Bye Bye Anneloes!

Yesterday was a sad day for us at House of Hope. It was time to say goodbye to Anneloes, an intern from Holland who came to work at our house. During the 5 months that she was here, Anneloes did many fun things with the kids. Much thanks to Anneloes for her friendship and hard work! She will be missed by everyone!

Happy Holi!

On the 20^th of March we celebrated Holi, a festival to celebrate the beginning of the spring. What it’s basically all about is COLOR. Everyone carries around bags of colored powder which you can throw on other people while you wish them a ‘Happy Holi’. In House of Hope we had a huge explosion of pink, purple, green yellow and blue with a lot of water. It eventually ended up in a mud fight and we had a lot of fun. Pictures say more than a thousand words, so enjoy:

New Furniture!

Slowly but steady we are getting an extreme home makeover! A few months ago, the inside of the house was given a fresh coat of paint. A few weeks ago, the play area was renovated and is now looking bright and colorful. And this week we got new furniture! It's as if we have a brand new living room. The kids love reading their books here, and the staff doesn’t mind joining them! It has been a lot of work, but a lot of fun as well to make this house a home!

Wouldn't you like to come sit and join us for some tea?

And we'll leave you with a few pictures of just some of the smiling faces from around our home: 

Angel enjoying bath time

Chetan is all smiles!

Sakshi and Sanatan with their best friends Justin, Jaleesa and Nadine

Prasanna the high jumper!

Karuna

Karuna, who has been living with us in House of Hope for 3 years, suddenly passed away last night. She was HIV positive and suffering from 5 brain tumors which caused regular seizures. She had been weak for months, but she was feeling better the last few weeks. Yesterday she shared with Sangita how happy and thankful she was living with us. She leaves her daughter Sakshi behind with us in House of Hope. Tomorrow we will have a memorial service with all the children.


Her death is sad for all of us and we will miss Karuna's sweet smile. But we are thankful for our time with Karuna and for the physical, emotional and spiritual transformation she experienced in the last years of her life. We know that she is in heaven with Jesus where she is fully restored with no more pain.