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!

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

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!

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!”

On Christmas day, December 25, 2007, we received a call from the Gongyi Welfare Bureau and they asked us if we would be willing to help a little six year old girl who’s mother had developed mental illness and who’s father had abandoned the family.

We answered in the positive although we explained that normal procedures had to be followed as with any new arrival, including physical exams and verification of the true situation of her family.

On December 27th Joy Qing Mei was brought to the Home of Hope and it was immediately obvious that she was NOT six years old. Zhang is a very common sir name in China. The combination of Qing and Mei (her given names) translates to “Green Plumb Blossom”.

We instructed the staff to go ahead and remove her old clothes, bathe her and get her ready to go to the hospital for her physical exam.

Meantime, we sent a policeman friend to investigate the true situation surrounding Joy Zhang Qing Mei.

Due to past experience we rarely take in children over eight years old. Also, due to the fact that many parents in China want their children to live at the Home of Hope, we are often given false information about supposedly orphaned children so each child arriving at the Home of Hope is researched very thoroughly. Sadly, we can’t just “take the word” of the local bureaus.

All decked out in her new and clean clothes, including a new, bright pink coat, Joy Zhang Qing Mei began to show signs of relaxing in her new environment. We were praying that her physical and personal investigation results all turned out favorable for her.

Next it was to the hospital for her physical examination.

Each child that enters the Home of Hope is given a thorough physical exam which includes the normal checks…. lungs, limbs, heart and checks for AIDS, Hepatitis and other communicable problems.

The Welfare people who brought Joy to us know our procedures so they did not allow her to eat following her supper the night before. So… her first stop was for the blood work. She went through the whole thing without ever losing that charming smile.

Nathan was also at the hospital having treatment on his right foot and so when Joy was finished with her physical exam she stayed with her new “Ye Ye” until his treatment was finished. Ye Ye snapped the above picture from his hospital treatment table.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Hai Tao took Joy to have her first meal of the day. She was indeed happy about that!

As it turned out, we had been given an incorrect age… Joy Zhang Qing Mei is eight years old (which still falls within our operating guidelines) but every thing else we were told about her parents and family was true so as of this writing she is the newest resident at the Home of Hope.

Please remember to keep her in your prayers. She has had a rough few years in her young life.

If you would like to help support or sponsor little Joy Qing Mei you can learn how by visiting our donations page.

Nathan was getting showered and ready to go to the hospital to have an injection of some type in his right heel to relieve some of the pain from a bone chip embedded in the tendon when the security guard called on the radio informing him a new baby had just shown up at the gate.

As it turned out, an elderly lady (the one who brought the baby) who lives in LuoYang (a city about two hours away from Gongyi) was coming to visit a relative in Gongyi. As she was walking down an old dirt road a young girl about seventeen years of age approached her and asked her if she would be kind enough to hold her baby while she went into the public restroom.

The elderly lady, wanting to help, agreed. She waited and waited and the young lady never returned… Of course the elderly lady didn’t know what to do so she took the baby to her relatives house and for two days they talked and discussed about what to do with this baby.

Finally someone mentioned the Home of Hope to them so the elderly lady and her younger relative brought the baby to our gate. Of course never being involved in something like this they were very nervous and afraid they would be charged with kidnapping.

Both of the ladies got real nervous when we told them we needed to call the police and fill out an ‘abandoned baby’ report but they agreed to do it.

The police came, took their statement and to the obvious relief of the two ladies they were told they could go.

We never know if the stories we are told are true or not and some times we are quite skeptical. However, having babies like this brought to us under either pretense… truth or fabrication.. is much better than having the baby just left on the side of the road somewhere which we have seen far too many times. In fact that is how our first abandoned baby came to us… Moses Xiong En was found on the side of the road and brought to us by the police back in October of 2000.

We have given his little one the name of Xiong Qian which means ‘Beautiful Hope”… so her full name will be Hope Xiong Qian. The doctors tell us she is about four months old and may have a slight problem with her right side… but none of the tests including CT scans and such showed up any real problems.

We hope you come back from time to time to follow the growth of this new life at the Home of Hope.

If you would like to help with the costs of taking care of Hope Xiong Qian you can do so by going to our donations page.

Thank you and we solicit your prayers for little Hope!

Blessings!

A sad footnote to the story of Hope Xiong Qian. As it developed little Hope had Spinal Bifeda and we were not able to afford her long term assistance. She went to heaven a short time after this article was written. We know she is far better off now than she was when she arrived.

It always hurts us deeply when these things happen. Everyone at the Home of Hope misses her.

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Each day his mother would go with his father to pick up their little load of shoes which they then sold wholesale to the local shoe venders in Gongyi City.

The day that changed their family’s life forever was overcast and chilly. Li Peng’s father was driving their three wheeled truck (a common mode of delivery in our part of China) and had a minor traffic accident with another larger truck hauling pipe and concrete reinforcing steel. The accident itself was not so bad but one of the pieces of steel pierced Li Peng’s mother’s heart and she died instantly at the scene. One year later the father died of what the Chinese describe as sadness and heartbreak.
Li Peng was introduced to us by a neighbor of his family. (Shown with Li Peng in the picture at the right.)

This story is interesting in that Li Peng is nine years old and our cut off age is eight years old for admission into the Home of Hope.

The first time we were told by our staff that there was a lady who wanted to tell us about a little boy who had lost his family, our first questions included, “how old is he?” They told us nine years old with a look of sadness on their face as they knew what we were going to say.

As a side note, it is interesting to see the changes in the people who work at the Home of Hope over the years. They get so involved in helping the helpless and hopeless that when something comes up like either the little baby we couldn’t help shown in “Babies at the Gate” or others we cannot take in due to physical impairment or age, they are very sad. When they first came to work it was only a job… but these children grab your heart… no matter who you are and you cannot escape the effect they have on you.

Back to Li Peng…. We reminded them that he was too old and of all the problems we had in the past with children who were over our age limits. (We often allow our heart to take us where our reason says we should not go… and we give in.. but as the years go by, experience has been a solid teacher and we find more success in following our own rules!) So they sadly walked away to carry the bad news to the lady who was trying to help Li Peng.

Two days later and then three days after that and then another two days or so after that, they came to me again. “LaoWai” (Foreigner… sort of like the word “Bwana” missionaries used to be called in Africa) the person is at the gate again and wants you to think about reconsidering taking in the little boy.

A total of five times we refused and would not even talk to the people at the gate because we knew we really couldn’t break our age limit rule and when we talk to them face to face it is very hard to stay resolute!

A few days after our last refusal we heard a couple of the staff talking about this little boy who keeps coming to the gate and wanting to talk to the “LaoWai” about living at the Home of Hope. We immediately wanted to know what they were talking about and they told us it was the little boy we refused to see. We told them they did not tell us it was THE little boy but rather we always thought it was his neighbor. They informed us that sometimes it was the two of them but also on several occasions the little boy had come himself. Well that did it! We had to talk to him! And so we did!

We will never forget that conversation! This little guy is so determined, despite the major setbacks that have come his way in his short life… When we asked him why he wanted to come to the Home of Hope, he looked us right in the eye and said he knew the foreigners would give him the best chance he could find in China to make something of himself. At his age he is already realizing he must do good in school because he wants to go to college! So serious about life and doing things right and yet a lot of fun to be with! Loves to play, sing and dance just like any other Chinese child! It’s great to have him with us!

Of course Li Peng does not have a sponsor at this time (along with fifteen of our other children) and if you would like to contribute to this young man’s future you can learn how at our donations page.

Beau Xiong Zhuang

It seems like we are in a period of daytime abandonment. This was another one that was left outside our gate. We did see the person laying this one down outside our gate but they quickly ran away.

When we took the bundle inside and unwrapped the blankets we found a cute little boy with only a hint of ears on each side with no openings into the ear canals.

We already knew about this little guy so we actually know his date of birth. He was one of twins born at the local hospital, with the other baby being in perfect health. The parents had asked us to take him because they didn’t have any way of treating the little guy and we were in the process of trying to find out how extensive his hearing problem might be when the family took the two babies and just left the hospital. Saying nothing to anyone. Two days later he was left at our gate.

We called the police and told them the story but they weren’t interested in pursuing the parents for abandonment and gave us documents making him a ward of the Home of Hope.

In preliminary discussions with several doctors in Beijing, we are told they will reconstruct his ears when he is about seven years old and they feel his hearing is fine. One thing we need to pursue a little more right now is the doctors say there is no reason to make openings to the ear canal as he can hear just fine though a little muffled.

Either way he is a joy to have. Beau Xiong Zhuang is already developing a neat little personality and it’s going to be fun watching him grow!

Each time we find a baby abandoned at our gate we are always filled with
apprehension as we open the blankets, box or clothes the baby is wrapped in.

The reason for the apprehension is we never know what we will find.
Fortunately, most of the time the babies are babies we can keep and nurture to
good health and afford them medical treatment if necessary. However,
sometimes the baby has already gone to heaven or has physical problems that are
beyond our scope of capabilities.

By way of explanation with our first child in this issue, we are giving our
readers a look at the less happy experiences that come our way from time to
time.

It is a very rare occasion when a baby is abandoned at our gate during the day
time but in this case it was the middle of the day. No one saw the person
who left the baby but we were able to determine by the coming and going of the
staff that it happened within ten minutes of us finding the little bundle.
In this case the baby was bundled up and then wrapped in a lady’s pink coat. (Top Left)
They also left a bag with some powdered milk and a couple of baby bottles.

When we opened the bundle, one of our greatest fears was realized. This
was a beautiful little girl. Seemed very healthy, fat and aware.
However, she had no bone structure in her lower right leg and all her fingers
were missing on both hands. We can deal with the hand problems but we do
not have the funding to purchase the required equipment and hire the properly
trained staff to help little ones like this. Sadly we had to call the
officials and have them take her to an institution for these kinds of children.

Our dream is to someday find funding to allow us to open a wing for children
with physical handicaps as we know we can also provide them with the love that
is so important for their proper development.

Vincent Li Peng

A couple of years ago, little Li Peng was living a normal life like all of his peers in the middle class level of his little world. Each day his mother would go with his father to pick up their little load of shoes which they then sold wholesale to the local shoe vendors in Gongyi City. The day that changed their family’s life forever was overcast and chilly. Li Peng’s father was driving their three wheeled truck (a common mode of delivery in our part of China) and had a minor traffic accident with another larger truck hauling pipe and concrete reinforcing steel. The accident itself was not so bad but one of the pieces of steel pierced Li Peng’s mother’s heart and she died instantly at the scene. One year later the father died of what the Chinese describe as sadness and heartbreak.
Li Peng was introduced to us by a neighbor of his family. (Shown with Li Peng in the picture at the right.)This story is interesting in that Li Peng is nine years old and our cut off age is eight years old for admission into the Home of Hope. The first time we were told by our staff that there was a lady who wanted to tell us about a little boy who had lost his family, our first questions included, “how old is he?” They told us nine years old with a look of sadness on their face as they knew what we were going to say. As a side note, it is interesting to see the changes in the people who work at the Home of Hope over the years. They get so involved in helping the helpless and hopeless that when something comes up like either the little baby above or others we cannot take in due to physical impairment or age, they are very sad. When they first came to work it was only a job… but these children grab your heart… no matter who you are and you cannot escape the effect they have on you.

Back to Li Peng…. We reminded them that he was too old and of all the problems we had in the past with children who were over our age limits.  (We often allow our heart to take us where our reason says we should not go… and we give in.. but as the years go by, experience has been a solid teacher and we find more success in following our own rules!) So they sadly walked away to carry the bad news to the lady who was trying to help Li Peng. Two days later and then three days after that and then another two days or so after that, they came to me again. “LaoWai” (Foreigner… sort of like the word “Bwana” missionaries used to be called in Africa) the person is at the gate again and wants you to think about reconsidering taking in the little boy.A total of five times we refused and would not even talk to the people at the gate because we knew we really couldn’t break our age limit rule and when we talk to them face to face it is very hard to stay resolute!
A few days after our last refusal we heard a couple of the staff talking about this little boy who keeps coming to the gate and wanting to talk to the “LaoWai” about living at the Home of Hope. We immediately wanted to know what they were talking about and they told us it was the little boy we refused to see. We told them they did not tell us it was THE little boy but rather we always thought it was his neighbor. They informed us that sometimes it was the two of them but also on several occasions the little boy had come himself. Well that did it! We had to talk to him! And so we did! We will never forget that conversation! This little guy is so determined, despite the major setbacks that have come his way in his short life… When we asked him why he wanted to come to the Home of Hope, he looked us right in the eye and said he knew the foreigners would give him the best chance he could find in China to make something of himself. At his age he is already realizing he must do good in school because he wants to go to college! So serious about life and doing things right and yet a lot of fun to be with! Loves to play, sing and dance just like any other Chinese child! It’s great to have him with us! Of course Li Peng does not have a sponsor at this time (along with fifteen of our other children) and if you would like to contribute to this young man’s future you can do so by going to our donations page.