After 2 ½ years of learning how to administrate an orphanage, our dream is very quickly on the way to becoming true. There is a city that is 220 miles southeast of GongYi called PingYu that we called to see if they needed any help with their orphans. Little did we know that a week prior the PingYu civil affairs had decided that they needed to open an orphanage and had contacted the top level civil affairs of our province (Henan) who recommended that they call the Home of Hope.

Nathan Bell (founder of the Home of Hope and administrator of the Gongyi HOH) set up a meeting with the leaders of PingYu civil affairs to explain how the Home of Hope operates. When he asked if they had any questions, their only questions were if they could come and visit the children and how soon could we open. We have never experienced this kind of help and speed that these leaders are giving to us in opening the PingYu Home of Hope.

On August 14th, 15th and 16th Michelle and I went on our first child search. When the civil affairs gave us their list of orphans, it stated the children’s name, age, address and guardian. We then chose 30 children that we wanted to go and visit at their homes and interview them and their guardians. After so many heart wrenching stories and having grandparents literally getting on their hands and knees pleading with us for help, we prayerfully chose those who are in the most dire need of help and chose 13 children with the hope in mind that we would be returning in a few months to get the others.

We now have the extreme pleasure and honor to introduce to you the PingYu Home of Hope children!

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Mark

Mark(Zhang Guang Hui)

Mark was born January 6, 2002. His father died from a fire and his mother left after his death. He lives with his grandfather who is Marks only care giver.

Mark and his grandfather

When we arrived at Mark’s home the first thing we noticed was the condition of his grandfathers clothes. They were worn down with holes all over them. We really felt his grandfather has tried his best to provide for Mark but looked exhausted from raising him by himself. Mark’s emotions seemed to fluctuate with big smiles to eye’s watering up like he was going to start crying. So when we asked him questions about school or what he liked to play, we some times were answered with a warm smile or ignored with silence like he was choking back his tears.

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Noah

Noah (Zhang Chen Liang)

Noah was born January 11, 2005. His father died form lung cancer and his mother left after he was 2 months old. He lives with with grandparents.

Noah with his grandparents in front of their house

Noah’s grandparents were VERY concerned about his future and asked us many questions. They wanted to make sure he did well in school, and could get plenty of opportunities in life. They knew with their income that they could not provide that for him. Noah seems to be like most 5 year old boys being very full of life. With every child we met, after we met with them we gave them a piece of candy. We knew that we would need something to get all the children to warm up to us, and what better thing to use than lolly pops. When we offered Noah his lolly pop, he came right over without a concern in the world….besides getting that piece of candy in his mouth as fast as possible.

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Meet the Wang Family: Emma and Gene

The Wang family.

Emma (Wang Zi Yi) and Gene (Wang Zi Ang)

Emma was born February 14, 2003. Gene was born January 23, 2005. Gene actually has a twin sister, as you can see in the above picture, but when their parents died, one of their uncle’s adopted her.
Emma and Gene’s Father had an accident and died and their mother left after his death. Emma and Gene live with their grandparents.

Grandfather and kids showing us into their house. (right) Kids and grandparents in front of their house.

This was one of the most emotional visits we were involved with. After the grandfather showed us into his house and we introduced ourselves, he almost fell to the ground crying over the loss of his son, which Chinese people make a point to never let anyone see them cry. Emma and Gene’s father owned some sort of transportation business and took loans out to build a nice house for his family and his parents. Unfortunately he died before being able to pay the loan off and it was left to be paid off by the grandparents, who have a very small income from farming. He and his wife told us that they are too poor and too old to care for Emma and Gene and asked us for our help.

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Sarah

Sarah (Ye Meng Jia).

Sarah was born January 2, 2002. Her father died from lung cancer and her mother left after his death. She lives with her grandparents.

Sarah and her grandparents in front of their house.

We believe out of all the children we visited, Sarah was the most energetic. She has absolutely no fear what so ever that we saw. A lot of the time when we spoke with other families, the grandparents would try and make their grandchild look the best…as any grandparent would do anywhere in the world. When Sarah’s grandparents sat down to talk with us they seemed absolutely exhausted and at their wits end, they are both in their late 70’s.

When we began asking our normal questions, we could tell by their body language that they were not going to be hiding anything. “How does she do in school?” The grandmother just chuckled and answered not good. Two different times they told us she was a trouble maker and too hard for them to watch anymore. We felt like they did their best and were on the brink of just giving up.

One other thing that really caught our attention about Sarah’s living conditions was that there were no windows in her house and when we asked to see her bed, her grandparents told us we were standing in it…she slept on the floor. This was a big sign that she was not getting the love that she should be getting. She was the only one of the 30 children we saw that did not sleep with her guardian.

Zoey

This is Zoey (Meng Yu Qing), she is a spunky little girl with a lot of energy. She was born on November 28th, 2003. We were introduced to her by the government. Her father died of cancer and her mother ran away. She is living with her Grandparents.

Zoey with her Grandfather.

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Graham

Graham (Wang Liu Xu).

Graham was born December 26, 2002. His father committed suicide over lack of money and his mother left after his death. He lives with his grandparents, both in their late 70’s.

Graham with his grandparents in front of their house. (right) A picture of the other side of their bedroom

What really caught our attention about Graham’s situation was how old his grandparents looked and that he had no room in his house nor yard to play because of all the things piled up everywhere. Looking into Grahams eyes reminded us a little of Hannah, almost like he’s never experienced joy in his life. His grandparents were concerned about how old they were that they might die before they were able to give Graham a good education, and they hoped that was something that we would be able to provide

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Gabe

Gabe(Wang Cheng Long).

Gabe was born December 10, 2001. His father died from alcohol poisoning and his mother left after his death. He lives with his great aunt because his grandparents died from old age.

Gabe’s house. (right) Gabe and his great aunt

Gabe’s grandfather owned a welding shop that was located under his house. In the picture above of Gabe’s house (which is his grandfathers old shop), you can see a door in the background. That door leads to the house on the second floor, which we could not see and that we believe the great aunt lives in. We really had the impression that Gabe is living by himself with very little supervision of his aunt. They did not have a very good bond between each other. He just seemed very lonely.

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Philip

Philip (Liu Yang)

(left)Philips front room to his house (right) Philip’s grandfather showing us his bone disease.

Philip was born May 11, 2001. His father is in prison for murdering his mother. Philip lives with his grandparents.

Philip showing us his bed. (right) Philip and his grandparents in front of their house.

Of the 30 children we chose, Philip was also not on our original list. After visiting another child in one of the villages, the leader of the village asked us if we wanted to see Philip. After hearing that both his grandparents were in their early 80’s and finding out that Philip’s grandfather had a severe born disease on his leg that kept him from farming, which was their main income. We did not think twice about bringing Philip in under our care.

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Traveling from village to village and visiting all these different children, we can truly say that we have never seen this stage of need in our lives. One thing that has just stuck in our minds is that not one child and not in one house was there one toy for the children to play with.

PingYu city gave us a list of 150 orphans that are in between the ages of new born to 8 years old. We know compared to the 150 children in need, that 15 is a very small number. Once the children have learned who we are and how we operate, and as soon as we can raise enough funding, we will be able to go on another child search to bring in more children. The start up cost of opening the orphanage is $50,000.00, which covers:
-the rent and preparation of the building
-clothes for the kids
-all the furniture for the bedrooms
-the supplies for a working kitchen
-educational costs
-hiring staff members
-and so many other items that will take to give these children a good home to live in.

The opening date of the PingYu Home of Hope is planned for the end of November. We know that this date is approaching quickly, but like we said before, the PingYu government leaders are trying to help us get started and opened as soon as we can. We don’t want to make a big issue of asking for money on this website, but if you feel you would like to help us with a one-time donation, monthly sponsorship of a child, special project etc., please contact us at:ben@homeofhope.org