We had a wonderful surprise this fall, The High School and College kids chipped in and took us and Nathan out to a big picnic at the Yellow River. They do not eat things like sandwiches and potato salad on picnics here. What we had was fresh BBQ fish, freshly made potato chips, hot dogs (okay, so that is like America, but they did that just for us foreigners), many different fruits and vegetables and a few other things. It was such a blessing getting to spend time with these older children, because once they go back to school, they are so busy that we do not get to see them often. This trip was orchestrated by Hank and Holly, 2 of the college age children here, and they did a wonderful job! Below are just some of the pictures we took, there were so many taken that day! Enjoy!

Julie and Hazel preparing some veggies for lunch; Brian and Tim trying to start the fire

Joey working hard to start the second BBQ pit fire; Zak getting some wood ready

Hank cooking up some hot dogs; David displaying the main course

Dennis,John and the driver get the 3rd BBQ pit ready while Tyler watches;Holly and Zak cooking potato chips

All the kids pitching in to get lunch ready; Brian and Hank cooking some hot peppers

Tyler doing some food tasting; Joey and Jim cooking the fish

Joey showing that he is not afraid to get his hands dirty; David with another tasty dish

All of us ready to eat; Linda , Heidi and Gail digging in

Rena giving us all a show; Linda and Heidi really enjoying the food

Brian and Rena are brother & sister..can you tell?;Linda, Julie and Michelle posing under a shade tree after lunch

Dennis has such a big heart for kids, here He’s helping Eli and Tyler have a good time; Rena

Tyler, Eli, Jaxin, Moses and Ruthie lining up for a race; Brian and John showing off a snake skin that they found

Ruthie; Hazel, Gail and Shirley

Hank; Holly and Julie

Ben giving Gail and Tyler a ride on a go-cart; Zak giving Dennis a ride

Joey zipping around the track; Jim and Julie going for a spin around the track

Gail & Ruthie, Rena & Eli, Michelle & Tyler, Julie & Moses all trying to get whiplash

After we ate lunch, everyone joined in with different activities like throwing a football around, playing Frisbee, kicking a soccer ball around, and playing a game that is a mixture between “tag” and “duck duck goose”. After all of the games were over, we decided to go to a near by park to spend the rest of the afternoon. The park is full of many different activities,such as riding go-carts, playing pool, and a few mini-roller coaster rides for the kids. Unfortunately, the batteries died in our camera so we could not take more picture to show you. We had a really good time and hope that you can experience a little of the fun we had by looking at these pictures.

When we moved here we knew that to stay in China for long term either Michelle or I would have to get a job to obtain our visa. The most common job is to teach English at a local public school. Michelle and I decided that I would teach and she would stay at home with our boys to start them on their home schooling. I definitely have the easier of the two jobs. Last year Michelle and I started talking about getting a tutor for our boys to teach them how speak Chinese. We thought after time that they would pick up the language just by hearing it from their friends, but little did we realize that little boys can play all day without saying a word. After living here six months our boy’s Chinese language had not improved at all. We asked Nathan what his thoughts were on where to hire a good teacher. He told us with the rising cost of education and with all of the children getting older, (there are now 11 college students, 11 high school students, 7 middle school students, 7 primary school students and 10 kindergarten students) that he was wanting to start a kindergarten at the Home of Hope (HOH) to help with some of the cost of school tuition. He offered for our boys to just go to school at the HOH kindergarten. Michelle and I thought this was a fantastic idea and offered for Michelle to volunteer as an English teacher.

This year Ruthie and Moses, the first two babies to the HOH, will be turning 8 years old and will be starting first grade. Jaxin, our eldest, will be turning 7 and also is going to be starting first grade. So Michelle and Nathan talked about different ideas on what to do for them that would be best for everyone. They decided to hire a first grade teacher and open a first grade class. The first thing to do was to renovate an old storage room. The college aged boys helped out tremendously. They cleaned and painted the classroom then built the desks for the children. After two weeks of hard work the classroom was like a shiny brand new building. Then we hired a Chinese teacher, bought all of the school books and were ready to begin class.

Michelle Teaching First Grade Jaxin and Moses

Eli and Ruthie in their new 1st grade classroom

Michelle teaches English to Jaxin and Eli (our two eldest sons) and to Moses and Ruthie. They have school from 8am until lunch time which is at 12:00. During that time they learn how to read, write and learn geography. They also have a 45 minute Physical Education class, during this time Michelle teaches English at the Kindergarten to Autumn, Isaac, Gracie and Rose. From 1:15pm to 5:15pm Jaxin, Moses and Ruthie start back at school with their Chinese teacher and she teaches them how to read and write Chinese characters and how to speak proper mandarin Chinese. Eli goes to the kindergarten in the afternoon to practice his spoken mandarin.

Ben is also still teaching English at a local Kindergarten here, it enables him to acquire a visa for our whole family which is a great blessing. He teaches over 650 kids a week. MUCH different than what his job in America used to be (Plumbing Estimator)!

Ben teaching at his kindergarten class

Michelle and I are so thankful to be a part of the HOH. Our time of training here in Gongyi will help us to be better prepared for the administrative responsibilities of the 3rd Home of Hope orphanage.

To start the week off, Bob Sayre, who runs the 2nd HOH orphanage in Xuzhou, and all the children under his care, arrived to a warm welcoming from the Gongyi HOH kids. They were all very excited to see each other again after a whole year being apart.  The GongYi children even made placards like when you are picked up at the airport so they could show their brothers and sisters from Xuzhou where they would be staying. It was very sweet.

Xuzhou kids arriving in GongYi for the HOH Summer Camp

On Sunday after the Xuzhou group arrived we separated all the children into three teams.
Team L.I.O.N. Team W.O.L.F. and Team T.I.G.E.R.
Then we passed out t-shirts that were donated by Eddie and Sheralin Greene from Harlan Kentucky.
On Monday we had all the kids design the shirts and to make flags to represent each team. We also had the teams gather together so that all of the children could introduce themselves and start to get to know each other.

Julie holding her t-shirt , Sam leading his team in what design to use

2 of the 3 groups circling up for their morning meeting, Brian was the captain for team WOLF

Joey was the captain for team LION, Jim was the captain for team TIGER

Kids lining up to get their shirts judged, All the kids circling up for a birthday party

Monday through Friday we had each team competing against each other with the different activities. Each team had 20 children per team including councilors and captains. They had to learn to work together as one family to earn the points for their teams. The theme of the camp was unity. Each day we had 4-5 games per day which involved everyone participating in the game. It was so nice to see all the children getting really into cheering on their own team throughout the week, but at the same time cheering on all of the other teams too. We told them that cheering on their own team was great but to remember that we are all a part of one big team, the Home of Hope, and that we need to cheer everyone on. Here are several pictures showing the many different activities throughout the week.

Tony and James playing, Anna and Jenny posing for a picture

Dennis and David reading their English verse, Lydia,Rachel and Grace watching a volleyball match

This is the children playing the Snow Day game, the point is to get as much crumpled paper on the other teams side. Whoever has the least amount of paper on their side wins the game.

The kids made seat sacks so they would not have to sit on the ground. Eve (left) Sam (right)

Kids trying to eat a donut hanging from a tree, first one done wins but they could not use their hands

from left to right Jacob,Martin,Joe,Johnny,Mary,Abby,Caleb, Ron

Titus and Shirley, Judah,Joshua,Isaac and Adam

Hank leading his team, Esther leading her team

Tuesday was David’s birthday and Wednesday was Julie’s. Hank wanted to throw a party for them so he gathered all the kids and we canceled the activity that night and had one big birthday party. Even the little ones came down for some cake.

Jacob, Beau

Abby, Dawn

On Wednesday we had a physical activity day. There were ten different things that the kids did, long jump, hula hoop, chin ups, standing on one leg, shooting a soccer ball, throwing a football (American) through a circle, basketball, bowling, and to juggle a soccer ball and a hackie sack (small clothe ball filled with little beads). Every person on each team needed to participate to help get their team score higher. Here we really pushed our theme of the camp of team unity.

Left:John going the distance, Right: Joshua hula hooping

Left:John doing chin ups, Right:Naomi standing strong and balanced

Left:Sam helping Ron shoot the soccer ball, Right:Linda trying to show a football

Left:Naomi knocking down the bowling pins, Right:David getting ready to make a shot

We had planned on having a water day and Thursday it just so happened to be drizzling off and on all day so we decided it time for everyone to cool off and get a little wet. We have asked the kids what was their favorite activity or day and almost all of them answered with a big smile that it was the water day

Left:Peter bobbing for apples, Right:Zak diving right in

Left: Linda after picking her apple, Right: Esther not afraid to get a little wet

Water balloon toss

Left: Joey dropping his balloon, Right:Dennis and John were the champion balloon throwers

The object of this game is to fill your cup up with water and take it to the other end of the court to fill one big bucket, but there is one problem…your cup has holes drilled in the bottom of it!

Left:Michael trying to stay dry

The winning team is announced by dumping the bucket on their captain

The best part was the fact that the picture on the right is of last year during the summer camp Brian’s team won the water race then and we did the same thing to him, maybe we are starting a tradition.

On Friday night we had a huge party with all the kids and workers. It was so big we had to eat out on the basketball court. We gave money to all three teams and told the councilors and captains that they were in charge of preparing a specific food item, for example one team bought vegetables, another bought fruit and the last bought dessert. We provided the chips, sodas and hot dogs.

Left:David and Holly taking charge of the grill, Right: The table of goodies

After dinner we had a talent show prepared for our entertainment, the children are very talented. The talents ranged from singing, to bicycle tricks.

Left:The girls prepared a fantastic fan dance, Right:Older boys performed a play

Left:Autumn and Rose singing twinkle twinkle little star, Right:Timothy telling a story

While Lily, Logan and Julie(from left to right) sang a song, Yan Ming’s (house mother) daughter danced

Left:Zak spinning seat sacks, Right:Jaxin doing his bike tricks

After the talent show we announced that the winning team was team TIGER. All the kids got together for one big picture to show again the camp theme of unity. That we are all in one big happy Home of Hope family.

Thank you very much for spending the time and looking through all the pictures. We know there are many pictures but we really wanted to share some of the joy we get to have with these children with you.

Jaxin’s response brought tears of joy to our eyes. He told my brother that we are here because  there are still children without mommy and daddies, and that we will be staying here to help Mr. Nathan until there are not any more orphans.
This past weekend, Ben got a chance to go and visit the 2nd Home of Hope Orphanage. Our whole family would have gone but our three children were sick with the Hand Foot and Mouth Virus that is going around China. While Ben was there, he got to spend a lot of time with the children there, playing basketball and just hanging out. The pictures below are from his trip there, Enjoy!

(Left) Judah taking on Ben, (Right) Ben getting attacked by a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds!

(Left) Ben playing with the boys, (Right) Jacob, put your game face on!

(Left) The children with Kelly calling their grandparents,(Right)The children singing songs for the guests

(Left)Timothy and Ben, what smiles, (Right) Ben and Bob Sayre

Thank you for taking the time to check our web site, we will be having our Annual Summer Camp in 3 weeks, so come back soon to see pictures and hear how well it went!

Left - Jaxin and Moses, best friends - Right - Larry doing acrobatics

Ron, Larry’s brother - Michelle and Gail

Calvin and his new bike - Jaxin playing woofleball

Left- Julie and Charity Right- Holly and Beau

If you would like to learn more about the children at the GongYi Home of Hope you can visit the web site at gongyi.homeofhope.org

We have officially lived in China for one year, and being here has been such a blessed time for my family. Sometimes, however, we forget that we live on the other side of the world. Here is a Gallery of pictures that we have taken on our trips around China that have caught our attention. We hope you enjoy looking at China’s beauty.

Here is our 97 year old neighbor, he is always smiling and talking slow walks around the neighborhood. (Taken be Tiffany)

A grandmother with her grandchild; this is a very common site to see in China. Where the mother and father go to work and the grandparents are the ones who stay home to care for the child. Since there is usually 3 generations under one roof, it is easy to find a babysitter.

A sunset, even with the power lines it is still beautiful. (Taken by Tiffany)

This is our local produce store, here is where we get all our vegetables, fruit and our eggs.

This is a classic example of street food, a cold noodle cart. You can order cold rice noodles with peanut sauce and sliced cucumbers, and it only costs about 15 cents per bowl.

Sam was our official tour guide for the weekend;

taking us to the local Museum,

wonderful places to eat,

and my children’s favorite,
the University Swimming Pool.

We also have Friends who work at SIAS, and their daughters are the same ages as my two oldest boys. We had such a wonderful time visting Sam and our friends in XinZheng.

Meantime much of what they will be adding to the “The Next Home of Hope” pages will have a lot to do with the Gongyi Home of Hope and the XuZhou Home of Hope with more and more information being added about the new facility as it develops.

We welcome the Godards to the Home of Hope family. Be sure and check out “The Godard Family” link at the left.

A few “Candid” pictures - Gongyi!

Left: Daniel Xiong Qi loves to eat - Right: Rachel still with her gum suppressor

Left: Aaron always content - Right: Beau Smart as ever!

Left: Beau’s surgery is coming up - Right: Charity the next up for surgery

Logan (left) and Jenny (right) relaxing on roller skates

Logan and Jenny: time for a rest - Ruthie, Sam, Hank and David rest and watch

Gail also enjoying the beautiful day - Joy Qing Mei getting ready for bed