the Journey (tm) to China

life in Big G's basement

Here I sit... in Big G's basement. The dogs munching away and belching. The kids have all gone swimming...

And why am I sitting in Big G's basement with belching dogs??? BECAUSE THE FREAKING AIR CONDITIONER IS STILL NOT FIXED. Oh yeah... today turned up 1 week with broked a/c. Thats right people... 1.... week. The kids have slept here an entire week, the dogs came over on Wednesday when it became too hot for the 'mushed in nose' dogs to function in our basement. Ahhh Wednesday... the infamous day in which the refrigerator decided to commit hairy carey and defrost all of Dadee's meat! It felt left out and decided to grab some attention for itself. Naughty!

Dadee and Mama held out until Saturday night before making a pitiful phone call to Auntie Sis at 11:30pm to come let them in the back door. Ilish is locked in the basement at our house... she likes it a tad warm and its still a comfy 76 degrees in the basement. The temp in the house on the main level is a disgustingly muggy 90 degrees. I dont even want to discuss how hot the upstairs is... or the attic.

Lets face it... it could be lots worse. We could have no place to go but unbearably hot home. We could be shelling money out for a motel and kenneling the dogs/cat. The kids could be totally freaked out that their little lives are turned upside down. Mama and Dadee could be trying desperately to figure out what to do from hour to hour.

But we're not. We're safe, comfortable, fed, and all together. Yes we arent at home but home is where we all are no matter the surroundings. Everyday gives us something better and we count our blesses. Tomorrow is going to be the best so far! The repair guys can finally come out and replace the unit! They cant guarentee that it will be all done tomorrow, but its a start!! A really good start!!

Shae... the Iowa City visit

This was originally posted out the the BaiChina Yahoo Group last night... the Mamas on that group are soooooo ticked off by Shae's dr because several of them have children that have been helped by Dr. Richard Hertle's 4 muscle tetonomy surgery to correct head tilts and dampen nystagmus. Dr Hertle is in practice at Children's Hospital in Pittsburg... he is an expert in albinism and the related vision issues that go along with it. And yes... he does have published research studies on the procedure he does... contrary to what the pediatric eye specialist implied.

We just got back from Shae's visit to the pediatric eye specialist
in Iowa City at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Our visit was
from 1pm to 4:15pm... we saw... hang on, let me count... 5 different
doctors/doctor wannabees during the course of the visit.

The head dr took a ton of time explaining stuff to us, but in the
end he was not any help to us. He said that Shae's null points are
slightly down but not enough for him to want to do anything about
it. He said he would have to see a lot more of her 'looking out of
the corner of her eye' tilt before he would even consider correcting
that. Nothing he can do for her nystagmus and he has her listed as
20/200 corrected. He doesnt recommend having her learn braille...
said she'll learn to function using magnifying aids.

I asked him specifically what he thought of the type of surgery Dr.
Hertle does without naming names. He basically said that any dr
that does that type of surgery is a quack... that there is no
research basis that the surgery works. I told him that I've talked
to plenty of mothers who's children had helped by the surgery and
had marked improvement in their acuity. He blew it off as a sugar
pill phenomena... a placebo only. He said if there was proof that
it worked that he would be first in line doing the surgeries. Told
me that I've been reading too much stuff on the internet and I
should spend my time on other pursuits.

The only good thing he told me was that Shae's primary dr was
someone he respected and that she had done a damn fine job on her Rx.

Whatever! So what to do now... I dont know... *sighs*

And to top off an extremely long day... the normally easy 2 hour
ride home was a horror of rain that made us stop every 5 to 10 miles
to wait for the rain to stop so we could actually see 2 feet in
front of us. Light gray mini cooper in light gray downpour
environment... little car with little lights that the semi's wanted
to squash like a bug... AND we got to come home to a broken a/c unit
that will have to be replaced. Is it really only Tuesday?!?!?

cold fruit

As I sit here about to eat my lunch... the following conversation pops into my head and makes me giggle!

SHQ: NOOOOOOOOOOO! Dadee! I dont like cold-da fruit! Its NASTY!

B: But I like cold fruit....

SHQ: BiXiu, no... its NASTY!

B: But I like cold fruit a lidda bit... I like it a lidda bit though...

Repeat until Mama goes insane!

Shae HongQi... the update

Shae has been home almost 6 months now! We knew we were in DEEP trouble when she had been home 2 months and was correcting our grammar/pronounciation! Okay... we knew we were in trouble way before that but man is she smart, smart, SMART! She informed her Dr. in May that she... and I quote... 'I absolutely not get a shot today! No shot!' At 5.5 yrs and not exposed to English until she hooked up with us, she knows all of her colors, shapes, numbers, what day of the week it is, and all but 4 of her letters. BUT she is consistant on the letters she doesnt know and its only when we do the alphabet out of order!

Shae loves SNUGGLES, her sister Aubree BiXiu, Mama/Dadee, talking on the telephone, swimming, dance, playing outside, riding bike, puzzles, and being read to. She's currently taking swimming lessons and swims like an absolute fish! She's also taking dance and begs to know when the next dance class is before we even get to the car when we leave the studio. Shae loves her Mandarian sing-along cd's and will spend hours singing and dancing along... in fact, she's taught her sister and cousins most of the words to the seemingly hundreds of songs she knows. She gets just tickled to death when I sing along too :D

Shae's favorite activity involves getting to leave the house for any reason... she's such a gad about town! Nothing makes her happier than to strike out for the grocery store with Dadee! Its not so much that she likes to shop, I think its the fact that she gets to go somewhere... anywhere but boring old home :D

Shae will start kindergarten next month and cannot wait for school to start. She will need an IEP for her low vision and I am going to be a very bad Mama Bear if they DO NOT include Braille as part of her studies. Shae is legally blind with correction but she can see letters pretty good as long as they are VERY big. As she gets farther in school and the print becomes smaller and smaller, she will need to suppliment her text reading with Braille... magnification equipment can only help so much. Eye strain is going to be her biggest enemy so I want her to continue a love of books through Braille.

So thats my darling girl that I love more and more each day... she is such a blessing to us!

The Minis!

Show off your new wheels ladies!

The blue one is CeeCee's and the gray one is Mama's! Aren' they just precious!

The next picture is a closer look at CeeCees little bitty mini blue machine!

Of course heres mama's little mini bundle of lightening!

Finally one with the Mama and Dadee with their new bouncing bundle of joy that is their "Mama's little baby" Mini Cooper.

little fishes part 2

Today the girls started swimming lessons... 4 started, 1 wailed early and had to be removed from the water, 3 swam like fishes!

I think B is just a tad young just yet... especially when she's in a group of kids that are way older than she is. Its okay, we'll try again when she's older :D

They still both love the Aquatic Center... B just doesnt want to jump in the water! They havent gotten to go for about a week because of colds and rain, but we'll go tomorrow.

In other news... Mama has traded off her death trap Jeep for a itty bitty vroom vroom car. People are going to think that its a case of Monkey see... Monkey do... since Auntie Sis just got the same kind of car, but the Jeep was failing (no air conditioning, need tires, brakes bad, nasty gas mileage), Mama has wanted a Mini Cooper WAY BEFORE CEECEE WANTED ONE, and the opprotunity kinda just fell at Mama's feet.

I'll have Dadee post a picture tomorrow of Mama and CeeCee's Mini Coopers... Mama's is the gray one (2002)... CeeCee's will be the blue one (2003). Just for the record... Mama's is MUCH better! The girls love it... they think its just pretty kewl that Mama has a tiny little car thats air conditioning actually works!

Love you girls! Love you Dadee!

Kaboom! Actually more like Szzzzzz

The grand old country holiday has came and went. You girls got your first taste of the Fourth festivities.. Aubree you have seen a couple of parades since you came to be with us, and Shae this wasn't your year to see one, but next year it will be.

We still had plenty of fun, going to the pool to splish around on a nice hot July fourth. Then last night we did some big Party popper and set up some Sparklers to sizzle. The weather was perfect, and you girls did great standing back and not touching the spent sparklers..

The fourth fell on a tuesday, so it was a little hard to keep you girls up way past your bed times and get to a parking lot where we could see some of the fireworks around town, but next year when your older and understand the holiday a little more we will definately try and catch some bright and sparkallies in the night sky.

Daddy so enjoys the both of yew so much. You two and mommy make his life and bring joy to him when he comes home from work and get the obligory "Hi Daddee, I want cheese!!" He loves spending the little time he does getting you ready to go to your respective spots/schools in the morning, and debate on what yew girls think you want for breakfast each morning.

If I haven't said it lately, and I am sure I have, "Daddee loves yew Aubree, yew Shae, and yew momma! very much!"