Shaohannah's Hope, the adoption and orphan care ministry founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, has named their new special needs children's home in China after their five-year old daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, who died in an accident earlier this year.
Located in Luoyang city, eastern China, Maria's Big House of Hope will care for orphans with medical impairments such as cleft palate, clubbed feet, blindness, and urological and neurological disorders.
Maria's Big House of Hope is currently in the building stages ahead of its October opening. Funded by Shaohannah's Hope and managed by New Hope Foundation, the six-floor, 60,000 sq ft facility will be equipped with everything required to care for orphans with special needs. This will be the biggest of its kind in China, able to provide for over 100 children at a time.
Luoyang, which has a population of around six million people, is located within the Henan province of China and is one of the poorest provinces in the country. The state-run Luoyang orphanage currently takes care of nearly 700 children and tends to most of the special needs orphans from all around Henan.
"To care for the specific medical needs of these orphans, Maria's Big House of Hope will provide the much-needed surgeries and medical attention, as well as be a bridge to give them hope and the love they deserve. In turn, there is hope these children will then be adopted into forever families," said Shaohannah's Hope.
The Chapman family chose to build the healing home in Luoyang, because of the area's desperate need for special needs orphan care as well as wanting to give back to the country that has given so much to them - the Chapmans adopted three girls from China, Shaohannah Hope, Stevey Joy and Maria Sue.
"We are not in the business of building orphanages, but rather building hope in the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in a way that honours God," states Scott Hasebalg, Executive Director, Shaohannah's Hope.
