《 A New Home for Adopted Child》 – Helen

It was great news for Evangel Children’s Home (ECH) when we knew the little girl Helen (alias) would be adopted by an Australian family. ECH have served many children coming from broken families for decades. It was fortunate Helen could walk out from the haze of sadness due to broken family and she could live in stable home with love. The new family ignites hope for Helen and her life could turn to a new page. She is the youngest sister in the new family and she settles into a new life in Australia well.

New Life of an Adopted Child

Most people may think that adoption is limited to infants or babies, but it is actually not. By referral of the Social Welfare Department, an Australian family adopted 8-year-old Helen. We were more than happy and grateful that a suitable family could be arranged for Helen and she would have a new home.  After the epidemic, the adoptive parents and the family came to Hong Kong from overseas, who wanted to acquaint Helen and escort her to Australia to start a new life. They were so warmhearted they even prepared a pony pet for her which can grow up with little Helen!

As she was not good at English, Helen was afraid of speaking to her family in English at the beginning. She was only able to speak to her new family in simple conversation plus body language.  In order to express her affection, she would give a hug to her adoptive father.  Her adoptive siblings were willing to teach her and accompany with her, so Helen has adapted the new environment quickly.  Her English has got much improved.  More, she even loved to have Western cuisine as she could add the ketchup whichever she liked!

Farewell with lots of Blessings

Though Helen had lived in ECH for only around 2 years, she got well with everyone, like social workers, houseparent and the kids living together. It is obvious love was around this little girl. When everyone knew she was going to depart from Hong Kong and to live in an unfamiliar place, they all felt reluctant to her leave. They prepared a farewell party for her wholeheartedly – they made a commemoratory photo album and short video which carried about lots of sweet memories.  In order to improve Helen’s English in short time, the houseparent not only tailor-made a picture book for literacy, which could help Helen to learn more English vocabularies, and also accompanied and watched videos from YouTube with her. In addition, to express her love and thankfulness, they taught her to make a DIY gift for her adoptive mother as well. Even though we missed her much, we sincerely wish Helen to grow up in a healthy and happy family. We may have chance to gather with her in future.  Everyone in ECH continues to work hard for the new comers.

Dorcus, the houseparent, was very fond of Helen. Before Helen left, Dorcus told her about the mission of ECH – Jesus said “Let the children come to me…”

God take care of Helen and provide her a new home, with her adoptive parent and five siblings together, we sincerely wish her to be a cute and good girl with her big family in new place.

《“It doesn’t matter ”… Really?》- Elaine

Whenever we met Elaine (alias), she smiled always.  Whatever we told or asked her, she responded spontaneously with “yes”, “it doesn’t matter”, “whatever”, etc.  She has encountered many difficulties in these years and we understood her days were not easy.  We appreciated her positive attitude when we found she was temperless and willing to help others, with her smiley face on.

However, we found Elaine was not really a “yes-man” indeed.  When she said “it doesn’t matter” but did not mean it; her facial expression could not help disclosing her ‘disagreement’ deep inside her heart. This discrepancy made her smile not authentic at all.

The coach discussed this ‘tip of iceberg’ with Elaine and investigated her iceberg underwater together.  The impact from those barriers which she met in her life, made her not dare to express herself.  She thought she could avoid any conflict from peoples around her after she said “yes” and just accepted others’ request, no matter she liked it or not. But, this would only suppress her feeling and ignore her real thought inside.  This would not help her in solving problem at all, it even made it worse repeatedly.

When she knew the reason behind, she got the clue and understood there could be other way out. The coach encouraged Elaine to start how to speak out her thought and express more about her own feeling and needs.  In order to learn how to love and protect herself, Elaine had to learn not to say “it doesn’t matter” everytime.