Hong Kong Day 4– Playing with Ka Hei and Dim Sum

This morning we met Gladys at the MTR station and journeyed to Ka Hei’s home.  It definitely felt different today than just a few days ago.  I didn’t have the same anxiousness/concerns as I did about how the first meeting would go.  Instead I was more joyful and excited for the opportunities the day would bring.  We spent the first hour of the morning talking with the woman who has cared for Ka Hei for the last 2 years.  She has a very kind disposition and was eager to tell us anything she could in order to help us know Ka Hei better.  I really appreciated the time she spent with us.  She even told us that Ka Hei had confided in her that he thinks he likes us!  HUGE PRAISE!! 
At 11:15, she asked us if we would like to go get Ka Hei at school, of course we said yes!  We headed outside and across the very large common area of his apartment group (estate), right up to the doors of his school…his school is a Baptist school.  Amazing, right?  God is so amazing.  For the last 2 years, God placed our son in a Baptist school with an active Child Evangelism Fellowship team so Ka Hei could begin to learn about who He is.  And now we get to water those seeds of faith and build on that foundation!  I love how God works :). 
We walked back to Ka Hei’s apartment and then he led Gladys and us to a nearby Dim Sum restaurant.  Gladys asked him to go to the counter and choose some dishes for us to try.  He was so sweet, wanting to pick out good things, joking with the cooks behind the counter, trying to explain a couple things to us in English and finally going to get Gladys to make the final choices.  When we sat down, Gladys started telling our kids what the foods were, but when she got to one of the dishes, I quickly stepped in and said, “You just need to try it,” knowing that if they knew exactly what was sitting in front of them, they might chicken out (pun intended).

Have you guessed what the dish on the right is?  Chicken’s foot!  And yes, I tried it.  Not my favorite.  But because I was determined to try everything, I found several things I did like :). Of course, I expected to like this:
  The sweet and sour pork went over quite well :).  As did the rice, some very yummy bread balls with a tapioca-like filling and some other things that I truly can’t spell or explain very well.  Timothy, who kindly refused the chicken’s foot, even found a very hot sauce that he enjoyed drizzling over his rice, much to Gladys’ surprise.

Gladys is truly a gift.  As Ka Hei’s social worker, she isn’t just getting her job done, she cares deeply about what is best for Ka Hei and it shows in everything she does.  Today she brought a surprise to the table.  Chinese Chess :).
 
She purchased a travel board for Ka Hei to take with him to our home :).  So, for quite some time, Timothy and Andrew relied on Ka Hei to show them how they could and couldn’t move their pieces.  It was obvious Ka Hei enjoyed it and so did we!  If for no other reason than because he went back and forth between deep concentration and huge smile…and his smile is just contagious!
Next stop, the playground on the estate where all 5 of our kids did monkey bars, teeter totters, played tag and basically made us adults hot just watching them :).

As we were walking back to the apartment, with Lucas, Ka Hei and Aylssa running just ahead of us, Gladys described what a busy weekend Ka Hei had.  He spent one day with a school case worker and one day with his previous social worker (she recently moved on to a different job).  She turned to me and said, “So many people love Ka Hei.”   We can see why…and we’re only beginning to scratch the surface.