From our guest blogger, MoZiLLa…

Obviously, Tess and I have returned from our WTE with Tess functioning in the capacity as Table Leader/facilitator and me as a Pilgrim.  And now comes the dilemma….. I want to share absolutely everything about the Walk to Emmaus but I won’t because the impact of the Walk is so excellent and so profound that it is best experienced with no foreknowledge of what is to come.  That was how I did it, as did pretty well everyone, and I believe it to be the way to go.  What I will share is that this was a Christian spiritual experience, the like of which was utterly unique, from which I emerged truly blessed by God.  So!!  suffice to say that in addition to seeing The Painted Veil I recommend even more passionately that the WTE is a must-do Retreat. (Left: Blake taking the kids to SWCK school on one of his first mornings in Hong Kong.)

When it wound down Sunday at 5 PM who appeared at Mary Knoll (Catholic Monastery) but my darling Blake, Charles and the four children.  What a precious sight that was.  We wee-wee/d the triplets while Charles did the impossible of effectively packing up the 7 seater van with luggage, 2 pillows, 1 mattress, swimming supplies (used by C, B, and the children at the Club that Sunday afternoon) – and then the 8 of us slid in and drove home. (Left: Blake & Charles on Friday morning at a Christian breakfast atop the HSBC headquarters while Tess & MoZiLLa were at Mary Knoll.)

A bath never felt so good; Tess, I think, had a bath and was out cold before you even knew she was missing; the children crashed quickly as they too had had a busy busy day; Blake was exhausted from his weekend duties as grandfather (and busy they were – Charles and Blake took the children, along with Lita and De for crowd control!, to Kowloon and it was apparently the worst Charles ever experienced with LITERALLY EVERYBODY in their faces) so Blake too was in bed and gone after continuing his culinary skills for his dinner and preparing Kraft Dinner  🙂  This left Charles and me.  And we talked long into the night about his WTE and mine.  Rich indeed.

Today is a holiday, although Tuesday.  Charles has to go to work unfortunately as he is finishing up at Juniper and last day will be Friday. He is then taking a month OFF! yipppeeeee! and June 1st begins a new job with Citrix – as HR Director for Asia Pacific.  They are blessed to have him.  He and Blake are meeting up this afternoon and bravely heading back to Kowloon for some fittings for shirts and suits, etc.  And Tess and I are packing up the children and taking them back to the beach with 200 steps AND WILL NOT BE GROCERY SHOPPING AFTER!!  The unbelievably wonderful Lita and De have the day off and in typical fashion asked if that would be alright for them to have the day off or ‘were they needed to work?’ – they are treasures.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!  Blake and I will be up early and out the door, catch a taxi to the intown Airporter Train Check-in, and a short 1/2 hour ride to the airport.  We leave for Hanoi (I just checked weather and it is supposed to be showers and thunderstorms the 3 days we are there!).  We plan on a great deal of walking through the French quarter, seeing the many famous sites as well as a day trip to Halong Bay which is world renowned for its beauty – 3,000 islands dotting an emerald bay… might be interesting in a thunderstorm!  We depart for Hoi An (just south of Danang) on Saturday the 5th for another 3 days.  There are many old temples and beautiful beaches along with the historic "China Beach" near Danang for our viewing and exploring pleasure.    On the 8th we embark on the final Vietnam stage of the journey to Ho Chi Minh city where once again we will walk and drink in this different world.  My priority while there is a boat trip along parts of the Mekong Delta – again, a part of history not to be missed.

May 11 we depart from Ho Chi Minh and instead of returning to HK as originally planned a new surprising ‘gift’ has evolved.  We are flying to Phuket via Bangkok and will meet up with the 6 Caldwells for 6 nights at a resort.  This is the triplets first Asian holiday and should be a not-to-be-missed experience.  This resort has a Kid’s Club and if the triplets are considered too young for the Club there are babysitters so Tess and Charles should actually be able to relax and recharge their own batteries a little.  We all return to HK on the 17th – Blake and I are on a different flight and will not arrive back in the flat until around midnight); next day is the final day to run last minute errands (ie:  Blake to Kowloon to pick up his shirts) while that evening Blake has a most important function to attend – it is "Father’s Night" at Small World – the four children’s school – he, Charles and two adopted fathers for the evening are attending the soiree so that each child has a ‘father’ at their side who will "ooooh and ahhhhh" at their wonderful works of art, etc.  Blake’s eyes will be brimming as you can imagine.  Amazingly that is it! and the following day we climb on the plane for our flight back to Canada.

So my dear family and friends, until we are next in contact – may God continue to bless each of you.

Love from

Maureen and Blake