I have been searching for a community for many years like NPH Honduras...

Below is a testimonial from sponsor Patty Tarpey about her involvement with NPH. Check it out!

What do I experience while I�m visiting NPH Honduras?  I feel profound love for the children and staff, and that love is returned. It�s wonderful to walk into the babies� room and see the children smile and get hugs from the Tias. It�s wonderful to walk around the ranch and get hugs from the children, and it�s wonderful to meet the volunteers from all over the world who are working at the Ranch.

Words seem inadequate to communicate my experiences volunteering with NPH Honduras. I have been searching for a community for many years like NPH Honduras that I could volunteer with, so during my first visit in November 2014, I felt my search had ended.

My first visit to NPH Honduras was 10 days long. I spent the majority of my time with the babies, who ranged in age from six weeks to under two years. I wasn�t prepared for the weeping I experienced on my trip home. I so profoundly missed everyone at the Ranch, and I missed being there. I knew I had to plan my next trip, which ended up being a 12 day trip in March 2015. When I arrived I felt I returned home. 

During this trip I also spent my time with the babies. I was privileged to unexpectedly go on their annual beach trip. How wonderful it was to be able to spend time with the children, Tias, and staff again. I knew before I left I needed to plan my next trip, which I did for later this year. However, after a couple of weeks at home, I knew I needed to plan an earlier trip to visit, which I have also scheduled. At the end of 2015 I will have visited NPH Honduras four times!

All the children touch my heart at the Ranch. I'm so blessed to know one child in particular, Cristofer, who has touched my heart deeply. Cristofer is such a gracious child who gives me gifts while we are together, like seashells from the beach. On my last trip the Tias knew it was my last night with him so they let me spend more time with him that evening. As he was falling asleep in my arms Sister Kolby sat next to me and shared, "Isn't it wonderful God has someone to love for everyone?" How true. As he was falling asleep in my arms, I was weeping knowing I was leaving him the next day.

I can�t recommend enough how wonderful a community NPH Honduras is to visit. If you schedule a trip to visit, be prepared to plan future trips.

Fr. Wasson Angels of Light St. Anne Baby House

Read this wonderful piece about the St. Anne Baby House at NPFS Haiti, one of the many shelters Friends of the Orphans and NPH is proud to support to help give a home to children in need.


Thelesa, a serious five-year-old, concentrates on making designs with her crayon. She intently completes her assignment and shows it to her kindergarten teacher and other classmates. Thelesa arrived at FWAL on September 19, 2011. Previously her life was not what a child should experience. With both of her parents deceased, she was living with her grandmother�s aunt who was unable to care for her. Acknowledging this fact, the aunt came to FWAL to ask for help. Kerline, head of the FWAL social work department, completed the investigation and found Thelesa to be malnourished. The family did not have enough food and Thelesa often went hungry. There was also no money to attend school.

�When Thelesa came to live with us she was quite sad, afraid and very malnourished. She displayed this through an attitude of distancing herself emotionally and physically from the other children and caregivers. It took Thelesa at least two months to feel more comfortable and then she started to show the funny, loving and affectionate personality that she has. Her strong character is still there and comes out at times, but it has served her well because she has been through many difficulties,� explained Joanne, assistant for FWAL.

Thelesa now lives at the FWAL St. Anne Baby house, home to 31 children six years and under. She receives an extra meal at 10 am each morning of soy protein and 21 essential vitamins and minerals to help combat her malnutrition and is enrolled in the FWAL onsite kindergarten. During the afternoons, she plays at the St. Anne home with her new friends and caregivers. There are daily organized activities such as, singing, dancing, coloring, playground time and games.


Madame Fortuna has been caring for Thelesa since she arrived. �Life is complicated. If you are a child you need people around you to make you feel important,� explained Fortuna. Before working at St. Anne�s, Fortuna worked for three years at the NPH home, St. Helene, in Kenscoff. She feels proud recognizing youths that she cared for who have now graduated from the St. Helene home.


Fortuna says that after the earthquake, there were many children that lost their parents and she wanted the opportunity to help. �This is how Haiti will change. When young children have the ability to come into a society with understanding. If the children learn that here, then they are ambassadors for change,� explains Fortuna.


Judeland, who also lives at the baby house, has experienced dramatic changes in just over one year. Arriving with severe malnutrition and neglect, she now is a vibrant, healthy, smiling 4-year old, who loves to be tickled and to color and dress up.


The St. Anne baby house has occupied a rented home in Tabarre, close to the St. Damien hospital and FWAL complex. This January, they broke ground on construction of the permanent site for the St. Anne home and kindergarten. The location is one block away from the FWAL campus and the entire FWAL kindergaten (200 students) will eventually be operating out of this new facility.

Until Monday...

Stacie Henrickson has been the Office Administrator/Volunteer Coordinator at Friends of the Orphans in the Northwest Region for just over a year. Below she reflects on her first trip to an NPH home, and meeting her godson for the first time, in the Dominican Republic.


Although I have visited and volunteered in several orphanages in Latin American and Africa, until last week I had never visited an NPH home. My fianc?e, Cory, and I have been sponsoring a little boy in the Dominican Republic (Luis, age 6) for almost a year now. My parents, brother and sister-in-law, and four of our close friends also sponsor children in the DR. So when I said �I really want to visit NPH�, the DR was our obvious choice. My only hesitation was the thought of flying a combined total of 18 hours (thank you to my doctor for that nice little prescription). My fianc?e on the other hand has not travelled much and definitely not to a developing country, but true to his easy-going self, he said �Alright.� And so, we booked our trip.


Ask my friends and family, or the staff in our Northwest office, and they will tell you the reason I fell so hard for helping orphans and at-risk children is: the babies. Don�t get me wrong, I absolutely love the older children and young adults � the Leadership Participants we currently have studying in Seattle are amazing examples of what NPH can do and what we hope for all of our children. I love visiting with the older children and getting to know them, but what gets me in my gut, in my heart, and usually in my tear ducts, are the babies (at NPH, children ages 0-6 live in the �baby house�).


I could share a million stories with you from our trip: meeting our godson for the first time (we just happened to arrive on Visitor�s Day which takes place four times a year, where children who have family members can receive visitors � we found out upon arriving that Luis has never had a visitor, not one. The joy and pride he felt showing off his visitors to everyone was very apparent, and that alone was worth the flying). Or how we sat down in the babies house our first day and within minutes had five babies braiding my hair and ten babies crawling all over Cory. Two hours later my hair was in knots and Cory�s shirt was stretched to twice its original size. He looked at me and said �You really want to be in the baby house all day every day?� And I said �YES!!!�


But the story I most want to share with you is that of Johan. When he arrived at NPH, he was four years old but looked like he was two. He had been completely neglected and did not even know how to walk. Thanks to the amazing staff and volunteers at NPH, by the time we arrived for our visit he was walking (running) all over the place, with his adorable little fists thrown up in the air for balance. He repeats anything and everything you say, and with his huge smile and raspy little voice, he was a joy to be around. The thought that without NPH he might not be around at all makes me almost cry, and feel incredibly happy with my career choice all at the same time. To me, Johan is the reason NPH exists. Whenever I need motivation at work, I will think of Johan smiling at me as I held him on the last day of our visit.


NPH was exactly what I was expecting and hoping for. The stories are true � the homes really are clean and bright, the food really is delicious and comes in generous portions, and the kids really are happy. Also reassuring, the kids aren�t perfect � they have emotions, opinions, and occasional bad days, just like kids everywhere � which lets me know there�s no show being put on for visitors and the kids feel safe enough in their environment to be themselves. It is a wonderful place, and I left feeling reassured that all my hard work really counts for something great.


Of course, the hardest part of loving the babies (besides leaving) is that they don�t understand things like distance and time. They understood that we were leaving and going back to our country, but right after they asked �What time does your plane leave?� they asked, �And what time do you come back?� Maybe the hardest part was when our little boy Luis asked, �When are you coming to visit me again?�, and when I answered �I�m not sure yet�, he suggested, �How about Monday?� So for now, I will write and send pictures and read updates about all of our babies in the DR, with the hope that on some �Monday� in the future, we can visit again.