As many of you know we were lucky enough to meet Henry back in June 2015. At the time he was living in a care home provided by an amazing charity here in Hong Kong called Mother’s Choice. Henry was fortunate enough to live there for 6 months of his life, after spending the first 9 months of his life in hospital, cared only by nurses. Once he moved to Mother’s Choice he found himself surrounded by other children, love, laughter, and care and immediately started to thrive. When he arrived he was what is described as “developmentally delayed”; after arriving at Mother’s Choice and finally being given the chance to be a “normal” child, he began a journey to become the smart, confident, sassy 7 year old he is now.   

When we met him I had to spend 2 weeks as part of the Mother’s Choice family, learning about Henry but also spending time as a volunteer helping with the other kids. It broke my heart that we could only bring Henry home, there were so many other children there that equally deserved loving families. As Henry approaches his 8th birthday he is starting to reflect a lot more on where he came from. We have always been open about his adoption and are grateful that he has friends who are also adopted, some of whom were also at Mother’s Choice, giving him plenty of opportunities to ask so many questions!  

When I asked Henry what presents he would like for his birthday this year, he paused and finally said that actually he didn’t really need anything. So we talked about what else we could do and we decided that instead of presents, he would really like to use that money to give back to kids who don’t have loving families to spoil them. Raising money for Mother’s Choice therefore became his idea and something we want to support.   As Covid finally recedes from Hong Kong we are back in the fortunate position of being able to hold a physical party again this year, having not had one for him for several years. This year we are having a joint party with one of his best friends, Tom, who happens to have a birthday only a few days away from Henry. Tom is also graciously asking his friends to donate money, allowing both our boys the chance to give something back to the community. Henry and Tom would be delighted, therefore, if you would consider donating to this worthy cause in lieu of their birthday present.  

For those of you who aren’t in Hong Kong, more info about Mother’s Choice and the amazing work they do, you can find it here: www.motherschoice.org. In their own words “Mother’s Choice is a local charity serving the many children without families and pregnant teenagers in Hong Kong. We join hands with our community to give hope and change the life stories of vulnerable girls and babies. Our vision is to see every child in a loving family.