kiran.

This past Saturday the newest boy at House of Hope, Kiran, passed away. He had only been with us at he house for about three weeks. When he first came he was very small and quite sick, but as the weeks went by he seemed to be gaining weight and looking healthier and healthier. Many of the kids were sick these past couple of weeks so when Kiran got a fever and was complaining his ears hurt no one thought much of it, we gave him some medicine and figured he would make a full recovery like the rest of the children. On Friday afternoon he got very very sick so the staff at the house took him to the hospital. During the middle of the night there, he passed away in his sleep. They think it was the HIV medicine he was on was too strong for his weak body and it ended up just stopping his heart.

Though this has been SO hard for all of us here, believing in Jesus has made this situation a lot easier, knowing that he is in Heaven right now, with no pain, his body so healthy, and his smiles so big. Though I wish he was still here with us, I know that God has a plan, and though I may not see it or realize it now, putting Kiran in my life for those weeks was part of it.

This loss has been very very hard on the staff at House of Hope, it is putting fear in them. Fear that they could lose any of these kids, any day. Also the kids, many of them are asking questions about death, and they are also afraid that they could die just as suddenly. I ask that you keep everyone here in your prayers, the kids who lost a brother, and the staff who lost a son.

birthday dancing

just a little something to brighten your day.

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a day at the zoo.

Yesterday we took a school-wide field trip to the zoo! And when I say zoo, I don’t mean good ole John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, or any zoo in America for that matter. This zoo consisted of some ducks, a couple of moneys, some owls, two big pits of snakes, and the main attraction… A PANTHER. The panther was pretty awesome, actually the whole zoo was awesome, actually the whole DAY was awesome. Let us start from the beginning… First, we gathered the children, gave them colored coated name tags, emergency contact number included, and each of us “adults” were assigned a group to take care of. I had a group of seven precious little gems. At first I was kind of concerned that I was going to lose a child, or they would climb in the panthers cage or something like that, but none of the above happened so that was really great! Anyway, we started off piling into rickshaws, and when I say pile.. I really mean pile. I wish I had documented this portion of the day, but I was stuck in a rickshaw surrounded by 11 kids, with no way to get out. There were kids stuffed into these rickshaws like none other, just imagine those cars that like billions of clowns come out of. That was us, but with a rickshaw and cute little Indian children instead. Anyway, once we got to the zoo we checked out all of the animals, there was also a nice little playground that the kids loved. There was this merry-go-round-eque thing (picture below) People were pushing kids around, it was all fun and games... Until Simon, one of the little boys had too much. Did he say anything though? Oh no. He decided to wait for a while… until it was too late. Vomit. Everywhere. Yum. But, he was a champ about the whole situation. He cleaned himself up and ate lunch 15 minutes later. After viewing all of the animals, and the puking situation, and the lack of toilets with an abundance of full bladders (we found a nice little hidden corner that did just fine), we had a picnic! It was wonderful, blankets laid out, some yummy rice stuff (it has an Indian name, but I currently am forgetting it) afterwards we played some games and just hung out. Then, we piled back into the rickshaws again and headed back to the school! Such a great little day. Here are some pictures :)

2+2= 11?

First things first, I know my pre-school and kindergarten teachers aren't reading this right now, but if they were I would want to thank them. For teaching me my A,B,C's and 1,2,3's.

In the afternoon's I spend time with the younger kids at House of Hope, there are four of them right now, Chetan, Tanmay, Sakshi and Sahara. All at pretty different learning levels but in the same class. They only go to school in the mornings and after talking to their teacher I have learned that Sahara and Tanmay don't know their A,B,C's and Chetan and Sakshi need help with their math. So, I started doing just that. Which I figured couldn't be THAT hard right? Abc's I mean, everyone knows the song right? Wrong. Sahara does know the song though, but LMNOP is all one letter. So, I decided to take it a letter a day for Tanmay and Sahara, and its been going pretty well actually. The tracing letter pages that I found online have been the best and also reviewing everyday. Sometimes we have to stay on a letter for two days, but thats alright because they are learning, and I am SO excited for them.

Math is another story... Chetan is VERY good at math, we have our counting beans and he can add up some pretty hefty numbers, I am pretty proud. Sakshi on the other hand.. we were counting beans today. Adding 2 and 2 together.. So, we counted the beans.. "one, two, three, four" "good job Sakshi.. so what is 2+2?" "11!" This is the point where I just look at her and think to myself "are you kidding?" This is also the point where I remember my current math skills and wonder how TERRIBLE I was at math when I was younger.. So, right now were just taking it one day at a time. One math problem a day, and hopefully by February we will figure out together that 2+2 does not equal 11.

Cutest Thangsss

Ohhh, counting beans.

Our newest addition to House of Hope, he just arrived on Saturday. Every time I see him I just want to hug him, and lets be real here, I do.

Sahara

Tanmay

Chetan

Sakshi