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Update 50
The Latest News
Dear Friends,
We hope you're all well! Life is extremely busy up here in Hong Kong, and the weather is starting to get more humid (blechh!). We can always tell summer's coming when the corners of our wall calendar start to curl over. They're good and curly now!
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SUMMARY
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* Baby update
* Beautiful faces
* Trip to Aus
________________
BABY UPDATE
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From Adelaide: Baby Gow is starting to kick and move around daily. His/her preferred times of activity are in the evening and while I'm sitting quietly at my desk at work. He/she, it must be noted, also seems to like ice cream (or really doesn't like it and kicks in protest!) Now, we all know that once babies are born everyone becomes obsessed with statistics - how many pounds and ounces, how long, how many hours of labour, what time precisely was the baby born, etc, etc. To keep you going for now, here are a few numbers of our own:
* Current gestation: 21.5 weeks (over half way)
* Times a day people proclaim 'oh aren't you looking fat'! (the only time, surely, that that is meant as a compliment): 4 or so
* Number of people who have taken to calling me 'Mum' even though I am clearly not their mother - 6
* Current size of baby from crown to rump - about 18cm
* Percentage of people who think the baby looks like an alien in its ultrasound photo (including its parents): 95%
* Number of hours spent waiting at most recent antenatal appointment, only to be told everything is fine and normal: 3 hours! And all waiting room magazines are in Chinese.
* Number of toes on the baby's cute little feet seen in ultrasound: 10, we think. We didn't get to see the fingers.
To see the ultrasound photo, look here: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/ultrasound_pic.jpg and to work out what you're looking at, here are some labels (a bit blurry) http://www.matt-ad.com/images/ultrasound_explained.jpg
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BEAUTIFUL FACES
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As many of you know, the Crossroads site used to be an army barracks - left abandoned for many years before we moved in, in January 2004. That means that although it's a gorgeous area with many trees, there are a lot of grey buildings, peeling paint and the like. It's not hugely inspiring, visually. Lately Ad has been working on some large banners that hang on poles around the main pathways of the site. It's meant choosing from the Communications department's huge store of images, collected over many years from consignee groups and staff who have visited different countries. Ad and her colleagues have tried to pick the most striking images from the collection to print in large scale, with the words 'thank you' in the person's own language. WHY? The idea is to let the volunteers from the HK community who walk through these pathways know that people all over the world are benefitting from the hours they're putting in. Here's a couple of the banners that Ad has been working on:
* China - School books and supplies were sent from Crossroads to this area, where rural children struggle to get access to them: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/china.jpg
* Kenya - A village hospital received a container from us a few years ago, with amazing medical equipment and supplies donated from a hospital who was upgrading to the latest stuff. Isn't the little baby so cute!: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/kenya.jpg
* Kazakhstan - This photo was taken on the same trip Matt participated in. The women at this elderly people's home were overjoyed at the gift of blankets (knitted by an Australian group). One lady said it was the first clean blanket she'd held in 10 years: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/kazakhstan.jpg
* India - The woman in this photo had lost her home in the Gujurat earthquake in India, back in 2001. One of our staff took the picture and said she was saying to herself, while standing on the rubble, 'finished, everything is finished': http://www.matt-ad.com/images/gujurat.jpg Seems a small task, but it has been wonderful putting together this collection of banners, seeing the faces of people from so many different countries, wondering about their lives and how things have changed for them since the photos were taken. There are so many stories out there, most of which will never be told. But we have, at least, some of their images to reflect on.
________________
TRIP TO OZ
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Thank you to the many people who have been asking about Matt's Mum Sandra and her health. We spent a wonderful 2 weeks in Sydney staying with Matt's family and enjoying the company of Julia, his sister whom we hadn't seen for years! It was a very special time and very positive, considering that Sandra was going through her first round of chemotherapy. It will be a while before we know the full outcome of the treatment, however, we were greatly encouraged to hear that a recent test showed some improvementt. In the meantime, the chemo is taking its inevitable toll on her comfort and lifestyle, but we were extremely glad to have been able to have those two weeks together to encourage each other at the end of March.
Much love, Matt & Adelaide
We hope you're all well! Life is extremely busy up here in Hong Kong, and the weather is starting to get more humid (blechh!). We can always tell summer's coming when the corners of our wall calendar start to curl over. They're good and curly now!
________________
SUMMARY
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
* Baby update
* Beautiful faces
* Trip to Aus
________________
BABY UPDATE
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
From Adelaide: Baby Gow is starting to kick and move around daily. His/her preferred times of activity are in the evening and while I'm sitting quietly at my desk at work. He/she, it must be noted, also seems to like ice cream (or really doesn't like it and kicks in protest!) Now, we all know that once babies are born everyone becomes obsessed with statistics - how many pounds and ounces, how long, how many hours of labour, what time precisely was the baby born, etc, etc. To keep you going for now, here are a few numbers of our own:
* Current gestation: 21.5 weeks (over half way)
* Times a day people proclaim 'oh aren't you looking fat'! (the only time, surely, that that is meant as a compliment): 4 or so
* Number of people who have taken to calling me 'Mum' even though I am clearly not their mother - 6
* Current size of baby from crown to rump - about 18cm
* Percentage of people who think the baby looks like an alien in its ultrasound photo (including its parents): 95%
* Number of hours spent waiting at most recent antenatal appointment, only to be told everything is fine and normal: 3 hours! And all waiting room magazines are in Chinese.
* Number of toes on the baby's cute little feet seen in ultrasound: 10, we think. We didn't get to see the fingers.
To see the ultrasound photo, look here: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/ultrasound_pic.jpg and to work out what you're looking at, here are some labels (a bit blurry) http://www.matt-ad.com/images/ultrasound_explained.jpg
_________________
BEAUTIFUL FACES
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
As many of you know, the Crossroads site used to be an army barracks - left abandoned for many years before we moved in, in January 2004. That means that although it's a gorgeous area with many trees, there are a lot of grey buildings, peeling paint and the like. It's not hugely inspiring, visually. Lately Ad has been working on some large banners that hang on poles around the main pathways of the site. It's meant choosing from the Communications department's huge store of images, collected over many years from consignee groups and staff who have visited different countries. Ad and her colleagues have tried to pick the most striking images from the collection to print in large scale, with the words 'thank you' in the person's own language. WHY? The idea is to let the volunteers from the HK community who walk through these pathways know that people all over the world are benefitting from the hours they're putting in. Here's a couple of the banners that Ad has been working on:
* China - School books and supplies were sent from Crossroads to this area, where rural children struggle to get access to them: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/china.jpg
* Kenya - A village hospital received a container from us a few years ago, with amazing medical equipment and supplies donated from a hospital who was upgrading to the latest stuff. Isn't the little baby so cute!: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/kenya.jpg
* Kazakhstan - This photo was taken on the same trip Matt participated in. The women at this elderly people's home were overjoyed at the gift of blankets (knitted by an Australian group). One lady said it was the first clean blanket she'd held in 10 years: http://www.matt-ad.com/images/kazakhstan.jpg
* India - The woman in this photo had lost her home in the Gujurat earthquake in India, back in 2001. One of our staff took the picture and said she was saying to herself, while standing on the rubble, 'finished, everything is finished': http://www.matt-ad.com/images/gujurat.jpg Seems a small task, but it has been wonderful putting together this collection of banners, seeing the faces of people from so many different countries, wondering about their lives and how things have changed for them since the photos were taken. There are so many stories out there, most of which will never be told. But we have, at least, some of their images to reflect on.
________________
TRIP TO OZ
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Thank you to the many people who have been asking about Matt's Mum Sandra and her health. We spent a wonderful 2 weeks in Sydney staying with Matt's family and enjoying the company of Julia, his sister whom we hadn't seen for years! It was a very special time and very positive, considering that Sandra was going through her first round of chemotherapy. It will be a while before we know the full outcome of the treatment, however, we were greatly encouraged to hear that a recent test showed some improvementt. In the meantime, the chemo is taking its inevitable toll on her comfort and lifestyle, but we were extremely glad to have been able to have those two weeks together to encourage each other at the end of March.
Much love, Matt & Adelaide