A PEARL OF GREAT PRICE...

At best, sleep is difficult for me but there must be some things that simply know when to strike up the band, so to speak. Such as??? Our close ties to China; we try not to make that our 24/7 topic of each day...but...BUT.

Since China has been celebrating their New Year, I've heard from 'my favorite' ~ my special girl...Pearl. Orlando Bloom said, "People come into your life and people leave it...you just have to trust that life has a road mapped out for you."

Ta-Dah...enter Pearl... Pearl was enlisted as 'my helper'...and our Girl Friday in Qingdao. She had good English skills and we became wonderful friends.

One day she said she wanted to ask me a hard question; I said I'd try to answer...'H ow do you feel about couples living together when they aren't married'?

Mmm...I told her to remember that she asked me ~ I didn't stick my nose in. Okay...I said I didn't personally think it was wise and I didn't think the one I call Father would approve. She said, "I knew that's what you'd say." She had a boyfriend, Yizhu...a Korean businessman about her age.

Fast forward...in December 2004, Michael and I returned to the U.S....Pearl and Yizhu were on again, off again. On a return trip to Qingdao, Pearl was immersed in our bathtub. Piece of cake!

Time passed and Pearl wrote that she was expecting Yizhu's child and they were to be married...these things are prevalent there as well as everywhere else. The big hang-up in this scenario was that Yizhu was/is an alcoholic and also a serious diabetic which he doesn't manage...sad.

They had two weddings...both traditional. Korean and Chinese. Her family farms in a small village out of Qingdao. Yizhu's family lives in South Korea.

I'm including two e-mails I've received from Pearl this month.

"Hi: it is snowing heavely here. we are all very exicted about that. I am so agree with little things could occupy the biggest

part of those hearts. (I sent her my post about Little Things)...

the letters you wrote to me, the cross you gave to me, :behavor yourself' michael told me so before he left China...those little things leads me to God which occupy the biggest part of my heart now...i am trying to do these little things to people around me, share what i have,,although I am so poor now. have a good day. dear...you have no idea how much i missed u. pearl."

I answered quickly and also attached some of our new family pictures: quick reply from her:

"hi: dear vasca and michael, i have to say you too both look great in your new year clothes...especial, vasca, you look fabulous in red...you must be on a diet or something, your face is shining.

I read your letter a couples of times, feel you are talking to me again and again, which makes my day. i am getting ready to go outside and challenge myself again. if things are not going well here, maybe I will go to korea to see how much I can do there, due we don't have much money left in our bank and yizhu's business is not doing well.

i know what i need and who could satisfy me,

that is god and i should listen to you at the very bigining.

i don't have internet at home...

but i could check it somewhere else...

so teach me...vasca, how to be happie

and how to raise my smart Olivia well. love pearl"

So here we have my heart...and Pearl's heart...we came into each other's lives, we remain there because it's meant to be...because? It's part of a plan...The plan.

Andre Gide wrote...

"Man cannot discover new oceans

unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Wonderful Father...how I thank you for giving me

the opportunity and the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Balanced and unafraid? Progressing...