PingYu Home of Hope

Dana (Hu Yang Shi) arrived on February the 17th and is adjusting very well to everyone and everything. When her grandmother brought her here, she seemed to have already given up all hope for Dana. Her grandmother told us that when Dana would throw huge temper tantrums, that she was having seizures (And because of this, Dana was thought to have a mental handicap and never went to school). She even brought medical tests and showed us her IQ test; which was just under normal. We have not witnessed anything wrong with her. From the very beginning Michelle and I, along with our staff, have encouraged Dana and have tried to build up her confidence. What’s truly amazing is that what was left as useless, is now considered special. Even more important is the fact that Dana realizes she is not useless too. She still has some adjusting to do but we are so pleased and happy that she is now a daughter of our family.

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In February we celebrated 4 birthdays!!!!
Left to right- Emma turned 10, Lester turned 9 and Chris and Thomas turned 8 years old.

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Lantern Festival

The Chinese New Year is pretty much a one month long celebration that ends with the Lantern Festival. Fireworks and paper lanterns fill the sky for one amazing beautiful night! We lit one lantern per room.

Our home is pretty close to where the big firework show is; which is nice because our kids could see all the lanterns and fireworks from our yard. Below all the yellow dots are hundreds of lanterns floating up and away…almost looked like the movie “Tangled”.

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Back to School
School here is so strict and full of pressure that even on holidays our children are given homework…a lot of it. They were given so much homework that they had to do almost 4 hours of homework everyday of their break. Thankfully, most of our children know that its just a part of life here in China, and they spend their time working hard to finish the homework instead of complaining about it!
Debbie is working hard to get done so she can go out and play in the warm sunshine!

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Warming up!

We have been so blessed with some great weather this year so far. All of our children are wanting to be outside soaking in the warmth. Above are a few pictures of some of our kids soaking in the warm weather!

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Happily Ever After
June has worked on and off for us pretty much since we opened our home 2010. She grew up at the Gongyi Home of Hope and worked at the Xuzhou Home of Hope for a few years. We are all so happy for June and hope her and her husband live a long and joyful life together!