I'll be home for Christmas . . .

. . . if only in my dreams.

It's not easy to be so far from home during the holidays, knowing that your families are celebrating together. Having good friends definitely makes it easier and we will be keeping our Christmas Eve/Christmas Day tradition once again this year as we will be celebrating with our "Hong Kong families." Christmas Eve will find us at Nadine & Lorne's after a combined church service with our church and the Anglican church in town. Christmas day we will be at Martin and Sandy's for another memorable Christmas dinner. Need to make sure the "buffet pants" are ready for some action!

This past Saturday we spent a very fun day at Hong Kong Disney with the Christensen and Lew families. It was a beautiful day, perfect temperature and clear sunny skies. We had a yummy buffet lunch with the Characters at one of the hotels as well.

This is a scary scene - and one that could be a reality in a few short years!! Zoe was not happy about the fact that, despite being the same age as Hannah, did not make it up to the required height to be the driver :( Soon, Zoe, soon!!

Ellen and Zoe gasped when I asked them if this was Goofy. Evidently it's been too long since we lived in Orlando :( and knew the parks backwards and forwards as well as all the characters.

Awww, so cute!!

A Home of Hope

Ellen and I took a trip to Truelife Children's Home in Dongguan, Guangdong, a couple weeks ago with several students from her school. Dongguan is often referred to as the "world's factory," and it is here where so many from all over China come to work in factories of all kind.


We took a coach bus to Dongguan, about a two-hour ride from Ellen's school. When we arrived we went to a park to meet up with some of the children and their foster moms. There we celebrated the little girl's first birthday pictured above. We hope the next birthday she celebrates will find her surrounded by a loving and grateful forever family of her own!!


Truelife is privately run for the purpose of taking care of children with medical needs that orphanages around the area are not able to meet. The children are paper ready, which means their paperwork has been submitted to the adoption office in Beijing. So after they have had their surgeries, they will return to the orphanage, and hopefully united with a family soon thereafter.


This little angel is six months old and weighs just shy of seven pounds. She obviously has not been getting the nutrition she needed due to her cleft, but that has all changed now that she is in the loving and capable hands of those at Truelife. We call this little one the "West Island baby," because this is the baby Ellen's school is sponsoring every month until she is through with her surgeries and well on her way to good health.

Another angel is this lady, Jenny, pictured above holding the baby. Jenny and her husband came to live in Dongguan about six years ago because of her husband's job. She was asked to oversee the operation of Truelife a few years ago, and she has been the tangible love of Jesus to all who come her way. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. . . I was especially touched as I watched how she so eagerly shared with the students about Truelife and the kids in their care. The students were equally touched and who knows what kind of change in their young life a visit like this can make.

Here is my beautiful Ellen Beibei, who is always in her element when surrounded by kids, but has an extra soft spot in her heart for those without a family yet - though the good news is this little girl will soon be united with her very own mamma and daddy next month and on her way to live in Huntsville, Alabama. That is a very long way from this carousel ride in Dongguan, China. . .

Without the help from a place like Truelife, this little one's future would be very bleak.

The birthday girl actually fell asleep on the carousel! It was too cute. Just put her right to sleep.

A golden birthday for Zoe

I know I'm so late in posting about Zoe's birthday. Maybe that's because, as I had a shock to now having a 13-year-old daughter, I now have a 10-year-old too! They are just growing up way too fast. Zoe celebrated her Golden Birthday with 12 of her friends. They started off by going swimming, then back to our place for pizza, Wii karaoke and watching Camp Rock. Then two of her friends spent the night. It must have been a good birthday because it took a couple of days for Zoe to recover!

We celebrated as a family on her birthday, October 2.

Zoe checking out one of her birthday presents, three canvases to create her masterpieces with!

We are so proud of you, Zoe. You are sweet, funny, sensitive, kind and very loving. And so many people are blessed because they have you in their life - your mom, dad and big sister tops among them! Lots of love to you, sweetie - OXOXOXOXOX

We have not forgotten

This past May we took our daughter, Zoe, back to the small town in Southern China where she was born and spent the first eight months of her life, probably spending a large majority of her time laying much like this little precious baby, waiting for us to come and make her our daughter. I wrote about our trip and posted pictures in at least two blog postings for May of this year.

It was a very emotional trip for all of us and when we left we so desperately wanted to do more for this orphanage. When there we asked the directors if they were wanting to raise money for some need and they said they would like to build a playground. We thought they could also use a well-functioning playroom, with color and toys and a padded floor for the babies and toddlers to use. Summer came, people in DB (including us) all went our separate ways for a couple of months and now that we are back into the swing of school and our daily life we keep thinking about the Huazhou orphanage and how best to help them.

Not only are we thinking about those in Huazhou, but we strongly believe the Lord has not forgotten them either. Just through sharing about our journey back to Huazhou (and Zoe was able to share her story to her class at school) we have three separate groups, two churches in the States, and Zoe's school, who are very eager to help provide in Huazhou. Can you believe that? Just as the porcelain basically dropped in our laps, so too it seems are those people who God is also pressing upon their hearts to help those so much less fortunate than themselves.

I'm not sure if another trip to Huazhou will be in our future. I most certainly would not rule it out.

Up, Up and Away

In spite my best efforts to keep it from happening, I am the official mother of a teenager. Ellen (very happily so) turned the big 1-3 on September 1. And, no, she did not receive a helicopter ride as a gift, but rather she received a helicopter ride as a prize for being part of a winning team in a scavenger hunt a few months ago here in Discovery Bay. The ride was scheduled before school ended this past June, but due to bad weather it was canceled, then everyone went their separate ways for the summer, and today was the day!


Ellen and her three friends, Alicia, Chloe and Olivia had an unforgettable ride over Hong Kong with the highlight of flying over their school, West Island.

The birthday girls. Ellen's birthday is September 1, while mine is September 4. Here we are at the Conrad in Hong Kong where I took Ellen and three friends for High Tea as part of her birthday gift.

Ellen's birthday crew in the backseat of the taxi: Yvonne, Kelcie and Kim
This is one of the reasons we chose this location for High Tea, a delicious buffet.
Although this is High "Tea," Ellen and her friends enjoyed a tall glass of iced cocoa - yummy!

School Day Rule Day

Ellen and Zoe started school this past week. It's hard to believe they are going on their third year of international school here in Hong Kong. I have attached a picture of each of their schools below, with the first being Ellen's, West Island School. It's not the best picture, because it's taken so far away, but it is a very large school sitting on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Zoe's school, Discovery College, here in Discovery Bay, is brand-new and the kids are really excited to finally be in this state-of-the-art facility they have been watching being built for the last year and a half. By the way, our church, Discovey Bay International Community Church, will be moving into the theatre area in Discovery College in November.

As part of Ellen's curriculum, she is required to take extra-curricular activities, choosing from categories such as creative, action and service. Ellen's "creative" choice is cooking class once again, as she took this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her choice for "service" is one near and dear to all our hearts, maybe Ellen's the most, and that is helping at an orphanage across the border in China near Guangzhou a few times per semester. I have attached the link to their website below. I'm hoping that maybe I can get in on these visits as well!

In November Ellen will be going to Thailand to work at a school in a needy community. This is also a service-oriented trip that the school has been making for at least a few years, building relationships with this school and community in Thailand. We are so glad that West Island places an emphasis on service, encouraging and giving opportunities for the students to know what it's like to give back.

http://www.truechildrenshome.org/children.htm

Good morning Hong Kong

I suppose one of the positive aspects of jet lag is that you are up to see the sun coming up, as we did our first morning back in Hong Kong when I snapped this picture that captured the pre-drawn colors. Thankfully after a few nights back we are not rising before the sun, however.
It's hard to believe we were gone nearly two months, it went by way too fast.

We had a fabulous time in America, having loads of fun with family and friends. We laughed a lot, ate a lot, shopped a lot, I got to drive a lot (yippee) and just all around enjoyed being together. Below are a few pictures that evidence our crazy and wonderful family!!

My three neices, Amy and Lisa and Lisa's daugther Jordan, who is my "great" neice, and that she is!
Cooling off in Lake Michigan with cousins Jessica and Chloe
My sistas!
When Brad's dad catches animals in his trap he drives them to a remote location and lets them go. When my dad catches animals in his trap, he . . . I think the word he actually uses is "dispatches" them.
Our good friends that live in Denver, the Landers, who we met in the newlywed class at the church we attended after we married and moved to Denver way back in 1987 - yikes, how time flies. They also grew up in Michigan and also went to U of M, as did Brad. GO BLUE!!

Ellen and Zoe on Uncle Jeff and Aunt Anne's front porch in K-zoo, Michigan.
Unc Tim and Zoe - Ellen and Zoe have been blessed with some of the best uncles ever!
Zoe, Jordy and Ellen enjoying the fruits of their labor - smores - yummo!
Aunt Tish in Aunt Nancy's garden, doing her best to look angelic - didn't last long, though, as she couldn't resist causing trouble. . .
The tables were soon turned as Doug (her hubby) managed to take the hose and go after her!

On our way back to Hong Kong we had a 24-hour layover in Los Angeles where our friends Karen, Doug and their new baby, Becky, so graciously put us up overnight and took us to a fun day at Disney's California Adventure! This is Ellen, Brad and Karen (in the row in front of Brad and Ellen) on the California Screaming roller coaster. Zoe and I volunteered to watch Becky and snap pictures.
Ellen, Zoe, Becky and Karen are standing in front of the "I"
Ellen and Zoe spent many fun hours with papa and grandma in the pool.
Papa and grandma had fun with Ellen and Zoe too, when they weren't being pushed to the corner of the pool and having heavy wet balls thrown at them. Poor papa and grandma. . .

Bit of Americana

After living outside of the United States for two years now and experiencing the downside of being an American living in another country (we aren't exactly the most popular people on the planet at the time in case you didn't know) it has been so refreshing to be able to bask a bit in actually being proud to be an American (think of that!) instead of feeling like you have to be on the defense or embarrassed about it. It's been awhile since we've put our hands over our hearts and sang The Star Spangled Banner, as we did a few nights ago at an outdoor concert, and felt that sense of pride when we see the flag flying. On the 4th of July, Old Glory comes out in all it's glory, grills get turned up high, fireworks go off, as we celebrate the birthday of our country, our very blessed, though far from perfect, country.
One of our family's traditions on the 4th is to attend a pancake breakfast at a 400-acre Christian ranch for underprivileged children just down the road from where I grew up. It's a beautiful location, and it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking around the grounds and the girls got to ride in the wagon pulled by that great American, "John Deere."

I snapped this picture while standing in line for our pancakes. They have the best smoked sausage links every year, and this is why!
This is a little petting farm on the ranch and it was fun to watch the girls pet the mule, goats, sheep and duck.

As I was sitting on the lawn next to this tree, I saw this boy dressed in his Revolutionary War outfit and he very cordially agreed to my taking his photo - how American is this??!!! I love it.
Here's an 18-year-old soldier boy by the name of Ray Dougan, fresh off the farm in Missouri where he grew up, who also ended up being my dad, in his WWII Army uniform. My sisters and I gave my dad a surprise birthday party for his 82nd, as shown in the picture below, but he told me that this is how he still sees himself. He was very handsome then, and we all think he still is!
Happy Birthday to a great American dad, grandfather and great-grandfather, who also has been a wonderful husband, farmer and railroad engineer! And don't forget, American soldier. . .

Back in the USA!

We made it safely to my bustling metropolis of a hometown, Rives Junction, Michigan, this past Tuesday afternoon and to my beloved Suburban waiting patiently for my return. I not only grew up on a farm, but in the heart of the automotive industry, and I have really missed driving our vehicles, especially my truck!

Our trip out allowed us to meet up with Karen and Doug and their beautiful daughter, Becky, when we made a stopover in Los Angeles. They took us to a lovely restaurant in Marina Del Ray and it was so nice to see a bit of this area and spend time with them.
It has been very relaxing sitting out on my dad's patio and having this for a view. . . to make it perfect, of course, all that is needed is a few cows and horses.
Zoe asked how long cars last as we were taking a little spin in our convertible. When I told her we planned on keeping this vehicle, she let out a very happy cheer!
Sitting with my sister on their deck and enjoying family time again.