Saturday, January 21, 2012

Love in the Mail

I never forget the mail, but yesterday was my travel meeting and I was busy running around doing last minute errands.  So this morning, I found these treasures in my mailbox - made with love by an 11 year old girl:


But this is no ordinary girl - this young woman was adopted from Taiwan and knows what it's like to move to a new family and culture, and not know the language.  She put together helpful phrases and words in small "communication books" for each of our girls.  These are the things she remembered as most helpful to her when she first arrived.  She wrote the words in Mandarin and English, and made small pictures to accompany them.  She also wrote a personal note to each of our daughters, telling them what it is like to live in America and other reassuring words.  

I don't know how I'll keep from tearing up when I give them to the girls - I wept with gratitude this morning when I received them.  Not because they'll be so helpful, it will ease their transition, or it might allay their fears - but because in this small gesture, this child has demonstrated the love of Christ in a real and tangible way - to both our new daughters and to our me personally.  Thank you Jyun Yuan and Tracey - may God bless you both the way you've blessed us.  



Love,
Kim

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  John 13:35

7 comments:

  1. Wow! Kim, what an unbelievable gift! Love this!

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  2. What a cool thing - and what a gift to your children!
    Kelly

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  3. Oh Kim!!! How amazing!!!! What a beautiful gift and how awesome this will be for the girls!

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  4. What a wonderful, thoughtful, helpful gift! I love that our children are reaching out to one another, helping them make the most scary and important moment of their life easier.

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  5. Wow. I wonder where she came across PECS; at least I've used these pictures when doing PECS with a child. Perhaps they come from a generic computer program. What a great idea, though! I worked for years for sometimes non-verbal children, and being able to communicate is KEY to reducing frustration (and in this case anxiety as well). I will definitely keep this in mind should we ever adopt an older child. I am hmmm, ?humbled? by this young girl's thoughtfulness.

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  6. What a wonderful blessing for your daughters!

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  7. I know that you are in China. If there is anyway that you could tell us more information about this 11 year old girl that made this book for you we would appreciate it. We need one of these books. We would love to pay her for it. Thanks,
    Angela
    kidzmom@bellsouth.net
    adopting a 12 year old soon.

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