Dear Ms Soon,
We are pleased to inform you that through your support and help from other child sponsors, Phu Cu ADP has achieved significant progress since the programme started in 1999. It has now achieved self-sustainability and no longer requires further assistance from World Vision. A total of 88,164 people in Phu Cu ADP now enjoy life in fullness.
Thi Hue, too, is now ready to brace the future with renewed hope, faith and confidence. With your help, Thi Hue has been healthy and strong, and has also gained an academic foundation, increasing her chances of financial independence in the future. Meanwhile, her family has gained sufficient living and economic skills to continue to care for Thi Hue. If you wish to write a farewell letter to Thi Hue, kindly do so by 21 October 2011.
...
Once again, on behalf of the children and families in Phu Cu ADP, we thank you for your kindness and love towards the underprivileged. May God bless you richly!
Can I tell you that I have never felt anything like this before?
It's so hard to describe: the feeling that you have TRULY given life to someone else. I mean, when I sponsored the programme these past 5 years, I knew I was making a difference in someone's life. But knowing that THAT person has grown her own wings and is able to stand on her own two feet - that's a whole different ball game. That's the TRUE meaning of giving life to someone else.
I'm over the moon, knowing that I've contributed in helping her village become self-sutainable. It's beautiful.
Of course, this was interrupted by profound sadness when I realized that my little girl has grown up, and I might never speak to or see her again. This was her 5 years ago:

And in May this year when I visited her:
The journey's been incredible. I have a whole box of the letters she wrote to me which I will keep forever. I still have that beautiful drawing she did for me.
I'm gonna be leaving my contact details in the last, farewell letter I'll be writing to her over the weekend. You never know when life is going to throw you a little surprise 20 years down the road. :)
GOSH, I feel like a mother seeing her kid go off to college, but prematurely 30 years before my time. OMG THIS IS SO SADDDDDDDDDD
But the end of one journey always leads to the start of another one. World Vision sent me the picture of my NEW sponsored child!! Meet 4-year-old Ruth from Zambia, everybody!

I don't remember being able to write letters when I was 4... (although I DID walk home from kindergarten by myself when I was 4, because I didn't want to wait for my grandma, and my parents just freaked out that I did that.) In any case, I can't wait for her first letter!
GO ADOPT A KID FROM WORLD VISION! Nette just did and she got a girl from Cambodia!! Yayness.
Try to walk a mile in my kicks.

Farewell, Hue; Hello, Ruth
