Meet Baby Leah!

We would like to introduce you to the newest addition to the Asha House family in India. Meet Baby Leah! Isn't she beautiful?

Leah was born by c-section on January 20th. As you can see, she is already dearly beloved by the other children at Asha House!

We are so grateful that her mother cared enough to give birth to her and to give her away to a loving home. The truth is, many women in India get pregnant out of wedlock as a result of rape or prostitution. Most live in poverty, and have no way to care for themselves or a baby... so they often attempt abortions or suicide. Baby Aksha (also at Asha House) survived 4 abortion attempts, but struggles with lung infections as a result. Sweet little Tabitha (a 3 year old member of the Asha House family) almost didn't make it into this world - her pregnant mother was about to jump in front of a train when a pastor stopped her and brought her to Asha House. Other children aren't so lucky. Because girls are devalued in Indian culture, female babies are often strangled or suffocated at birth or abandoned on the street.

Leah's mother, however, lived at the house for several months so that she could get prenatal care and proper nourishment. When I met her in November, I told her how brave she was and thanked her for making a courageous choice for her daughter. While it's a tragedy that Leah won't grow up with her biological parents, we rejoice that she will have a chance at life! We know she will grow up with a loving "family" at Asha House, where she will be cherished, protected, and given an opportunity to get an education. So today we say THANK YOU! Thank you to the donor who paid for her to be born safely in a hospital, and thank you to everyone who donates regularly to help us care for precious children like Leah!

Asha House Update

We have one more important update from our year end projects - and we are really excited to share these photos with you! There are so many of you who gave to our Home for the Holidays fundraiser when our sweet kids at Asha House were in danger of being homeless at Christmas. Their landlord was kicking them out on December 17th, and they didn't have anywhere to go!

But thanks to your generosity, our kids (and staff) had nothing to worry about. In just 20 hours, $5,665 was raised to help them renovate an old school building and turn it into a big, beautiful Children's Home!

We are looking forward to taking you on a video tour during our next visit to India, but until then - we hope you enjoy these pictures!

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Asha House THANKS YOU!

Who says people in India can't celebrate Thanksgiving!? Let me tell ya, our kids and staff at Asha House are VERY thankful today.

If you've been following me, Ericka or The Sound of Hope on facebook or Twitter then you know one of our orphanages here in India had a very urgent need a couple days ago. You can read about it and watch the video HERE.

Here's the bottom line - we needed to raise $5000 in a week. Sounds crazy, right? Well, believe it or not, it was donated in only 20 hours!

There were 21 people/families that gave to this need. Today, our kids are THANKFUL for YOU!

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Give these children a HOME for the Holidays!

As you saw in the last video we posted, we've spent the last four days at Asha Mission - one of our Children's Homes in Delhi, India. We still have a lot of great stories and videos (and long-term needs) to share with you about this home, but during our visit to Asha House yesterday (our 2nd Children's Home here), we found out about an URGENT need that we had to share ASAP. (*note - if you're wondering why both homes have the word Asha in their name, it's because Asha is Hindi for HOPE.)

Yesterday, we found out that the children and the staff are literally being kicked out of the home they've been living in for the past 4 years. Unfortunately, this is a risk when you run an orphanage in a rented house (which is why our hope is to someday help the house parents purchase land of their own!) The landlord has decided to rent the property to another organization for twice the amount, and he's decided to do it quickly. The staff, all 30 children, and all of their belongings have to be out of this house by December 17th!

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