In 2005 as we all gathered excitedly at Nannning's KFC to have the first ever Birthday Party for most of our girls, I laughingly said,
"Let's do this every year"...never believing for a minute that this would be possible!
But here we are...five years later, having done just that :-)
2009 
These are the very special girls, some of whom we first met in 2005 at the very beginning of Hope4China's work with Matthew. If someone had told me then how this group would grow, and how special the relationships would become, I could not have believed them.
The First one 2005
2006
2007
2008
It has been so very special for us all, sponsors and girls alike!
The first Nanning girls were sponsored by our family, then a larger group of ten were supported by classes at Portree High School. Friends joined the group, and my new schools, Dunfermline High and now Buckhaven High have continued to raise funds to support the girls and perhaps more importantly exchanged letters/photos/emails. I recently discovered that they are actually NOT the Nanning girls as they come from all around Guangxi, but mostly they live near to Nanning and that is the central place we meet. They are simply the group of girls sponsored by Hope4China who are able to come to meet with us in Nanning - some travel from Yizhou, Rongshui, and last year, my very special friend Nong Bi Rui travelled for 13 hours from Uni at Guangdong to meet with us. I now often awake to chatty emails and photos from her...and know that she will do great things in her life.
We were nearing the end of our Guangxi trip, but were still so excited to go and meet "our girls". It has been such a pleasure to meet them each year and see how they have grown.................................
At the same time we were meeting the little girl who was so badly burned in the fire. She has had her first round of surgery and is so much better. Cindy was able to take her to Matthew's flat and show her some exercises to help stretch the skin and improve the muscles after the surgery. There is still money aside for her future needs which we will continue to assess.
Then we were off to People's Park!!!!!!!
I just LOVE to see this "quartet" who I have been meeting every year since 2005. They are ALWAYS together, until recently were too shy to speak much English...and I have always struggled to get their names right!!!!!! Two of them have now finished school, but we were so delighted that they came back to see us!
Here are two of the Huang sisters with friends.........
.........and a wee bit of help for us in trying to remember all the names
and more importantly make sure we had gifts for each girl :-)
This is always the tricky part, where months of preparations can all go belly-up?
By some miracle it has always worked out & we have always had the correct gifts for each girl who comes.
There is so much to do in the Park - first stop, feeding the fish with baby bottles.
Then, my oldest friend arrived. We had shared with this lovely, talented girl since the early days when she struggled to fit in at school. We have been thro many things with her. She is a talented artist and we worked with her paintings to rasie a lot of money in Portree to help her at school ( maybe a subject for future blog - her pics are precious!?)
She finally, with lots of tears, made the difficult decision to leave school and work with her cousin to raise pigs.
We visited her last year in her new home where she is now married and running a successful Pig rearing business.
I felt like a proud mother hen:-)
Education is for LIFE, and although at this moment she has not been able to continue her career with her art work, she has learned a lot and has become a confident and enterprising young woman - that's what its all about?
She always draws wonderful pictures as gifts....I just LOVED this -
The Life of a Pig
from Baby Piglet to Big Pig :-)
Next, out came the Parachute donated by St Margaret's Sunday School & Rainbows- universal fun...and entertainment for the passers by...many of whom stopped to join in!!!!!!!
Good old Matthew...leading the singing of Mo Li Hua
We also did Auld Lang Syne - which is now a favourite!!! and Kum Ba Ya :-)
It was obviously entertaining????????
Back home in Dunfermline, students of Buckhaven High School had spent many lunch-hours making bright neon bracelets to go with the bright scarves, necklaces,socks and bobbles - each set of gifts placed in a bag with our girls name and photo!
Thanks so much to all who helped :-)
Now at last it was time to share with the girls in China .......
I am always so touched by the thoughtful and precious gifts the girls make and present to us.
They speak volumes about the special nature of these girls and the meaningful relationships we enjoy together.
By now it was VERY hot, everyone was tired, hungry and thirsty ...... Matthew suggested going to the Chinese KFC which was nearer...but the girls were having NONE of that - we were going to "OUR KFC" where we have partied each year!!!!! So a military operation followed whereby the younger girls were each placed with an older girl who was given change for a Taxi...and we were off to find lots of taxis to Nanning centre for KFC!!!!!!!
Some of the first to arrive were two lovely "Fu girls" who found a lovely Fu lantern just outside KFC
When we arrived inside it was so much busier than normal, but the girls all just hung around "our spot", until we could take it over...and the Party began..................
A late arrival - one of our girls who travelled all the way from Rongshui to meet with us all!!!
Zhu Ni Sheng Ri Kuai Le - Happy Birthday to You!!!!!!
....with a delicious melt in the mouth cake from Wal-mart across the road.
I just LOVE to hear the girls sing Happy Birthday in Chinese and English each year. These days they often have a tear in their eyes as the relationships have become more meaningful to them. I so wish all you sponsors out there could be right there to share with the girls...but please know what a huge difference you are making in their lives! Thank You ThankYou Thank You !!!!!!!
I love how the older girls just take over now..and do a brilliant job of organising the cake!!!!
But what is it about cream cakes that just says - slap it on my face !*!*!
Great fun for all...and another spectacle for Nanningers :-)
It was good to be a wee bit more serious & try & share something about life here..the girls are keen to know as much as they can about us, just as we are so keen to learn about their lives in China.
Promises made to write back to Scottish students
All too soon, once again it was time for goodbye........we threw the ball to see who would catch it
...and it landed with Wuming!!!!!!
Very fitting - check the next post :-) SOON!
