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!

It was about 4:00 AM and we were in Beijing after getting Aaron Xiong Wei all settled in at the care facility where he will be for the next six weeks. ( see Aaron Xiong Wei to Beijing ) The phone rang, slowly bringing us out of a well deserved rest.

It was the guard at the Home of Hope calling to tell me there was an abandoned baby outside our gate.

Most of the staff on duty that night were relatively new and had never handled a situation like this. We carefully walked them through the process (by phone) from calling the police out to verify the baby had indeed been abandoned at our gate, to getting him settled in the nursery’s sick room for the night… after a bath and good feeding. We always put the new arrivals in the sick room until we are sure they have nothing contagious that could affect the other nursery children.

We also instructed them to take pictures of the entire process and in the morning they were to take him to the hospital for the normal exam we give all our incoming newbies… we check for hepatitis, aids and other forms of physical ailments and handicaps.

Being new to the situation, they failed to take this little guy’s picture while he was still in the cardboard box he arrived in so after his bath, they put him back in the box and took the above pictures.

We were hesitant to show these pictures since they were not taken in ‘real time’, rather about forty minutes after his arrival. However, we decided that with this explanation included it would be good for our friends and supporters to see how he actually arrived.

While all of this excitement was going on in Gongyi, we were finally getting up and getting to the train station to return home. Mosie and Ruthie were excited about the idea of a new brother arriving at the Home of Hope and kept saying they couldn’t wait to get home to see him.

By the time we arrived back in Gongyi, his physical exams were over and now we are only waiting for the results of his blood tests. This travel time gave us a chance to think about a name for this little guy and as always we chose the Chinese name first which is Xiong Qi. The meaning of this name is “Stands firm” so we then gave him the English name “Daniel“.

Upon arriving back home we made a bee line to the Nursery and there he was… Daniel Xiong Qi all safe and clean… bundled up in new pajamas and sleeping soundly, although appearing to be ready to wake up and cry for his lunch.

Welcome to the Home of Hope Daniel… with your new family!

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!

Many of you who have been following the Gongyi Home of Hope since the beginning, are aware of the fact that we have been negotiating with the government in trying and trying to get HUKOUs for the abandoned babies who are left at our gate. These babies have no information as to who they are or who their parents are. A Hukou is a legitimate identification (similar to the Western Birth Certificate) for the Chinese people and without one, a person can’t get an education, find a job, travel on public transportation or do much of anything. Many times we have sunk into despair over this issue then finally leaving it all in God’s hands. In the pictures above, each child is holding his/her Hukou (The blue book). Top right moving clockwise is Autumn, Dawn, Ruthie, Jacob, Mary, Beau, Caleb, Rachel, Abby Joy, Gracie, Rose and Mosie.

A few days ago, out of the blue, the head of the local government, Mr. Wang Xiao Ping (actually he is the head of the Gongyi County Communist Party) called and said they wanted to meet with us. We were not all that impressed with the fact they wanted another meeting but when it was over we were given the promise that our children would have their Hukous in two days! We most certainly didn’t believe it! It had been too long…. too many unrealized promises and it was just too much to believe!

But… two days later they called us and said we could come down and get all the abandoned baby’s Hukous which means they are now recognized citizens of the People’s Republic of China in the custodial care of the Home of Hope as their guardian.

There is no longer any fear that at some point some irate government underling might come and say we had these children illegally and take them away. No more worries about how we will get them in school.

For all of you who prayed and believed with us about this, we Thank You! God is faithful!

Home of Hope Slide Show!
We will continue to attempt to provide our viewers and supporters with this type of Photo Album slide show with each update. We take many pictures of our children that are not always used on the actual web page. We thought it would be nice to allow those people interested in seeing more pictures to see them in this mannerWe hope you enjoy and “Thank You” for visiting!

This Christmas and New Years was a very exciting time at the Home of Hope. Not only for the Reasons of the Seasons but also because during this past four weeks four new babies have joined our Home of Hope family!

Left to right (above) are Jacob Xiong Tian (DOB: 12/31/2006, Arrived: 1/4/2007), Rachel Xiong Xin (DOB: 12/15/2006, Arrived: 12/22/2006), Dawn Xiong Chen (DOB: 1/1/2007, Arrived: 1/9/2007) and Simeon Xiong Yi (DOB: 12/17/2006, Arrived: 12/21/2006).

Jacob has no major health issues although a note attached to his blankets said the doctors felt he had some type of lung problems when he was born. There is no evidence of that now. He is a healthy little boy and loves to eat. Right now he takes in 155ml of formula, four times per day along with his water between feedings. Is very alert and seems to take in all that is going on around him.

Rachel, on the other hand, is a different story. She has one of the more severe cleft lip, cleft palate conditions we have seen. If you have been following the Home of Hope for some time you will notice her nose area is very much like that of Isaac Ma Shi Hao (shown here on the left after his last surgery. Prior to his surgeries and when he first came, his mouth and nose looked much like Rachel’s) when he first came. This is the most problamatic appearing part of the malady but in fact is not the most severe, as it can be corrected with surgery and later with orthodontic work.

The difficult part of Rachel’s case is there is virtually no upper palate so one will need to be constructed, with her surgeries starting when she is six months old. The most interesting thing about Rachel is that even with her severe cleft problems and unlike our other cleft babies, she has no problem eating… and loves to do so. Her intake is the same as Jacob’s as mentioned above. When we are working in the office, Nathan likes to put Rachel in a bassinette and set her on the floor by his chair as he works. She is a real sweetie and whether eating or sleeping she “Coos” almost all the time!

Dawn is a very quiet and peaceful child. It is almost like she has this sense that she was thrown away but found by some people who love her… who are determined to keep her safe and are determined to give her a happy life…. and of course, she is right!

She too has a cleft lip condition but it is very minor, with no cleft palate involved. (Her condition is very much like Autumn Xiong Duo‘s was and as you can see this type of surgery is very successful.) At six months of age they will repair her lip and at one year old some remedial work will be done to her nose area. The cleft lip does work into the gum line so she will also need some orthodontic work in the future.

The heading of this section is “Growing, Growing, Growing!” We now realize that our Nursery is not large enough and we need to expand the size of the Nursery to accommodate our present children (including these four new babies) as well as the future new ones that come in. We have already increased our Nursery staff to six full time nurses. We need to raise approximately $15,000.00 for the expansion of our nursery.

Simeon almost didn’t make it! When we first found him on the ground outside our gate, we thought that like Jacob, he had no major physical problems. After we called the police out (which we do each time a baby is left at our gate… ) to complete the documentation about the baby’s being abandoned, we took Simeon to the nursery to bathe him and put him in clean clothes. It was during this time we discovered he had no way to evacuate his solid body wastes. We rushed him to the local hospital and they told us they were not equipped to treat this condition (needed emergency surgery) but that if it wasn’t done immediately the baby would not last another 24 hours. This did not give us enough time to get him to Beijing where Dr. Xu (the doctor who does all our surgeries) is located.

We called Dr. Xu and asked him for a recommendation for a doctor in ZhengZhou. As it turned out, one of his med school classmates is now the chief surgeon at the children’s hospital in ZhengZhou. Dr. Xu called him and he was waiting for us when we arrived. They immediately rushed this little five day old baby into the operating room.

The procedure is a three step procedure if all goes according to plan. (Which it didn’t) The first step is to bring the end of his lower intestine out through a small incision in his lower stomach and stitch in place where it will remain for six to seven months. This allows the solid body waste to evacuate. The second surgery is to create the opening for his normal evacuation and add a section similar to the lower intestine from the opening up toward the area where the lower intestine ends along with making sure the muscles involved in his passing his body wastes function properly. Once that surgery heals they will do the final surgery which is to place the end of his lower intestine back inside his stomach and connect it to the area they repaired in the second surgery.

The problem was that two days after the second surgery, Simeon stopped passing his body fluids so they had to rush him back to surgery and insert a tube into his bladder and out another incision in his little stomach. This remained in place until the 12th of January when they removed the bladder tube and now his liquids evacuate as they should.

On the 13th of January we brought Simeon home. He is doing really well, and since in Chinese hospitals each patient must have a family member in attendance with the patient 24 hours a day, we kept one of our nursery house mothers at the hospital with Simeon, rotating them in and out every other day. Now that he is home, they have all spent time at the hospital under the doctor and nurse’s tutelage and know exactly how to care for him. God is faithful!

Again, this was all unexpected and the hospital costs were beyond our budget and budgetary planning. If you wish to help with Simeon’s expenses you can find out how to do so on our Donations page.

Once the children in the Nursery are weaned from the bottle and baby food they generally eat the same food that is served in the dining hall.

Above you will find (left to right) Abby Joy, Rose, Caleb, Mary and Gracie as they are enjoying their lunch. We weren’t able to get the other nursery babies in this picture as they were either sleeping or doing something else. These kids love to eat and in this particular meal they are eating rice, spinach and either beef or sliced pork. The Chinese know how to use their various seasonings and the food is always tasty. Rarely does the same dish taste the same from one preparation to the other.

One day during early Spring we were all outside enjoying the end of Winter and the fine weather that precedes the hot and sticky days of summer. Many of the children were on some type of “riding” device (bicycles, scooters, cars, roller skates roller blades and skate boards) and they ended up racing around and around on the Home of Hope sidewalks. Some of them just ran on foot!

Nathan was able to get this little group stopped long enough for a picture. Left to right and back to front are Gracie on her bike, Autumn on her bike Mosie on his bike, Isaac on his bike and Ruthie on her bike with little Rose on her six wheeled ‘something or another’ (she can really make it go fast… it’s pretty neat… moves by her moving the steering wheel back and forth… they didn’t have this type of thing when we were kids… would really like to try it… ).

And they are off! Started out with Isaac in the lead then Ruthie but it wasn’t long before Peter on his little scooter took over the lead! Then along came Vincent on his roller blades and no one else had a chance! But Mosie was bound and determined to catch up and take the lead and the pictures below show what happened!

Mosie took off with what, over time, we have learned is a very strong look of determination. As you can tell by the first series of pictures he started off in the back of the pack. He gradually got closer to the lead and was doing really good until he got to the turn.
At that point his little bike just slid out from under him… (top center) and he slid a couple of feet… (top right). He is five years old and for a second or two it appeared as if it was all over and the tears would start but instead he got up, picked up his bike and took off again! Great little guy!

All in all the kids had a great afternoon but they finally had to take a rest!

At the left is Vincent resting with his roller blades still in place. We have featured Vincent a few weeks back but he is simply a great little guy and is doing so good in school. Very level headed and all the other children really love him for his personality and over all character. We are very proud of him.

Generally when a new child comes to us it takes a couple of years for them to totally adapt to our environment and house rules. At times we forget Vincent is one of the new children at the Home of Hope.

Keep it up Vincent!

While we were taking the pictures of the children riding there “wheeled things” and racing around the Home of Hope side walks we happened to notice Linda Wei Ling Yu standing by one of our palm trees and just watching the children as they sped around the track.

We knew what she was doing and sure enough when Mosie had his little mishap, she was the first one to reach him to help him up. Many times she is like a little mother with the younger children and when one of the nursery workers has to have a day off one can often find Linda there working with the babies and helping out. (On those days when she has no school.)

If you have time please go to our archives page or our children’s page and you can see how she has grown over the years! She is a delight to have at the Home of Hope and a delight to be around. You can see more about her by clicking on her name at the bottom of this 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!

Excitement never ceases here in China. First of all on October 14th, late at night the police brought us an abandoned newborn baby, and we named him Xiong En “Moses.” Not long after that, many friends sent us a box full of “baby shower” things for Moses. Strangely enough, some of the clothes they sent were little baby girl clothes… you know… pinks and frills and the like. We kind of chuckled at first and then it hit me. We are being prepared for more of this! Wow… what a thought.

Moses was premature by about three weeks and has a major cleft palate which we are going to have surgically corrected in the Beijing Children’s Hospital sometime in December, or as soon as the funds come in for the surgery. He is growing, gaining weight and has now started making the normal “cooing” baby noises that all normal babies make.

It was nip and tuck for the first couple of weeks but he is doing fine now. We have been so amazed at how small he is. Small in our eyes, that is, until today.

It is 11:30 PM, November 28, 2000 as I write this, and we no longer think of Moses as “small.” Today we were brought a precious little baby girl. As soon as we saw and held her we realized how much Moses has grown during the last month. He actually seems huge next to this tiny newborn.

An off-duty policeman came to our door a little after 10:00 AM and told us how eleven days ago he found a newborn baby dumped on the street with a note attached to its rag wrapping that said it had just been born. Not having any way of feeding the baby, he took it to the hospital where they fed it by IV. The hospital bill was running up and the policeman could not pay for it. He and his wife really wanted to keep this little baby but they were informed that since they already had a child and the one child rule cannot be violated, he would lose his job if they kept the baby. The couple didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t pay to get the little girl out of the hospital and even if they could they couldn’t keep her because he would lose his job. They thought of the “Home of Hope.”

This tiny, precious baby girl is one month premature and has only been fed intravenously since birth. We immediately named her Ruth after several wonderful ladies in our lives… My own Mother, Ruth Bell who has nurtured and guided my life for so many years; Ruth Rogers, a wonderful friend and the Website Mistress for the Home of Hope; her mother Ruth Edwards, a lifelong friend, and of course the Ruth of “Ruth” in the Old Testament.

Ruth’s Chinese surname is Xiong. Two years ago the Chinese gave me the Chinese surname “Xiong”, which means “Bear”, and the Chinese given name of “Fan” which means “humility”. Xiong Fan. We have given both Moses and Ruth the surname “Xiong”, and we gave Moses the given name “En” which means “restoration”. We have not decided on a given name for Ruth as yet.

Since the Home of Hope children’s quarters are not yet properly set up for a nursery environment (this was a little unexpected this soon) we have converted an extra room in our apartment into a nursery. There are now two new little lives being sustained, nourished and loved here twenty four hours a day. We expect that as the word gets out there will be more and more.

We are now in our Phase III fund raising program and as more and more children are brought to us we realize how quickly we must get into our new facility. All of the children at the Home of Hope are doing great. We had three who made perfect scores on their mid term exams this semester: Paul, Lily and Heidi. It is amazing to see them now as we are so conscious of how they were when we first found them. Their eyes are full of hope and expectation where when we first found them their eyes were dull and they had nothing showing on their faces but hopelessness and despair. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have helped in this great endeavor. Your sacrifices are having eternal impact on so many lives.