Ninepence: the story of our journey to our daughters: We have our daughter!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

We have our daughter!

Thanks to Marquette's VPN connection we are able to sneak onto our blog and also Facebook. Woo hoo! The trip has been amazing, the people, the sites, everything. But of course nothing can beat Eliza! Gotcha Day was as magical as we anticipated. She is amazing and smart and funny and pig-headed and brave and lovely and naughty and sweet and has us wrapped around her little finger already. I won't waste too much time with stories for now, I'll just post some pics here and gush more later.

1 comment:

Leah SweetAugust 18, 2011 at 3:38 PM
She is adorable. You all look overjoyed. Love it. Congrats!
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The story of Ninepence

When I was a very young girl I saw a movie called, "The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness". It was a movie that I never forgot, loosely based on the life of Gladys Aylward, a missionary living in China during the 1930's.

During her time in China, she came upon a woman begging by the side of the road. With her was a 5 year old girl, covered with sores and very malnourished. She determined that the woman was not the mother of the child, but that she had kidnapped her in order to aid in her begging. So she bought the girl for ninepence, and hence called her "Ninepence". A year later, Ninepence showed up with an abandoned boy in tow, saying, "I will eat less so he can have something." Thus Gladys adopted a second orphan, "Less". (In the movie the child is a baby and Gladys calls her, Sixpence).

When the Japanese invaded China, Gladys took 100 orphans into the mountains to escape. They walked for 12 days before arriving at the Yellow River, with no way to cross. "Why don't we cross?" the children asked. "There are no boats." They said, "God can do anything. Ask Him to get us across.". They all knelt and prayed. Then they sang. Their singing was heard by a Chinese officer and patrol who found them a boat and got them across the river safely.

Gladys continued her mission to help the people and orphans of China, until her death in 1970.