Mother of 300

(This is a very touching story summarised from the Catholic News, vol 59.)

Huynh Tieu Huong, an orphan girl, spent her younger days living on trains and at train stations. She moved from one foster home to another, some being kind to her, others abusive.

During the gold rush, she was employed by a slave driver who beat her until she fell unconscious. She became so afraid that she ran into the forest and finally reached Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. She struggled all alone for survival in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

While roaming the streets, she adopted a child, a baby girl she named Anh Dao. Many times, Huynh contemplated suicide, but the cries of her daughter made her change her mind because she did not want her daughter to be left alone like her.

Huynh then befriended a Taiwanese man who was kind to her and provided a place for her and the daughter to stay. Hunyh then realised that the Taiwanese had ulterior motives. He wanted her body. Hunyh then threatened suicide and the Taiwanese, as a final gesture of kindness, gave her 20 ounces of gold. With this, she bought herself a house which she later sold for a good profit.

She then became business minded. She worked as an estate agent and opened a car rental service. She used the money she earned to help more homeless children. One thing that saddened her was whenever she saw children being physically abused or being made to steal.

In 2001, Que Huong Charity centre, an association for disabled children and orphans in Vietnam received its permit to operate from the Vietnamese authorities. Today, there are 300 children living at the centre and they regard Hunyh as their mother.

Over the years, Hunyh has cared for about 4000 children, some handicapped, in over 60 provinces and towns.

Hunyh has been a blessing to so many children and so too, the children have blessed her.

Today, Hunyh is no more lonely and desolate. She has so many children and they all call her 'Mummy'

Just after the turn of the millenium, Hunyh was diagnosed with cancer. Today, she is still strong and lives on.

As a natural mother who worries about her children's future, her main concern is that when she is no more around, her children would still have a place to live.
She says " For as long as I am not dead, I must help the children and raise them.

We all have something to learn from her. She is a true mother for all of us to follow.

Again we had another Family weekend.

I am sure you all had a nice family weekend. One thing I am sure is my daughter's family of bears had a happy weekend together. Always remember that weekends must be spent with the whole family, may it be a big family or a small family. Your weekend lunches and dinners, all with your family.
Did you have any sort of outings? It does not matter if you had not planned one. The whole family could have weekend activities in the home itself. Walks in the garden, maybe some gardening together, a game of monopoly or some board games. All these brings the family closer and closer.

Build up a real close knit family. That is what the weekends are for.
The greatest asset anyone could have is a happy family.

A Family Battle to win back your children

What is happening to our children today? The media influence has become the guiding force for our children. Are the parents losing the control over their own children? Do you all agree that the media force is slowly taking over our children?

Sex, foul language, violence, homosexuality, rapes and drugs, to mention some of the few, are considered as a normal way of life as pictured in the media today. These are what our children are exposed to.

Fortunately, all is not lost. There are ways where the parents can still be the main force to mould their children to have a family with good values.

Most importantly, love your children.

It is not enough just to tell them that you love them. Show your love to them, express your feelings to them.

Show a genuine interest in your children.

This does not mean that you have to shower them with money or expensive goods. These are only of material value which eventually fades. They need something more genuine, they need you.

Communicate with your children.

Giving endless instructions or nagging at them is not communication. Engage in good conversation with them. Talk to them, listen to what they have to say. Have a pleasant and happy union with them. Make them enjoy your company.

Add humor to your family's life.

Parents, generally tend to be serious with their children. Shed off this serious outlook. Try to have a perpetual smile on your face. In this way, when you talk to your children, they in turn will see a nice pleasant face and this will light their faces in return. A beautiful smile can be contagious. Laugh with them, joke with them. This will be like a magic wand that will fill the home with happiness.

Be directly involved in your children's lives.

Know your children, their likes, their dislikes. Know their friends whom they mix with. This will give you some assurance when they are out with their friends. Monitor their school progress. Once you win their hearts, they will always turn to you to solve any of their personal problems.

Monitor your children's media.

This is very important because it is the media that you are fighting with. The media, on the other hand, is also moulding your children their way.

Monitor your children on what type of programs they watch on TV. There is a lot of sex and violence in our TV programs and this can influence them. They may look at it as a norm of today.

See what they surf on the internet. The internet today has a lot of good information as well as bad. It is always a good practice to have your computers in the living room where the computer screen is visible to all.

Again, care needs to be taken as to how you control the media. Do not set rigid rules as to make the home environment to become serious and gloomy. You need to give them some space, yes everyone needs his own space. Some tolerance also needs to be practiced.

Family Celebrations

Hi Families, let's talk about the various family occasions or functions. We have the birthdays, the anniversaries, mother's day and father's day etc..etc.
Do you all celebrate each of these functions in your family?
Oh, please make it a point to do so. A lot of families have this habit of celebrating the birthdays of all the members in the family. That's wonderful! Keep on doing it.

Celebrating of birthdays should start from the time your children are small and should be followed right through their adulthood. The mums and dads too should likewise, have their birthdays celebrated.

We also have other significant days like the parents' wedding anniversaries, probably the graduation day of one of the family members.
Make it a point to have family celebrations. You will notice how the family becomes close during a family celebration. Certainly, these family functions builds up the family bond to make the family stay together.

A birthday can be simple with just a birthday cake and with some additional goodies. It can be kept just within the family circle. This has an advantage for all the family members to stay close with one another.

Family Celebrations brings the families closer. Have fun in your family.

A Family weekend

Hi to all families. Today is Sunday 8th November.
It is the end of another weekend. So did you all spend your weekends together as a family?
Remember, it is always important to have your lunch or dinner together as a family. Have fun together, communicate and interact with one another. Families tend to become close-knit in this way.

Have weekend outings together. Did you all do this? I guess you all did. A refreshed and happy family weekend will give you a good start on a Monday. Try this. It's true!

Look at this Happy Family in the picture above.

Family Health and Family happiness

A Healthy Family means a happy family

You have a beautiful family, right? So you can enjoy health activities with them. Go for family walks, have a family game in your own garden. What about family gardening? Yes, mow the grass together, do some flower planting, beautify the garden and ask for ideas from your young minds. You will be surprised at the type of creativity that is in the minds of your children.
This kind of family activities will bring the family closer and build close relationship and love within the children.
In the last post, I mentioned about closeness within the children is of utmost importance.

Keep the whole family healthy at all times. Some health tips for the family are listed below :

Move More
Get your family involved in physical activities. This should be carried out regularly.
Remember the word ' regularly '

Maintain a Healthy Weight
Your physical activities should help your family achieve this.

Eat a balanced diet
This is self explanatory.

Reduce stress
Take plenty of time, especially during the weekends, to have leisure activities. Remember, even children can suffer from stress. Show a lot of affection to your children. Be close to them and give them the assuring comfort.

Take Quality Nutritional Supplements
Today, there are plenty of good supplements both for the adults and children.

Put Out the Cigarette
For heavens sake, quit that habit if you smoke. A bad influence to your growing children. Children tend to take after their parents. What the parents do is generally right for them.

Keep an Optimistic Outlook
Have a positive mental approach. Happy people have lower chances of becoming ill. And being happy makes one feel good.

To conclude, Healthy family means happy family.

Closeness within Family members

This post targets those mums and dads who have two or more children.

Observe your children carefully as they grow up with regards to their relationship with each other. Ensure that they are always close to each other. Apart from their family relationship, they should also treat each other as the best of friends. They should enjoy each others company and have good communication with each other. Always keep an eye on them to make sure no strained relationship is seen to be building up between them.

Good and loving children relationship will lead to a happy family. Parents should quickly interfere if they sense any form of misunderstandings exist between their children.

The children make up the core of the family.

Happy children, Happy family.

Stay-at-home dads

Ahhhh...... Not to forget the stay-at-home dads as well. This may be a common ocurence nowadays. I am sure you have all heard the term ' quality time with the family'. This is exactly what the stay-at-home dads are trying to achieve, I hope.
Please for heavens sake don't take this as an excuse to stay at home and while away your time uselessly. For the stay at home dads and mums, there are several things you can do to earn money as well as keep yourself busy. Never remain idle. Why? An idle mind is a devils workshop.

Do you like to do something intelligent? Read thro' the advertisement at the right hand side of this blog. There is one very interesting opportunity for stay-at-home family members. This is an intellectual job where you can write articles for others. Click the link to read more. Earn some money online.

Keeping yourself occupied at home is important. This shall be discussed in later posts

Quality time with the family in Family Haven