Hope in the Village

New Hope is located in the Bei Wu village about 30 minutes from Beijing Airport out in the country. This is an agriculture community. Here are our surroundings.

Yurt Time

There are three yurts on-site that are used for groups that come to New Hope. These yurts house up to 10 beds and are a comfortable and unique place to stay.

Last week we three girls, Aubrey (nurse from US) and Emma (volunteer preschool teacher from England) slept two nights in the yurts. It was so much fun! We are blessed to get to know people that serve here and share our love for this place and the babies here.

Sharing the Hope

Last Sunday our family and Pamela, who is a volunteer from CA, represented New Hope at a big fundraiser in Beijing hosted by an international school. Dr. Joyce and Robin Hill, founders of New Hope, were with us at the kick-off. There are so many companies, individual, schools, civic groups and more locally and around the world who support New Hope in the care of medically-fragile orphans. New Hope is a privately run home and does not receive government assistance. The care provided for the children is amazing and while costly to provide, is life-changing for so many sick little ones. Many will have better health and be adopted. Some children will return to the orphanage with the hope of being adopted, and others will pass away from their condition in caring arms.

Read more at www.hopefosterhome.com

Playtime!

These children are so special and such happy little ones. I believe that God watches over these little ones in ways we cannot fathom. I often sing "Angels Watching Over You" to the children and know they are surrounded with physical angels (nannies, doctor, nurse, volunteers) and spiritual angels. We say prayers over the children, tell them they are loved, and sing songs of affirmation and praise.

It is so sweet to hear some of the children call our girls' names every time they see them. Because of them helping in preschool and playing often with the children, they know the girls and love getting to be with them.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. Psalm 68:5

Birthday Celebrations

Every month there is a birthday party to celebrate the children who have a birthday that month. On Wednesday the celebration was held for three children who had a birthday in May.

It is a special time to focus on the little ones with birthdays that month and the children get so excited to have cake! Large birthday hats are worn by the children being honored that month.

On the day of a child's birthday, there is also a celebration if they are in a preschool class. They are given a gift bag with a few gifts. The preschool teacher does an amazing job of making it a special day for the child. They have cupcakes on their birthday in preschool class. We celebrated two birthdays in preschool this week.

New Hope - So Many Blessings

By Zola ~ In preschool at New Hope in Beijing, we have circle time and sing songs and read books. The children also do a lot of crafts and painting. For this whole week we are focusing on creation, for crafts we let the children work together and put different pieces on to the paper. An example is one child puts on the felt grass and another child puts on the cotton ball clouds. On Fridays the kids always go outside and do activities in the sun.

While we went to Louyang, the British Embassy in Beijing had an “Away Day” and came to create a new playground, re-paint the memorial wall for babies that passed away since the inception of Hope, work on the landscaping, and build a chicken coop (and donated thirty chickens).

My sisters and I enjoy collecting the eggs from the chickens. Sometimes a chicken gets out of the pen and we have to get it. The eggs are delicious as we have cooked a few after gathering them minutes earlier. This morning we cooked and hosted a southern breakfast for the volunteers and nurse who are on-site this weekend.

Divide and Conquer

Our family was scheduled to leave Luoyang on Thursday the 26th. So much work had been done but there was more to accomplish. About thirty minutes before we were to leave for the airport, our parents made the decision for Zara and mom to stay in Luoyang and the rest of us come on to Beijing as scheduled.

We enjoyed our time in Luoyang with the Martins, Renichs and other special friends there who partner with the work to care for and advocate for the children.

Mom and Zara helped with several projects as the unpacking and redecorating continues at Maria's Big House of Hope. The Beijing ones started helping the next day in preschool as the other volunteer helping had left. So, the work and play with babies continued in two locations for the next five days.

Now we are all in Beijing and busy with preschool, helping with projects, doing scrapbooks and loving on babies. Summer has set in and temperatures are about 90 most days this week.