Update December 2006 

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We wish you all a peaceful and love-filled Christmas. We personally, after a pre-Christmas visit to our son Aron and his family in Indianapolis, had a wonderful Christmas with 4 of our 7 surviving children from Australia, Scotland and Japan. They brought friends and our foreign staff joined us for Christmas dinner. The Foster Children received wonderful gifts from various groups and individuals and we had a wonderfully noisy gift-giving time on Christmas morning.  Let us not forget the reason for the season.

          

Hope Foster Home has progressed rapidly in the year 2006 and below is a brief summary of how God has directed our hearts, hands and feet to serve Him and the “least of these”.

1) New facilities opened:

a)      Physical therapy unit ( in conjunction with Love Without Boundaries and other supporters) opened in Beijing in March 2006- 12 new beds

b)    Heartbridge unit ( in conjunction with Love without Boundaries) for physically vulnerable infants waiting for surgery of immediately after surgery, opened in October 2006. – 9 new beds

c)      Second Palliative Care unit in Henan province (Luoyang city) for dying and severely disabled infants and young children, opened in September 2006. - 45 new beds

2)      New Admissions:

a)      Jiaozuo Palliative Care unit- 27 children

b)      Luoyang Palliative care unit -35 children

c)      Beijing Hope Foster Home- 31 children

Total number of new admissions during 2006 is 93

3)      Surgeries done

 Total number of surgeries done during 2006 is 47. 

4)      Adoptions:

Children already left -6

Children confirmed and waiting for parents- 13

Children whose dossiers are being prepared- 9

5)      Local Foster Care

Current total number of families - 11

Total number of children in Local Foster Care-17

6)      Local Employees:

New employees this year. – 73

Total number of local employees: -186

7)      Long term, medically trained volunteers

Lyn and Alan Gould, based in Henan province

Lynsay and Bill Lewis, based in Beijing.

8)      Deaths

Jiaozuo Palliative Care Unit- 13

Luoyang Palliative Care unit-2

Beijing – 4 (one died in Singapore after complications of heart surgery).

Total deaths: 19

At the end of 2005, we cared for 60 children. Today at the time of writing this newsletter, we are caring for 108 children in our units in 3 different cities. The rate of expansion has astounded us but we are willing to serve exactly as directed by God.

1) Foster Home Shunyi, Beijing

The babies  

Fu Jiang Fei and Ling Wan Feng are still in hospital with complications of neurosurgery.  Please pray for them. Pray that Jiang Fei recovers quickly and completely and that Wan Feng’s repeated problems with his shunt will be over.  

          
               Jiang Fei                     Wan Feng

Zachary Dang Guo Fu was adopted this month. His 2 nannies have cared for him for 3 years and feel the loss deeply. He was once deemed a child with no hope of survival but God had other plans for him.

We have 3 new babies admitted this month, Ling Yu Yi  ( Clubbed foot) Ling Xu Zhi ( Malnourished, uncertain diagnosis) both from Jiang Xi Province and Xu  Jian Fang( clubbed foot) from Fujian Province.

             
  Ling Yu Yi            Ling Xu Zhi              Xu Jian Fang

2) Love Without Boundaries Shunyi Outreach Foster Program.

A new family has joined the program and Ling Guang Wen whose cleft lip has been repaired has been moved to their home.  

  
    Guang Wen

3) HFH Special Care Unit, Jiaozuo, Henan Province: ( 12 beds)

Fu Qiu Yu died. She was premature and very ill. Fu Yue Yue was admitted on Dec 1^st and died on Dec 27th. He had a complex heart condition. Since this unit opened on 1^st Jan 2005, 85 babies have been admitted and 37 have died.

Volunteers.   Jo L. and Richard and Susan S. sereved in this unit this month.

4) HFH Special Care Unit, Luoyang, Henan Province:

6 new babies were admitted this month bringing the total here to 35 babies.  Lyn reports that Joey’s condition is deteriorating as his malignancy spreads but he is not uncomfortable or in pain. Dang Le Chen who had severe Cerebral palsy had a prolonged seizure and died on Dec 27^th.  

3 children with heart problems were sent to Hangzhou for assessments and possible surgery.

5) Heartbridge Rehabilitation Unit

This unit admitted 2 new babies Dang He Jiao from Henan province and Yang Xin Jia from Anhui province. Both of them have heart conditions.  Huai Chun Cong was admitted in severe respiratory distress to Beijing United Hospital.  This unit is now full

         
 Dang He Jiao       Yang Xin Jia           Huai Chun Cong

Our Most Sincere Thanks To;

All our needs posted on last months newsletter, have been met, from warm clothes, pill crushers to a new elevator for Luoyang Orphanage. We are most grateful to all of you who respond so quickly and so generously.

Thank you too for the special Christmas gifts for the children, bringing them extra joy at this special time. Thank you also for the gifts of funds and food, both which are always needed.

Our Needs:

1)       We are in need of your prayers for our children and for our staff especially in our Palliative Care units who have the difficult task of caring for dying infants. Every death or the sight of a suffering child takes an emotion toll on our dedicated staff. Please pray for strength and comfort for them.

2)     We need the following medications if at all possible from medical colleagues who may be able to get them to us. Please let joyce@hopefosterhome.com   know if anyone can provide these and we will find the best way of getting these to us. These drugs are so desperately  needed for the children in the Palliative Care units

a)      Diazepam tablets 2mgs or 5 mgs

b)      Sodium Valproate Elixir 200mgs or 250 mgs/5mls

c)      Codeine syrup or tablets   

With our deepest gratitude

Joyce and Robin Hill

“God abundantly provides for the things He wants to do. “