The Gift of My Oldest Son

“I have a gift for you.” Ping-Hwei often says this to me, and it is always true. More than that, he is a gift from God.

If Ping-Hwei tells me, “Open your mouth,” I always trust that he will give me something yummy to eat. Other times when he tells me he has a gift, it always is, maybe the cat to hold, a toy or candy he or Murray has bought for me; it’s always something good.

Ping-Hwei was fourteen when he joined our family. He was homeless before he came to the children’s home in Taiwan, The Home Of God’s Love, which gave us all our sons. He was about ten at that time, had been living in the streets, and would never tell them anything about his family or anything else about his life before that.

He spoke very little English when he came to us, but in a few months’ time, he would no longer speak Chinese. This may be because of his disability; we’re not sure.

Although in many ways, he is childlike, in other ways he is quite capable. Murray says God has given Ping-Hwei the gift of finding things. When something is lost to everyone else in our home, Ping-Hwei is often able to locate it. We call him “the finding man.”

He insists on having a newspaper in our house; in fact he purchases it for us. He loves to check sports scores and is quick about finding ads for sales for things we need.

Ping-Hwei is a capable user of his smart phone, Kindle, and computer. He loves photographs and will often tell Murray, “Take a picture,” whether it is of a family member, cat or dog, a special dish we’re having for dinner, or something we’ve discovered on a TRIP.

He is a joker. He loves to hide things from people, especially Murray.

Once we were visiting my mother, and Murray left the dinner table for a couple of minutes. Ping-Hwei grabbed Murray’s plate and hid it in the refrigerator.

My mom said, “Don’t hide your dad’s food,” but I said, “No, no, this is a fun thing.”

Recently, Ping-Hwei said our cat Eli scratched him. He picked Eli up the next evening and said, “Kitty, don’t scratch me. Next time I’ll cook you for dinner.”

I’ll tell you how I know Ping-Hwei loves me.

Murray was out of town for a couple of days not long ago. One morning I woke up and realized I’d forgotten to make coffee the night before. When I got downstairs, I found that Ping-Hwei had the coffee all ready for me to turn on.

And he doesn’t drink coffee.

Ping-Hwei loves church, and he’s made many friends at church over the years with his huge smile and love of jokes.

He also enjoys his birthday. He will be 36 on July 1, and he has been planning his celebration for months.

I thank God for the 22 years of joy he has given me so far with my son Ping-Hwei.