Following the Father

There were twenty-one babies on the foor and the little one said... DON'T roll over!

Yes, we beat the record.  Not that we were trying to, the intention was NOT to beat the record of babies for the Home!  The previous largest amount at one time was nineteen.  We're down three right now though.  So we're back to 18.   That's good news and bad news.  David, one of our older babies is now with his adoptive parents!  That's the good news!  The bad news is two of our babies are in the hospital.  One ended up with Pneumonia, the other has something seriously wrong with her heart that will requite surgery.  Please pray for these two baby girls.  We hope to have the younger (but bigger, she's the really chubby one in the previous update's pictures) home in a few days.  She's recovering well last I heard.  Mei Ai has just been transfered to a bigger hospital in Taipei today, which is the hospital that will do her surgery.  Please especially pray for this little one's stength and perseverance during the surgery, and expertly guided hands for the doctor.  They were waiting for her thin little body to put some weight on before they did the surgery but they think it's too dangerous to wait any longer. (She's been hospitalized for two weeks)

Been to Hong Kong and back!  At the 2nd this month I left in the morning from the Taipei airport for Hong Kong.  I came back on the 4th, so I wasn't gone but a couple of days.  I had to leave the country for visa purposes and Hong Kong was one of the closest places I could take a short trip to and the Skiles had some missionary friends there willing to host me.  It was a neat experience to see yet another another place in Asia.  It's amazing how simalar yet very different it was from Taiwan.  Instead of all the motor bikes zipping in and out of trafic it was huge double decker busses lumbering around.  Instead of two story squashed together town houses it was 50 story (or more) squashed together residential high rise buildings.  (Taipei has high rise buildings, but not nearly in the quantity Hong Kong has.)  And instead of hearing Mandarin Chinese I was hearing Cantonese! 

The family I stayed with was very gracious and included me in their plans for the days I was there.  The day after I arrived I went with "Mista Smif" (actually Mrs. Smyth, it's just how it comes out when the kids say it) to the Chinese kindergarten where she teaches English.  I enjoyed sitting in on the classes and watching all their cute little faces as they listened (at least most of them  ;) to "Mista Smif."  It seems no matter where I go I end up with kids!  Not that I mind that in any way.  Some of the Kindergarteners are actually quite young because in Hong Kong (and in Taiwan) the kids have 3 years of kindergarten.  So some of these little people we're as young as 2 (almost 3) years old!

The next day (My flight back to Taiwan was that night) I went with the family on an outing with their church to a small scenic island.  It was a prearraged church outing, I just was able to junp in.  We traveled via two buses and a ferry to get there.  Once there we hiked around the beautiful island ending at the sea food restaurant that we all ate at for lunch.  I got to chat with different members of this church along the way.  The members of this church encluded Chinese, American, Philipino and a couple of other nationalities.  I enjoyed the diversity.  I felt very welcomed by and enjoyed espeically the Philipino ladies. 

The Smyths son and his family live in the same house with them so I also enjoyed playing with their three granddaughters, ages 5, 2, and 11 months.  Their son's wife is Chinese so all the girls speak (with the youngest as an exception as she's just beginning to talk) both Contonese and English.  With both spoken in the home they soak both up quickly.

I'm back in the swing of things here.  Still doing the night shift, which is why I'm writing this with only crickets and the clicking of the keyboard meeting my ears.  This is often not the case, but I'm sure enjoying it.

Some praises from the Home are:

*Two of our babies got their first papers from our more... hesistant judge.  Praise God!

* We have four new helpers for awhile.  Rebecca (arrived the 8th)  Josiah's mom Jennifer, Janice, and Kristen. (the last three arrived only last night)  Josiah is one of the babies that got his first paper, his Mommy came early to help out like Nya's mom did.

*Allie and Sierra got back to the States safely. (they left the 8th)

Some prayer requests besides our two hospitalized babies are:

* That this judge would be motived to do something about Nya's papers!  We have received nothing from her for Nya.  Her mom decided to go back to the States since their wasn't a date in sight for her and Nya's departure.  So we're still waiting on the Lord for this, and so is Nya's parents who are patiently waiting for her in the States.  It's long over due for her first AND second papers to come.

*That all our caretakers and babies would get well and stay well!  We're tired of passing around all these colds and things.  It seems once we get everyone well the process starts all over again.

Thank you all for your support, God bless!

In HIM,

~Elizabeth