She and Hank are the two oldest at the Home of Hope. Holly is behind Hank one year in school and hopes to go to College when she finishes High School. She is a Junior this year.

She was not too happy in this picture because we called her down to her birthday party and she had just washed her hair. She is at that age now where they pay more attention to their appearance.

Nathan is helping her by cutting her cake for her.

Holly is a great person and when she has time really helps out around the Home of Hope with the young children. She is very mature, thoughtful and a very responsible person! We are quite proud of Holly.

In this picture Hank is joined by his dorm mates, (left to right) Henry, Seth, Joey, Jerry and David.

Hank will be graduating from High School this year and wants to go to College.

We are currently looking for people to help sponsor this effort as getting in college in China is not that easy and is often rather expensive. If you would like to help sponsor some of these children’s advanced education needs you can find out how to donate at our “donations” page.

Tony is always polite and thoughtful of others and does an excellent job in school.

Tony came to the Home of Hope in June of 2005 and so this was his first birthday party.

He was a little nervous since all the children give little speeches after all the other children sing happy birthday to them.

We thought Tony would ask to be excused from making his speech but he went right into it as if he had been doing this sort of thing all his life!

He really enjoyed his birthday party!

“June” truly did manage to get some of the birthday cake in her mouth. But as is traditionally custom here in China some of the cake has to be put on your friend’s and relative’s face. A birthday party is to be a time of fun and happiness and a minor cake fight is all part of the fun. On occasion they even catch “Yie Yie” (Grandpa Nathan) and get some cake smeared on his face as well.

“Rena” decided to hide behind a flower or planter to eat her piece of Birthday Cake. I don’t think it did much good because I seem to remember a short time after I took this picture she came up to me and showed me her face covered with pink, yellow and blue icing. It is amazing to see how these children have grown in stature and character during the time they have been here. “Rena” and her brother “Bryan” are a joy to have around with their mischievous yet tender hearted personalities. Always good for a laugh yet always ready to lend a helping hand when needed.

On the left, “Joey”, “Gail“, “Heidi” and “Rena” all wait for big brother “Seth” to give them their piece of his birthday cake. You can almost see in Joey’s eyes that he is planning on the exact spot where his piece of cake is going to land on “Seth”! Of course you have the two little ladies “Gail” and “Heidi” who simply won’t do those kind of things. That just isn’t lady like! But most of the children with a small exception of a few, do get into the “cake mess” as I call it.

“Luke” and “Michael” sure don’t have any problems with eating all of their cake. Both of them wanted second helpings so they weren’t about to waste their cake by putting it on another person’s face… Michael seems to be saying “It tastes just fine on my own face.. and that’s where I want all of it!” They are both in kindergarten now and doing very well in their preschool courses.