2nd Child Search
In the beginning of the month of June Michelle, David (our translator), a government leader and I (Ben) went on our 2nd child search. Our intentions were to bring in 5 girls and 2 boys so that we would have 8 girls and 8 boys. Before the search we prayed that God would guide us to which children HE wanted to join our family. So we were not surprised when each child that will be joining our family this summer were not on our original list. You might have read in our last couple posts, we were blessed with quite a surprise with bringing in Anna (Wang Yan), Jake (Wang Guo Bao) and Joey (Wang Bao Gui). We are very excited and blessed to have Anna, Jake and Joey in our family, but because Jake and Joey are so young we had to prepare an extra bedroom and hire 2 more housemothers for them. In August of this year we plan to bring in 6 additional children.
We are proud to introduce to you our newest family members to the Pingyu Home of Hope!
Thomas
Thomas (Chen Xin Yuan)
Thomas was born in 2005 (month and day unknown). In 2007 Thomas’ mother ran away, which caused his father to get so depressed that he committed suicide. Thomas lives with his 81 year old grandfather, his grandmother died a few years ago but we did not know exactly when. He also has a 8 year old sister, but she lives with their Aunt…apparently Thomas’ aunt wanted a daughter to help her clean and do other chores….his aunt did not want Thomas since she already had a son.
(left) Thomas and his grandfather in front of their apartment (above) Thomas and his grandfather in front of their bed.
When we arrived to see Thomas we were a little confused why the government leaders brought us to a school. Thomas’ house in the village was so poor and broken that the government told the local school to let them use an old abandoned classroom as a house. As we walked up to their house we noticed several things right away. First was that Thomas was outside playing by himself while his grandfather was inside laying in bed. His grandfather is 81 years old and half blind and deaf and so weak that he can hardly walk. The second thing we noticed was how dirty Thomas was; almost like he had not been cleaned in a very long time. The third thing that we noticed was that Thomas was not in school, later we found out that his grandfather was too poor to afford for him to go to school….even though they lived in the school he could not attend classes.
We also noticed that he was still wearing split bottom pants (clothing that most babies and toddlers wear until they are potty trained) which leads us to believe that he has not been potty trained. This is not really a big problem since none of our children ever used a western style toilet before coming here.
The Twins
Debbie and Eddy
Debbie and Eddy are 8 year old twins born on May 12 2002. They live with their 65 year old grandparents. Right after they were born their parents drove their work truck into some water and were both electrocuted because of a loose wire in the engine.
Debbie
Debbie (Guo Qian)
Debbie really impressed us how mature she was. Her eyes kept filling up with tears but she would not let herself cry. We could tell that she had tried taking her mothers place for her little brother Eddy. At one point while her grandmother was crying, Debbie walked over to her and used tissue paper to wipe the tears off her grandmothers face. This was one of the most touching things we have ever seen.
Eddy
Eddy (Guo Xin)
Eddy seemed like he depended on his older sister a lot; he followed her where ever she went. Even though he followed Debbie around he showed his bravery by returning our greeting with a “Hello” and shook our hands when we arrived….this was a bit surprising because most children are very scared of us when we arrive because they have never seen a Westerner before.
(left)Debbie and Eddy in front of their bed (right) Debbie and Eddy with their grandparents in front of their house
Lester
Lester (Sun Li Li)
Lester was born on February 12, 2004. His father and mother were in a car accident sometime last year that killed his father, and caused his mother to have extra mass on her brain, which as of right now she goes to the doctor 3 times a year for surgery for the next 3 years (each visit she is in hospital for 3 months). The doctors are unfortunately saying that they do not think the surgeries are successful and that they do not believe she will survive even to finish her treatments.
(left) Lester’s mother (wearing the hat) Lester, and his grandmother. (right) Lester’s mom showing us her scars.
Lester’s parents made enough money in the past to put him into a private school here in the city of Pingyu (he lived at the school which is very typical here in Pingyu), but since the accident all of their money has been used to pay off hospital bills. Unfortunately the surgeries are so expensive that Lester’s grandparents (both the mothers parents and fathers parents) are using everything they have to also help pay the bills. This past semester was Lester’s last semester in the city; he was going to have to go to school in the village.
Lester’s house sat out alone out in the middle of the families property, and it was right next to a deep lake (picture above). The grandmother was very concerned for Lester’s safety because if he went to the school in the village he would have to walk around the lake.
What also caught our attention was how poor his living conditions were, for example the bricks on his house were held together with mud.
As soon as we arrived Lester’s grandmother and mother just started crying and begging us for help. A lot of people come to our gate asking to put their child into our “school”; we tell them we are not a school we are a home. Lester’s family never once mentioned anything about his education, they were so concerned for his safety.
Danny
Danny (Yang Xin Fang)
Danny was born 6-27-2005. His father died of a blood disease and his mother ran away. His grandmother dead in 2006, same year as his father. He has been living with his 65 year old grandfather since.
Danny’s grandfather was the first person to come to our gate asking for help. When we arrived at Danny’s house, Danny did not seem to be afraid of us at all; he even showed us his house while his grandfather stayed outside. When we asked him if he cooked food he told us no but he helped his grandfather. We asked him what his favorite food was and his reply was “Noodles”…which is very typical for this part of China.
Ellie
Ellie (Feng Zhi Hui)
Ellie was born on 11-15-2002. Her father died in a car accident and her mother ran away. She lives with her 65 year old grandparents
Ellie is actually the first child we saw back in August of 2009. We decided that we would bring her in with our second group of children. She seemed pretty smart and even answered some of our questions; like we have said before most children are too scared to talk when we visit them.
The need is great, there are many children that still need help, but we wait patiently for God to provide the proper funding, facility, staff and etc. We want to thank you for taking the time to read about our new children and want to thank you for your financial, prayer and penpal support. We have been very blessed that 12 of our 18 children have been sponsored. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our children please click Sponsor a Child which will give you better detail on how to sponsor a child. With your help, these 18 children are now in a safer environment, unfortunately during this child search we did not see 2 girls on our list because one drowned a few months earlier and the other had been kidnapped.
Say Cheese
Most of the time when we visit these children it is the first time they have ever seen a Westerner, which causes them to be very shy, frightened and most of the time not in the mood to smile. We try telling jokes and making funny faces at them to get them to smile…which sometimes makes them smile…and sometimes makes them cry.
In the above picture I (Ben) touched my nose with my tongue (it helps that I have a long tongue and big nose!) trying to get Danny to loosen up and smile. No one else could see me doing this but Danny. Instead of smiling he tried to see if he could touch his nose with his tongue too. His 70 year old aunt was standing behind me and not knowing that he was mimicking me started yelling at him…I quickly turned around and showed her that I was teaching him….she was quite embarrassed; I did not know a person could turn that red.
Thank you
Posted: July 1st, 2010 under Uncategorized.
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