June 1 is Child Day in China

A couple days ago, I received the following in an email from Emma's foster mother in China, Jing Yan:

May 28, 2008
Hi
Greeting to all of you! Children Day is coming (in China it is June 1st) , I express good wishes to you (my little baby girl) ahead of time. I hope you are happy and have a great time on your day. This is your first Children Day in America . I hope you will have a wonderful memory of this day in the future. We sent gifts to you for your Children day. They are a small sweater and a necklace with jade. I hope you like them.

Love you forever,
Chinese mother: Jing Yan


Emma had a wonderful foster mother who loved her very much, and we are so grateful for the care she gave to our precious little girl her first year and ahalf of life. Jing Yan was exposed to the gospel during her training to foster children - please pray that one day she will be saved.

I googled Child Day to learn a little about it, and here is what I found:

People's Republic of China
In the People's Republic of China, Children's Day is celebrated on June 1 and is formally known as "the June 1st International Children's Day" (Simplified Chinese: 六一国际儿童节). When the People's Republic of China was first established in 1949, the State Council (Cabinet) designated a half-day holiday for all primary schools on June 1st. This was later made into a full day's break in 1956 with The Announcement by the State Council to make June 1st Children's Day a One-Day Holiday[1]. Schools usually hold activities such as camping trips or free movies on Children's Day to allow students to have fun, and children of civil servants might also receive small gifts from the government. Entrance ceremonies of the Young Pioneers of China (similar to boy scouts in the West) are usually held on June 1st as well.However on 1/6/08 the day was made even more memorable,as many people remembered the childrens who died in the earthquake just a few weeks ago.

Please continue to pray for the families who lost children in the earthquake on May 12, and for those children orphaned.

Here is a slide show of our sweet Emma Grace SiQi on her first Children's Day in America. We hope her foster mother knows how special she is to us for the love and care she gave to our daughter, and how much we love this little girl!!