2 angel candles for Zoe

Zoe’s birthday weekend (16-18 Aug) was very nice, with Heather visiting from Thailand, meeting Evelyn for a special steamboat dinner on Saturday, celebrating with a yummy mud pie from Island Creamery with her aunty Coco and friends from the church on Sunday, and a small balloon party with home-made berry crisp for dessert on Monday. She also received lots of beautiful gifts.

Zoe was most enthusiastic in singing the birthday song and blowing her birthday candles. In fact, we also celebrated Zoe’s Oma’s birthday 3 days before Zoe’s birthday with a small cake and made a video of greetings for her. So, Zoe had a lot of practice singing the birthday song…

Developing Her Own Personality

Zoe has become very chatty now… She utters a few words of Chinese but she talks mainly in English. Weiting, one of the students who helped to shortlist possible Chinese names for Zoe, also taught Zoe how to say “Xin Yi ke ai,” which means “Xin Yi is cute” and Zoe loves to say this. She remembered it after just one lesson! Zoe is also learning a few words of Flemish and French. We hope that she will be multi-lingual and feel comfortable in all kinds of cultures.

This month, she achieved a few milestones:

- Pronouncing her name clearly (Zo-ay and Xin Yi)
- Giving kisses properly
- Able to count to two
- Celebrating her 2nd birthday
- Able to go out without a diaper
- Climbing on a chair herself to reach a high shelf
- Getting her first real haircut - surprisingly with no fuss
- Choosing her own pair of sandals in her current favourite colour: purple

Zoe enjoys playing with other children, reading, colouring, stickers, play-doh, playing with her doll, puzzles, art and craft, pretending to slide down overturned chairs, lining up things to form a “train”, playing with bath foam, looking at pictures and videos, singing and dancing, swimming, playing outdoors, going for outings, and eating.

Though she is slim, she enjoys eating a lot, especially strawberries, kiwis, fish, chicken, biscuits, raisins, bread, chocolate, beans, barley, soup, chapati with dhal, oranges, mangoes, nuts, cake and ice-cream.

Thank God that up to now, Zoe has not yet tried sweets and lollipops and most salty snacks—though she likes potato chips, keropok and pappadams whenever she gets the rare chance to eat them... Hopefully, she will be able to stay away from unhealthy snacks as far as possible… and be happy eating vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits and home-made delights…

We pray that in the year ahead, Zoe will be able to grow healthily and be free of illnesses, learn more about God her creator and understand all that we try to teach her so she can be a kind, loving and joyful girl who will light up the lives of everyone around her! ( by Cheryl )

Zoe Has A Chinese Name!

In early August, after consulting some Chinese students, I finally decided on a Chinese name for Zoe: Xin Yi. Jan has a Chinese name (Zi Lin – Clierinck) given to him in Hong Kong, so Zoe will be known as

子霖馨熠
Zi Lin Xin Yi

This name was inspired by the character 馨 “xin” that appears in two bible verses:

Ephesians 5:1-2
5:1

所 以 你 们 该 效 法 神 ， 好 像 蒙 慈 爱 的 儿 女 一 样 。
5:2

也 要 凭 爱 心 行 事 ， 正 如 基 督 爱 我 们 ， 为 我 们 舍 了 自 己 ， 当 作 馨 香 的 供 物 ， 和 祭 物 ， 献 与 神 。

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

2 Corinthians 2:15
2:15

因 为 我 们 在 神 面 前 ， 无 论 在 得 救 的 人 身 上 ， 或 灭 亡 的 人 身 上 ， 都 有 基 督 馨 香 之 气 。
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;
The character 馨“xin” means “fragrance that resonates like hollowed stones” and is often used to describe “fragrance” or “comfortable, gentle, warmth.”

The character 熠“yi” is used to refer to “radiance,” “glow,” “sparkling” and “light”.

Therefore, we hope that 馨熠 will be able to resonate the fragrance of Christ and radiate the light of Christ wherever she goes!