Some of you may heard me talk about this dear family before. The Li’s are some of our closest local friends here. We first met the wife (Xiao Ying) in March of 2002 and we became fast friends. Her and her husband (Xiao Li) had a little girl (Li Ying Yue) who was about 3 at the time. They have been a very big part of our family since we have lived in Asia. They are really strong believers, and are such an encouragement to us. Back in March of 2008, they were blessed with another beautiful daughter, En Ci. Before En Ci was born, they found out that she would have several severe heart defect and would likely not live long at all. They weren’t sure if she would even survive for an hour. Despite the advice of many doctors who were telling Xiao Ying to abort her, they chose the hard, loving road and gave En Ci life! She was born on March 3, 2008 and stayed in the hospital for several weeks.
The doctors here didn’t really give them much info and they hardly knew what her life would be like (or how long her life would be)…but they loved and cared for her so tenderly. It wasn’t unusual for Xiao Li to go to the hospital at 5am to get in line to see the pediatric cardiologist who only sees patients one morning each month.
After her short, but impactful life, En Ci died last July 24th. Since her death, her parents have continued to shine for Jesus. They have trusted in the Lord like no one I’ve ever seen. They know He is faithful and good, but miss their daughter as much as anyone who has lost a child does. They are so generous. While En Ci was sick they saw people they had never met (and will never meet) give them thousand of dollars to help their daughter. About 5 days after En Ci died they came to us and wanted to return all the money that was given to them to help with her surgery (that she never had). They had every dime that was given to them, and didn’t want to use any of it to pay for her other hospital bills…they only wanted the money to go towards what it was given for…a surgery. I wanted to share their story with you so that you can pray for them over the next few days. It was 1 year ago that En Ci went to be with Jesus. Please pray that God will allow them to grieve for her, and continue to heal their hearts.
This was their family’s last family picture before En Ci died.