PingYu Home of Hope

Pingyu hosted a 1/2 marathon. Michelle and I are always taking kids out for a run to stay healthy and get special one on one time with them. We were all very excited to join the run. The rules would not allow our younger boys to join the 1/2 marathon but they could run a 5k. Michelle ran it with Aaron (standing next to me), Joey (middle) and Sammy. Joey got 3rd place and Sammy got 5th place. They actually all got confused where they were suppose to turn around and all kept running straight. Joey and Sammy turned around and still placed. Aaron ran so fast that he was in the front and no one told him until it was too late to turn around.

John is a very good friend of mine. We finished the 1/2 marathon at 2:08:08!!!

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Moving Day is Finally Here

Two years to the day we were first told about our home going to be torn down, we finally moved. The local government has been so patient with us, trying to help us find a place to buy and build a new home. Unfortunately, we still have not gotten our organization registered as this is an extremely difficult, time consuming task, that we have been diligently working on for over a year. The local government seeing our struggle and showing that they want us to stay, not only gave us this building, but also covered most of the remodeling costs.
I, and several children, drove back and forth with the truck loaded with our stuff, while Michelle and several children stayed behind to clean and prepare…which was a much harder job but Michelle does not have a Chinese drivers license yet.
Check out all the hard work/fun we had with the kids…

Gene and Lester climbing the ladder of success while Chris carried big heavy boxes!

Jake showing off his dirty hands while Becca and Davey carried more boxes.

Catina and Wally helping carry even more boxes.

While some of us worked hard, like you see Eli and Sammy doing carrying the bed, others of us took time to rest while they waited for help to arrive like you see Jaxin doing.

and when we ran out of boxes, our children used pretty much anything to gather our many many possessions…many many possessions, we are such a blessed home!

We don’t even want to tell you how fun the playground was to move, but we do want to show how grateful we are for our friends who came to help and for the fact that our children are getting so big that they were a huge help too.

The day was hard physically and especially emotionally, but we like to focus on the beauty of all things and know that our joy does not come from our situations but something so much greater.

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Our 1st Birthday Party!

Happy Holidays!

We also celebrated the end of the year kind of holidays for the first time in our new home. Our home in some ways, give us more room and space, but other areas are lacking greatly. Our dining hall is 1/3 the size it used to be, so we could not do our normal celebration activities, but the kids still had a fantastic time. Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures: