6/25 Wisconsin in the summer

Jen got into the swing of things when we went for a summer visit to see Kristy's family in Wisconsin. Her aunts gave her a pretty whale's tail pendant from their trip to Alaska. We spent one afternoon in the park teaching Jen to play volleyball. We also went to the local drive-in. That was quite a blast from the past -- the last time I was at a drive-in was in the early '70s when we watched 'Planet of the Apes' from our station wagon.


I took a picture of Jen and her mother by this tree beside Lake Michigan in February. I took this shot of Jen in front of the same tree this trip -- the weather was just perfect and Wisconsin was beautiful as always in summer or winter.


Lake Michigan shore, June 2008

We took an afternoon drive up the shoreline to Racine, Wisconsin which is home to some very tasty Danish kringle. We ran across this Evangelical Methodist church just a few blocks from the water and I had to snap a photo. I love the beautiful evergreens that are abundant in Wisconsin.

I really liked the engraved words from the Scriptures over the door to the church.


Then we visited what has become a special spot for Kristy and I -- the lighthouse at Wind Point which is just north of Racine. Visiting lighthouses has been a fun past time for us and this is certainly a beautiful one. Imagine a lake so large that it needed lighthouses for mariners in days gone by. Michigan and its sister lakes may as well be inland oceans -- they go on forever it seems.



At the beach by the lighthouse, we played around and Jen displayed her favorite activity these days -- kissing on her Momma. There is a lot of hugging and holding and we think it is clear evidence that she is walking again through the stages of childhood she missed. We are happy that she wants that kind of tender nurturing.



By the lighthouse keeper's house where Kristy and I have stood so many times before.


Giving love and life to a child in need -- that was our dream and God opened the door and sent Jen in our lives.



The summer will be full of a lot of firsts. Next stop Mumzy and Papa's house then it is off to California. Hope you are having a great summer -- we are!!

Hopscotch anyone??

6/24 Another time, another place

John Hancock Tower and observation deck - Chicago, summer 2008



On Tuesday a week ago, Jen stepped from a taxi in Chicago and was reunited with her friends from Zhuhai - Audrey and Alison. There, standing beneath the John Hancock Tower, we fulfilled our promise to help Jen reconnect with her sisters from Zhuhai. Three little Cantonese girls, so cute together, stood and talked as if they had just seen each other yesterday. It was the kind of meeting I had hoped for and thought about for a long time. In December, Jen had said goodbye in Zhuhai to the only family she had ever known -- the children at Zhuhai -- probably never imagining that she would see them once again.



You may remember that we were blessed to meet Alison and her parents back in February on a previous trip through the Midwest. This time it was 3 families coming from 3 states all converging on Chicago. We passed the hours at a nice restaurant as the girls entertained themselves with cell phones and cameras, good food and a lot of horseplay. We exchanged stories with the parents and gleaned some parental wisdom from their years in the trenches.





For us, it was an adventure just getting there. A car to O'Hare airport, a bus, 2 trains and a cab. Somehow we managed to go to the Sears Tower first but finally arrived at the John Hancock Tower an hour late. I wouldn't have missed meeting everyone for the world. We needed the encouragement and I hope they were encouraged by seeing us as well. The girls looked so cute together...three peas in a pod strolling down the street oblivious to their surroundings. And how could they really understand it all anyway? Over 8,000 miles from China and months later they met face to face in another time and another place. It was all planned by God.



My mother once shared a saying with me that I think about and it goes something like this...

Friends are the chocolate chips in the cookie of life...may you have lots of them!

We thank God for the "Cantonese chocolate chips" He has placed in Jen's life. May they be blessed now and always.

"Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don't know"

(Jer 33:3 - World English Version courtesy of ethnicharvest.org)

6/4 A good day at Zhuhai

My mother asked me about the picture on the right hand side of the blog which shows Jen and a few of her friends from Zhuhai. It came from the disposable camera that we sent to Jen while she was waiting for us. These photos were taken in late November 2007. All these girls are home now and we thank God for that. I hope you can see by their faces that they had some happy times there. They are dressed for school...they walked to school each day and came back for lunch and a mid-day nap before returning to school. Jen has talked to most of these girls after coming home to the States. We think of them often and pray that they will have a blessed life. To all the Zhuhai children, big and small, finally home or still there waiting....WE LOVE YOU!!