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.