, Steamed Beef, Pickled Cucumber, Green Beans, Steamed Garlic Stems, Ba Bao Zhou (a sweet soup made with eight different fruits, Sweet Rice, Peanuts, Green Peppers stuffed with chopped Pork and boiled tree fungus, to name a few.

At about 5:30 the cooks called everyone in to eat. All in all including all the children, staff and guests we had more than eighty people for dinner.

Jay and Cindy Sockel, friends from California came to be with us over Christmas. We asked Jay to lead us in prayer before the meal and when he was finished everyone dove in. What a meal!

Even though everyone really enjoyed the dinner and most everyone was stuffed when it was over, there was a sense of high anticipation for the events that were to follow.

When dinner was about over, Nathan asked for volunteers to help clean up the dining hall and the kitchen so we could move on to our annual Christmas Social. So many people volunteered that the entire place was cleaned in no time.

Everyone moved to what is normally used as our children’s study hall but for Christmas it had been decorated and was beautiful.

The nursery babies with their individual Nannies sat in the front as well as the toddler aged children. The tables were all covered with organges, apples, walnuts, peanuts, candies and other goodies.

After everyone was seated to open the program, Cindy Sockel gave a talk about the true meaning of Christmas. What she told the children was very sincere and moving.

Mathew and Vincent gave a skit they developed on their own; the kindergarten children gave a skit on “It’s better to give than to receive” and they did an awesome job. As mentioned earlier, the University Students, Sam, Hank, Julie, Holly, Logan and David along with Rena (still in High School) did their program.

As soon as possible we will have two film clips added to this page… both the kindergarten children and the university students skits. We hope you come back to view them.

There were songs and games and other festivities and then it was time to exchange gifts. Jay Sockel did us the honor of playing Santa Clause and several of the older children helped him hand out the gifts. There was something for everyone!

We wish to close this segment with a large Thank You to those wonderful people who made it possible for each child at the Home of Hope to have a new winter coat. To all those who sent gifts and cards to the children and everyone who helped make Christmas 2007 one of the best ever!…………… THANK YOU!

Blessings!

We brought Aaron Xiong Wei home yesterday! What an exciting time!

Here are two more pictures to close out this particular update on Aaron’s treatment for a “clubbed” right foot! Please scroll down to see how Aaron’s foot looked before his two months of treatment in Beijing.



We picked Aaron up in Beijing at about 5:00PM on Saturday, the 24th of November and caught an overnight train back to Gongyi. We arrived in Gongyi at 7:30AM and went straight to the nursery. Everyone was waiting for him and even the other little toddlers in the Nursery were anxious to see Aaron. I’m sure they didn’t know what was going on but with all the “hoopla” about his coming home the excitement was catching! We are so glad he is home!

Aaron will need to wear the little brace 24 hours per day until March 1, 2008. (The red “tie” on his right foot is some yarn the Nursery Nannies tied around his shoe because he has already learned how to get his foot out of the shoe.) After that and until he is six years old, he will need to wear it every night while he sleeps. As you can see, the foot that received the treatment is turning a little toward the outside compared to how it used to be… twisted to the inside.

The reason it is turned to the outside is what they called “over correction” which will slowly become less important as he begins to walk without the brace during the day time hours (after March 1, 2008).

We offer a great big Thank You to Doctor Joyce Hill and her staff for the great job they did on Aaron. Actually, they were sad to see him leave because at three months old he is just developing his personality and it is one big, happy personality!

Aaron Xiong Wei Update – November 20, 2007

We received additional pictures and a wonderful report on Aaron today.

First the pictures!


Aaron is doing wonderful and the following pictures show just how much his little foot has improved.



As you can see by both of the above pictures his little foot is straight. Aaron will need special shoes and braces for quite awhile in the future but his prognosis is excellent. We are all so happy and excited because this weekend he will be coming home!

Fantastic!

October 11, 2007

The attending physician, Dr. Joyce Hill sent us some current snapshots of Aaron Xiong Wei (above) who is in Beijing undergoing treatment for his club foot.

A short time ago we wrote about taking Aaron to Beijing for his treatment (see that page by clicking here) and how we anticipate a complete success in his regard.

On August 29th, just as we were leaving the hospital after getting Aaron all settled in, we noticed that Dr. Hill was taking a few pictures of Aaron’s foot. As you can see his foot had a major twist to the left. We had tried to massage it straight, somewhat like we did for Mary Xiong Xiao with no success. Dr. Hill has had great success with treating these kinds of conditions so we were most comfortable in leaving him there for treatment.

The method of treatment is a repetition of “casting” in that they hold the foot in the correct position and then place a cast on it. After a certain period of time they remove the cast and redo it again.

The picture at the right was taken during the remove of the fifth casting and was taken on October 9th.

This picture of Aaron’s foot was taken on October 10 after the complete removal of the cast.

It is obvious that the foot is not straight and in it’s proper location. The next step, once the doctor feels the casting process is complete will be a minor surgery on the tendon at the back of his heel. Once that is complete and healed Aaron will be fitted with special shoes and braces which he will need to wear for some time into the future. But once he is in the special shoes and braces, he will be able to come home!

We do miss him!

Thank You and many blessings!