Today is August 20th and it is the first day of the Home of Hope Kindergarten.

Above and seated, left to right are Ruthie, Rose, Isaac, Gracie, Autumn and Mosie. Behind them are the teachers, Cui Xiao Jie, Michelle Godard and Zhao Cai Xia. Michelle will teach the children English and the two certified Chinese teachers will teach the children all the other subjects.

For a very long time we have wanted to have a school associated with the Home of Hope. Several years ago we attempted to open an English school but due to licensing requirements we had to take on a Chinese partner to satisfy the government regulations and it just didn’t work out.

Now we have the Home of Hope Kindergarten. It is small. For now it is just for our own children. This year we will have seven full time students and four part time students. We use the term “part time” because the part time students are still very young so they only join in for the singing, dancing and exercise classes.

The full time students are:

Issac Ma Shi Hao left and Autumn Xiong Duo right

Ruthie Xiong Shan left and Moses Xiong En (Mosie) right

Gracie Xiong Ya left and Jackson Godard right

Rose Xiong Ai left and Caleb Xiong Qiang (part time) right

Abby Joy Xiong Miao Yin (part time) left and Eli Godard (part time) right

Mary Xiong Xiao (part time)

Just a couple of days ago our kindergarten furniture was delivered. New “little ones” sized chairs, tables, book cases, file racks and miscellaneous items for the day to day activities of the kindergarten. The older boys of the Home of Hope helped to assemble the furniture.
There is a fresh excitement in the air as the older children realize that all of these babies were abandoned and taken in when they were new born and now they are starting kindergarten in our own Home of Hope Kindergarten. So Cool!

Additional snapshots of the new Home of Hope Kindergarten. A lot of interesting things happened today.. the first day… and there will be many more! We will update this page as often as we can! Wont you come visit us sometime? That would be very, very nice!
So come on over!

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!

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 Caleb is checking out his new car transport. In the center is Caleb and Mary posing (as best they know how… ) for their Birthday picture.

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.

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.

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.

As is common with all children, their emotions can change at the drop of a hat.

Here you can follow little Caleb‘s change (left to right, top to bottom) as he goes from happy and laughing to upset and crying and all of this because Li Sheng the house mother on duty at the time wouldn’t let him comb her hair.

Within a few seconds after the last picture on the right was taken, the tears were gone and he was laughing again!

These were our first abandoned babies and have been with us five and a half years at this point. They speak both Chinese and English and cause quite a stir in the local kindergarten they attend.

One day their teacher called and was laughingly telling us how it takes longer for all the children to get out of class in the afternoon because Moses wants to help all the little girls put their coats on! What a gentleman!

When she came to us her little right foot was turned to the right to about 90 degrees.

Every day we give her a minimum of three periods of therapeutic massage pulling her little foot back into position and holding it there for a period of time.

She is now walking and gets around like any other child her age.

We may put her in braces for awhile but as of right now the doctors say she doesn’t need them and that her little feet are developing just like they should.

Left to right, top then bottom: Michael, Gracie, Autumn, Rose, Peter, Isaac and Abby Joy.

It is a true joy to watch these little ones grow up. Michael and Peter are in first grade now and this fall Gracie, Autumn and Isaac will be starting kindergarten.