Nanning Kids

( This is an older post from 2009)
I can't believe it is July, nearly 9 months since our last trip to China.......and we are still catching up on the Blog of events and information for friends and sponsors? It has been quite some year, with many new exciting developments for Hope4China.

As preparations are well under way for our next trip, I thought we had better catch up fast with last years news:-)

One of our favourite places to visit is always Nanning SWI

The Kindergarten and children's area is so bright and cheerful.....

........and there is lots of evidence of caring staff and people around the world

helping to make things better for the children.

We were there to visit the many children sponsored by Hope4China through the Grace-Hope Foster Care Programme and I was also asked to provide training here on relationships with Teenagers. There are some older children attached to Nanning SWI, but also many staff/carers from other SWI around Guangxi travelled to share in the training.

Thanks to Xiao Xiao and her wonderful and quick translating skills, we were able to enjoy sharing some poignant & thought-provoking insights into the working of the teenage brain and adult interaction with them, with some some funny and moving stories along the way.

I think we all learned something new together !

....some more drama excerpts from the Grace-Hope staff

to illustrate the points made in the presentation .

I hope that it was of value to orphange staff, foster parents, and of course to all of us on the parenthood road with teenagers.....

I learned a lot myself :-)

Now the hard bit...to walk the talk!!!!!!!!

The grounds of Nanning SWI are lovely.........

but more importantly the children have been cared for in foster families for years......most recently with Grace- Hope. Many children have been given the love and support of a family through their Foster Care programme( check http://www.grace-hope.org/ for more details)

Hope4China have sponsored well over a hundred children there since 2005. Some of them are with their sponsors for a short time before they are adopted into families both in China and around the world. Others have been with us a long time, and have become like part of our family here.

After the training, we went out to meet the 30 children at that time sponsored by Hope4China.
It was wonderful to meet old friends...proud foster mums and dads!!!!!, children who had been part of the Hope4China family since 2005 and lots of new babies, waiting for their forever families, but in the meantime having lots of fun with foster mums, dads, brothers & sisters.

Grace-Hope staff had helped to arrange gifts for them all, and proud foster mums brought their children to enjoy their gifts.

The children were excited,

but as always, some things are the same the world over.......

. ......and it was actually more fun to play in the box the gifts came in :-)

Some of our children also had personal gifts from their sponsors which caused great excitement

Once again, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye, as some of the foster families had a long journey ahead, to the dairy farm where many of them live.

It is hard to put into words the difference foster care makes to these little ones, but seeing them playing happily, running to foster mum & dad for reassurance from time to time, laughing, crying and doing all the things little ones are supposed to was just such a delight. I hope the photos manage to capture just a little of this here.......

This is of course only possible thanks to the hard work and vision of the Grace-Hope staff in China, supported by sponsors all around the world.

So huge thanks to all the sponsors who play their part to change these children's lives forever.

A special Thank You to the many Hope4China Nanning sponsors over the years...please know how special & important you are to us, and of course especially the children!!!!

Please contact us if you are able to help change a child's life.

Some of the children were able to stay and play for a while.

It was wonderful to connect and; play with them.

But of course there was fun for all, the young AND the old :-)

A lovely end to a Lovely Day with our Nanning friends........

...with the Xiao Xiao and the team setting off on their new electric bikes :-)

...was going to say...Next Year in Nanning.......but of course it is now This Year in Nanning!!!!!!

Thanks to all who help to make this possible.