Challenge #4 - I Hope For You As I Hope For Me

This week, we are honoured to be joined by our first official Pen Pal of the Week: Jing-Jing Nickel. Over the coming 2 weeks we will be getting to know Jing-Jing a little better but for now, I'm guessing you are all dying to know what exciting challenge she has for us ... so I'll get straight to it! Over to Jing-Jing:

Dear PenPal readers,
This week, I challenge you to document one of your hopes, be it for you, or someone else, journal it, scrap it, write it, print it, consume it...

My journaling reads:

I hope you will like traveling as much as I do.

Your Nagong and Nabu took me traveling at a young age when I was a little girl. At that time in China, people stayed put where they lived and worked. Traveling for fun was pretty much unheard of, but Nagong and Nabu thought it important for me to see the world and to expand my horizon. By the time I was a second grader, I had already been to several destinations including the Yellow Mountains, deemed to be the most beautiful of all Chinese mountains. For that trip, Nagong and Nabu spent nearly two months’ of their combined salaries (probably around $10 back then). Nagong had to carry most of our food on his back, ascending 3000 feet in altitude! Through their careful cultivation, they instilled in me an untamable heart to see the world and its wonders God-made or men-built.

I have come a long ways since my childhood. I have lived a few surreal moments when I finally came face to face with that which was only in my dreams. So I hope you will want to see the world like I do. I hope your hearts forever long for that next destination, that great valley, that awesome mountain, and that immortal structure. I hope you will write about your travels, document your journeys, scrapbook your photos. I hope you will grow up to be travel partners to each other, to dad and me, and to the lucky men who will be your spouses. I hope I will be there always, in person and/or in spirit to cheer you on in exploring this wondrous world of ours. I hope for you as I hope for me, that you will like traveling as much as I do.

I'm sooooo excited about this challenge & will be posting mine soon. Are you ready to take the challenge? E-mail your entry, be it a layout, card, altered project or a humble writing sample by midnight Thursday September 25 to have your entry featured on our blog & to be in with a chance of becoming our next PPOTW (Pen Pal of the Week). Go on, you know you want to!