【推荐1】Our little Halle is growing up fast. She will be a fifth grader. This little girl is a ________ from God. She came to our family through adoption(收养).

Imagine the ________ Halle has faced when she came to my family: new rules, new food and a new ________ with two new brothers.

She doesn’t ________ well with her brothers and they may ________, but she knows she is a member of our family. The feelings don’t need ________, and they are shown through hugs (拥抱).

Traditions, holidays, school friends, parties are part of her life now. but her days are ________ without hugs.

I always think about our adoption of Halle. Even with a loving heart, like Halle, we face ________ challenges. Once Halle thought she knew how to swim. She told her brother John about her swimming experience in the sea in Mariupol. But that sea isn’t ________. Halle could walk 50 yards into the water and still ________ the bottom. ________ when she got to the pool for swimming lessons, she jumped right in the deep end. She ________ an important truth immediately – she didn’t know how to ________ .

After a series of ________, I took Halle and the boys to the water park. Halle loved it. The water wasn’t over her head.

While they were near the top of the swimming pool, Halle began ________. The lifeguard(救生员) carried her ________ to the doctor’s. A bee had stung (叮咬) her. The doctor put some ________ on it and said it would be OK. On the way home, Halle was sad and kept   ________. We didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, I held her into my arms and gave her a big hug. She ________ us a smile immediately and from that moment, I ________ she needed hugs more than anything else.

【推荐3】I was with my father at a clinic near his home for a routine blood test. An elderly woman came in and sat on a ________ room chair. She settled into the seat opposite my dad and smiled at him and he smiled back ________. He was 77 years old and had been living with Alzheimer disease for several years. It’s a disease that ________ your loved ones, slowly, day by day and the memory loss is painful and ________.

After a while, she started singing the tune My Heart Will Go On. Since Alzheimer disease also has a(n) ________ to damage a person’s patience, I couldn’t help thinking that this little woman was playing with fire. Her singing began gently. I glanced at Dad to see his ________. His smile was gone, and he was ________ right at her. I couldn’t read his expression initially, but it seemed to be something like ________. I wondered if he was lost somewhere in his memory, or maybe he was trying to figure out whether this was someone he should ________. Slowly, the woman’s singing got louder and her eyes closed with ________. Now Dad looked a little shocked. Still, I watched nervously, noticing the ________ of an angry outburst and was considering my options on how best to ________ in. Instead, his face changed, and the tension ________ in his eyes. He no longer looked confused.

When her song ended and the waiting room became ________, the woman opened her eyes. My dad was still looking directly at her. “That was beautiful,” he said. ________, she smiled and said, “Thank you.”

【推荐2】One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the attractive city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent only a month there _________ English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was _________, the travel experience changed my attitude to _________.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which turned into a multilingual (多语种的) cultural _________ between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives and _________ just how different they were from mine made me look at my own life with a new viewpoint.

One student spoke about the three years he _________ living in a jungle with his dad, where they hunted animals for food in order to _________. Another student told me about her dream of mastering English so that she could _________ a tour guide and have a more stable future. Most importantly, my students showed great passion and appreciation for life that I’d never _________ before.

It was impossible not to feel __________ in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their __________ and the locals showed me again and again that __________ being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up __________ more from my students and the locals there than they did from me. Every time I get __________ about something, I will think of the Peruvians in Cuzco, and I tell myself to __________ complaining.

【推荐3】It all started as I landed at the Toronto airport a day late. My airport was surrounded by flooded streets and all flights were _________ the day before.

At 6 pm, I was tired from a long day of traveling from Texas. To my horror, the rental car service I found on the Internet was _________ ! But I still had a two-hour drive to my lodging! With the _________ of other travelers, I found the area with eight rental car companies.

I asked all the way down and each employee said “Sorry, we are sold out”. The lovely young woman at the last counter I visited really took _________ on me and offered me a set of car keys with a smile!

_________ , the GPS on my phone didn't work. I called my husband and he “navigated” me over the phone in a foreign country as I drove in the _________ . No highway lighting, and for miles no exits. I was tired and hungry and was going in the wrong direction.

Finally I found an exit, turned left and saw a _________ ahead! I had my husband on the _________ still. Just about a mile down the road, there was the “Golden Arches” beacon of McDonalds! I walked in to get food.

My hope for anyone taking sympathy on me was _________ until I saw Mary. I asked for help and it was like I saw an __________ .

“Don't worry, I'll drive you to the highway that will take you straight there. Just __________ me. Where are you staying? I'll get the __________ for you and text them to your phone when I get back home,” she said.

I felt a huge burden lifted from my shoulders because of the kindness of this stranger. She __________ out of her way, for many miles, as I followed, to help me __________ my way.

I will never forget her eagerness to make sure I was going to be OK. My __________ McDonald's Angel, Mary.