Saying goodbye is never easy.  We feel sad to leave everyone and every thing we’ve come to love.  There’s no good way at this point to summarize our life in Vietnam or how we feel at this point so as a final blog post about Vietnam, so here are a few photos.

It has been incredible being part of these lives and we can only hope that we were able to bless them as much as they blessed us.

Chau and Kristen spent many afternoons over a period of two months buying all the books. The Promise House library is now the home to encyclopedias, books to learn English, books about science, comic books, picture books, fairy tales, novels… you name it, it’s there.

A few of the categories.

Chau and Kristen put a lot of work into the library.

Going through the old books.

Checking out the new books.

After all the books were purchased, Chau, Kristen, and some of the older girls cleaned out the old books, wiped shelves, and organized the new books by category and with a call number.

The long process of putting call numbers on all the books.

Just a few more books to categorize and the library will be complete. Once it’s complete, we will go over rules about how to take care of books, how to check them out, and how the library is organized. After that, the library is open! In the meantime, we can’t keep the kids out of there, they are so curious and eager to look at all the books!

Tam and Nghia found these masks in an old storage box. Too funny!

Each orphanage or “family” had a special tent that they set up and decorated.  These tents were set up around a main stage which was where most of the events and activities took place.  The whole event just had such a fun vibe to it.  Kristen and I felt like camp counselors and all of the children seemed so happy.

During the day they had cooking contests, drawing contests, sang songs and did fun games for all of the children present.  Because of the heat, there was a lot of down time were we would just sit and hang out with the Promise House kids in the tent.

Lai (left) and Minh (right) made a new friend with this girl from another orphanage.

Afternoon swimming in the river.

In the evening, they had a special sort of talent show.  It started off with the lighting of a huge bonfire and we enjoyed an opening show by a Vietnamese illusionist who was really good!  For the following two hours, various groups from the different orphanages performed songs, dances and fashion shows.  The theme of the weekend had to do with protecting the environment.  The kids from Promise House did a fashion show and wore costumes that were made out of materials that should be recycled rather then thrown on the ground.  We were so proud of them, they looked so good!

Lai and Long in their newspaper outfits.

Waving to the crowd.

Girls from the Dai Loc orphanage performing a dance.

Lai from Promise House also sang a song.

I can confidently say that our night at the camp was the worst night’s sleep I have ever had.  The picture below isn’t that great but it shows the general sleeping condition.  The sides of the house were open, we had no mosquito nets, for safety the overhead light was left on all night and we didn’t have anything to sleep on.  Most of the children didn’t seem to mind and fell asleep rather quickly.  Kristen and I on the other hand… we probably slept about 3 hours total.

This is a picture from earlier in the day during nap time.  Those wooden slats don’t really help with getting a solid night’s sleep.

Despite the rough night, Kristen and I were so glad that we were able to share such a special and unique event with the children.   It was fun to have a lot of down time and sit together enjoying the day and we were so proud to see them up on stage performing.

We have been so blessed by the number of people who have faithfully and joyfully contributed to our work in Vietnam.  It is difficult to ask for money but because of your generosity, we have rarely had to do so.  However, we are asking for your financial support just one more time.  Kristen and I need financial support to provide for our return flight to the U.S.  After that, we just ask that you would keep us in your prayers as we will need buy a car, find jobs, a place to live, etc.  We have finally managed to establish ourselves in one culture… now we must reestablish ourselves back in the U.S.!

For information on how to support us visit our donation page.

Thank you for all your help and support.  We look forward to seeing all of you in person very soon.

I don’t expect you to vote on the photo simply because it is mine. If you think the photos below merit a vote I would appreciate it;  if not, I am glad you took the time to look.  Here are the photos.  If you want to vote for the photo, just click on the photos below and you’ll be directed to the competition website where you can vote.  You can vote for as many photos as you want!

Contest #1 – “Great Journeys”

Winding Pass

Boats and Clouds

Buckets of Water

A Photographer’s Journey

Forest Path

Contest #2 – “People Doing What They Do”

Woman in River Boat

Selling Fruit

Preparing in the Alley

Smoking and Steering Boat

Selling Vegetables in the Market

Thank you for taking the time to look and hopefully vote!

Our good friends, Bridge and Hilary, visited us for 10 days, and we had so much fun exploring, driving, eating, and living together.

One of the things we did while they visited was host a party for the kids in honor of International Children’s Day, an important holiday here.

After much planning and preparation, we were able to have games, crafts, and prizes for all of the children. We arrived to Promise House around 1:30pm to prepare for the 2pm party, but the children were still sleeping at 2pm, so we had to wait for them to slowly wake up. In the meantime, Lance and Bridge we out to buy Nuoc Mia (sugar cane juice) to give to the kids when they woke up.

The party was a lot of fun, and we got to play a lot of games the children have never played before. The water balloon toss was especially fun, we had 3-4 rounds of it. Two boys, Vu and Long, won two times in a row, so for the third time I added soap to their balloon! They laughed at it, then continued to roll their balloon in dirt to make it easier to grip. Very smart.

Another game was a bean bag toss (well, bean bags filled with rice!). We collected boxes a few weeks before the party. Bridge and Hilary prepared the boxes for the game by cutting holes in the tops for the bags to fall into.

The final game was a drawing contest. We put the kids in pairs, gave them 3 colored pieces of chalk, and asked them to draw a pictures. The winner of the drawing got candy. The pictures were all so beautiful!

We had raffles for the kids, just like we had a Christmas. It was fun for them around Christmas time, and they seemed to really enjoy it again.

We ended the day with a beads project. When we started the project, the beads were in their bowls so nicely and the kids were so diligent. By the end of the time, beads were all over the table and floor! A few of the kids made necklaces for Hilary and Kristen.

It was a beautiful day, we’re so glad that Bridge and Hilary could spend it with us!

Kristen and I see how often they bring joy and companionship to one another.  If you ask any of the children at Promise House how many people are in their family, they will immediately say “26″ in reference to the other children and caretakers who live there.  They are friends, play-mates and brothers and sisters to each other and I think that is really special. (video below)

1. A collection of people and their bicycles

2. Man power vs. cow power…  both very useful.

3. Crossing a bridge in Kon Tom

4. Sticks and Stacks

5. During rainy season we followed a friend out to her hometown. While crossing a big puddle she lifted her feet– it was either that or get wet!

6. Noon nap

7. Loads of animals–the first two are pigs, the third is ducks.

8. On our way out of town one morning, at 5:45am, we stopped to fill up gas. Apparently every taxi in town had the same idea. We’ve never seen anything like this before or since.

9. The traffic near the river the night of the fireworks. This was before it got really crowded.

10. A woman with her cart had no fear and no problem crossing the street

11.  (left) This is a TWO WAY road but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at it. The green van is passing the black SUV which is passing the blue bus Motorbikes stay on the shoulder!

(right) A red bus passing a motorbike on a turn. This was a common sight on our way to and in Kon Tom.

12. Flowers and Foliage

13. Birds and Bananas

14. Bags and Baskets – bags of veggies on a motorbike and many baskets on a bicycle.

More recently, Orphan Voice has started using video as a way to show more about what we do here in Vietnam.   Orphan Voice has a number of programs: family preservation (food delivery and micro-enterprise), anti-trafficking initiatives, work with special needs children and orphan care.   I recently finished a short video introduction of Orphan Voice’s “Orphan Care” program.  You can see the video below.