Christmas!

It was Jed's first Christmas at home, and he was a bit overwhelmed. We start with stockings in bed, but he had trouble understanding that he could open everything in his stocking, and actually stopped about halfway through, content to scarf down a breakfast bar and watch everyone else. Gus exclaimed with almost every small present that this was "the best one EVER!" My favorite things are the wind-up caterpillars, which the boys mostly ignored until today. If they don't play with them, I will. The hits were the airplanes which make lots of noise when you zoom them.

After breakfast we opened the presents under the tree. That wasn't too overwhelming, since our family presents don't come until 3 Kings' Day, so all that was under the tree was from out-of-town family. Gus feels that the presents should never stop coming, even though today he can't remember half of what he received yesterday. The boys most enjoyed their Philadelphia sports slippers, the Viking-esque ship from their cousins, and the big box from Mike and Sarah. We had some friends over for dinner who are too far from family (Scotland!) to head home, and the 3 boys spent about an hour in and out of the box, yelling "Surprise!!!"

Today we are awaiting around a foot of snow, and will probably have part of tomorrow off to go sledding. Later this week we will go visit Jim's family in Texas, where there will not be enough snow to go sledding.

No More Shots!

Oops, I forgot until now to celebrate online, but the fix to the Hague has finally been passed and signed by the President. Now kids coming home under the new rules can be exempted from shots in China as long as their parents promise to bring them up to date at home on a reasonable schedule. Woohoo!

Monster Ball

It's been a weird eye month, with a scratch in my eye for which I have now seen three opthamologists. The third one actually snorted at the advice the first one gave me. I don't suppose he'll be at that practice for long. The scratch should be healed by now, and next week I have another appointment which will hopefully take the bandaid out of my eye and be fine. I also have rosacea which affects my tear ducts, so that explains the dry eye and eyelid pain I was having. Anyhow...

After one of the first opthamologist appointments, my eyes were still hurting. Jim came home from worship practice to find me with a baseball cap pulled way down over my eyes. "Honey, you look like Gwyneth Paltrow on the way to the grocery store." Glare from screens was especially painful, but since it was movie night I put on the hat and sucked it up. It was Jed's first turn to pick a video, and Gus was not pleased. But then Jed picked Gus's favorite video ever, Robin Hood (with the fox) and all was well. That night they both wanted to wear their new monster pajamas, and I'm pretty sure that Jed picked Robin Hood because of the music in the video, because he's Jed and he loves to dance. Even a sore eye can't dampen how much fun it was to watch both boys in their monster jamas gettin' down together with Alan a Dale.

I think we talk enough about why we discipline, because Gus can say it all when Jed is in trouble. "You don't talk with boys in timeout." "He can make a better decision next time." Of course he doesn't seem to remember it when he is having trouble behaving. And I can't say I like the preemptive whining: "Jed isn't sharing!" "Have you asked him to share?" Well, no. It's so much faster to jump to conclusions.

Just got back from a week in Pittsburgh with my family. Gus was a bit miffed that Great PopPop belonged to Jed too. The cousins were the big hit, of course--it took the boys a little while to figure out how to play together, and then they were great, and we played with the girls. A day without the cousins was a day with lots of whining, so we got them together as much as we could. At one point Jed went up to his oldest cousin (6) and said something not particularly memorable. She said to me, "You sure can tell he's a Chinese boy!" Wondering how she had learned that from him saying "Hi!" I asked her how that was. And she looked at me like I was a complete moron and said, "Because he looks like one!" Moral of the story: sometimes the thought is not all that deep.

Jed spent the week impressing everyone with his prodigious appetite for poultry and pasta (one night he ate chicken faster than my sister could cut it), his determination, and his progress with English. He started three-word sentences early in the week "That's my daddy!" "I want this!" and progressed to a 5-word sentence before we left, "I want do that again!" Pretty much everything he says has exclamation points. "Mama!" "Sweatshirt!"

When we got home I rushed to get out the advent calendar that I made last year. Yes, I'm crazy, but I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere so I ended up making it. It's a felt calendar which tells the Christmas story (I felt a little less silly when one of my coworkers told me that she has a felt menorah for Hanukkah). We have another "calendar" made out of socks on a string, and in each sock is a piece for the Christmas calendar (and sometimes a treat). It's only day 3, and Gus is already overjoyed when it is his turn for a sock and despondent when it is Jed's. Jed loves all things foot-related, so he will stand there and say "Sock! Mama, sock!"

"SOCK!"

Indispensability

Remarks on Halloween: as Reb was raised with a healthy dislike of trick-or-treating, we also stayed away from other people's doors last night. We did, however, dress up the kids in their costumes (Gus was a monkey and Jed a headless toucan (no blood, he just doesn't like to wear the beak part)), take pictures of them with the pumpkin, and take them out for ice cream, where they were appropriately sugared up and oohed and aahed over. We saw the Cat in the Hat and a whole family dressed as the Little Engine that Could. Anyhow, after Jed went sugar crazy after 3 pieces of candy at Jim's work party, I don't want him acquiring much more. Also of note, we saw a mom *pushing* two kids in a stroller trick-or-treating! No way--no walk, no more candy. "We're trick-of-treating as future participants in the obesity epidemic." Jim noticed how different the costumes are here than in Houston, b/c either they have to be warm enough to walk out in the chilly fall weather or you can't see them b/c of your coat. We voted as "most inconvenient" the hockey player complete with rollerblades. It must be awful to climb the steps to 30 porches in rollerblades. It was sweet to see one house that was clearly staffed with college students excited to be grown-up enough to hand out the candy.

Jim and Gus picked out the perfect pumpkin to carve on Saturday. Undisemboweled, it weighed 24 pounds. That's only 3 pounds less than Jed weighs. Jed loves the jack-o-lantern. It's currently sitting on the coffee table and he will point it out to me several times a day. "Mommy! Pumpkin!" with a huge grin.

We also had our first three-word-sentence this week: "I WANT SHOES!" I was very impressed and told him so, but he was too busy howling to take the compliment.

On Sunday afternoons I often crash on the couch while the kids take their nap. When Jed woke up and came out to the living room, he immediately climbed up for some more snuggle. Only half-awake, I settled him in next to me and thought how quickly someone can become indispensable to your life. I don't mind at all him climbing on me while I'm mostly asleep, and I miss him when I'm not home, and he's only been here 2 months.

Hallelujah!

On Monday Gus said to me in the morning, "I don't have to cry when I go to preschool." He repeated it to himself several times, last right near the door--and HE DIDN'T! He had a great transition in all week, and we celebrated with brownie sundaes tonight. It took a whole month, but he is now comfortable at preschool. Whew!

But the drama is not over. Jed starts daycare with Lois on Tuesday. Dun-DUN.

Language acquisition is fun. Jed wants to say "Bus!" He started with "Bu!" Then it went to, "Butt, Mommy, Butt!" That took a minute to figure out. Now it's "Buck! Buck!" I think that's progress.

We were invited to the lab for lunch this week so that everyone who liked could come meet Jed. He had an absolute blast being the complete center of attention, and was ridiculously cute. Thanks for making me look good, little man.

Weekly Wrapup

Any day is better when you're not dealing with a chloral hydrated two-year-old, I can tell you that.

The past couple of weeks we've been chasing squirrels in the park. The first time Jed saw one he hollered something at it that wasn't "doggie" or "squirrel", which he didn't yet know. But he sure knew the Mandarin word for squirrel! We've since been working on the principle of conservation of squirrels: you can chase them and they will go somewhere else, but they do not disappear. He tracks them in the trees and continues to yell at them. But one today just paid him no mind and shelled his acorn onto Jed's head.

Language is coming along beautifully. He has around 30 words now, 2 of which are "Dinosaur Train". He babbles almost constantly. And he's starting to pick up Gus-isms: Gus's magic words to play with other children (well, to everyone, but it works best on other children) is "Can't catch me!" followed by a dash. As soon as he finished his last swallow of dinner tonight he was right over by Jed's chair: "Can't catch me, Jed Junwei!" So at the park today I was chasing Jed around and he turned and said something, then took off. It took me a few times to nail it down. Yep, "Can't catch me!"

He's also getting very good with "No". Today he hollered "No" at a girl who wanted to play with a toy he was no longer playing with at the park, "No" at a squirrel who was in the park, and "No" at the automatic door at the grocery store which was closing. Jim says that he hasn't yet learned the limits of its application. He really does seem to take the presence of squirrels in the park very personally.

We had some old friends over to dinner this week, and one of the families included a 7-year-old girl. The result was extensive use of playsilks and a night walk through the park. Gus woke up the next day talking about her, and I now have toga-wearing pirate superheroes racing through the house and jumping on the sofa (one sofa is designated as the jump sofa, at least until someone falls off). Jed was ridiculously comfortable with the guests, only two of which he'd met before. He does not usually give the time of day to other adults, but he ducked through legs and played peekaboo and even let one of them hold him for a few minutes with me nearby. I guess he assumed that since they were in our house, they were good people. I'm encouraged that he's trusting our judgment, and have invited Lois and her husband over for dinner so that he can see she's "our people" too. He starts daycare with her next Tuesday. We've been hanging out with her crew at the park whenever possible, and he's starting to warm up to her a bit.

Got our family photos taken last weekend. Jed was pretty weirded out and would NOT smile, except when we had Gus play peekaboo with him through the backdrop. Hence the cute smiles on individual shots only. And Gus is clearly preparing for a gubernatorial run with the wattage of that smile. As one of his aunts says, "He needs to use it for good."

And we got the pictures developed that were taken by Jed's nannies in Shenyang. It seems very well equipped with different kinds of toys, so I can see why he doesn't have sensory issues. They sent back a couple hats and toys (which I didn't expect), but I can see from the pictures that various kids were enjoying the rest, and that one of his nannies was explaining his photo book to him, so I feel very happy about the pictures. It's funny that the playroom in the orphanage has the same rubber tile flooring as we have in the boys' room, so that must have seemed very familiar to him.

Cardiology

Last Thursday Rebekah took Jed to his appointment at the cardiologist. We had scheduled an echocardiogram because we needed a clearer picture of what condition his heart was in. We knew that he had been born with an atrial septal defect, that it had been operated on last year, and that's about it. We had a stack of medical reports in Mandarin, but in none of them does it ever say what exactly his procedure was or what they did.

So we needed an echo, and for that to happen, Jed needed to be able to lie still for about an hour during the test. I'll pause for the laughter to die down.

Clearly that wasn't going to happen, so the doctors would need to knock him out for the test. And that meant that we had to wake him up at 4am to feed him breakfast so that his stomach could be nice and empty by the time his appointment happened.

Rebekah and Jed went to the appointment, where they slipped Jed some chloral hydrate (the same stuff that's in a Mickey Finn, I've been told) and did the test. That's some powerful stuff. I came home to find Jed completely stoned out of his gourd. He wasn't able to walk until about 7 that night. Even his baby babbling seemed slurred.

The echo gave us some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the surgeons in China did a fine job repairing his defect. They also put in some stitches near his mitral valve.

The bad news is that there's still a bit of a hole in his atrial septum, so blood's still able to pass between the two atria. Apparently this is in a place in the heart that's really hard to see, which explains why the surgeons missed it. It means that Jed's going to need another procedure to take care of that. The doctor told Rebekah that it's not an urgent thing; it would be good to take care of it before Jed turns 5 because he'll heal faster when he's younger. They'll need to perform a cardiac catheterization to scope the place out first and then operate to plug the leak.

All told, this is good news. He'll need about a week in the hospital, and then he'll be free to do as he likes for the rest of his life. We have a follow-up appointment in 6 months and then we'll decide when to do the surgery. We'll wait till after Disney World.

Test Trip

We have a developing tradition of a leafing trip in autumn, so this weekend we took a quick day up to New Hampshire. We drove out Friday night and stayed in a hotel. Crossed fingers here how Jed would react to a hotel. Fine! We put up Gus's tent, and he bounced around in it, so we set up his and put him in it. He played for a while and went to sleep, no problem. Hooray, the boy is portable!

On Saturday we went for a hike to a waterfall in Crawford's Notch (thank you, Seema!). It was a real hike, for 0.6 miles, and Gus hiked the whole way in. He was portaged out. We've discovered the keys to a good hike are 1) have something interesting at the end and 2) have really good snacks once you get there. Then we went to a farm for apple picking and fresh cider donuts. Jed was sitting on the wagon behind the tractor with the "What's coming next? What could be better than THIS?" look on his face. He did think that he was at an apple bar, though--he would eat half of one apple and then throw it away and grab another. Put a stop to that and have made two vats of applesauce today.

We went to another farm with friends on Sunday and discovered the successor to the moonbounce, a big jumping pillow. Lots of fun with the boys. More cider donuts.

Today we went to parts of the Open Our Doors festival around the Fenway. We made kits and flew them in the gym at the Y, played with different instruments and watched glassblowing in the morning, and then went for music, face painting, chalk drawing, and more kite flying in the park.

Some of our dreams are coming true. The boys played together on the playground today, and on the way home they laughed the whole way. Yeah, they were making fun of Jim's sneeze, but they were laughing!

Two great quotes from the weekend: 1) There was a lot of car time, and during one of them Jed was pretty crabby. Gus said to him, "What are you gritching about?" Now my 3-year-old sounds like my mother. 2) At breakfast on Saturday we talked about what we were thankful for before we gave thanks for our pancakes. Gus said, "I'm STILL thankful for my brother!"

Awwww.


A postscript for those of you who will not be surprised: maternity leave has got me completely addicted to the PBS kids show "Dinosaur Train." Enjoy.

Slow week

The most eventful thing that happened this week was shots on Monday. The bloodwork came back and a couple titers weren't there that should have been, so it was 4 shots. He was NOT happy, but then we were home having lunch and it was all okay.

We're also potty training, which is coming along slowly but okay. Not perfect progress, but increased progress over a number of days, which I suppose is what I should expect. I think with Gus we took a long weekend and then handed him to Lois (thank you, Lois!), so I haven't done as much of this part before.

The combination of learning to use the potty and learning a new language means that some things are not completely clear. Yesterday Jed fastened the buckle on his carseat by himself and said "Yay, peepee!"

Next Thursday is the cardiologist's appointment that we've all been waiting for. I got a call from his nurse saying that they would need to sedate him for the Echo unless he could sit still for 45 minutes. Um, try 10 seconds. So he can't eat any real food after 4:30 a.m. and only Jello and apple juice after that. Not looking forward to that day with my very food-conscious kiddo. Guess we'll go out to the park early that day and hope he's too distracted to be hungry.

Jim was home yesterday while I went into work. Jed gave Jim a very odd look when they dropped me off and I didn't get back in the car, but he was okay. Those two are bonding well now.

Mom called me today to ask for new pictures of the children. Oops. We'll try to get some from our scenic trip this weekend.

Weekend Update

This week's appointments were International Adoption Specialist and Audiology. The IA doctor thinks Jed is doing fantastic (as do we). We have a follow-up in 6 months, got a bunch of extra blood (poor pumpkin), and then booked the audiologist (b/c if you wait to test the hearing b/c the language is affected, then the language will be even more affected). Audiologist appointment today and he was brilliant, super-mellow and "a pleasure" to work with. The doctor had worked in China and said that his doctors must have been good, b/c they avoided the super-high doses of antibiotics during surgery/recovery that can damage the upper registers of hearing (I did not know that). He has perfect hearing and beautiful eardrums.

After the IA appointment we stopped by the lab to say hello and introduce Jed to the crew at work. We walked into a party! I should have known. Thanks, everyone! He loves the airplane and is working hard to destroy the balloon.

Requisite cute story: last night Jed came into our bedroom. This happens about every night between 1 and 4 a.m., both kids wake up and come into our bed, b/c it's easier for me to open the door and holler "come in" than to actually get up and go soothe them. I've slept much better since Gus has learned to snuggle in without even waking me up, but Jed can't climb that well yet. Gus has also learned that while mommy is happy to share her space, she is not happy to share her pillow, so he brings his pillow in with him. Last night Jed brought in his pillow, held out in front of him like a present for me. The kid doesn't use the pillow. He doesn't even use the covers. Usually I wake up to find him curled up on top of the covers in the general vicinity of my feet (he's a wiggler). But apparently bringing in pillows is how we do it around here, so Jed brought in his pillow.

He is really sweet. One thing his nanny must have taught him is to grab both sides of my face while I'm holding him and line me up for a smooch. Hilarious. And his mischievous side is starting to come out. He likes to let you strip him naked at bedtime and then race out the door, stopping to make sure you can see him grinning above his little bum. I'm hoping this will be less fun since he's been running around naked for the past couple of days anyhow (potty training; he's starting to get it).

Now that we've had the blood drawn, next week's appointments consist of two shots. Booooooring. But if he's got the potty mostly figured out by the end of next week, I will not complain about boredom.

We've been home for almost three weeks! It's not the new normal yet, but I think I can see it from here if I squint.

Managing Attention Deficit Disorder

Gus has been in attention deficit the last couple of weeks, what with the new brother and the broken dishwasher, and has been crazy as a result. So last weekend Jim and I each took him out for some special attention, and the weekend was so much better than the previous weekend as a result. Tonight was reasonable too.

Jim and Jed have been doing some extra bonding lately. Yesterday Gus and I went to a puppet show, so the other two sat on the sofa for an hour, watching football and eating pistachios and generally having a great time. Today I went into work in the morning, and although Jed did jump for joy when I returned (it was super cute), he's a lot more comfortable now with Daddy.

Jed definitely understands that he is working on a new language. Today when we left the house he pointed to the step, said "step", and looked up at me to be sure he was right. We've also been teaching him important words like "ear" and "touchdown"!

Wow, what an interesting murmur!

This quote of the week brought to you by the pediatrician, who says that Jed's heart repair must be good b/c he looks great, but she has no idea what it is from the sound. We'll all be interested in what the cardiologist says in a few weeks.

This week was better. Lots of drama from Gus at drop-off, but that's beginning to ease. Jed loves Gus's preschool and just wanders around playing while I wrangle the bear. Jim and I are starting to balance our time with the kids and to give Gus some one-on-one attention, with the result that Gus did much much better today.

This week Jed and I worked on climbing and jumping and some new words. He's learned that if he points at something I will talk about it. He pointed at a bunch of things on the way to the park (bicycle, sidewalk, fence) and then laughed and threw his arms around my legs. Mommy! He thinks the street is called "Ah-ah-ah!" because that's what I say when he tries to walk into it without me.

Today we played with water out on the deck and then blasted the Music Man with some tambourines and had a blast.

Next week I go into work for a bit to plan for the next few weeks, Jed has his appointment with the international adoption specialists, and Jim has a college fair on Friday.

One Week Home

And boy, it's been a long week. We all got over jetlag really quickly, just a few days, but it felt like milennia. And then Gus got bored (and what else is there to do at home but pick on your new brother?) so we've spent every day out at the park, and I've gotten nothing else accomplished besides unpacking, and we arrived home to a broken dishwasher so Jim's been spending a bunch of his theoretically free time doing dishes.

Sigh.

But tomorrow Gus goes back to preschool, to be challenged and run off his feet and away from his brother. Jed's first doctor's appointment is on Wednesday, and one child is so much more moveable than two, so we'll be able to run errands etc. together for part of the day. There are a lot of things he needs to see (even the farmer's market will be exciting for him. I made muffins today and he was transfixed).

Update on Jed: this child is almost too perfect. I can find no orphanage behaviors or sensory issues, and I've been testing him all week. He can pick up sand, eat yogurt, and roll down a grassy hill. He does like his fingers clean, but his face can be messy. He has no problems with sounds or lights. He is attaching extremely quickly. I'm almost looking over my shoulder...hopefully the person standing there is not the cardiologist (that appointment is in October).

Home again

Sorry for not making clear that we did arrive on schedule, were graciously picked up and delivered home, and are recovering. Jim did make it to work on Monday but on Tuesday morning the boys both woke up at 3 a.m. and so Tuesday was awful. I am not a good mom sleep-deprived. Last night Gus slept well but Jed was up at 4 a.m. Still progress. Jim is now asleep on the sofa. More once steady coherence returns.

In South Korea for the night

A short post before going to bed. We spent last night packing up our gear; our baggage has apparently been busy reproducing when we weren't around. Left this morning for Baiyun Airport for our departure from the good ol' PRC. There were 4 lines to wade through prior to boarding: checkin, security, customs, and immigration. The checkin procedure was cumbersome, because we are 5 passengers traveling under 2 reservations (one for Jed and one for the rest of us) on 2 airlines (KE and DL) with 7 checked bags through 5 airports in 4 countries (for those keeping score, our return itinerary is CAN -> ICN -> NRT -> ATL -> BOS). It took awhile, and since we're staying overnight here in Seoul, she couldn't even check us in for the second, third, or fourth legs of the trip since it was too early.

Thankfully we were at the airport with plenty of time to spare, and we eventually got to the gate and boarded. Korean Airlines is awesome! They had in-seat entertainment systems with about 100 movies to choose from. I watched The A-Team and enjoyed it very much. The flight was about 4 hours, and we deplaned and discovered that we couldn't go through the transit security checkpoint without boarding passes for our next leg, which we didn't have since we hadn't checked in yet. That proved a little confusing. We eventually found a Korean Air transfer help counter where they printed out a copy of our itinerary for us, and after that the security staff admitted that we belonged there and let us through.

Then we checked in to the Incheon Transit Hotel for the night, which is a hotel dedicated to weary travelers like us with a connecting flight 15 hours away and no desire to leave the secure zone of the airport. The rooms are small and no-frills but the beds work just fine. There's even a couple playgrounds for the kiddies to wear themselves out. Had some dinner and now we're hitting the sack.

"Tomorrow" is our last 3 legs of the trip, and then we'll be home!

Last Day in Guangzhou

Today we wore everyone out at the Chime-Long Safari Park. First we took a thoroughly uneventful subway ride with one transfer. The Guangzhou subways are amazing: air conditioned, not stuffy, bright, and reasonably fast. All of the maps are logical and the announcements for the stops are made in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. The only trouble we had was figuring out their token system for a couple of minutes. It took about an hour each way, but the people were really nice and gave seats to whichever parent had a small and/or sleeping child. A delightful experience as subways go.

The Chime-Long complex is like Disneyworld. There's the Safari Park, which is basically a zoo, a Crocodile Park, an amusement park, a water park, an international circus, and a big swanky hotel to see it all from. We just went to the Safari Park.

We took a shuttle bus from the Metro stop and wandered our way through, seeing apes (if it doesn't have a tail, it's not a monkey), pelicans, etc. Jim stopped to have his picture taken with a python (mouth taped shut). I helped Gus touch the snake to learn about him a bit. Once we reached the other end, we ate a quick lunch and got in a little train to see the Safari on Wheels part (which is about half the park). It was lunchtime for most of the animals, which was good b/c it was also really hot and the ones not eating were almost all snoozing. We saw lions and tigers and bears, and also giraffes and camels and run-of-the-mill American red deer (a guy actually got out of his car, which is against the rules, to take a picture of a DEER). Lots of animals, great safari. Jed fell asleep right at the end and was installed on my chest in the mei tai.

We then wandered back through the park and found the hold-a-baby-tiger area, which I really wanted to do, but since Jed and the baby tiger were napping it seemed unfair to wake them both up so we didn't. We did go to the giraffe area, and did the coolest thing. The zookeepers sell leafy branches for 10 yuan to feed the giraffes (I used to feed crackers to the giraffes as a kid, and the branches are much healthier for them and more fun). There are around 20 giraffes in the area, and whichever is hungry wanders over to the feeding area and looks for munchies. You pull off a bit of branch and offer it to the giraffe, and they wrap that huge tongue around it and pull it in. It was so much fun. Gus loved it, and Jed woke up in time to help too (he dealt really well with the fact that he woke up to a big giraffe tongue right near his face). One giraffe got the last bit of branch that just had a couple of leaves on each end, and he rolled that stick around and got every last bit of leaf off it and then spat out the stick. Apparently a giraffe's tongue is around 0.5 meters long. What a blast. The title of the area was "Feeding Giraffes with Joy". It was true!

Then Gus really wanted to see koalas, so we saw a bunch of sleeping koalas in the koala house. They only spend around 4 hours a day awake because their food is so un-nutritious. They don't have energy for anything else. And they wedge themselves into crooks of trees that look really uncomfortable, but snooze away anyhow.

Then we went by the giant panda house and saw some pandas eating, some playing, and some asleep in more uncomfortable-looking positions (seriously, I was afraid one of them was dead because no one living would want to wake up from that position). And then it was time to head back. At one point Gus looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, I think I'm going to fall asleep on the way back to the hotel." And he did, through about half the Metro ride.

We got back around 4 p.m., picked up the laundry and had a snack, played for a little while in the Swan Room and then started packing. Dinner was pizza delivery and some Chinese dishes from the deli. Jed is warming to pizza. So now that you are all informed, I will finish packing. Tomorrow after breakfast we head to the airport, and arrive at Incheon in South Korea at around 4 p.m. We'll spend the night at Incheon, then start the long trip home on Sunday.

The visa has landed

Yesterday was a much better day. We had breakfast, then took the boys outside to an actual kids playground (unlike the one in Shenyang, which was an adult's playground plus a slide. We like the idea of an adult playground, just not to the exclusion of munchkin ones). We saw the playground a few days ago but it was roped off; the day before yesterday we saw kids on it, though, so off we went! Just an hour of morning climbing made such a difference for the day. The playground is in Shamian Park, and we saw around a hundred people playing hacky sack, doing tai chi, and that game that we bought in Beijing that looks like tai chi with a racquet.

Then we came back to the hotel and changed the boys into traditional Chinese dress for the obligatory "red couch" picture (now posted on flickr). They both looked great, but it's pretty clear that they'll both outgrow their outfits by Chinese New Year so we bought another one in a bigger size.

Then we spent an hour destroying the playroom and had lunch. While the boys were napping, Jim and I took a quick excursion to case the subway (how far to the Safari Park? How many transfers? Are the signs in English?). All indications were good and a nice subway attendant practiced her English on us so it looks pretty good for today. Then we walked through the QingPing market, an open air market that is what Whole Foods wishes it could be except for the pig knuckles. I have never seen so many mushrooms in one place, and no idea what most of the stuff was. It was the same principle as the Electronics City and the Wholesale Pearl Market; 100 vendors selling exactly the same thing. I don't understand it, but it works.

After nap we went to the pool for a while, where the boys have a love/hate relationship with the waterfall, and then Jim went to pick up Jed's visa (no misprints this time). Then I foisted off the other half of my tablecloth rebozo on another family and we went out to the French place for dinner with them. The boys enjoyed their food, I had some really good fish, and Jim ate the peppers that were served with his quail and instantly decided it was a mistake. They burned for almost an hour.

Bedtime was much easier, but the boys woke up with me at 6:30 this morning so we've already had one timeout, one dirty diaper, and a couple spurts of whining. Today the big plan is for the Safari Park. Tonight I will be doing some serious packing, and then tomorrow we head to Korea.

Are we there yet?

Despite all the well wishes on my Facebook page yesterday (thanks, everyone), yesterday was a rough day. The morning was fine, but we had to wake up Jed early from his nap to go to the Consulate, and Gus woke up too and never completely recovered. Bedtime was a nightmare. I want to be home again, where the schedule is predictable, my kids don't have to be on their best behavior to eat three times a day, there are apples in the fridge that I can slice to take the edge off their hunger while we're waiting for dinner, and everyone sits in chairs so that I don't get bumped while I'm eating. Frustrating day.

The Consulate visit was fine. Very anticlimactic. The staff doublechecked the passports of parents and children to make sure the right kids were there with the right parents, and then we all swore that we had not lied on our kids immigration forms. We spent most of the wait chasing Jed around the room. He is learning from his big brother that just sitting around is a waste of time!

Jed loves his new squeaky shoes. He got up yesterday, and the first thing he did was bring me his shoes. And then whined about them for an hour b/c no one was dressed yet. I thought the squeaking would be cute but annoying, but it's actually very helpful. It's like radar; I know just where he is (and he walked right into the street the other day, so that's a very good thing).

Today is a quiet day. We take the famous "red couch" picture this morning, and then this afternoon Connie will bring Jed's visa. Hopefully it's correctly printed this time. Tomorrow we're planning to go to a big safari park outside of Guangzhou, and then do the epic pack to get all of our children and souvenirs back home.

It's my birthday...

...but I still can't sleep as late as I want to. Six-fifteen, no matter how late I stay up. Woke up this morning to a very foggy day. I can barely see any boats on the river. Last night we had our first real thunderstorm, although we've had lots of misty rain before.

Yesterday morning was the visa appointment we didn't have to go to. We did, however, have to stay in the room in case Connie needed any information from us. Good days do not start with 2.5 hours of 2 wiggly boys in a hotel room. As soon as we got the all clear from Connie we took them outside to wiggle across the island on a quick walk. I was looking for a silk comforter, which are pretty much impossible to find in the States, and there is a nearby "Department Store and Electronics City" about 4 blocks off the Island. So we walked there to discover that the "Department Store" part is very outdated, and instead it's 5 floors of cell phones, USB sticks, etc. I couldn't believe that there were more electronics every set of stairs we climbed. On the way down we found the escalators.

We had lunch in the "American" restaurant. I ordered chicken congee for Jed, and he poohpoohed the entire notion, now knowing there was much more interesting food in the world. He loves potatoes, and so his lunch ended up being apple juice and French fries. Oh well. Gus polished off an entire adult-sized grilled cheese sandwich. Dad ordered chili con carne and enjoyed it, despite talking trash about it the entire time we were waiting. As much as I would like a hamburger, it just isn't the same without lettuce on that bun (and we're not supposed to eat lettuce here, too many crannies for dirty water to cling to when it gets re-washed). Sigh.

During naptime Dad and I left for a trip to the wholesale pearl market. We are seeing a big difference in shopping philosophy: in the US, a mall has a lot of stores, with very few types of stores being repeated (and therefore not much competition). In China, a mall has a lot of stores selling exactly the same thing (like big bags of pearls, or cell phone cases) and a lot of competition. The Pearl Market is a six story mall full of jewelry wholesalers, and a lot of the stores look the same. Yet they stay in business. I found the simple freshwater pearl necklace I'd been looking for, and then wandered into the amber store to see pendants as big as my fist (beautiful, but probably awfully heavy to breathe under). Then Connie took us to a pedestrian shopping area (which stands on the original commercial center of Guangzhou, proven by a glass enclosure inside the main square that shows a piece of an old and an older city gate). There was an enormous department store where I found my silk comforter.

Dad and I both noticed something creepy, though, about the department store. All of the mannequins and practically all of the models on posters were white (and most of them were blonde). It's as if the brands we see in the US don't even change marketing for China (although they must, right?). What kind of body image issues are going to come up when the girls are pushed to achieve a look that is really physically impossible for them?

We arrived back at the hotel to find the boys happily destroying the playroom, and I ran to pick up the laundry before dinner. If we lived here, Jim would never do laundry again. I picked up 5 days of laundry for 5 people, washed, pressed, and folded, for $30. Wow.

Then Connie took us to her favorite local Cantonese restaurant (which is right across the street). We'd gone as a group a couple of days ago without her and enjoyed it, but this time she ordered for us and it was fantastic. Everything was delicious, even the mushrooms, which Jim and I always hate. The tea was fabulous, and the boys were diverted by the enormous live prawns and fish waiting in tanks in the front to be chosen for dinner. There's a saying that the Cantonese eat everything with four legs except the table; I saw a box of water beetles skittering around out front too. No thank you. But dinner was excellent.

Then bed for the boys, Jim did an ice cream run for the grownups, and we chatted until we were about to fall over. Today will be a calmer day.

Happy Labor Day

We had barbecued beef for breakfast yesterday in its honor. The rest of the day was not particularly restful. I am now writing with two wiggly boys on my lap, so please excuse any typos.

Yesterday we took a group tour to Six Banyan Temple, a Buddhist Temple named by a famous calligrapher around 1500 years ago for the six beautiful trees in front of it. The temple has now been absorbed by urban Guangzhou and the trees have burned down, but the temple area is still very peaceful and the boys got to wander around and explore it a bit. We saw a procession of monks (male and female) doing their rounds.

Then we went to the Jade Market. The Chinese believe that wearing jade makes women stronger and more beautiful. Traditionally a mother will give her daughter a jade bracelet when she turns marriageable age, and often the lady will never take off that bracelet. Well, when I tried on bracelets I discovered the differing philosophies. It would be possible to get the bracelet onto my arm, but because of the positions of the bones in my hands it would hurt a lot. Perhaps not.

After lunch I took Jim out to do some shopping. We decided on a beautiful water dragon tea set, a couple of silk jackets (I am size XXL-XXXL over here), a scroll of the Great Wall for Jed's room and a simple scroll of koi for us. Sent Jim back to be there for the end of naptime and did a bit more shopping.

After nap we hit the pool, and then went shoe shopping for the boys. Much to our dismay Gus's feet have passed the size at which they make squeaky shoes. But he was outgrowing his old pair and so we got him some non-squeaky shoes anyhow. We also picked up a couple of outfits for the boys to wear on Chinese New Year.

Gotta change the baby and get ready for breakfast!

Attachment Update

For all those of you wondering how the family is getting on, it's going extremely well. Jed is attaching great. Lots of eye contact. I feed him, he feeds me, lots of smiles. He is now so used to my being there that when he needs help to climb a tall stair, he holds his hand out for mine without even looking. He still prefers me to Jim, but has no problem with Jim taking care of him or being there when he wakes up. The three guys were in the playroom yesterday and Jed was so excited when I walked in and toddled right over for a hug, but it's not that he minded being with Daddy at all.

We had our first bath a couple of days ago (another thing I can't imagine going well without Gus around), and then played in the pool yesterday. At one point Jed just tipped over face first into the pool. We hauled him right out before he breathed in any water, and the look on his face was priceless.

The boys are in general getting along well. Gus loves having an audience, and we've given him lots of extra snuggles. He does get distracted by having Jed in bed with him, though, and sometimes tries to keep Jed awake to play. Jed, who only wants to sleep, scratches him and then rolls over, while Gus freaks out. Jed can sleep through (to date) half an hour of Gus howling right next to him (we guess an orphanage is probably a good place to learn to sleep through anything). Today we're going to try putting them in separate rooms for naps, since nighttime is usually much better. The trip is starting to wear on Gus, but he takes out his frustrations on us instead of Jed, which is brilliant. What an amazing little boy, who is so ready to be back home.

I did the recon on shopping yesterday and will start some of it today. Even in the tourist trap that is Shamian Island, everything is really cheap. Shamian reminds us a lot of Antigua, where we stayed with Gus for a weekend on his family trip; it's an old European-style city that has been turned into a lovely tourist trap with lots of foreigners. My two favorite things: 1) the deli next door, where the four of us ate for under $10 yesterday, and which also has ice cream; and 2) the fact that the Chinese don't seem at all to be bothered by chaos. There's still a lot of construction on the island for the upcoming Asian/Para-Asian Games, and lots of noise and dust, but the many brides having their pictures taken in the main park still look quite serene. And am I glad that I brought capris and skirts--to date I have seen exactly one Chinese lady wearing shorts. Not that I don't stick out, but at least I stick out appropriately.

The sun came out

It's a quiet day in Guangzhou today. I had a meeting this morning with Connie to get all my paperwork ducks in a row for our visa appointment on Tuesday morning (embassy workers get Labor Day off too); no problems there. Currently naptime. There's a deli next door to the hotel that serves what are essentially kolaches, and we've started having them for lunch. We're probably going to go take a swim after nap today. Rebekah is out scouring the shops on a reconnaissance mission.

Yesterday afternoon we went out and explored Shamian Island, which is about as large as a decent-sized shopping mall. The island seems to be completely dedicated to the noble task of taking money off of adoptive parents. Everybody seems to speak English at least a little here. One particularly enterprising shopkeeper named Jordan tried to ply me with everything from scrolls to tote bags to laundry service to a cute little traditional Chinese outfit for Jed, which he'd probably outgrow in about 2 days.

There are two famous restaurants on Shamian Island, neither of them serving Chinese food. We tried one of them yesterday: the Cow and Bridge. It's a Thai restaurant, not an English pub. Word to the wise: stay away from the ostrich curry. I haven't felt quite right all day today. Tonight we have a date with the rest of the CAWLI families to go eat at the other famous place, an American food place called Lucy's. We'll try to find some real food tomorrow.

Shots!

On Friday we decamped from Shenyang and had a leisurely 4 hour flight south to Guangzhou. Emerged from the airport into the first rain we've seen here, and it was worth the wait! Torrential downpours and rush hour traffic turned our commute to the White Swan Hotel from an expected 45 minutes into 2 hours. Once here, however, the hotel was gracious enough to upgrade us to a suite, so we're living large over here. 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a living room with a nice view of the Pearl River (the hotel is on an island). Slept soundly.

This morning was Jed's physical appointment. The clinic is within walking distance of the hotel, so Rebekah, Jed, and I along with our guide Connie and apparently EVERY CHILD IN THE PROVINCE went over there to get poked, prodded, and measured. They truly have it down to an science over there; despite all the kids, we were in and out in about an hour. I elected to be the bad guy, so I held him while he got his chest listened to (he has a pulse!), his ears examined (he can hear!), his height and weight measured (91 cm! 13 kg!), and 6 shots and a TB test administered (boo!). Every arm and leg got a needle or two. Jed took the shots like a champ, though. Didn't enjoy it at all, but he got over it quickly, and so far no ill effects.

Free day the rest of today and tomorrow, so we're going to go do some exploring. Later!

Headin' south

Tomorrow we hop on another China Southern flight to go to Guangzhou, our last major stop on this little adventure. We'll be there for a week. We go there because that's where the US has decided to keep their embassy. I'm sure there's a long story behind that decision, but I don't know it, and if you get right down to it I don't really care. (Man, I gotta stop writing these things right before bed.)

After the 2 days of punishing paperwork in a smoky 6th floor conference room (seriously, on a clear day the visibility is only about a quarter mile. Have you checked out the Shenyang scenery pictures? That ain't fog), the boys were about ready to jump out of their skin. So yesterday our guide Maggie took us to a local Shenyang amusement park. It was pretty dingy and run-down, like something out of Scooby Doo ("Let's find out who this ghost really is! Why, it's Old Man Murray, who runs the old amusement park on the edge of town!" "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"), but it had this crazy indoor playground that the kids just adored. We spent 3 hours in there. It was a bunch of playground equipment stretched across 3 floors, with ladders, stairs, and slides connecting them all. Two trampolines, swings, and a ball pit. It was creaky, and I would have liked to see a safety inspection certificate, but it was just what the doctor ordered. The boys just had a blast in there.

That afternoon, Rebekah and Jed went to the local children's hospital to get an official reading on Jed's oxygen saturation level, which is something we needed to know to find out if he could fly without supplementary oxygen. It was good enough to fly to Guangzhou on, and there we'll confer with the pediatrician who's traveling in our group about the rest of the journey. The test ended up costing 11 yuan, or about 2 bucks. Not bad.

Today was a free day, with nothing official planned. So we took a taxi to the Shenyang Botanical Garden, which is a ridiculously beautiful fun place. Definitely a must-see for anyone traveling to Liaoning province. I really don't know how to describe it. Lots of small gardens with brooks and pagodas, lots of public artwork, a 2o0-foot observation tower shaped like a giant lily, oh and a really nice theme park. The theme park included something they called an "amusement bridge area", which is probably the best way to describe it. Take a river, and then come up with as many absurd and challenging ways to cross that river as you can think of, and then throw them all into the river. There were rope bridges, a line of rotating barrels, a zip line, a bunch of Tarzan-style ropes to swing across on, a giant hamster ball, etc. It was truly awesome, and if I were there without any kids, I would stay there all day. Gus was really disappointed he wasn't allowed to do much.

We got Jed's Chinese passport tonight, so we're all set to go. More to come from southern China, so stay tuned.

Put down the slinkies, boys, it's time for bed

We're now 4 days into our stay in Shenyang, and all is well. We're installed in a lovely hotel called the Trader's Hotel. We're still going to bed at 8:30, but now for a different reason. Jed is all ours now. We spent 2 long mornings in a stuffy smoke-filled 6th floor office of the China Civic Affairs office, filling out paperwork along with 4 other families with similar business in Shenyang. Jed spent the first day clinging to Rebekah for dear life. He neither cried nor smiled. By now, however, he's much more free with the emotions. He spends a lot of time playing with his gege (Chinese for big brother), and I think he thinks Gus is the coolest guy on the planet. Gus is really patient with him as well. He calls Jed "my little one", which is cute.

When he's not playing, he's eating. The kid's tossing back food like you wouldn't believe. And he's not picky, either. He must be putting on 5 pounds a day.

Wow. I just fell asleep in my chair. Time for bed. More later.

Two Whirlwind Days in Beijing

We all crashed in the hotel and slept fairly reasonably. I seem to be the only one still jetlagging (or maybe that's just nervousness). In the morning we had breakfast and met Rose and two travel companions (Mark and Anne, adopting a little girl in Guangdong). We took a private bus to a section of the Great Wall that
protects a strategic pass through the mountains.
We tied Gus onto Jim's back and hiked up the first sets of stairs. I didn't expect that the stairs would be a) so steep and b) so uneven. Some are very shallow, and then there are stairs that you practically have to hoist yourself up. The men who manned this wall must've been some of the fittest in China.
We got up to the first tower, and decided to walk a little of the way around the loop. Gus wanted to get down and hiked some of the wall himself. Eventually we did the entire loop. My calves are still mad at me, but it was really neat. You look back and think "I climbed THAT!?"
We discovered a new Chinese hobby: taking pictures with random tourists. We all got stopped at one point or another to take pictures with other climbers. Jim got stopped most often (tall white man with a toddler tied to him).
After that we went to an amazing lunch on top of a cloisonne factory, and did a little shopping there (we like to collect Christmas ornaments from interesting places, and although I was surprised to find them in a Communist state-run store, there they were). We came home with a hummingbird (beautiful), an armadillo (because really, an armadillo?), and did not come home with a burnt-orange Longhorn Dad ornament. The arm of the Longhorns is long indeed.
Then we drove back to Beijing and saw the Water Cube (which is way cooler in person) and the Bird's Nest. Gus was losing it at this point, so we skipped a tea ceremony to go take a nap. We barely woke up for dinner, and then went back to bed. Discovered that a lot of the milk in China may be rice milk, which Gus doesn't like. It put him pretty off-kilter to be milk-less for a few days; maybe we'll find some more like home when we get to Guangzhou.
The next day we took a walk to the Temple of Heaven. Only got to see the Temple through the trees, because the real purpose was to let Gus climb all over the Seven Mountain Stones (everyone else's kids were climbing all over them, so we figured we weren't desecrating too much). We saw a neat game with balls and rackets and bought a couple sets to play with later, then headed to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market for some quick shopping. Jim and Dad grabbed a couple of things that they needed, and I did some necklace shopping. You're supposed to haggle, but it's hard when they say, "Best offer, $40." And you're supposed to say, "No, $4!" but you're thinking "$40 is awfully reasonable!" So I bargained down to about $30 and felt fine with that.
Then we had another amazing lunch and went to Tiananmen Square. Not fun for Gus. At the end of it is the Forbidden City, and he could run around a bit more there. Super-hot. Apparently there are 15 layers of bricks underlying the whole place to discouraging tunnelling assassins. It is humongous.
We were told that the hawkers there are relentless, so to tell them right off that you aren't interested. Reb said, "I don't want any, thank you" with such great sincerity, big smile, and apparently murderous pronunciation that one hawker actually stopped to give her a big smile and pat on the arm in the universal sign of "It's okay, dear, at least you're trying."
Then back to the airport, where Gus and Reb slept the whole flight, into the next hotel (which is WOW). Gotta stop typing to go meet Jed!

A Long Series of Flights

The Amazing James dropped us off at the airport at around 4 a.m. Gus was up late picking up Dad from the airport, so no one slept more than 5 hours (and I only slept around 3). Then we flew to Minneapolis, sleeping on the way. Ate breakfast in Minneapolis and had a six-hour layover. Unluckily, Minneapolis has only one interesting thing for children. Luckily, it was right on our concourse, and it was a pretty good playplace. We managed to spend 3.5 hours there, with some effort. Then had some lunch and got on the LOOOONG flight.

Which wasn't too bad, actually. We all slept a few hours here and there, nothing too long. Gus was hysterical twice when he woke up and found himself still on a plane, but overall he did well. He was amused by the first bit of turbulence and scared as it got worse. I barely missed throwing my glass of water all over my husband (he woke up not from the turbulence but from the gasps from the passengers).

We landed in Tokyo and took Gus to a playplace. He was NOT in the mood to play, so we headed to the next gate instead. We were afraid that the next flight would be a diasaster, but Gus settled down to watch some movies and was fine. He lost it again as we waited in Immigration and Customs lines, but we all survived (and moved a little faster through Customs as the lady took pity on the family with the freaking-out kid). At 10:30 p.m. we exited the secure area and waited for our Beijing guide, Rose. Gus has a huge crush on Miss Rose.

Leaving tomorrow!

Just realized I didn't announce this on the blog (been posting about the packing process over at Facebook). Once the excited grandfather arrives, we will have everything we need to go.

We will meet Jed on Monday (Sunday evening over here). We would appreciate prayers for the transition for everyone, extra patience for us, and relief from jetlag.

We'll post when we can!

Consulate Appointment

Has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, September 7. Working to figure out what that means in terms of "get there" and "leave by" dates for flights.

Travel Approval!

Our travel approval arrived last night. It only took 1.5 weeks; the first thing to go fast since the surprise referral! Our agency will be working on consulate appointments this week, and then we can schedule our travel (likely end of August-early September).

Funny thing, I finally sat down to start the packing list for China this morning...

Article 5!

After some agency nagging and fingernail chewing, we finally heard that our Article 5 has been picked up from the Consulate. It's theoretically supposed to take 2 weeks; it's been a month. At least we have it. It tells China that if they let us pick up Jed, the U.S. will let us bring him home.

Now the Article 5 gets sent to the main adoption office in China. They do whatever they need to do with it, including doublechecking that Jed is still in the orphanage and ready to be adopted. Then they give us Travel Approval, which is running approximately a month after Article 5. Then we schedule a Consulate Appointment in consultation with our agency, and then we will go to China! We're probably still at least 2 months away, but one more step down. I'm starting to collect things we'll need to pack.

Visa info is in Guangzhou

Got our letter yesterday informing us that Jed's visa information has been sent to the consulate in Guangzhou. Our agency will send some more paperwork, along with a copy of that letter, to Guangzhou, and then they will start working on his visa.

Once his visa is almost ready, they will issue an Article 5. That piece of paper will be sent to the CCAA and will start the process for travel approval. We should hear about our Article 5 in about 3 weeks.

I-800 APPROVED!

Provisionally. Apparently it doesn't get fully finalized until after we pick up Jed, and they still reserve the right to deny it, if you read the small print. But we've never heard of that happening. We were approved last Wednesday and got the notification letter in the mail yesterday.

Next step: USCIS has sent our I-800 to the National Visa Center, where they will begin processing paperwork for Jed's visa. They will send an official electronic communication to the US Consulate in Guangzhou so that they can open a file for him there. Recently the Consulate has begun requiring a copy of the notification letter that the NVC sends the family just to tell them something has been done on their behalf. This is DESPITE the fact that they already hold the official communication, and since the NVC letter is worthless in all other instances its arrival can be 4 days - 2 weeks after the official communication, slowing down the process AGAIN. Why did the Consulate add this ridiculous requirement? The adoptive parent community has been speculating for months (because the Consulate didn't offer any information with the abrupt change in policy). No one has ANY idea. Our government at work, people.

We should have an update on the NVC step in 2-3 weeks.

Visas have landed

We are now the proud possessors of three visas to visit China up to twice within the next six months. Here's hoping that twice won't be necessary, and that cutting it close won't even be a question.

Visas away!

Yesterday we Fedex'd out our visa applications. For reasons we do not understand, you cannot send your application directly to the Consulate. Someone must hand-carry it inside. Since we do not have time to drive down to NYC and hand-deliver our visa applications, we sent it to a courier who does this for a living.

They are not cheap. It'll cost almost $500 for our 3 visas, wow.

In other news, Gus is eagerly anticipating his brother's arrival. He asks me if tomorrow we will be going on our big trip to pick up his Jed. I tell him that it will be summer before we go (and possibly the end of summer, sigh!).

I-800 in the lockbox

We mailed out our I-800 (along with its accompanying verification paperwork) to the Dallas lockbox last Wednesday. It was picked up at 9:44 on Sunday night. Seriously? I'm delighted you picked it up, but it could have waited until Monday morning.

The I-800 will now be collated with the official version of the pre-approved I-800A and whatever else they have there, then sent to Missouri where our USCIS officer will review and approve it. Hopefully that will take about 2 weeks.

LOA!!!!!

Our Letter of Acceptance arrived from China today, day 89. It's been a long three months. This letter is the final approval from China for our son. Now we need the U.S. to process his visa, but barring unexpected acts of God he is our boy!

We were waiting for the LOA to talk with Gus about him, since the wait will still be around 3 months before we can travel. We told him that he had a little brother, that we would all be going on a big trip to get him and bring him home. He wanted to know if I would be sleeping in his room too, and we said no, just your little brother. He seemed pretty chill with it.

Now we will also share his name. He will be Josiah Junwei O'Donnell. And in keeping with the 3-letter nickname rule of the house (if you don't have a three-letter nickname, you can't get in, apparently), the names in this house will now consist of Jim, Reb, Gus, and Jed.

What happens next: another whole series of paperwork.

Tomorrow we stop by the agency to sign the LOA and have our I-800 proofread, then send it to USCIS. The I-800A (application to adopt A child) has been approved; the I-800 is the approval for THIS child.

Once that is approved, USCIS sends our file to the National Visa Center, which processes his visa papers. They will cable that information to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. However, the Consulate will not do anything until we send them a hard copy of the letter which the NVC sends to us confirming the paperwork. This is stupid and redundant, but unfortunately we can't fix that. The Consulate will review the paperwork and issue an Article 5, which goes to the Chinese government and then they issue a travel approval. Once we have that, our agency can schedule a Consulate Appointment and we schedule our travel around that. Travel in July sounds realistic, barring unusual paperwork holdups.

Please, if you haven't yet contacted your senators about the immunization issue, please do. Also, if you live in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Vermont, or Indiana, your senators are cosponsors and may be able to push the vote to sooner rather than Christmas.

Call to Action Tuesday

I was hoping for LOA yesterday (a lot of them come on Mondays). Nope. We've now been waiting 75 days.

But in the meantime, there's something important we'd like to ask your help with.

Background: A few years ago, the US government approved the Hague Treaty that deals with international adoption. Our first adoption took place under the old rules, this adoption will take place under the new ones. In our last adoption, we signed a paper promising to get Gus's immunizations up to date as fast as reasonably possible, and we did. However, when the new legislation was typed up, a clerk accidentally left out the paragraph that allows for that to happen. OOOPS!!! But now it's US law. The result is that no child can come home under the new rules without being completely up to date on shots.

That means that after approximately a week with Little Dragon, just as he's starting to trust us, we will have to take him to the Embassy doctor and give him up to 8 shots in one day. That is BAD for a few reasons.

1) Attachment. Terrible! He will just be starting to trust us and then this happens. And then a few days later we will enclose him in a tube for 18 hours. Terrible.

2) Health. I am a big fan of immunizations (I am an immunologist, after all), but 8 shots in a day is too much stress for a little system. ESPECIALLY for a child with KNOWN special needs. ESPECIALLY for a child in less than the best of health (like one who has been in an institution). There was a recent case in which a little girl became very sick after her shots.

I am very concerned about Little Dragon's shots. I could apply for a medical waiver, but the Embassy has a history of not honoring them. I cannot apply for an exemption, because I would have to prove that I am categorically against shots (which I am not, just against shots done dangerously).

And to add insult to injury, several children have needed their shots redone anyway when they arrive home, because the shots given at the Embassy didn't "take".

I would like to have my child's immunizations performed under the supervision of the doctors we trust in the US, under a reasonable schedule. And there is a way. Unfortunately it will take an act of Congress! The Senate has finally cleared a bill through the Judiciary Committee and the State Department to deal with the typing oops. The bill is 1376, the International Adoption Simplification Act. But it is number 330 on their to-do list.

Please call your Senators today and ask them for quick and favorable resolution on this bill. Little Dragon would thank you.

Care Package Away!

We mailed out a care package to Little Dragon and his friends. You really can't have too many "personal" toys in an orphanage, so we just sent a couple of special objects for him and the rest is for sharing.

For sharing, we sent a bunch of warm hats, some pants and mittens that I made, a couple of soft toys, and a couple bags of dark chocolate.

For Little Dragon, we sent a ribbon-tagged blanket with dragons on one side (Jim slept with this for a few days), a stuffed panda bear with my perfume on it, and a baby picture book of his new family and room.

We've now been waiting 39 days for our LOA. The average for people in our situation is 77 days, but it doesn't stop me hoping that we'll be fast!

Update: care package was delivered at 11 a.m. on Saturday. We've now been waiting 45 days for our LOA.

Lotsa Shots

Yesterday we had an appointment at our (very) friendly neighborhood travel clinic. We got three shots each (typhoid, HepA, and Tdap), and a blood draw to check titers for HepB and MMR. You know you have a three-year-old when five minutes are happily spent counting the bandaids on your arm when you come home.

Next up, making an appointment at the children's travel clinic for Little Bear. I think he'll only need typhoid and H1N1.

Unfortunately, Little Dragon will also likely need shots before leaving China. It's a bad idea to require 8 or so shots into a small person only a few days before they get on a 12-hour flight (and I'm a pro-vaccine immunologist, so I'm not just being crazy here). It used to be that parents could promise to get their kids up-to-date on a reasonable immunization schedule, but then another rule changed and the kids (including those with medical needs) were swept up in the change too. A bill has been put forward to restore this exemption so that kids can be vaccinated on a more healthy schedule. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1376 If your Senator is on the Judiciary Committee, where this bill is bottled up, please email to ask for it to be moved forward. Thanks!

Update: Good thing we had that blood work done. Our HepB titers are fine (I've actually been wondering about that for a decade), but Jim's mumps (like the unfortunate 1500 people in NYC right now) needs boosting, so he gets to go back for yet another shot.

Update 2: Jim has been re-mumpsed. And Gus's appointment is scheduled for the beginning of April.

LID

Our application is now sitting in a pile on someone's desk in China. Our LID was 1/21/10. Now we wait for LOA, our final approval from China, which is taking an average of 90 days. In the meantime we have some forms to fill out and a care package to prepare. After we get our LOA there's a slow-motion flurry of forms from several US agencies and the consulate. Assuming no snags, we will probably be able to travel around 3 months after LOA, which puts us an estimated 6 months out from travel as of now.

We are DTC!

That's Dossier to China, as of Tuesday afternoon. All the US approvals etc. are finally on their way.

The next acronym we wait for is LID, for Logged In Date, which means we'll have been officially entered into China's system.

I-800A approval

Arrived in Monday's mail in the form of a very boring-looking letter called an I-797, with information about where to send the subsequent I-800 that is already out of date. However, our goverment was at work and has provisionally approved us to adopt a child from a country which is party to the Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child. Excellent! Once we get the final approval from China we file that I-800 which will approve us for our specific child.

What's important about the I-800A approval is that it's the final piece of paper needed for our dossier. So I took it to our agency yesterday afternoon, and they will doublecheck the whole paper stack and then send it to China.