Monday, December 8, 2008

A Home of Hope


Ellen and I took a trip to Truelife Children's Home in Dongguan, Guangdong, a couple weeks ago with several students from her school. Dongguan is often referred to as the "world's factory," and it is here where so many from all over China come to work in factories of all kind.


We took a coach bus to Dongguan, about a two-hour ride from Ellen's school. When we arrived we went to a park to meet up with some of the children and their foster moms. There we celebrated the little girl's first birthday pictured above. We hope the next birthday she celebrates will find her surrounded by a loving and grateful forever family of her own!!


Truelife is privately run for the purpose of taking care of children with medical needs that orphanages around the area are not able to meet. The children are paper ready, which means their paperwork has been submitted to the adoption office in Beijing. So after they have had their surgeries, they will return to the orphanage, and hopefully united with a family soon thereafter.


This little angel is six months old and weighs just shy of seven pounds. She obviously has not been getting the nutrition she needed due to her cleft, but that has all changed now that she is in the loving and capable hands of those at Truelife. We call this little one the "West Island baby," because this is the baby Ellen's school is sponsoring every month until she is through with her surgeries and well on her way to good health.



Another angel is this lady, Jenny, pictured above holding the baby. Jenny and her husband came to live in Dongguan about six years ago because of her husband's job. She was asked to oversee the operation of Truelife a few years ago, and she has been the tangible love of Jesus to all who come her way. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. . . I was especially touched as I watched how she so eagerly shared with the students about Truelife and the kids in their care. The students were equally touched and who knows what kind of change in their young life a visit like this can make.



Here is my beautiful Ellen Beibei, who is always in her element when surrounded by kids, but has an extra soft spot in her heart for those without a family yet - though the good news is this little girl will soon be united with her very own mamma and daddy next month and on her way to live in Huntsville, Alabama. That is a very long way from this carousel ride in Dongguan, China. . .



Without the help from a place like Truelife, this little one's future would be very bleak.



The birthday girl actually fell asleep on the carousel! It was too cute. Just put her right to sleep.











2 comments:

Retta said...

How sweet! Several people from our agency have adopted kids from TrueLife...remember our visitors last spring? I bet you wanted to take some of them home with you :)

Anonymous said...

what an awesome trip for you! I love Ellen's heart for these kids - and I just want to rush over & scoop that little one up & bring her home!