Announcing Coats and Christmas for Kids 2013!

Last year, we worked with our awesome China staff and even more awesome donors to purchase a new coat for every child in a Grace & Hope Foster Care Program.

For $15 per child, Grace & Hope for Children can purchase a coat for each child in our foster care program.  For these children, a new coat is a huge thing!  Last year, an exciting off-shoot of the Coats & Christmas for Kids Campaign is that several of our programs actually ADDED children to their foster care programs, allowing them to experience family life, as a result of this project.  Currently, we have 430 children in our foster care program, making our goal for this special project $6450. 

When you donate a coat, we will send you a printable card via email that you may use to as a memento for yourself, or to give a donation card to a family member, teacher, or friend for Christmas.  What better way to celebrate this special time of year than by ensuring that a precious child will be warm this winter? 

To donate:

1) Donate via Paypal by clicking the button below.  Please be sure to note the email address for your cards to be emailed.  You should receive a card via email within two days of our receipt of your payment.

2) Mail a check or money order to:

Grace & Hope for Children
465 N.E. 181^st #210
Portland, OR 97230
USA

Please be sure to note the email address you'd like your cards sent to on the memo line of your check.

Won't you join us in celebrating the season in honor of our precious children? 

We leave you with some of our favorite photos of last year's celebration:

 

Alumni Spotlight: Sarah ("Janice" from Nanning)

Here is another adorable Grace & Hope for Children alumni, in her mother's words.

 

Sarah is our 4th child, and while she is itty bitty tiny, she is very mighty indeed!  Sarah was well prepared for a family, and knew all of our family names.  She was 2.5 years old at adoption, and was ahead of the developmental milestones.  She could write/draw (as we found out in the weeks after we got home and she decorated our walls, furniture, clothes, and herself).  She could pick up boiled peanuts with chopsticks.  She was very verbal.  She is also very stubborn!  She has some of the most amazing observations, and comes up with some of the most amusing things to say.  She is very creative, and loves anything to do with art or sparkly, glittery, girly things.  She has told me, "Mom, you can't make me learn how to read."  She's also told me that we can not make her learn how to swim or any other number of activities that she really does NOT want to do.  However, if she wants to do something she will do whatever it takes to succeed.  

 

 

 

Sarah still sleeps with the teddy bear we sent in a care package while we were waiting to adopt her.  Her foster family let her have it, and she came to us with that bear "well-loved" and she considers it her bear from her foster family.  

 

 

 

Since Sarah co-slept with her foster mom in China, we co-slept until she wanted to sleep in a room with her big sister.  After 2.5 years home she told us that she wanted her own room, and we've decorated her bedroom with rainbows. She loves it.

 

Sarah is a happy, witty, energetic little girl. And she remembers being loved in China.  This past April, G&H posted photos from something they did in Nanning with the foster families. Sarah was in my lap while I looked at them.  Looking at the photos on Grace and Hope Foundation's page for the Nanning foster families, Sarah said she remembered the room. She said it was loud and she covered her ears and her foster Mom took her out of it to let her eat where it was quieter. Sarah also said that they had fake watermelon there and it would poison you if you ate it. ROFL...I could totally see someone telling Sarah that to keep her from begging to eat it, or to keep her from eating too much! She also thinks she saw a photo of her foster Mom, though I don't know for sure if it was.

 

 

Sarah has photos of her foster parents in her room and she hugs them daily.  She tells me she misses her Mama and Baba.  (She calls us Mommy and Daddy and has NEVER ever called us Mama and Baba.  In fact, in China that is what we finally told the guides to tell her to call us and Sarah thought it was HILARIOUS that what she was calling her "Daddy" was so close to what she called poop.)

 

 

 

We are grateful for the gift of this precious child, and for the love her foster family in China shared with her.

 

To see children who wait for a sponsor in Sarah's SWI, please click here.

New Project: Coats & Christmas 4 Kids

We are very excited to announce a new special project, just in time for Christmas!

At this time, we have 380 children being served by Grace & Hope programs. Especially this time of year, we would like to do something special for each of them. To that end, we are working to raise money to purchase a new coat and provide a Christmas party for each child in our programs, at a cost of $15 per child.

If you would like to participate in this venture by purchasing "Coats & Christmas" for one (or more!) of our precious children, please click the link below to contribute.

If you prefer to mail a check, send us your email address, and please indicate Coats & Christmas 4 Kids on the memo line, and mail to:

465 N.E. 181st #210
Portland, OR 97230
USA

Within 48 hours of your donation, you will receive a holiday card via email (suitable for printing or email) that you may keep for yourself or give as a gift this holiday season, in honor of the children we serve. Our deadline for participation is December 21, so please act soon!

Thank you for supporting the work of Grace & Hope!

A Family for Henry

Meet Henry, a tiny preemie from Pingdingshan, Henan province. Imagine what a difference the love of a family could make in his life. We hear he loves to smile - and we'd LOVE to put a big one on his face.

This holiday season, we are offering the opportunity to help us sponsor Henry as an online community, and to allow or supporters to celebrate their own loved ones in the process. For every $10 donation you make to our ChipIn campaign for Henry, you may email, share on Facebook, or download and print a holiday card to share with the special people in your life. Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to be able to follow Henry's progress for a year because of what we did together this Christmas? Please consider joining us in this effort!

Direct link to cards on Facebook: Click here.

Program Spotlight : Guilin

Guilin, in Guangxi province, is known as one of the most beautiful cities in China. It is also home to one of Grace & Hope's larger foster care programs, with 65 children currently under its care. These children are able to learn what life in a family is really about (while they wait, hopefully, for a permanent family of their very own). We thought we'd share just a few of those beautiful faces with you today.

We also have one precious little one we would love to add to our Guilin Program - please click HERE to 'meet' Sue. We would love to find her a sponsor family before Christmas!

Ways to Help: Grace & Hope Jewelry

If you are looking for a lovely piece of jewelry for someone on your gift list this year, check out the lovely items at Wheat and Wildflowers! She has several pieces she has done specifically for Grace & Hope, and a percentage from the sale of those would be donated back to us to further our foster care programs. What a lovely way to show your support for our children and their foster families.

Ways to Help: Igive

Grace & Hope for Children is listed with igive.com, a website that allows you to donate a percentage of your purchases through a variety of retailers to the charity of your choosing. Please consider listing Grace & Hope as your igive charity this holiday season.