i hope and pray that one day my sweet Heather would also be able to express herself and tell us about her day at school, her dream job and talk about her friends.
But my lovely Heather would only be able to do that if she has the same educational opportunities as Melissa and the only way that Heather can have the same prospects is outside of her home country.
This is a recent photo – a bit over a month ago… she needs her family to come for her today…
She is an orphan. She is a special needs orphan. Without a loving family, she will not get the resources to enable her to have a future like Melissa does.
Reece’s Rainbow is the advocate website which lists special needs orphans, helps get them exposure which hopefully, prayerfully will bring their forever family to them.
i am doing my best to help Heather get attention too. This month, September, is her birthday month. (We don’t know exactly which day.) So i am writing a post dedicated to her every Monday in September. This is my third post. (See here for 2nd post and 1st post.)
So i’m asking again, please join me in praying for little Heather. Praying that she will be given the opportunities which Melissa has. Pray that her forever family will find her and bring her home quickly. Pray that her daily needs to be met while she is at her orphanage.
If you are considering adoption at all, please do consider my little Heather. (Click on her name or picture to read more about her on her profile page.) Or contact Reece’s Rainbow to find out more about adopting her.
Do contribute to her adoption grant (Click on her name or picture to get to her profile page where she has a donate button), which is very small at the moment. A larger adoption grant would increase her chances of being noticed. It would also help her forever family reach her faster. Please donate, every little bit helps.
If you do contribute to Heather‘s adoption grant, please leave a comment below with your email address so that i can send you a little Thank You (hand-crafted) gift.
Celebrating 10 years of marriage – photo by Tobias
…yep, 10 years… 6 days ago we celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!
Now 10 years is nothing compared to the 40 years my parents have been married and is definitely a mere wink in time compared to my in-laws who have been married more than 50 years. But it has been a decade and worth celebrating and so we did.
Now those of you who know my husband well, know that he is not the romantic sort and not into celebrations as much as i am. So it would be no surprise to you that i had to state, in no uncertain terms, to my husband that i fully expect a celebration of sorts. i left the details to him… hmmm… maybe i should have been more specific?
Oh, don’t get me wrong – it was a good effort on his part and i fully appreciate it. But he decided to keep where we were going a surprise. Normally if we were leaving together from the house that would be fine. But i had a seminar to organise and attend that morning and had assume i would be able to get home and change before we set off for the celebration dinner.
Nope. He called me after i finished and asked if i could take the train directly to Geneva – he was 5 minutes too late with that call. i was already on the train, heading home. So it was decided i would meet him and the boy at our train station. Now why was all this a problem?
Because i was wearing the wrong shoes – i was wearing my “transport-to-chair” 4 inch ankle boots (only for the 3rd time) and these boots were definitely NOT made for walking. However, walk we did as we were early for the dinner.
The 5 dishes we ordered… we ate a bit before i remember to take the photo… hehhee 😉
Where did we go? We went to the Singapore restaurant in Geneva, called Jeck (i think). It is located fairly near the main train station but it was in a neighbourhood i consider to be a little shady. The servers were really nice and the variety on the menu good. We only ordered a few dishes as it was just the 3 of us.
The Mulligatawny soup was not bad, a little too peppery for my taste (personal preference). The spring roll was more Vietnamese style than Singaporean, which i quite like. The duck was ok, the fish good and the claypot tofu average. It was a good overall dining experience.
But we think it is a little too far for us to get to. We literally took the train there, had dinner and had to take the train home or it would be too late for the boy. Also we think that in terms of food taste and variety, the Singapore Restaurant in Zurich is a little better and not as far away from us.
Now some of you might ask, “10 years huh? Any words of wisdom?”
Sigh! Words of wisdom i think not but i will share you with what i have learnt personally in 10 years of marriage.
1) Pick Your Fights – that’s right, it is not worth fighting about who left the toilet seat up or who should clean up after dinner. Save your energy for the big ones – such as what colour to paint the walls… hehhehee… no, just kidding. Seriously though, you need to think about what is worth fighting about – will your marriage or life together fall apart if you don’t bring this matter up? Does it bug you so much you can’t sleep?
2) Fight Fair – there is a right way to fight and a wrong way to fight. Never attack your spouse’s character or person. Point out specific behaviours and say how the behaviour itself makes you feel or how you perceive specific actions or spoken words. And keep the past in the past – no fair bringing up things you have not spoken about for months or years. You would not want your spouse to do that to you, so show the same courtesy.
3) Laugh Together – lots of laughter is good for your health and for your marriage. Try your best to have more happy moments than upsetting ones. (something i learnt in our marriage counselling sessions) i always tell people that i married my husband because he makes me laugh. And it is true, i look at him and i can’t help smiling. It is one of the reasons i can’t stay angry with him for very long.
4) Be Encouraging – you like it when people tell you, “Well Done.” Just because you are married to the person doesn’t mean you stop telling that person how good he/she is at what he/she does. You will find that people tend to do more of the things people say they are good at. So if you want a spouse who helps out more with the housework, then bring on the showers of “Thank You. You are a great help.” for every little bit done.
5) Be Proud – boast of your spouse to others. And it doesn’t hurt if he/she happens to overhear the bragging. It’s nice to know you are appreciated and overhearing such praise will bring sunshine to anyone’s day which will shine and shine.
6) Be Alone – it is ok to be alone and do your own thing. You don’t have to do every single together, just because you are married. This used to upset me – i wanted so very much for us to share all of the same interests. We do have some shared interest but we enjoy different activities too, and it is ok. i write, i craft, i read, i photograph. He has his football, his various online newspapers, his guitar, his tech stuff. You have to learn to be yourself first before you can come together as a couple. i learnt that the hard way.
7) Be A Team of 3 – for us, this is very important; it is me, my husband and God. God plays a very important part in our lives. He is the third person in this marriage and God holds us together. Our faith in Jesus Christ binds us together.
Oh one more thing, having a kid does root you to the ground more and it helps put a perspective on your life and your marriage…
What are glass children? They are ‘normal’ children with special needs siblings.
i heard this term for the very first time a few months ago when i watched a TedX Video from their event in San Antonio. It was a talk presented by Alicia Arenas. She herself was a glass child.
Glass children are healthy children who have brothers or sisters with special needs. They are typically emotionally neglected, experience severe pressure to be problem-free and perfect, take on parental responsibilities within the family at a young age and have an overwhelming need to make others happy. All this while receiving little nurturing and support in their development years.
i like how she said that glass children are actually very strong because of what they have to go through in their unique family situations. But it was sad to hear how much pain she went through. Her parents, and others around her didn’t know, because she was the “perfect” child, she was a good girl, doing whatever she can to make her parents happy; she knew that she had to stay out of trouble because her parents were overwhelmed needing to care for her 2 special needs brothers. She always said she was fine when in fact she was not. She was dying inside, needing attention, love and care.
At the end of her talk, she talked about 1 mile per hour wind; a wind which is near calm and only slightly bends a little blade of grass, a wind which can change the trajectory of a bullet by 15 inches. She appealed to the people in the audience to be that 1 mile per hour wind and make a difference in the life of a glass child.
This is an updated photo – about a month ago… she needs her family to come for her today…
While you consider being that 1 mile per hour wind for a glass child, i ask you to also consider being that near calm wind for my lovely Heather.
In a way, Heather is like the glass child among other special needs children. She is perfectly healthy with the exception of that extra chromosome; she has Down Syndrome. But because she only has that one medical condition and very little other information about her on her profile, i think that she may not be receiving as much attention as she should.
This month (September) she turns 11. No one to celebrate for her. No one to bake her a cake, let alone blow out candles with her.
i am celebrating for her by doing a post for her every Monday in September; praying and hoping this will get her the attention she needs; maybe her forever family will finally find her.
Please join me in praying for Heather. Praying for her daily needs and most importantly, praying for a loving family to come and bring her home.
As you look at her picture, think about her situation. Could you be the family who could help her grow up into the wonderful girl i know she is inside? If you think so, then do send an email to Reece’s Rainbow to enquire about her.
Last but not least, she has a very small adoption grant at the moment. You can help it grow by going to her profile page (click on her name or picture) and use the Donate button to contribute towards it. An international adoption can cost anywhere from US$20,000 to US$40,000. A larger adoption grant will help her forever family reach her sooner.
trippingdifferently 