Following the call.....

With much prayer, on when and if God wanted me to go back to New Hope in 2017, it appears that the start of June thru the end of August is the answer. This is a slightly different timing than I had been originally thinking. I am trusting in God to provide everything that is needed for this trip, including the extra expenses of traveling in the summer, and mid trip visa run. I will also have health insurance cost this time. This answer to prayer, has come as a blessing, as New Hope has been without a steady preschool teacher since this past summer,and will now have one from Jan-March. I will arrive the beginning of June. Please pray that this short gap in coverage will be covered as well. . On top of this great news, I am super excited to announce that my sister Elise and cousin Lexi will be joining me for a few weeks. This will be their first trip to China and they are very excited to serve at New Hope. Both girls have been actively working to save for their trip, and will be fundraising as well. I'm working hard on my support plans, and I'm open to ideas. I'm committing my doTerra commissions that are above my normal living expenses to go directly to my cost for this summer. Please keep this trip in your prayers, specifically the financial coverage. Like my previous trips, I will be taking limited personal items, and loading my suitcase allowances with items that are needed at New Hope. I will start a few "wish lists" at Amazon, and others places, as soon as the needs are known. Summer of 2017 is going to be exciting to see where God leads the adventures of our time in China.

~Stephanie

The amazing benefits of sponsorship

Over the years I have had several people ask me about ways they can help New Hope if they are not in a spot to travel over and volunteer or to adopt or they might be in a spot like me where they are simply not old enough to adopt yet. One of my favorite things that I am part of is the New Hope sponsorship program. Did you know it takes at least 8 sponsors per child to cover the cost of their care? This includes diapers, food, medicines,living cost, clothing, bottles and depending on their need sometimes even their surgeries. Certain surgeries cost is beyond the simple sponsorship so that is a different category, if you feel called to sponsoring a surgery that is possible as well. However, one of the fun parts about being a sponsor is you get to choose which child you would like to sponsor and you can do that HERE , On top of that you will also receive quarterly updates and pictures of your sponsor kid(s).

Eleanor Grace in 2013

I first became a NH sponsor back in 2013 when my sweet friend Callie and I were able to witness a new admission and we decided we wanted to sponsor her and so we were able to pick out her English name which is the name the kids go by for anyone reading or asking about them. We chose the name Eleanor Grace and we would get so excited about any and all updates we would receive after we left China that summer. We waited for the good news after her surgery and we prayed for her forever family. Now thanks to some amazing prayers and social media we are connected with her amazing family so we have continued to watch her grow over this past year with her family (her family even named her Elenor).

Annie Spring 2016

Last summer I met sweet Annie through our amazing Hong Kong hospital adventure. I knew that when I got home I wanted to start sponsoring her and so for this past year I have been sponsoring my sweet Annie girl.

Penelope Spring 2016

Then....This past spring while I was at NH this squishy cute little baby arrived and I knew that even though I would have to cut back on personal spending  I really wanted to sponsor her as well and because I was her first sponsor I was able to choose her name so her name is Penelope. She is just the cutest little thing. So, if you read this far you either want to see the pictures I have added to the end of these cuties or you would love to know more of the nitty gritty details about becoming a New Hope sponsor.

New Hope sponsorship
*cost $40 a month and they request a year commitment
*This helps cover all of the kids basic needs and allows for NH to keep as many beds open as they can
*You get to "know" your child through pictures and updates sent out quarterly
*You can even send over goodies if you want (check out my girlies wearing their matching outfits)
*You get to pray for this child and their need and for them to find their forever family
*You get a tax donation receipt at the end of the physical year

**You can sign up now HERE

Now just look at these sweet pictures of my current sponsor princess's in their new outfit that I sent over along with some new footie pj's for them.

Like seriously I just want to eat them up and I miss them so much but I pray everyday for their forever families to be lead to them and for their health and well being. If anyone has any questions about New Hope or the sponsorship program, please ask.

A Fresh New Look

I was very excited when I found out that I was going to be in China during the great Away Day project. The British embassy took on a big job of redoing the Memorial garden, big playground, preschool playground, preschool room and building a chicken coop and donating 30 chickens! It was a lot of fun to watch all the progress of the project happening over the course of a couple of weeks before the big final teams arrived. Here are a few pictures of the progress ( I will be posting the rest on FB)


While a piece of me was very sad to see some of the memories and work we did 3 summers ago to the preschool room leave. I was thankful to have the time to take my last pictures and in a weird way say "goodbye". This wall was becoming very weak and for safety reasons it needed to come down and be rebuilt and now seeing the new wall it is amazing and strong.

Handprints of preschoolers over the past 3 years at New Hope

The door painted by the talented Stephanie Hwang

Handprints of just a handful of the preschool teachers over the past 3 years with our trip dates.

This wall will forever be my favorite wall ever! Created by Stephanie Hwang, Callie Huseman and myself in 2013 using the kids hand and foot prints to create a garden scene.

New wall going up

The wall is now much taller which is great because it will help with distractions

My favorite thing was the quote from the old wall was repainted on and Rob asked me to give it the handprint touch :) So my last morning several of the kiddos hands became "apples" in the tree.

Next up the big playground- I didn't get a great before picture with all the old things in an overview picture. 

Out with the old swing set and ready to start 

Chicken Coop- Oh my goodness I just loved this project! And the kids are loving the chickens as well.

Preschool Playground- This project had a lot of help from our handy preschoolers :)

Memorial Garden: This is a very special place before it was outdated and held the names of kids that had passed away in the Beijing unit now it is cherry and bright and holds the memories of all 900 kids from all the units that were loved and comforted till it was time for them to pass into Jesus's arms. This wall holds names of kids I had the honor of meeting and many that I read about through newsletters but one thing I know for sure is that they had the top care and love up till the very end and they are now forever healed.

That wraps up the amazing work done by the British Embassy to help support New Hope. I can't wait to watch years worth of memories take place at all the new projects.

~Stephanie

Under the Sea!

We spent the day....well actually two days under the sea this past week! Because we went on a field trip to the Beijing Aquarium with the preschoolers. It was truly a magical time to watch the kids seeing real life fishies. We had a few that freaked out at first but by the end they all loved it. The rip started with an almost 2 hour bus ride due to traffic to the aquarium and all the kids did great, which was a huge answer to prayer!

Annie was my buddy for group 1

and Ava Jo was my buddy for group 2

We made it to the aquarium but little did we know that while walking in we would find some elephants! The aquarium is located in the middle of the Beijing zoo so that was an added surprise and the kids were very excited to see a real live elephant.

The Beijing aquarium is very cool and has lots to see.... we started our journey in the rain forest area.

Then we headed to the deep shark caves....... the kids loved the big shark tank!

The aquarium had beluga whales which I was pretty excited about. I never knew how noisy beluga's are until this trip.

The highlight of the trip for everyone I believe was the animal show which had belugas, sea lions and dolphins in it. I now know what it feels like for anyone visiting the US and going to these shows and having no idea what they are saying. But all in all the show was great and the kids loved watching the animals jump out of the water and dancing along to the music.

No field trip is complete without a stop for lunch of chicken nuggets and french fries! The kids had mixed reviews on this lunch but I would say that french fries were the biggest hit of all.

We ended our time with a trip to the coral reef/ jellyfish room.

Group 1

Group 2

I was very thankful for all the extra hands that helped make these trips go so smoothly! We were able to take a 1:1 ratio so every child got every bit of attention they could imagine. The kids and adults were all worn out by the end of each day and majority of the kiddos and some of the adults fell asleep on the way back to Hope.

I would like to thank the Stewart family and then some of the additional funds that came in for helping make these trips become possible.

On our off day from the field trip fun we made these two super cute crafts!

~Stephanie