Hey everyone!
You are probably wondering why we have not published a post since we have been in Guangzhou. Let's just say that a certain entity has blocked blogspot in our region because not everyone has been positive. Enough said. So our sister-in-law (Amy Accurso) is posting our blogs for us.

Anyway, we are now in Guangzhou which is a lot like Hong Kong. Lots of lights and very busy. It is a city of 10 million (again roughly the size of Chicago). We are on Shamain Island which used to be a British trading port so all the buildings are very English looking but everyone is Chinese. It is really beautiful. The food is a little strange. Last night we went out to dinner and found a lot of interesting things on the menu like; Fried Intestines, Cooked Goose Hand (which was a goose foot), Fried Pigs Neck, Prawn Heads (Shrimp Heads). There were 7 pages of menu items but we could not find one thing we could handle. So Kelly and I came up with the brilliant idea of telling the waitress that we were vegetarians for a day and then made our orders. The noodles and veggie spring rolls were delicious. Hannah ordered plain steamed white rice. Thomas was relieved that he has a nut allergy and could not eat anything on the menu. He had instant Mac and Cheese that we brought from the states. Now Grandpa Rich on the other hand thought it was great. He had a hard time cutting the list down on which of the "interesting things" he would try. So he settled on a giant bowl of "interesting things" that had 6 or 7 different things that I would not eat in it. He liked it so much that he wanted to go back again tonight. He was out voted.


Our little Hope girl has been challenging. It has become apparrent to us that her medical needs are only part of the struggles she is facing. That poor little girl is so scared and insecure. She finds it very difficult to trust anyone. The irony is that she needs love more than anything else, but because of her emotional scars she trys to push everyone away. Given the fact that she had a birth defective face for the first year and a half of her life she was probably NOT the favorite child at the orphanage. And then she has been moved around a few times which has left her feeling like the caregivers in her life keep abandoning her. Her defense mechanism is to push people away. For the first week she would only cry or scream when anyone comes close to her besides Kelly. She swats and kicks at the kids. I (Cris) will offer her food and she turns away but then will take the same piece of food from Kelly. It is almost like she is trying to be unlovable.

The kids and I have had some great talks. Our spiritual lesson is that Christ loves us unconditionally even when we are unlovable. "But God showed His great love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38 &39)

It has been so amazing to see how Hannah, Thomas and Rachel have been showing the love of Christ to Hope. We all agreed that this was our opportunity to love someone the way Christ loves us. And they really do love her despite how she treats them. They have been so patient and sooo loving it puts tears in my eyes. And with huge payoff. Everyday we see a little more trust, a little more openess. Even moments of love. Today she let me feed her. Before she went to bed she reached out to each one of the kids for them to kiss her. And I must say Grandpa Rich has been great too. He was able to feed her two days ago when she was not even coming near me. And of course Kelly has been absolutely amazing in giving of herself to that little girl.

I know that without Christ in our lives this whole process would be a huge disappointment. But instead God has made it rich. Keep praying for us! Can't wait to see you all!

posted by Cris

From Amy: Sorry that this doesn't look as good as when Cris and Kelly do it, but I've never blogged before... I may have it figured out by the time they return home. Thanks to the Nelson's for trusting me with such an important task.