Is Hope Station still doing anything? Do you have any kids in your foster care program yet? What are you doing now? Are you still visiting the orphanage? Are you gonna stay in China? These are some of the questions I’ve gotten in the past few months. They are good ones! And I think it’s finally time that I let you know what Hope Station is up to this season. Hope Station has done a lot of things to serve orphans in China over the last several years. We’ve done adoption advocacy, raising awareness locally and internationally, giving resources to the orphanage that we regularly visit, and encouraging nannies and playing with children during those visits. As most of you know, our plan was to start a foster care program, to bring children out of the orphanage and directly into our care. After finding out that we cannot open a foster home, we decided to step back for a season to regain some perspective. We continued our regular visits to the orphanage, and we continued adoption advocacy. Most importantly, our Board of Directors and I (Rebekah) spent a lot of time in prayer. We knew that we wanted whatever we do next to be His idea, not ours. Ultimately, Hope Station is all about family. This past season really helped us to see that more clearly. We want to do whatever we can to bring family into kids’ lives. Family is everything (Eph. 3:14-15, 4:4-6). And giving the gift of family can look lots of different ways—from advocating for kids to be adopted, to giving an orphan a hug to show him somebody loves him. Without family, you and I would not be the people we are today. China is an ever-changing place and culture, and the social welfare industry is growing like never before. At Hope Station, we want to grow with the culture, to meet their needs in each season, rather than working against them. So, each season might look different for us. But the one thing that will never change is this: We will always champion the orphan and give the gift of family wherever we can. So, finally we get to that burning question: What is Hope Station doing now? The best answer is: Lots of things! We continue doing adoption advocacy, working with the local orphanage and a U.S. adoption agency to bridge the gap between waiting children and waiting families. We continue touching base with families who have already adopted and are walking through the beautifully messy process of adoption. We continue making weekly visits to the local orphanage to play with kiddos, encourage nannies, and refresh all their hearts (Phm. 1:7, Mt. 10:42). We continue raising awareness in our local and international communities by sharing the kids’ stories. New this season is a therapy program we’ve started right in the orphanage. We’ve been talking about this idea with the orphanage director for several months, and in June we signed a partnership agreement with her for a two-year developmental therapy program run by Hope Station. If you haven’t followed the ups and downs of our relationship with the orphanage over the last few years, let me just tell you: this is a BIG DEAL. It’s a pilot program: one hour, once a week, with one child. But the fact that it’s on paper and official-ized is a major Win.
1 Comment
Mom
9/23/2016 05:34:41 am
That is so beautiful. I love what you are doing, Rebekah!
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A note from Rebekah...If you've ever wondered what it would be like to start a nonprofit from the ground up, to open a home for ORPHANS with special needs in Asia, you've come to the right place. Archives
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