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!

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.

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.