Your First Christmas

My Dearest Olivia,

Christmas is traditionally time for family reunions and we are so happy to have you and your parents visiting us in Hong Kong. Though it is incomplete without your uncles Al and Rob and Anut Lillian, we share the same spirit of togetherness and give thanks to our Heavenly Father for giving us such a tightly bonded family.

As Christians we celebrate Christmas in remembrance of the coming of Jesus Christ to the world to redeem us, but Christmas Day carries an additional meaning for us because it is also our wedding anniversary. This year marks our 39th anniversary and your first Christmas.

Of course it is also the first time you meet Tai Tai, your Great Grand Mother who is 96 years old. It is a big big blessing for an elderly person to see great grandchildren. Just look at the picture and you can see her joy. Tai Tai is not only a wonderful mother but also a loving grandmother as your Daddy and uncles will tell you. I am sure she loves and cherishes you dearly too.

Your 3-week visit brought everyone here a lot of happiness and laughter, and sweet memories that will last for a long time. You may be too young to remember where we spent our happy times, but the photo albums and video clips will bear witness to the enjoyable trips we made and the wonderful people we met and spent time with.

You often smile and show affection to people. I hope it is an indication of your pleasant personality that you have inherited from your parents. You would find it a valuable gift and an important key to building good relationships with people when you grow up.

How we wish you could stay longer. May the Lord be with you and keep you. Have a safe trip home. I am sure when we see you next time, you would have learnt many new tricks that will bring us more joy and laughter!

Love always,
Grandpa

Have and Have Not

My Dearest Olivia,

Even people in the street admire you as a beautiful, cute, sweet and lovely baby. While we are grateful that you have the good looks, the more valuable gift from God is that you are loved and cherished by so many people. It makes you a happy and contented baby. 

But do you know that in this world many children were born into poverty, deficiency, hunger, sickness and suffering? While you are always warmly clothed, surrounded by toys and enjoy nutritious meals prepared by your parents, hundreds and thousands of children your age out there are barely clothed, have no toys and go to bed, if they are lucky enough to have one, in hunger. 

This morning I was so pleased to receive an email from your Uncle Rob. He wrote to all family members:

Greetings Lams...
 
Before everyone jumps the gun and feels the urge to be festive and buys Christmas gifts, Lil and I want to initiate a new family tradition. Alex, Ivy, Lil and I did this last year and we think this is a great, meaningful and also practical way to share our love with each other and with the world by all pitching in a donation to a charity like world vision instead of putting gifts under each others' trees here.... 

Wow, I was impressed. Thanking God for our abundant gifts and remembering the poor and needy in our prayers are not sufficient. The Bible teaches us to put our love and concerns for them into action (James 2:15-17):

15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

It is our fervent prayer that you will grow up to be a charitable person. Beauty may pass away, but love never fails.

Love always,

Grandpa

Praise and Sing

My Dearest Olivia,

What a wonderful feeling to have you sleeping in my lap for one and a half hour this morning in the church nursery!  

You were such a lovely and adorable baby, so quiet and well behaved during the worship. At the beginning you were attentively watching your parents leading the congregation to praise and sing. I didn't know if you recognized your Daddy's voice through the microphone, but you were listening very carefully and seemed to understand that we were giving our praise to God with music, songs and prayers. When I softly hummed to the music, you relaxed comfortably and fell asleep in no time.

Olivia you must remember that it is a great blessing to be born into a Christian family and having parents who set you good examples of giving praise to God. Your home is always filled with the sound of music. Certainly we hope you have inherited some musical genes and would start your music lessons at a young age. Whether you are singing or playing instruments, you will learn that music is not only for personal enjoyment, but also a powerful tool to help your spiritual growth. Make good use of this gift and dedicate it to praise and worship, and you will always walk in His path with peace, joy, faith, hope and love.

Love always,

Grandpa

Love and Care

My Dearest Olivia,

Perhaps by the time you understand the meaning of "someone was born with a silver spoon in her mouth", you might not think that you were born that way. Yes, at the time of your birth your parents were not rich enough to afford giving you luxury items that money could buy, but they have given you all their love and care that no money could ever guarantee. Being born into a wealthy family is not necessarily a true blessing, but having loving and caring parents is certainly a precious gift from above.

You were lucky enough to be born at a time of peace in an affluent society. On the contrary, I was a war time baby, born in enemy occupied territory. Nevertheless I have no complaints, because it was a blessing in disguise. Only under such poor circumstances of extreme suffering, poverty and hardship would parental love shine out even more. Despite the lack of material provisions my parents took good care of me and provided me with all I needed to survive and grow up to be the person I am. When the war was over my father had no choice but to leave home and his loved ones to seek jobs in another city. My mom was left alone to shoulder most of the responsibilities of looking after me, a not very healthy baby, day and night. She suffered from so many scary incidents like having to rush me to emergency, and worrying about the shortage of medical care that was required to save my life. They seldom told me what they went through, I only learn about the details not long ago when my mother handed me a bunch of old correspondence between them during that period. I read those letters that were already turning yellow with age, discovering how great parental love could be. 

For all those I owe them so much that there is hardly anything I could do to repay them, except to become the same loving and caring parent myself. However, my challenge was much less severe, as your Dad and uncles were not born in such difficult times. Anyway, I am happy that your Dad has inherited what we value in our family - to love and care for our children.

So one day, my dearest Olivia, when you become a mother, it is your turn to demonstrate that you too have inherited this good tradition of our family.

Love always,

Grandpa

Family and Values

My Dearest Olivia,

I know it will be some years before you could read and understand these letters. Yet I choose to start writing them now because these are words that I'd like to share not only with you, but also your parents, uncles and aunts, so that they'll know and understand more about our family history as well as the principles and values upheld by us and our ancestors. Olivia you are the first member of the 26th generation of our Lam Family, and I wish to dedicate these letters to you, my beloved first granddaughter. I do hope you would treasure them by the time you are old enough to understand, and appreciate your grand parents' love and affection for all of you.

Let us begin with the family dinner on June 5. You were eaxctly one month old and it was also your Uncle Al's birthday. The dinner celebration meant a lot to all of us. You can see and feel the joy of family reunion from the photograph above, which was actually the first family picture taken since last year, 2007.


Olivia you were born into a family of strong ties between its members. Though grandma and I are living in Hong Kong, far away from your parents and uncles, the ties between us never weaken. No distance nor anything could separate us because of the bond of love. Our love for you began at the moment your Daddy told us on the phone that your Mom was pragnant. We were delighted by the news of your birth. Regretfully we were not in Toronto when your were born, but our hearts were filled with thanksgiving and warm memories of the births of your Daddy, Uncles Al and Rob when we were looking at your lovely baby pictures online. We were pleasantly surprised by the thoughtfulness of your parents in bringing you to greet us at the airport on May 31st. Grandma and I were both overwhelmed with joy at the first sight of our first granddaughter. You were so tiny and cute!

We spent the following two weeks in joy and laughter, admiring the beauty of God's creation of man as we watched every little movement of yours. You were absolutely surrounded by the love of your parents, uncles and aunts. It is a true blessing of God for one to grow up in a family of love. In our family, love for one another comes first and foremost.

With love comes sacrifice. No matter how reluctant I was to leave you, I had to return to Hong Kong to fulfill my duties and obligations as a son to my mom, your Great Grandma. She took good care of me when I was a baby, in exactly the same loving manner grandma took care of your Dad and your parents of you. Olivia, in our family love is passed down from one generation to the next. It keeps us closely bonded together.

Next time I'll tell you more about me when I was a baby like you.

Love always,
Grandpa

Old and New

My Dearest Olivia,

On this first day after the first month since your birth, I decide to write my first letter to you, my first granddaughter.

As the Bible says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." You were born at the time when I was about to retire from my over three decades of working in higher education. Though there is an age difference of 64 years between us, we have this in common - we are both starting a new life in the year 2008. For every baby coming into this world, the new life is God given. So is the post-retirement new life of a God's child. You see, as you experience new things everyday and gradually grow up under the loving care of your parents, I am also enjoying new grace and blessings coming into my life everyday from our Heavenly Father. Irrespective of our age, old or young, God bestow upon us new blessings as long as we abandon our old ways and renew our lives in Him.

So my beloved Olivia, may I give you my blessings herewith. May God give you faith, hope and love so that you will be walking a life in His path that pleases Him. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Be grateful and give thanks when your path is straight and smooth, and courageously face the future with determined faith and hope when the road is winding and bumpy. Always enjoy the abundant love from your family and God above, and share it with people around you. May God also give you wisdom and knowledge so that you can make discerning judgment about good and evil. Lead a God-fearing life because the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through God your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

Love always,

Grandpa