We were also able to finish our stage area in time for the Christmas program – with the bulk of the work being done by ‘David‘ Zhang Hai Tao – a Home of Hope Alumnus and ‘Zak’ Cao Hua Wei, home from college – to go along with the stage curtains we installed last year.

All in all, everyone agreed this was the best Christmas program ever… so far there have been eleven of them… so we want to show you a lot of snapshots and a few film clips from this very special night when we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘TWAS’ THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

About one week before Christmas (on or about the 18th of December) we decided to try to get our stage finished. This has been an ongoing wish-list project for several years now but due to funding it has always been pushed to the bottom of the list.

Last year we were able to open up the wall for the stage area and purchase the curtains but we had to settle for plastic hanging around the area that would ‘someday’ be our stage.

This year, due to some awesome people in a California Church group who donated funds for the children’s Christmas gifts (as we mentioned above), we were able to realize a little relief on our otherwise demanding gift purchasing load (sixty plus people is a large number to buy Christmas gifts for) and so we were able to complete the stage and back and side drops.

“TWAS” THE EVE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (DAY)

All day on the 24th, the Home of Hope was buzzing… little groups here and there practicing their parts of the program. Trying to get everything just right.

In the kitchen, the hustle and bustle was enough to drive a person crazy… So many fancy dishes… and not a Turkey or Sweet Potato or Cranberry Sauce or Pumpkin Pie or Minced Meat Cookie or Fruit Cake to be found among them…. No Mashed Potatoes, no Cornbread Dressing, no Giblet Gravy… oh my what is this world coming to…. But the dishes that were being prepared are some of the most favorite to the Chinese people…

Goat Kebobs, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Peppers stuffed with Pork, Pan Fried Ribbon Fish, Sticky Rice with JuJuBee, Deep Fried Rice Cakes, Fruit Soup, Corned Beef, Dumplings, Chicken and Green Beans just to name a few….

Nathan was making last minute changes to the sound system and lighting and barking orders at everyone else… . It was really an exciting time getting ready for the big evening ahead!

“TWAS” THE BIG CHRISTMAS DINNER

At last it was time for the long anticipate Christmas Dinner which has become the standing tradition for the holidays at the Home of Hope. December 24th is now recognized as the set schedule for our Christmas Dinner and Program. Friends and Home of Hope alumni come from far and near. First there is the dinner, usually at around 5:00 PM and once that is over it is time for the now famous Home of Hope Christmas Program. One of our older children rode a train all night to be here for Christmas Eve!

There isn’t much to say about the pictures above… just one great big and tasty meal with around seventy or more people, young and old, participating.

Prior to eating, Nathan always tells about Christmas and why we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Generally about the time everyone is getting antsy and really wanting to eat, he winds down, offers Grace and then everyone digs in!

‘TWAS’ THE HOH CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Our Christmas dinner started right at 5:30 PM and by around 7:00 PM people were finishing up and we were getting the big multi purpose room set up for the evening’s Christmas Program.


The first act up was by some of our 3rd and 4th grade children (the ones who are taught here at the Home of Hope) and they performed a dance to “Who is the King of the Jungle”. We loved it when the answer came back, “J – E – S – U – S”! This particle dance was performed by Mosie, Ruthie, Rose and Autumn – all abandoned babies and what fine children they are growing up to be!

The following are just a lot of snapshots taken during the evening…

FILM CLIPS FROM THE 2011 HOME OF HOPE CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

The raw footage of the movies taken during the Christmas Programs were over three hours. Thanks to Brian Ren Bin Ke (another one of the Home of Hope alumni) for taking the movies. However, there is no way we can put all of that on our web site so we have made four clips… each one is around five to six minutes just giving some hi-lites of the program.

We hope you enjoy!
Blessings!
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[See post to watch Flash video] ]]> http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/2011/12/26/hoh-christmas-2011/feed/ 0 http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/2009/02/17/chinese-new-year-surprise/ http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/2009/02/17/chinese-new-year-surprise/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:59:51 +0000 oowf http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/?p=896
As everyone was excitedly getting ready for the Chinese New Years celebration, no one expected the surprise that came our way on the 20th of January… just four days before the official start of the New Year’s celebration (sometimes referred to as Spring Festival) in China.

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!”

The sun was shining and over all it was a beautiful day… the only thing was it was cold!

Most of the older children were in school but the children in both the Nursery and the Kindergarten were starting to go stir crazy after a very lively summer then suddenly being cooped up all day in the Nursery and classroom.

So we bundled up all the Nursery babies and the Kindergarten children and took them outside along with several of the older children who were home from school due to tests and other school functions. We put a lot of blankets on the concrete and everyone sat in the sun and just soaked it in.

Some of the House Nannies took their sewing and / or knitting outside with them. In the picture at the left House Mother Mai Xia is sewing one of the blankets back together.

What they do is they have a blanket that is very similar to two sheets being sewed together like a very large pillow case creating a very large envelope type blanket. On one end it is sewed together loosely so it can be undone easily.

Then inside the blanket is a very thick sheet of cotton or else another quilt type thing full of Goose Down. When they need to wash the blanket they just take out the stitches on the loosely sewn end, remove the ‘filling’, wash the outside and then put the filling back end and loosely stitch it back up. Those blankets are warm.

In the pictures above, the little ones are getting attention from the house mothers (left) while Rachel is getting a piggy back ride from Joseph (right).

Rachel and Dawn are showing their individual personalities as they respond to this new activity of going outside, all bundled up and sitting on a bunch of blankets…

Rachel (above left) is the curious one and her looks are usually ones of curiosity or just laughter. Dawn on the other hand cries at everything new that comes her way. The house mothers told us that if she wore one color for several days and then they put a different color on her, she would cry! This is all part of the joy in watching these children grow.

It is a tradition in China (this one goes way, way back) that if you don’t eat jiaozi (Chinese Dumplings) on the first day of winter your ears will freeze and fall off…

Jiaozi is one of the things that takes many hands to prepare… especially when you are preparing it for more than eighty hungry children and staff… it starts out with a small piece of dough about the size of a silver dollar pancake. They then fill it with a mixture of some sort… (what sort depends on the cook and who can talk the loudest) fold it in half then steam it. One could say it is a little bit like the Southern fried pies in the States only not fried and much smaller and the filling is not sweet but usually very garlicy.

The photo above give you a little idea of how it looks in our kitchen when something like this is going on… We wish you could hear the sounds that are associated with this photo… -smile-

On August 8th, little Aaron Xiong Wei joined the Home of Hope. You can read about his arrival in the update titled “Unexpected Visitor”. Aaron’s overall health is excellent! However he does have, what is called in layman’s terms, a ‘club foot’. You can see the condition of his foot by looking closely at his right leg in the picture above.

On the 29th of August we took Aaron to Beijing to begin the casting treatment to correct this problem. The earlier this type situation is addressed, the better the results.

Early on the morning of the 29th (we had to leave the Home of Hope at 5:15 AM to get to the ZhengZhou train station in time for the train we had purchased tickets for) the Nursery Nannies dressed Aaron and got him ready for the trip.

He slept through the entire process. (left)
Abby Joy and Rose sensed something was in the air and they both crawled into the little bed where Aaron was laying and just sort of sat there with a look on their faces like “…what’s next?” (right)

We are always amazed at how quickly the little ones get attached to each other! Such an amazing thing to watch take place!
We elected to take Mosie and Ruthie along for the trip and at 7:00 AM we boarded the new ZhengZhou to Beijing train. In the picture above are Mosie, Ruthie and Home of Hope Nursery Nanny, ‘Li Sheng’ holding little Aaron.

Mosie and Ruthie were intrigued with the style of the new train and were very excited to be making the trip. Their first train ride that they were aware of although they had both been to Beijing for surgeries when they too were infants. Aaron slept ‘like a baby’ for most of the trip. This train is a new train in China and it makes the ‘used to be’ seven to eight hour trip in just over four hours.


As soon as we arrived at the treatment center, Aaron was given a complete physical and the doctor determined that the prognosis on his condition was 100% cure.


After the medical exam was finished, Aaron was placed in the care of the facility’s own Nursery Nannies and they began to care for him which they will be doing for the next six weeks.

Every few days, Aaron’s casting will be removed and replaced with a new cast as his foot begins to take it’s normal shape and position.

We are excited with anticipation of what we know is going to be a complete cure for this little life that God has placed in our care! It is such an awesome thing to realize that the Home of Hope is indeed making a difference in the lives of so many children who otherwise, would be hopelessly, helpless!

Please remember Aaron Xiong Wei in your prayers!

On the right (above) the children are starting to decorate our annual Christmas tree.

The children all pitch in to decorate at Christmas. The ones with a talent for art and drawing draw all kinds of neat Christmas pictures on the black boards in our game / study room while others hang ornaments and others set up the tree.

We also have some birthdays during the Christmas Holidays. We had Mary and Caleb‘s birthdays together in the nursery. Above left is Mary checking out her new stuffed animal, while on the right, Caleb and Mary pose (as best they know how… ) for their Birthday picture.

Caleb is checking out his new car transport (above left), while Beau is checking out the taste of the Birthday cake. (above right)

Meantime, Chang Xiao Ping, one of the lead house mothers is checking out some of the new coats prior to wrapping them for the children’s Christmas.
The coats (one for every child) were a gift from a dear lady in the United States who faithfully supports the Home of Hope and the Home of Hope children.
What a blessing!

On Christmas Eve morning, Nathan made the comment that it would sure be nice if the grounds were cleaned up a little for our Christmas get together. Some of the children overheard him and in no time they were out raking and burning leaves. No one told them to do it…

Sam brought several of his university class mates home with him for Christmas. We were able to get a few of them together and take this picture. The children love to have visitors and since these were all young people they jumped in and helped with the clean up outside… then on to some basketball and ping pong! It was great to have them and made us all feel really warm inside since Sam wanted to “bring them home” with him.