Pres and I are very fortunate to have met Mr Tong and extremely grateful to him for welcoming us into his home. We were told that his name Phuoc Phuc translates to “happy” and “lucky.”
We promised we’d cook spaghetti and fried chicken for everybody (Mr Tong and his family, the kids, the pregnant mothers, and the volunteer caregivers) so Tram, Mr Tong’s niece, took us to a nearby market. She’s our interpreter – Mr Tong does not speak English. Thank you very much, Tram!
We went to the market early in the morning to buy ground beef and 5 kilos of chicken!
The kids love soda, said Tram so we bought them 8 bottles!
With Tram and her boy Subin, and some of the volunteer caregivers at the orphanage. Thank you all for being very nice to us!
From our trip to the market, the kids greeted us at the door and gave us some yogurt ice candies! Yum!
Mr Tong wanted us to meet his biological son and daughter; they both came from school that afternoon. Next to Pres is Emily! She’s 12 now and has been helping around the orphanage to tend to the younger kids! Such a lovely young lady – always smiling!
Pres, cooking the spaghetti sauce!
We started preparing at 3pm as the kids typically have their dinner at 530pm!
The kids couldn’t wait! Mr Tong said, first time for the kids to have people over at the orphanage and cook them spaghetti and fried chicken!
Finally dinner was served – at 630pm!!! Pres and I would usually prepare meals for two hahaha! Our first time to cook for over 30 people!
Our strawberry cake! We all loved it! We specifically asked the cakeshop to make sure they write down the Vietnamese translation of our LVE makes life beautiful message at the bottom of the cake so the kids could get to read it! TÌNH YÊU LÀM CUỘC SỐNG TƯƠI ĐẸP!
This is Mr Dhuy (not sure if I got his name right!); he designed our cake! Very nice man!
Mr Tong said we have 3 October birthday celebrants so we had everybody sing the Happy Birthday song – both in Vietnamese and English!
With our October celebrants in their wacky glasses! Happy birthday!
Kids enjoying their cake slice! Very nice to see these young ladies sharing!
This boy loves his photos being taken! So cute!
Kids’ smiles are truly priceless! Two of our girls in pink made themselves their name tags like ours!
“There is nothing more beautiful than when someone goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.” – Mandy Hale