PingYu Home of Hope

Patch is doing so well adjusting to our home, to our children, and is so obedient, that when one of our housemothers told us of 2 other children she knew who needed help, we felt very good about going to go see them.


Above you see Catina (Feng Xiu Yun) and Davey (Feng Jin Fu) with their 82 year old grandmother. Their story, like most of our children, is heartbreaking. Catina and Davey live with their grandmother, who is their only living relative. Their father was bitten by a dog and died of an infection. Their mother was both physically and mentally challenged and went out of the house one day and did not return. They found her in a field a few days later and apparently she starved to death. Their grandfather died before they were born and their grandparents only had one child.

One of the biggest issues the grandmother faced was that her house is coming apart. She said when it rains it pours in on them and she is terrified that the house is going to fall down on them. Another issue was the grandmother had to raise two growing children with only receiving $166 per year and flour and oil every few months from the civil affairs. She was grateful for the help but it was clearly not enough.

This grandmother reminded me (Ben) very much of my grandma Godard…she had a lot of spunk in her. Even though this child search had many things that was hard to hear and take in…it was also by far the funniest experiences too. We started off by explaining to the grandmother that she is to listen to our translator and not us…we did not want to confuse her. A lot of times when we speak Chinese to people, we need to start off by telling them that we are speaking Chinese…they see our foreign faces and shut off what we are saying because they think automatically they won’t understand us. This poor woman was so shocked by seeing foreigners that she could not even understand our translator. So we spoke, then our translator translated what we said, then the civil affairs leader repeated the same thing to the grandmother. With all that translating, when we asked about the children’s mother, the grandmother said she was their mother…I think we all said, “WHAT?” Then when she was telling us about her fears of her house, she started to cry, she had Jessica our translator and Michelle in tears too. I was moved and wanted to hug her but did not want to scare her, so I reached out and held her hand…which caused to her to stop mid sentence and say, “Wow, your hands are really cold.”

It is always so amazing to us to see the fast transformation HOPE can bring a person. Catina and Davey are doing great too. They are fitting well with the other kids…it should not be too hard for Davey to fit in here because I am not sure if his feet have even touched the floor since their arrival. Our other children adore him.

Catina is our youngest daughter and is also very adorable.

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Patch and Davey starting kindergarten together!

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Father has blessed Michelle and I with 33 children! 3 boys of our own and 30 Chinese Children. We are so blessed and grateful to be part of such a mighty work here in China. We cannot thank Father enough for allowing us to be part of such joy, happiness and love. We also would like to thank you for your support in helping to spread love, hope, peace and joy to these wonderful children and to our family!
Blessings
Ben and Michelle