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.