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The Chinese Lunar New Year is always filled with children’s expectations of new clothes, delicious food, red envelopes, firecrackers, play and fun. This year, the year of the Snake, was no different.On New Year’s Eve, OneSky’s loving foster moms, caring nannies, and dedicated teachers across China’s orphanage programs prepared a wonderful celebration for children. Many welfare institutions served by OneSky put on a “New Year’s look,” where staff and children carefully decorated with festive Chinese New Year hand-made items.

For those children who live with foster families, the holiday was marked enthusiastically, with the children decorating their rooms. Some concentrated on pasting Spring Festival couplets or became engrossed in sticking paper cut-outs on windows. Others worked diligently to hang lanterns on tiptoes; everyone scrambled to make their homes look beautiful.

What truly overjoyed the children was that their foster dads were on New Year’s vacation, so there was plenty of family time. The fathers patiently taught their children to paste blessing characters and hang flowers while explaining the meaning behind those Chinese traditions.

The traditional meal preparation was another highlight of New Year’s Eve for families. Family kitchens across OneSky’s Loving Family Program prepared and served stewed, fried, steamed, boiled, and mixed delicious food one after another.The children and their foster families sat together, toasting the new year and eating dumplings while watching the Spring Festival Gala on television. At the end of the evening – in keeping with the Lunar New Year tradition – parents handed out lucky money to their children with new year blessings, wishing them peace, happiness, and health in the new year.