I want Milk

Is it 8:30AM or PM?.. and I'm STILL in bed after a few sleepless restless hours due to bad food. Thank God, it's AM. I do feel a little better than I did yesterday, but I just don't want to get up. I need a cup of daddy milk (term coined by my son which refers to coffee) to keep my eyes open and my brain charge. It's raining outside, and I know I have to clean up the room - and vacuum the rest of the house. I really don't mind doing it. It's just the 'getting started' part I don't like.

In Hong Kong all the reports from the latest MRI shows progress upon grandpa's recent bout with brain cancer and he is recovering slowly. Despite his illness, grandpa is still recommending grandma and mommy on where to buy milk for the little grandson. He seems determined to find the right milk for him. Our little guy seems to have developed a very selective taste toward milk in Hong Kong. I guess it's because the milk there is not as fresh tasting as the ones here. As funny as it sounds, there are simply no cows in Hong Kong. There's barely enough room for humans and let alone cows. All the milk comes from the northern border in China. As a result, grandpa's refrigerator is full of unwanted different kinds of branded milk and now just two more days, my wife and son will be heading back home here in the States. Right now, they are busy shopping up a storm in Hong Kong. My wife has decided to boost the local economy in Hong Kong and claims it will have a spiral effect toward US economy since it's a GLOBAL economy. I threathen to change the ATM card code but she was several steps quicker than me.

The recent earthquake and numerous aftershocks have spurred a daily breaking news on the local Hong Kong TV's. My son's eyes have been glued to the recent imageries of building collapses and the damages this natural disaster has caused. A few stories really caught our attention and made us realize how fortunate we are but yet we still take things for granted. How short lived our time can be in an instant. One of the stories was about a group of nine friends who saw the devastation on TV decided to pack up their cars full of food and supplies and made the 10 hour drive to deliver the aids. It's been over 20 days and people say these 9 friends are still there doing whatever they can to help.



The body of a woman was found trapped under the rubbles of a building, one of the hardest hit areas. Her knees were on the ground and her hands pushed up against her body. A rescuer checked her pulse through a crack and confirmed she was dead. He banged on the rubbles and called out a few times, just to see if there was any sign of life. He got no reply. When he was just about to move on, he suddenly realized something. He quickly came back to the woman, checked again under her body. He felt a baby. After much effort, rescuers found a 3 or 4-month old baby wrapped in a red and yellow blanket, laying unharmed under his mom's dead body. He was still sleeping quietly when he was found.

A doctor immediately checked the boy. He then found a cell phone stuck inside the baby's blanket. There was a short message on the screen: "Dear babe, if you could live on, you must remember that I loved you."



Another story involves a female cop with a local Sichuan county who just gave birth to a son less than 6 months ago.

After the quake, many babies lost their parents, and some moms were seriously injured and couldn't take care of their own babies. The first and second floor of a local Hospital have been designated to care for these earthquake babies. Volunteer moms care for them 24 hours, talk to them, clean them and feed them. Saddened by the cryings of these lonesome babies, this female cop name Jiang was determined to help more.

She said: "I'm going to breast feed these babies!" The news that someone is providing breastfeeding spread around fast. Many people lined up for the service. In one picture posted, Jiang was seen feeding two babies at the same time, while she gently talked to a baby: "Eat slowly, baby, good boy..."

After watching this news story, my son decided to finish all the milk in the refrigerator along with some help from mommy and use the 18 hour flight back home to count his blessings. He also said, he wanted to go to Si Chuan and BOOM BOOM away the earthquake. He also wanted to buy the victims shoes and Kentucky Fried chicken. I am glad at a tender age of almost 5, he was able to make a lesson in all of these sadness.