PingYu Home of Hope

June 1st is National Children’s Day in China and our children had a very full and extremely blessed day. They started off the day eating cake and drinking milk!
On the left Dana is getting ready to eat her cake. While on the right, Jake and Crystal check out the cake before we passed it out.

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Then a local restaurant invited all of our children and staff out for lunch.

The children really had a good time there and ate some really good food. They served us a large cup of soy milk, a plate of fried rice, something like tater-tots, 2 small crabs and a chicken sandwich.
Abby is always so full of joy!

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That afternoon the local (and only) movie theater allowed our children to go and watch a movie for free! The front row from left to right-Frank, Abby, Vivian (one of our teachers), Graham and Lester

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Gabe (left) and Noah (right) are eating a tasty snack (Donated from the bakery where we bought our cake from gave to all of our children).

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We finished the night by watching another movie with the kids outside in our yard. It was Saturday night and each Saturday all the kids come in our home to watch a movie:)

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Needless to say with all the sugar and excitement, our children were quite hyper. Between the trip to the restaurant and movie theater, a group of volunteers came and gave all of our children new book bags with new pens, pencils and notebooks! Our children are so blessed, we had to actually turn away some of the things offered to them to do that day because of all the other activities they were already blessed with. We are so thankful for all the local Pingyu people here who helped give our children a wonderful day and for you for your continual support in making our Home so full of Hope!

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TWINS!!
This is Aaron (Shun Fang Xu) and his twin sister Becca (Shun Fang Fang). They are 8 year old twins that we just found. Their dad died over a month ago, their mom left them when they were 2 and they have no other living relative. They have been living on their own since the death of their father. When we went to go see them, they just looked so tired and had so much worry on their face. When we asked them what they had been doing for food, they told us that they had been going from house to house in their neighborhood eating with their neighbors. It was hard to get past the absolute hopeless look they had on their face.
It did not even take a second thought if we were going to help them or not. We told them what we do and how we could help them and they said that they would like to come live with us. They moved here on June 4th. The picture above was taken on June 6th. It always amazes us how much having joy, love, and hope can change a person. Aaron and Becca are adjusting well and have not stopped smiling since the moment they arrived.
Course they both love dogs and when they saw our dog George, they fell in love…he does not mind the extra attention either:)
We never really know how a child will react to us when they come to live in our home. We want to go and cover them with hugs and kisses…but hold back because we don’t want to scare them…we wait until they come to us before covering them with all those hugs and kisses. Today as I (Ben) was writing this, Becca walked into my office and gave me the biggest hug…my heart melted and I told her that I loved her. We have the best job in the world! If you are interested in sponsoring Aaron or Becca please click HERE and find out how.