News From Hui-Hui's World

We've Moved!

socheltree@mac.com — 2007-05-24T21:50:54-07:00

I actually intended to stop blogging back in September after we had celebrated Kai's Adoption Day Anniversary. But then there were a bunch of fun things to write about in October: Moon Festival, Halloween, Kai's re-adoption, etc. I also really enjoyed the routine of blogging.

I think there is a lot of valuable information in this blog for families considering international adoption, so we are keeping these pages here as an archive.

We had started the Stinky Mouse blog a while ago, but had let it lapse. Now it seemed like a good way to shift away from blogging about adoption to blogging about family life. So if you'd like to follow along on our continuing adventures as told through the eyes of a somewhat egotistical and neurotic stuffed mouse be sure to add Chou-Chou Shu to your blogroll!

Happy Halloween and Re-Adoption Day!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-31T22:24:25-08:00

Kai was a monkey for Halloween this year. I wanted to modify this costume to make it into The Monkey King, but I didn't get a round tuit, so he was just a monkey. We invited ourselves over to our friends Heidi and Kim's so Kai could see his good buddy Mimi. Mimi was dressed as a beautiful ballerina and the two of them trick-or-treated a few houses together.

Our big treat this Halloween was getting to complete Kai's "re-adoption". That's right, we adopted him again! This wasn't "necessary" as our adoption in China is fully recognized here in the U.S. but there were a number of good reasons for us to take this extra step. Kai's name on all of our documents in China was recorded as his Chinese name, so his citizenship papers and Social Security Card show his name as Hui Dang, this let us officially change his name. It also let us get him a Washington State birth certificate with his new name. Another pressure we felt was due to the fact we had lost our original Chinese Adoption Decree while we were in Guangzhou!

The process was pretty easy once we got the documents assembled. We were lucky to get copies of these we could modify ourselves without having to hire a lawyer. The court staff was helpful and the judge was very friendly. Our "hearing" was a brief meeting in his chambers where he swore us in and then signed a couple documents with us. He had special pens with his name on them for signing documents and gave Kai the one we used.

Kai has been working hard on saying his new last name: "Ocheltree".

New Look for the Blog

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-23T11:52:50-07:00

What do you think?

Photo Fun - Hippy Pumpkins

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-23T08:47:21-07:00

The Double Happiness "challenge" this week is a Any Photo With a Pumpkin. These are photos that were on the blog last year, but I really like them. I posted Kai's trip to the pumpkin farm already, so I wanted to feature Kai's brother Ben. Ben won't even know this is on here unless someone tells him, so I can put up just about anything about him. Ben's having a really good year at school so far, he is a high school sophomore. He also just recently started his first "real" job at the Sportsplex as a Skate-guard. He is going to get his license soon, and is greatly admired by his little brother Kai.
This is a picture of him carving our jack-o-lanterns last year. He's wearing the tye-die t-shirt his mom made him and his own hemp jewelry. The pumpkin designs are a peace sign and aum.

Chinese-American Gothic

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-16T21:26:30-07:00

It's week two of the Double-Happiness photo challenge game. Donna's subject this week is "Reinterpretation of Classic Art". I'm really impressed with the entries so far. If I'm going to keep up I'm going to need some real photo editing software. Yes, I'm working on a Mac, but I work with the REALLY cheap editing software. I think I kind of lucked out this week. I snapped this pic of Kai and Tina this weekend at the pumpkin farm. Serendipity!

Fall Farm Visits

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-15T18:47:37-07:00

One of the reasons I had originally decided to stop updating Kai's blog was that we had come through a full year together and had completed a good number of "firsts". I didn't want to start posting a bunch of reruns, but this is actually a pretty interesting way to see how Kai has changed over the last year.

Last year we visited two farms with Kai, the first was "The Apple Farm" with the preschool class. This was one of our very first outings with Kai last year, we had only been home a few days with him. HERE'S A LINK to last year's entry on our Apple Farm Visit. And here are photos from this year's visit...

The other farm we like visiting in the fall is Stoney Ridge Farm. The apple farm Tina's preschool visits is a tiny little family farm. Stoney Ridge isn't a real big farm, but it focuses on tourism, it has much more of a carnival atmosphere. It's a great place to get a pumpkin and have a slice of apple pie with ice cream.
Again, HERE'S THE LINK to last year's visit. And here are photos from this year...

Friday Foto Fun

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-13T09:54:34-07:00

Gwen and Maddy's mom, our good friend Donna, has created a weekly "Photo Challenge" on their China Adoption Blog. I saw that it even got "The Other Scott" to update Cady's Blog, so I figured I should play too!

This week's subject is "Anticipation". I scrolled through the iPhoto library and came up with these from our trip to the Northwest Washington State Fair in Lynden back in August. The last photo shows what we were anticipating...

Moon Festival 2006

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-10-08T17:43:44-07:00

I was anxious about Moon Festival this year. It was important to me that we observe this holiday, but I'm not very good about the holiday thing. I procrastinate and don't plan well. But as our first official observation of Moon Festival, this year was a great success. First of all we had family visiting: Tina's dad and sister were here with us, which is great because the most important part of Moon Festival is being with familiy. Secondly,we were able to buy mooncakes a the local asian market; pretty good ones too. This was great because we had waited too long to order them online. And Thirdly, the moon came out in all its big, full, extra bright glory for us to gaze at! (That's a picture of it at the top that I I took with my cheapo camera.)

Our celebration began on Thursday afternoon when our friend Mei-mei stopped by for a visit on her way to Vancouver. She brought Kai a present and a moon cake in its own fancy little tin. (That's Mei-mei up above on the right giving Kai a hug.) On Friday night (the actual day of Moon Festival) we had a family dinner and ate mooncake together. We got the lotus seed paste ones without egg yolk. They aren't too sweet, but are very rich. They kind of reminded me of peanut butter cookies. No big fans of mooncake in our family yet, but it's growing on me. I actually enjoy a little piece of fruitcake once in a while too, so I think I could become a mooncake lover. Kai loves them. He doesn't eat them, as he still refuses to eat anything requiring chewing, but he gets quite excited when we get them out. Mainly because we put candles on them and let him blow them out. But hey, he loves mooncake! (just not for eating)

Then on Saturday night Tina and I took Kai and Tina's dad and sister down to the Village Green in Fairhaven for the Mei Hua Chinese School's Moon Festival celebration. The weather was great and a lot of people turned out, both Chinese-American families, and adoptive families. The program was sort of like a talent show with students and faculty perfoming music and dance, as well as some story telling and fun Moon Festival facts. Kai's good friend Mimi and her family were there too (that's her up on the left getting a big hug from Kai). Kai's still a little young to start at the school, but we plan on having him there next year. We feel very lucky to have this program here locally for Kai.

So Moon Festival was a big hit at our house. Even though it doesn't fall on the same day every year, we feel this is Kai's REAL Family Day with us. It was so special getting to receive him in China last year on Moon Festival, we plan on always marking this holiday as his special day!

--Oh, and I started blogging again.
Yeah, I know I said it was time to stop, but how can you not blog Moon Festival?!

One Last Post

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-09-19T15:00:53-07:00

In Which Kai celebrates his Family Day, and We Say Goodbye.

A year ago on September 18, the five of us were in China. Tina, Cam, Ben and I started the day waking up all together in a small hotel room in Beijing; the four of us anxious and excited for what lay ahead. I assume Kai started his day waking up for the last time in his crib at the S.W.I. with all his roommates. We wonder how much he had been prepared for our arrival. We had sent a gift package to his S.W.I. that included photos of us, a disposable camera, and a questionnaire in Chinese about Kai. His nannies had used the camera for us and answered our questions, but we don’t know what became of the rest of the package. Had he seen the pictures of us? Had they told him about our impending arrival? He seemed very apprehensive upon our first meeting and was understandably hesitant to interact. He clung to his nanny and balked at letting Tina hold him. I had a little Hot Wheels car with me (a green BMW convertible) I rolled it to him across the floor. He stared at it as it rolled into his foot, but he wouldn’t smile or pick it up. This little car is now kept in a special box on top of the piano. Kai plays with it sometimes, but it stays separate from the large basket of “working” cars he inherited from his older brothers. The other night I took the little green bimmer from its box and rolled it across the floor to Kai. It bumped into his toes just like that day in Baoding, this time Kai laughed and rolled it back to me. We rolled it back and forth a few times like we often do with cars; Kai didn’t seem to think anything special of the moment, but it was quite poignant for me.

Kai has been with us for one year! Sometimes it seems like he has been with us forever, other times I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we went to China to get him. It’s difficult to see a child's growth when you're with them everyday, it’s such a gradual process day by day, but over a year it adds up dramatically. Kai has grown three and half inches in height and gained nearly ten pounds. Even more impressive than his physical growth are the gains he has made in language and other cognitive areas, he is an amazing little boy! He is much more active and physically coordinated than when we received him. He has developed a very powerful imagination and loves make-believe. He enjoys playing with his Brio trains, he likes coloring, and cutting paper with scissors. He likes listening to stories and will listen to whole chapters of the original Winnie-the-Pooh and Beatrix Potter stories. He takes long walks with me and is learning new words every day.

So how did we mark our special day? We had our 12-month post placement interview with our social worker. JoAnn Vesper! This was actually quite nice, as it made us sit down and really focus on how the last year has gone for Kai. Tina had made a cake. It was round and white so we called it a "Moon Cake". This was to signify that the day we received Kai in China last year was on the Moon Festival. (This year Moon Festival will be on October 6th). Kai didn't want to eat any but he enjoyed blowing out the candle about a dozen times and he shared his piece with Stinky Mouse.

One other tradition we started was an idea we borrowed from another family. We dressed Kai in the clothes he came to us in and took a picture to see how he had grown.

In his hands Kai is holding a little toy his nanny gave to him, we keep this with the outfit he wore. He's not wearing the shoes as his feet will no longer fit into them...

Here is a video montage I put together celebrating our first year with Kai.

And now, as I said at the beginning of this post, we come to a close. I was first inspired to start this blog when I discovered the blogs of other families adopting from China nearly two years ago. It seemed like a good way to let family and friends know about our progress as we made our way through the pre-adoption paperwork, and to stay in touch while we traveled in China to unite with Kai. I didn’t really think about what would happen with the blog after we returned; it had become a fun habit and I enjoyed documenting our life with Kai, so I continued journaling his first year with us. Now that year has come to a close, and so too does this blog. I want to thank everyone who had read our story and sent us such wonderful email messages and comments; your encouragement has been very much appreciated. The content of this blog and all email messages and comments it has generated will become a part of Kai's Life Book. Again, thank you for reading along.

Family Vacation

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-08-29T09:26:04-07:00

Last week Tina and I took Kai and Ben on a family vacation trip. Cam stayed home to work, he looked after the house and took care of the dog for us while we while we were gone.
We really didn't have room in the budget this year for a real vacation, but my sister Kris and her husband Mark invited us to join them and their two boys at a cabin they rented on Priest Lake in northern Idaho. This is a beautiful lake, and while it is becoming more and more popular, there's still a lot of it that is wild and undeveloped. The weather was perfect and the cabin was great; there was lots of room for all of us.
Kai loved going for boat rides with his Uncle Mark and even rode a jet-ski with him!

I will write more about this trip soon, but wanted to get this slideshow online now...

The Fair

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-08-20T12:01:43-07:00

Just north of Bellingham, almost right on the Canadian border, is a pretty little town called Lynden. Every August Lynden hosts the Northwest Washington Fair.

Going to the fair is a tradition in our family. Ben's birthday is almost always during "fair week". In fact Tina and I went to the fair with her parents 16 years ago the night before Ben was born!
We used to love taking our big boys to see all the animals and exhibits when they were little, but as they grew up they would leave us behind to spend their time on the midway and the carnival rides. This year was a bit of a flashback for Tina and me as we once again had a little guy in overalls to visit all the animals with! Here's a little slideshow of Kai's first visit to the fair...

Baba's Car

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-08-06T10:36:31-07:00

We have two cars, a 94 Caravan and a 99 Beetle. Kai's car-seat stays in the Caravan. This is the only one of our cars he has ridden in. The Bug is my little commuter. And I do mean "little"; I live less than 3 miles from work. Kai loves the Bug. Since I'm the one who mainly drives it he calls it "Baba's Car".

Last week I took the Caravan in for service on Friday, so we moved the car-seat into the Bug and Tina had it for the day. It had gotten pretty dirty so I washed it the night before and invited Kai to help me. Washing things is one of his very favorite activities so this was pure heaven for him. We have kept the car-seat in the Bug for now and have traded cars for a bit. Kai is quite pleased about this and talks about Baba's car a lot. He is VERY pleased to be getting to ride in it finally.

How Do You Sleep?

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-08-01T22:01:16-07:00

Pretty well lately.

Kai has been in his own bedroom for couple months now. When we came home from China we had his crib in our room. At first we left some space between it and our bed, but found that Kai woke most nights and needed some comforting to go back to sleep. So we pushed the crib right up against Tina’s side of the bed and lowered the side. This made a little “half-wall” between us and him, and was a nice compromise to co-sleeping with him. He could crawl in with us when he wanted, and we could put him back in the crib when we tired of fighting him over the blankets.

When we first came home with him we tried to rock him to sleep, or cuddle and sing to him in our bed tell he dozed off before putting him in the crib. He began fighting this though, and we found he did better if we put him in his crib awake and let him go to sleep on his own (like he would have at the S.W.I.). In time his typical bedtime routine evolved into joining me on the big bed for stories, then we’d turn off the light and he would climb into his crib. Then I would sing a few lullabies before saying goodnight. I would leave the bedroom door open so he could hear us out in the living room, and he would go to sleep on his own. When we came back in later to go to bed ourselves, we could have the lights on low and talk, brush our teeth, etc. and it never bothered him.

After a while his night wakings diminished. He would sleep through till early morning, then crawl in with us to cuddle a while before getting up. Once this pattern seemed established we decided to try moving him into his own room. The room we have for him is right off the living room by the front door and has a twin bed in it. We initially tried putting him in the twin. It’s against the wall and we got a side-rail to put on it. We left the crib in our room just in case. The first night was a bit too hard on us though. He went right to sleep like normal, but when it was time for us to turn in I couldn’t take it. What if he wakes up and worries that we aren’t there? I caved, and scooped him out of the bed and carried him down the hall to the crib in our room. The next morning I had to go to work early and left before he woke up. When he did wake he was confused to find himself back in our room. He was actually bummed about it. So Tina moved the crib out and put it next to the twin bed in his room. He’s been in there ever since. He still wakes up some nights, usually around 4:00 AM, and will come down the hall to our room. When he does we bring him into bed with us and he goes back to sleep. But more and more now he’s sleeping through in his own room. We plan on transitioning him to the twin eventually, but he loves his cozy crib, and he likes having his own room too.

Life's a Beach

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-07-16T15:23:35-07:00

Saturday was a blast. We spent the day with my mom, sister, niece and nephews at a really great park in Everett. It's called Jetty Island.

Where's Hui-Hui?

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-07-13T21:52:36-07:00

Where's Hui-Hui?

That's what we say when we play peek-a-boo. When our older two boys were little and played this game we would say "BOO!" when they uncovered their faces, but "bu" in Mandarin means "No!" So we don't shout "Boo!" at Kai, we say "Peek!" instead.

Okay, so where has he been lately? He's here at home having a great time.

Summer isn't the best time for blogging for me. The company I work for has a very seasonal work-flow. Summer is our production season and this has been a rough one for I.T. systems. This equals me being busy with work stuff at all kinds of weird hours - I'll be going in tonight at 1:00 A.M. to do some stuff during a narrow window of downtime. Between work and summer family schedule I just haven't made time for keeping up the blog. For those of you checking in regularly (are any of you left?) I apologize.

But believe me Kai has been very busy around here...

Google Earth Rocks!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-19T09:57:36-07:00

Have you seen Google Earth? You really should check it out. It's the most amazing toy.

I played around with it a few months ago when if first came out for the Mac. I obsessed on tracking down interesting sites, finding our home, etc, it's amazing. It has a searchable globe constructed out of satellite images complete with terrain elevations, etc. Not every area is available in high resolution (our home is in a low-res blurry area) but lots of places are high-res. If you're interested in China you might get a kick out of looking at The Forbidden City in Beijing. We got to tour it when we traveled to get Kai, so it was exciting to see it from space. You'd be amazed at the kind of detail you can make out from these images. I'm sure the government has even better imagery to play with, but this is pretty good. The images below are not as high of definition as possible to view in the Google Earth program, as I've shrunk them down a bit to fit the web-page.

Having looked around Beijing, I was curious if I could find other places we visited in China. Here's a picture of Shamian Island in Guangzhou.

The big white building on the south side of the island is the White Swan Hotel where we stayed. This was pretty easy to find as I knew the layout of the island and could just sort of look along the Pearl River in the spots where it flows straight, west to east, through the city.

The other cities we stayed in were available in high-res as well. I wanted to see if I could find Kai's SWI. Unfortunately you can't search China by street address... yet. So I still haven't found it. But I did find the hotel we stayed at when we were in his province. This one was not as easy as the White Swan. My search for this one was much more of a high tech Where's Waldo.

Here's China...

Here's Shijaizhuang...

Where do you start? All you can do really is pick a place and begin. I had a set of landmarks to work with and I'll show them to you in a minute. My mom was staying with us this weekend and she watched me doing this Sunday morning. She thought I was nuts. I probably am, but here's the picture of the hotel we stayed in...

Now here's the landmarks as I've labeled them above...
(A) is our hotel The Hebei Century

(B) is a middle or high school courtyard we could see from our hotel window. See the narrow strip of blue rooftop?

(C) is a destinctively shaped building we could see out our window...

(D) is the mall across the street that we hung out in and annoyed the shopkeepers with our inability to speak the local language...

(E) is the park across the intersection we visited ...

Pretty good, huh?

So now on my hunting list are the temples we visited, and of course, Kai's SWI. If you are planning on visiting any of those places, please do me a favor and bring along a GPS device. exact latitude and longitude would make this a LOT easier!!!

If you'd like to visit these locations in Google Earth, you can click on the links below to download the KMZ files. Opening these will take you to the the location in Google Earth if you have it installed on your computer.
Shijiazhuang - Hebei Century Hotel

White Swan Hotel

More Cameron

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-18T22:08:11-07:00

It's still "Cameron Week" here at Hui-Hui's world. High school graduation, recitals, parties, etc. It's been a bit tough on Kai sharing center stage, but he's held up pretty well.
Tina and I are holding up pretty well too. It's been an emotional but fun time. Now to show off a bit more of Cam. I have two video clips that show a bit of his musical versatility. These were both filmed this weekend. The first one is the first piece he played at his senior violin recital. This is at his violin teacher's house. Cam has taken lesson with her since he was six. The second clip is of him playing with his funk combo "The Endeavors". This one was shot at a party at his girlfriend's house. I love both these pieces...

Graduation

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-16T10:07:06-07:00

Cameron is graduating from High School today.

He just turned 18 about 6 weeks ago. Hard to believe really, as it seems it couldn't have been much before that when he was just born. But it has been 18 years, and now he is leaving behind the safety and security of childhood and is taking his first steps out into the adult world. He's not moving out tomorrow, and the change doesn't happen all at once. But it is really happening, and today is one of those days when you stop and take note; a day you publicly say, "this is a point of change."

This is a real graduation. It's not preschool graduation, it's not kindergarten graduation or middle-school graduation. I can appreciate people wanting to observe those moments too, but I don't feel they are "real" points of demarcation. High School Graduation, in my mind, is THE big one. It is at this point when a person must begin making real decisions about their life. Parents can still offer advice, and may influence their decisions through various means, but ultimately the child has now crossed a threshold and has taken on true control of their fate.

Cam is our oldest son, the first child Tina and I brought into our lives. He's the one who paved the way for Ben and Kai, the one who first showed us how to be a parent. He continues to teach us even now, as we move through this new phase in our relationship. Tina and I both love Cameron very much. He is a gentle person who thinks deeply about things. He is talented musically and artistically. He works hard on the things he cares about and is self-motivated. I feel deeply blessed to be able to call him my son. I am so impressed by the many things he has achieved over the last 18 years, and look forward to seeing him move on to a bright and exciting future.

This is a short slideshow of Cam over the years...

Stinky Mouse Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-11T22:00:00-07:00

I know, I know, Stinky Mouse has his own blog, but his life is pretty deeply entwined with Kai's so he still gets time on this blog too.

First, I want to give a shout out to some online friends who have linked to Mouse's blog from theirs.
Our friend Princess Brinley gave Mouse a really nice entry and even mentioned The ChouChou Shu Online Store.

Also our friends Michael and Kimberly from Iowa, who are waiting for their referral (I was going to say patiently waiting, but I don't know anyone who waits patiently for that!) they gave mouse a nice plug on THEIR BLOG too!

Mouse loves all this attention and encourages everyone with a blog to give him a link!

Now, the real reason I'm writing about Stinky Mouse is because of the ongoing controversy regarding his real identity. You loyal readers (both of you) no doubt recall that the original Stinky Mouse had a fateful encounter with a bottle of Febreze. I confess, it was me who sprayed him down, but if you had smelled him when I did it, I don't think you would blame me. Anyway, Tina replaced Stinky Mouse. This is much like what happened back in 1969 when the REAL Paul McCartney died and was replaced by a look-a-like. (If you don't remember this you can click HERE, but after you finish reading that stuff remember to come back!)
Well anyway, the original Stinky Mouse, who was now no longer stinky, but rendered unlovable by a cheap, industrial quality cologne was hidden away in Kai's pajama drawer. His replacement became greatly loved and continued to rise in fame and fortune - just like the guy they replaced Paul with.

Well this weekend, something terrible happened. Our oldest son Cam is graduating from high school this week and we are going to be having lots of company and family visiting. So we've been fast-tracking a number of reclamation projects around the house in an attempt to conceal how far we've let things slide since bringing a toddler into our lives. To aid in this, I rented a pressure washer. These are amazing tools, but they run on gas and the one I rented seemed to have a loose gas cap. No one saw this happen, but it was parked by our backdoor, and at some point either Kai or Mouse got too close to this thing, because they both smelled like gas. We were able to clean up Kai, but Mouse had attained a whole new level of stink - dangerous toxic stink!

It was bedtime before we realized it was the mouse that was stinking of gasoline.
Kai wasn't happy with him.
It was Tina again who saved the day. She said to Kai, "I'm going to give Mouse a quick bath. You wait here." She took him down the hall and switched him with the original. Stinky Mouse #1's months of exile in the pajama drawer had diminished his Febreze induced repugnancy to a tolerable level. Kai was so sleepy he just needed someone with big soft ears to snucker on. The switch went undetected!

Now the amazing thing is that Mouse #2 had actually logged more hours of usage, and it showed. We had given him a number of sponge baths (using only water and Kai's baby soap) to keep the smell down, but general wear and tear was showing its affect. Mouse #1 looks all fresh and new in comparison. What an amazing bath!

So we are now planning on stocking up on a few ChouChou Shu clones as backup in case disaster strikes again. Oh and if you don't appreciate the importance of backing things up, check out the latest entry on Cady's Blog.

"Home"

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-09T21:49:40-07:00

Tina writes...

"Home"

This has become Kai's favorite word. He says it often, and gets very excited when we are out and hit the familiar main road that leads to our street. He says it gleefully after getting into the car when we have been somewhere. He says it first thing in the morning when inventorying our family, "Cam?" "He's at school." He says, "Ben?" "He's at school too." He says, "Baba?" (if Scott has left) "Baba's at work," I say. Then he will say very happily, "Kai HOME!"

It has been incredible to watch him make sense of this new world we have put him in. To become familiar with the people, places and routines of his new life. And this recent constant declaration of "home" seemed to be much more than just a comment about his
physical location. He seemed to be feeling something very deep and something most of us experience as infants, too young to verbalize or even think about consciously. So I decided
to look up the word "home" and see what Webster thought about all the meanings of this word, and I think I found the one Kai is describing;
"-adv. 3. to the center or heart of a matter; closely; directly; deeply."

Ah. There's no place like home!

Stinky Mouse Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-06-05T23:25:05-07:00

It's a new month here at Hui-Hui's world, so if you need to catch up check out the monthly archives in the sidebar.

Kai has been doing great since his surgery. I haven't written any new entries for his blog, but I did get one together for Chou-Chou Shu. CLICK HERE to check it out!

Super Trooper

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-30T20:19:41-07:00

Kai is such an amazing little trooper! We have had a really busy last four days. Memorial Day weekend in Bellingham is the weekend of our big local civic celebration, The Ski to Sea Race. Cam and Ben both marched with their high school band so we took Kai to watch them. We had taken him to see the Junior Ski to Sea parade the weekend before so he had an idea of what to expect. He loves parades. Loves to wave at everyone, and shake hands with the clowns, Shriners, etc. Had a great time. And best of all Cam and Ben’s band took first place in their division, beating out the other two city high school bands as well as a number of others.
We had even stopped on our way there to get him a last minute haircut. Haircuts have not been a favorite activity for him, and from the look of the cut he had back at the S.W.I. I think I can understand why. But he seems to have gotten over that and didn’t mind it at all this time.
On Sunday we went south for the annual party at our friends Kim and Alex’s. The weather was not so great, but we had a great time anyway. There were quite a few people there and it gets pretty loud. Kai fell right into the mix and had a great time. He enjoyed watching the horseshoe tournament, and getting to sit on Alex’s Harley.

Alex always has lots of toys. This is a picture of Kai and his cousin Devon watching Alex launch a little glider-plane from a bunch of helium balloons…

Monday was a quieter day of working around the house and lawn. It was good that it was a bit quieter, because Tuesday was not the day we returned to our regular routine.

No, Tuesday was the day we returned to Children’s Hospital for Kai’s hand surgery. To keep things in perspective, this was not a major surgery. All we were having done was the removal of his “floating thumb” from his left hand.

We probably could have had our local G.P. do it, but Dr. Hanel was glad to do it, and Kai was able to have a general anesthetic. We thought this would make it less traumatic for him, though we realized it would add an additional complexity to the procedure. We had set the appointment months ago, but had been wavering as to whether or not we were going to go through with it. His little thumb nubbin doesn’t pose a direct problem, but it does get in the way, and draws attention to his hand. We talked about putting it off, but in the end decided it was best to get it over with.

Our day began at 4:20 A.M. when our alarm went off. Tina and I snuck out of bed and got dressed while Kai slept. We quietly snuck some coffee and toast, feeling a little guilty, as Kai would not be able to eat until much later when he came out of the anesthesia. We had everything ready to go and the car warming up before we woke him. As usual, the first thing he asked for upon waking was breakfast. “Yup,” I told him, “We’ll eat in a minute.” This was going to be a very long minute. We changed his diaper, put shoes on him and loaded him directly into the car. This distracted him from his request and he probably wasn’t really ready to eat anyway, as it was only 5:00 A.M.

It was a beautiful morning; perfectly clear and the traffic was light. We stopped in Marysville (about an hour south) to pick up my mom, and then headed on to Seattle. On our last trip down the traffic had been really bad and we were late getting to Children’s, so we had left extra early this morning. Today the traffic was as nice as the weather and we made excellent time. We hit our exit at 7:00 A.M. and made every light on the way to the hospital. This sounds great, but it meant we had over an hour to kill before it was time to check in and we still couldn’t give Kai that breakfast we had promised him “in just a minute.”

We went ahead and checked in and sat in the reception area. This part of the hospital had just been redone and is absolutely gorgeous. Each part of the hospital has a different theme: airplanes, space, farm, etc. This area is called the “Whale Entrance” and is beautifully decorated.

Kai loves whales and was very taken by all the imagery. As it turned out we didn’t have to wait that long. The family scheduled ahead of us was driving over from Yakima and had called to say they were lost. Our early arrival meant we could switch places with them; we got in early and they didn’t lose their appointment.

The check-in receptionist noticed Kai’s fondness of Mouse and asked if he would be accompanying Kai into surgery. We thought that was a good idea so Mouse got a wristband too.

In the prep room Kai willingly let us undress him and put the tiny hospital gown on him.

The first time we met Dr. Hanel Kai was very upset when we had to undress him to be examined. After we met with nurse-practitioner and the anesthesiologist they brought in a dose of “goofy juice” for Kai. This was the first relaxing drug to prep him for the surgery. He wasn’t too happy about being given this, but didn’t fuss too much. Within minutes he started getting pretty slack, and before too long he began singing loudly to Mouse. I didn’t recognize the song, but it was reminiscent of :
“Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head”

The anesthesiologist returned and we put Kai into her arms. He was totally slack at this point and gave no resistance. This was really a very minor procedure, but entrusting your child to others this way is very, very hard. General anesthetics can have side affects, and this was his tiny, little hand they were going to be cutting on.

The procedure was to last only half an hour and they had given us pager to let us know when Dr. Hanel was finished. We went up to the cafeteria to eat something while we waited. Just as we were finishing our meal the pager went off. We raced back to the recovery room and in a few minutes the doctor came in to talk to us. The procedure went smoothly and Kai was sleeping. They would bring him in to us as soon as he started to wake. It took about an hour and they brought him back in on a little tiny gurney. His eyes were open and he was starting to come around. We were worried about how the anesthesia might affect him, would he be nauseous, irritated, panicky? Nope, he came out of it easily, had some water and even tried a popsicle. I think he still was a bit wonky as he normally won’t touch anything that sweet.

We got him dressed, checked out, and drove back to my mom’s for lunch. By the time we got there Kai was pretty much himself again and made himself at home in Gramma’s toy closet.

The whole process was much harder on us than it was on him, which is how it should be, and why we took him to Children’s for the procedure. When we got home he was up and going. He played in the backyard watering everything in sight, and working his earth moving equipment.

We have kept him on Tylenol with codeine to make sure he doesn’t have any pain, but apart from the annoyance of the bandage, he doesn’t seem to know he had surgery today. We are very proud of how well he handled it all and are continuously amazed at his resilience and positive attitude.

Love Without Boundaries

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-21T21:56:15-07:00

This entry is about Love Without Boundaries, a volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lives of orphans in China. They are currently hosting an auction on ebay to raise funds for essential life-saving heart surgeries for orphaned children in China. The goal this year is to heal 12 heart children. There are almost 700 wonderful items to bid on, and there is something for everyone. It certainly isn't limited to adoptive families, with wonderful artwork, music and collectibles. CLICK HERE to view the auction!

I posted earlier how Cam had made an art piece for this auction as part of his senior culminating project you can see (and bid on) his piece on by CLICKING HERE.

Love Without Boundaries also has a program for sponsoring children. We sponsor a little girl called "Libby" and recently got an update on her with the following information:

Libby
DOB: August 2005

Libby has really grown a lot. She has gained 4 cm and about a kilogram in weight. Libby can now sit up on her own and enjoys playing with toys on by herself. As soon as she is sitting up, she tries to grab anything within her vicinity. She turns to voices and always greets her foster mother with a huge smile! She continues to be healthy and happy. The foster family really loves her and is enjoying having her in their home.

Stinky Mouse Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-21T20:01:35-07:00

Stinky Mouse finally got an update, CLICK HERE to see what he's been up to!

8 Month Anniversary

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-14T22:50:15-07:00

This week will be the 8th month anniversary of the day we received Kai into our family. Our official "Adoption Day" was September 19th, but we were able to meet Kai and take him with us on the 18th which fittingly was Moon Festival in China. It's been an amazing 8 months. Having been with Kai every day since he joined our family makes it hard to see just how much he has changed in this time; partly because the beautiful spark of who he is has not changed since we met him. But for those first few days together in China he was a very frightened little boy going through an amazingly challenging time. Over these last 8 months two things have gone on with Kai, one is that he has grown and developed and learned, just as any three-year-old does. The other thing though is that he has become a member of our family, and has opened up and shared who he is (and already was) more and more with us.

I have put together a little video montage of photographs of Kai that span the time from just before we traveled to get him until just a few days ago. I think you can see quite a transformation in him...

Mimi & Kai Video

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-10T23:01:12-07:00

On Wednesdays Kai has his friend Mimi spend the day with him. They have been having a great time together, and Tina has been having fun taking pictures of the two of them together. I have been playing with the latest version of iMovie and put together this little video. I'm hosting it on videoegg.com. They're new, and currently don't have any ads on their site. I really like their interface; easy to use and they support Windows and Macs. The song is a White Stripes song, but is the Jack Johnson version from the soundtrack to Curious George (highly recommended!)

Back to Blogging

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-07T23:28:16-07:00

For those of you who check in on this blog regularly to see what's new, I apologize for not posting in a little while. We've been pretty busy here with a number of things. and I just haven't felt like blogging that much. Maybe it's the nice weather we've been having? Maybe I'm just lazy.
Part of it though is that blogging takes away time from living, and I'm trying to "live" a little more lately, so my online life has been taking a back seat. But I do like doing this, so do keep checking in.
I promise a Stinky Mouse update ASAP as well!

Grampa Visits

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-07T22:45:00-07:00

We had Tina's dad here with us for a few days last week, which was nice. Kai had only met Grampa twice before and both of those times were when we visited at Grampa's house, but he remembered him and was very playful and affectionate. Tina's dad had flown over to our side of the state to attend a memorial service for one of his best friends. I had a work thing down in Seattle, so Tina had to drive her dad down for the service; a 2+ hour drive through Seattle pretty much during rush hour, with Kai. She was pretty stressed out about how this was going to go, but ended up having a good time. Kai was a little trooper and held up great for the whole day.

Driving

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-07T21:47:22-07:00

Our middle son, Ben, is taking driver's ed. now, so I have been taking him out for driving practice. We have two vehicles to choose from, a beater '94 white Dodge Caravan, and a bright yellow '99 5 speed New Beetle.

The Caravan is the obvious choice to take a student driver out in for his first run, but where's the fun in that? When Cam learned to drive I let him try the Beetle. He had a pretty hard time with it, and we ended up putting it aside indefinitely. Last year Cam's summer job was about 15 miles from home and he really needed his own car, so we helped him buy an '85 Jetta. It's not the hottest ride on the road but it's been very reliable; and it's a manual tranny, so Cam did ultimately learn to master this skill. Ben really wanted to try the Bug, and I figured there's no harm in it. We went out a couple evenings last week and drove around through the cul de sacs of our neighborhood. He actually did quite well, but I think we'll go back to the Caravan until he gets a few more hours in behind the wheel. There's a whole lot going on outside the car you have to keep track of without having to think about shifting. All in all Ben shows signs of being a really good driver.

Cam's Culminating Project

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-05-07T10:34:16-07:00

Cameron has been working hard on finishing up his senior culminating project (a graduation requirement). For part of this project he created an art piece and donated it to Love Without Boundaries 3rd Annual Born in My Heart Art Auction. (<--click to view the webpage) The Auction was created to raise funds for essential life-saving heart surgeries for orphaned children in China.

The piece is done in Lyra watercolor pencil,
matted under glass with a simple wood frame.

Kai has a "gesture" he does which we call "pray to Buddha". He was doing it when we were in China and Ben was the one who named it. He got Kai trained to do it on command. Over the last few months we haven't prompted him for it, but he'll still occasionally do it. It consists of him putting his hands together, raising them up and down in front of him while "singing". When he saw Cam's finished piece he did it spontaneously. I had to ask him to do it again for the camera...

Speaking Whale

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-27T22:25:52-07:00

Recently we have been letting Kai watch the Disney movie Finding Nemo. I like this movie, and I don't like this movie. I like that the hero has a limb difference - Nemo's "lucky fin". Sometimes we call Kai's left hand his "lucky fin". I also really like Albert Brooks and Ellen Degeneres. But the movie isn't really structured well for young children, it's way too intense, but this doesn't seem to bother Kai.

He has learned to recognize whales, and loves the scene where Dori speaks in whale. We have been videotaping him more lately and were able to capture this on tape...

Earth Day

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-23T09:22:49-07:00

We were blessed with the most amazing weather for Earth Day weekend. I decided to help out by volunteering at a proposed EPA Superfund clean up site: our garage.

Our garage isn't actually a garage anymore. It is, in that it still has an overhead door and sits at the end of our driveway, but cars haven't been inside it for years. It was just about five years ago that we had a large storage shed built so we could empty the garage of bikes, lawnmowers, garden tools, camping gear, etc. Then we had insulation and finished drywall installed into the garage. We cleaned and painted the floor and set it up as a teen hangout space.

I make it a point to stay out of there. When two teenage boys occupy a space with their friends for an extended period of time the state of things rapidly degenerate to a point which is aggrevating to view. So I spare myself the aggrevation by not viewing it. Sometimes Tina will come to me in frustration and ask, "Have you looked out there?" And I can happily answer, "No."

Unfortunately we still store some of our stuff out there which requires me to enter it on occasion. The garage is a 20'x20' space, 400 square feet, last week the room had become impassable. Usually when the degree of entropy within the garage impedes upon my consiousness I bark at the boys and make them "clean up". This usuallys result in a superficial pass which removes the largest pieces of garbage and most of the dirty dishes. Things had gotten to a point where this was not going to be enough. I decided that the room was going to be returned to a condition which was safe for humans to occupy. I rolled up my sleeves, rounded up the two biggest boys, and got out my whip.

It only took us about three hours to get things turned around. Here are a couple pictures of "after". The "before" was actually too frightening to document. The drumset is missing, as it is over at a neighbor's house this weekend.

Technical note: these panorama shots are composites of 3 photos each. This is the first time I've tried this with our camera. It has a feature for helping you line up successive shots. Our HP printer came with a simple program for "stitching" the shots together; works pretty neatly!

Oh, and I posted an update on Stinky Mouse too... Enjoy!

Fu Li Finds His Family!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-18T09:31:24-07:00

Have I said on here that I love the Internet?

Well, I LOVE the Internet! I love being able to find out about things instantly. Google and Wikipedia are tools I can't imagine living without anymore. Not only do I like finding things on the internet, I like being found as well! Keeping this little blog running has connected us with so many people. Here is another amazing example:

Just about a month ago Hui-Hui got an email message from a woman named Tanya who lives just an hour away from us, in the same town as my mother and my sister's family. Tanya told us that she and her husband Chris are in the process of "paper-chasing" to adopt a little boy from the SWI in Baoding! She sent us photos of their son, but asked that I not post them until they had received PA (Prior Approval to adopt from China). Well finally they got their PA! So here are some pictures of Fu Li, soon to be known as Brandon. He's about 2 years younger than Hui-Hui and like Hui-Hui, has a limb difference. For those of you counting, Fu Li is Baoding Boy #5!

Chris and Tanya hope to be DTC by the end of June, so if the process for SN continues like it is right now they should have Brandon home before the end of summer!

Kai and Jasper!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-15T21:06:30-07:00

Last weekend we introduced Kai to a new friend named Jasper.
While Jasper and Kai are new friends to one another, their fathers are great old friends. In fact, Jasper's dad Pat and I have been friends since we were the same age as Kai and Jasper are now; and like them, we were introduced to one another by our fathers.

We have been wanting to get these two boys together since we got Kai home from China. Unfortunately there is a mountain range in between us. But finally, we had a chance to stop and visit on our way to see Tina's family. It took Jasper a few minutes to get over the invasion of his home by Kai and his entourage, but the two warmed up to one another quickly and had a great time! If you click on the collage above you can watch a slideshow with bigger pictures.

Carrousel

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-14T12:58:31-07:00

When we visited Tina's family last weekend we went to the Spokane Carrousel. Since Hui-Hui has become addicted to watching the Disney Mary Poppins movie we thought he would really enjoy this. It was actually a bit overwhelming, but he had Mom and ChouChou Shu so he gave it a Thumb Up!

You know you’ve been a child of Waldorf when…

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-07T21:33:07-07:00

Cam and Ben both attended the local Waldorf school through grade 8. Now they both attend a public high school. They have a special bond with their fellow alumni of the Waldorf school through which they obtained the following piece of writing

You know you’ve been a child of Waldorf when…

1. You know pencil shavings make everything prettier.
2. You rip your pants and instead of throwing them away, you whip out thread and a needle and fix them.
3. Faeries and gnomes were your childhood friends.
4. There’s no need to research the dating history of your boyfriend/girlfriend, you know everyone they’ve dated.
5. Knitting is not a just a new trend – you’ve done it since first grade.
6. You’ve made socks, hats, potholders, flute cases stuffed animals, and sewn your own clothes.
7. As you kiss your boyfriend/girlfriend, you realize it is like kissing a sibling… you break up.
8. It doesn’t seem weird to have the same teacher for eight years.
9. You can never escape your ex… they’ll probably date your best friend.
10. Tie-dye was part of your dress code as a child.
11. At least one of your woman teachers doesn’t shave.
12. You’ve dyed your hair an unnatural color at least once… or wondered what you would look like with purple hair.
13. You’ve held hands and skipped around a pole, and no one thought it was weird.
14. You’ve lived in a house without a TV at some point.
15. You can spell out words with your arms… no need for the finger.
16. You have eurythmy shoes lying around your house.
17. You’ve worn a eurythmy gown.
18. You know what eurythmy is.
19. You’ve had a crush on all the guys/girls in your class.
20. Everybody in the school knows if you ditch class, or break a rule or hookup with somebody.
21. You know not to breathe near the blue paint.
22. You can play a wooden recorder
23. You can never forget your embarrassing childhood – they chose a picture of you to go on the school brochure.
24. You didn’t have Barbies, or GI Joe; you had silks and wooden trucks.
25. You know all the bible stories even though you’ve never set foot inside a church
26. You wonder if Waldorf has an agreement with Volvo to only drive their cars.
27. Cheerleaders, football players and all things “public school” are not only scorned, but also feared.
28. You’ve been asked, “Isn’t that a cult” when you say you go to Waldorf.
29. The thought of main lesson book nights haunts you years after you graduate.
30. You’ve been in at least one Shakespeare play
31. You’ve used the words “Waldork” and “Waldorfian”.
32. You couldn’t wait to get out of there, but once you did you wanted to be back.
33. You didn’t know the pledge of allegiance, but “I do behold the world” and the Bell Ringing verse are permanently imprinted in your brain
34. You know in your heart that no matter how hard you try to escape, you will always be a child of Waldorf.
35. You know you’re a truehearted Waldorfian when beeswax is a main source of entertainment.
36. You know you’re a Waldorfian when you sound out words using eurythmy.
37. You can sing, dance, twirl a cane, play four instruments, draw, paint, recite poetry, and cite historical quotes from any period, but you nave no clue what a “test” is.
38. When learning those damn 15 minute long poems in main lesson, you realize they never actually leave your brain, no matter how much you try.
39. At least one kid in your class has lived in some other part of the country, has dreads, and plays “D&D” during your “snack time”.
40. You remember in your years from at least 1st through 5th grade having to take “walks” around the “block” no matter what the weather was like… rain, please, snow? Oh well, thunderstorm, okay we will narrow it down to seven blocks!
41. Something like having to finish a main lesson book still makes you cringe!
42. When you were in 9th grade sitting during lunch time thinking about every other school has off campus lunch, and you’re like dammit we are treated like kids… and then you sit and think, wait aren’t we in 9th grade???
43. When you say the word “butt” in handwork (knitting, sewing, etc. class) and get a detention and a parent conference.
44. When saying the morning verse or singing songs is like second nature.
45. When you have artwork for homework.
46. When you’ve done circus, blacksmithing, watercolor painting, and seats and solos. You can also speak both German and Spanish.
47. When “Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere! Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!” Is not just a stupid Barney song for kids, it’s still considered a ritual by students and staff alike.
48. When people ask you about your classes and you tell them you are currently taking fencing, stained glass, and just returned from a 48 your solo and fast and yet this is perfectly normal.
49. When you and your friends get bored waiting at the bus stop you break out into 4-part harmony… in Latin!

So what are the "Morning Verses"?

Lower grades (1 - 3):
The sun, with loving light,
Makes bright for me each day.
The soul, with spirit power,
Gives strength unto my limbs.
In sunlight, shining clear,
I reverence, O God,
The strength of humankind
Which thou so graciously
Has planted in my soul,
That I with all my might
May love to work and learn.
From thee come light and strength,
To thee rise love and thanks.

Upper grades (4 - 8):
I do behold the world,
The sun, the stars, the stone,
The plants that live and grow,
The beasts that feel and live,
And man to spirit gives,
A dwelling in his soul.
I do behold the soul,
That living dwells in me,
God's spirit lives and moves,
In light of sun and soul,
In heights of world without,
In depths of soul within.
Spirit of God, to thee,
I seeking, turn myself,
That strength and grace and skill,
For learning and for work,
In me may live and grow.

Pre-School Dropouts...

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-05T23:14:34-07:00

Kai and I have been skipping out of preschool. We're preschool dropouts!
Not really, we still go, but only for the first hour of free choice activity at the beginning. We weren't behaving very well for circle, so now we're ducking out early. I feel strongly about not rushing Kai into things. He has a lot of catching up to do, but I want to let him do it at his own pace. Besides, he's not really old enough chronologically (let alone developmentally) for this group.
So, what do we do when we skip out? We go play! Just down the hill from the preschool is Boulevard Park, which is right on Bellingham Bay. I love the bay, it's very sheltered and on calm days it's just like a big lake. But it's salt water and has tides. If you were to sail out of it into Puget Sound, you could keep on going right out through the Strait of Juan De Fuca to the Pacific Ocean. Heck, you could probably sail right on to China if you knew what you were doing! I have no idea what I'm doing and don't even have a rowboat, so we kick around the shoreline and throw rocks in the water. Here's a couple more wonky photos I grabbed with the cell phone...

So Tell Me A Little Bit About Yourself...

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-04T22:08:12-07:00

A popular thread on blogs is a list of questions about you.
it might be something like"Favorite 5", where you list your 5 favorite, books, movies, places...
As this is a blog that's mostly about adoption I thought it would be good to use a different sort of list. What follows is the "autobiography" questionnaire the Social Worker for our adoption agency had us complete as part of our home study. The original format included space for the answers which pushed the length out to about 18 printed pages.

Take your time, and email me your answers! ;-)

A. CHILDHOOD
1. Date and place of birth:
2. Father’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
3. Mother’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
4. Parent’s date of marriage: . 4a. Divorce:
Remarriage: Father. Mother
5. Siblings (including step-siblings) their birth date, married/single, where they live
6. Describe your father’s role in your family, including employment.
7. Describe your mother’s role in your family, including employment.
8. Describe your parent’s personalities.
9. Describe your parent’s marriage.
10. If your parent’s were divorced, discuss why they divorced.
11. Discuss your parent’s prior or subsequent marriage.
12. Describe how your parents showed affection to each other.
13. Describe how your parents showed affection to you.
14. How did you parents comfort you?
15. How did your parents discipline you?
16. How did they criticize you?
17. How did they praise you?
18. How did they encourage you?
19. How did your parents solve problems?
20. What did your family do for fun?
21. What difficulties did you encounter as a child?
22. Describe your life growing up.
23. Name you siblings and describe your childhood relationship to them.
24. Were there other significant people in your life as a child? (Grandparent, aunt, cousin, etc?)
25. Describe your current relationship with each family member. How often do you see them?
B. EDUCATION
1. Name of high school:
Graduated? Year? If NO, why not?
Name of college:
Graduated? Year? Degree
2. What did you like about school?
3. What didn’t you like about school?
4. Do you have plans to further your education?
C. FRIENDSHIPS
1. Describe your past and current circle of friends.
2. Did your parents agree with your choice of friends?
3. At what age did you begin to date? Describe your early dating experiences.
D. ADULT LIFE EXPERIENCES
1. At what age did you consider yourself an adult?
2. Did your parents agree?
3. How old were you when you left home?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. How old were you when you started your first job?
6. Describe your employment history.
7. What do you see as your strengths?
8. What are your weaknesses?
9. Are there areas you would like to improve in?
10. How do you think others would describe your personality?
11. What kinds of activities do you like to do?
12. Who is your employer and what kind of work do you do?
13. How long have you worked at this job?
14. How do you handle job-related stress?
15. How does your job affect your home life?
16. Have you ever been arrested and/or convicted of a crime as an adult or juvenile? If so, please explain.
17. How frequently do you drink alcoholic beverages?
18. Do you use illegal drugs?
19. Please list all past and present medical problems.
20. Are you infertile? If yes, please describe attempts to solve fertility issues.
21. How have you dealt with infertility?
22. What is the biggest problem you have faced as an adult? Explain.
23. How patient are you? Please give examples of what makes you lose your temper.
E. CURRENT MARRIAGE
E1. When and where were you married?
1. Describe how, when, and where you met.
2. What attracted you to your spouse?
3. How long did you date?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. Describe your early adjustment problems.
6. What do you do together?
7. How do you handle disagreements?
8. Describe your last major disagreement and how it was resolved.
9. Describe your role in your family.
10. Describe your spouse’s role in your family.
11. How are your family finances handled? Who pays the bills, etc?
12. How do you feel about your spouse’s family?
13. Please describe your marriage in terms of emotional satisfaction.
14. Who did you learn about sex and sexual development from?
15. Do you plan to educate your children differently than you were educated?
16. Please describe any problems or differences of opinion you experience in your marriage.
17. How have you tried to solve these problems?
18. Describe what you like about your spouse.
19. What would you change about your spouse?
20. How do you and your spouse express affection toward each other?
21. Is this satisfactory to both?
22. How do you handle jealousy?
23. What religion are you? Are you active in this faith? How often do you go to church?
24. How important is religion in your life?
25. Describe your pets.
26. What are your future goals?
F. PREVIOUS MARRIAGE
1. Dates of marriage and divorce:
2. How many children from this marriage?
3. Who has custody?
4. Frequency of contact with children?
5. Describe the problems that led to the divorce in the above marriage(s).
6. What did you learn from that experience?
G. FAMILY
CHILDREN-- Please answer as many questions as possible, even if you have no children.
1. List names, ages, whether in or out of home, and any unusual problems or illnesses.
2. Describe each child’s personality.
3. What are your hopes for your children?
4. What are your fears for your children?
5. Describe the father’s family role.
6. Describe the mother’s family role.
7. Who will handle discipline and how?
8. Describe your child’s school experience.
9. How would you manage as a single parent?
10. Which is the most challenging stage of child development? Why?
11. How do you show your children that you love them?
12. How do your children know you approve of their behavior?
13. How do you criticize your children?
14. What is your personal philosophy on raising children?
15. What do you and your spouse agree about raising children?
16. What do you disagree on?
17. Are you now or will you in the future raise your children the same way you were raised?
18. What would you like to improve on as a parent?
19. How will adoption affect your biological children?
20. How will you help your biological children adjust to adoption?
21. What so you like to do with your children?
22. What responsibilities do you give your children?
H. OTHERS IN THE HOME
1. Name, age, and relationship:
2. What is this person's role in the family?
3. How will this person be affected by adoption?
4. How will you help this person adjust to the adoption?
I. HOME AND COMMUNITY
1. Describe your home.
2. What do you like best about your community?
3. What do you dislike about your home or community?
4. How do you divide household tasks?
5. What happens when family members “mess up” the house?
6. How long do you expect to live in your home and community?
7. What are the public schools in your area? (elem, mid, and high school)
8. Do you have special education facilities in your community?
9. Do you have mental health professionals in your community?
10. Do you have medical facilities in your community?
J. ADOPTION READINESS
1. Who first brought up the subject of adoption?
When and why?
2. What made you decide to pursue adoption?
3. What do your friends and family think about you pursuing adoption?
4. Why do you want to become adoptive parents?
K. ADOPTIVE CHILD’S BACKGROUND
1. How do you plan to explain adoption to your child and at what age will you begin?
2. If you are considering adopting a child of a different ethnicity than yours, please discuss your feelings about preserving and/or acknowledging the racial differences in the family.
3. How will you feel about your child’s inevitable questions about his/her birthparents?
4. How do you feel about your child eventually searching for his/her birthparents?
5. What would you do if your spouse decided to drop out of the adoption process?
6. Do you know other families who have adopted children? What has their experience been?

Stupid Things I Do At The Mall...

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-03T22:38:12-07:00

I hate the mall. It's always bad. But we've been there more than usual this last winter. Partly because we need to buy stuff for Hui-Hui, and partly because the weather has been so lousy it's one of the few places to take him and walk around. It's not like we have been there with any regularity, but a few times now, which is a lot of trips to the mall for me.

Anyway, on one of the last trips out there our oldest son Cam and his girlfriend Brittni came with us too. When we have Hui-Hui with us we indulge him a lot. Want to ride in the ride-on cars? Sure!

Then I'm looking at this ice-cream truck ride, And then I look at Cam. Cam is 6' 2". Now I'm enjoying watching Hui-Hui ride this thing, but I think I would enjoy watching my other son ride it even more. So I suggest he get in. Cam says they have weight limits on the rides and we'll get in trouble. I search the area around the ride-on cars. I can't find any posted rules or regulations anywhere. So I offer him $10 dollars if he'll get into the ice-cream truck. I hate it when I forget to take the digital camera with me, but fortunately my cell phone has a crappy built in cam...

That was worth $10.

Okay, now to redeem a bit of his dignity. Here's a picture we took a week ago at his last violin recital. He is standing with his Teacher Betsy. Cam has taken violin lessons with Betsy since he was 6 years old.

Fascinating Radio Program

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-04-01T22:04:01-08:00

On Point with host Tom Ashbrook on WBUR Boston's NPR News Source had a fascinating program on Adopted Chinese Children.

I found this through Research-China.org website. This is a really good program and I highly recommend listening to it if you are interested in adopting from China. Warning, it is about 50 minutes long, but it is really well done. So many of the pieces on adoption I have come across lately seem to be either short and full of errors, or extremely 2-dimensional in their approach to the subject.
This program includes conversations with the following people:
·Carrie Kitze, author of "I Don't Have Your Eyes" and founder of EMK Press
·Nancy Kim Parson, Adult Korean adoptee, working on a documentary film with Point Made Production in New York City on international adoption
·Dana Johnson, Director of the International Adoption Clinic and Director of the Division of Neonatology at University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital
·Kathleen Sander, Mother of three girls adopted from China.

And it starts off with my verbal sparring partner Peter Goodman, Shanghai Bureau Chief for Washington Post! In this conversation with him he discusses his article "Stealing Babies For Adoption". I actually emailed him again saying, that if his article in the Post had been a transcript of what he said on this program I would have been writing to praise his efforts instead of taking him to task for his melodramatic pandering.

Anyway, the program is very, very good and you should listen to it. Click HERE.

Play Date With Mimi

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-29T22:23:01-08:00

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Mimi.
Mimi makes your heart so light!
When the day is gray and ordinary,
Mimi makes the sun shine bright!
Oh, happiness is blooming all around her.
The daffodils are smiling at the dove.
When Mimi holds your hand you feel so grand,
Your heart starts beating like a big brass band.
It's a jolly holiday with Mimi,
No wonder that it's Mimi that we love!

Pictures of Hui-Hui!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-28T22:52:28-08:00

Now that Stinky Mouse has his own site we can return the focus of this blog back to its primary subject: Hui-Hui!
Life has been good here at Hui-Hui's world. He is developing like any 3 year old seems to, with fits and starts. Some days we are amazed at how far he has come. Other days we marvel at his determination to dominate us into submission. here's a few pictures of some of what he's been up to:

First, this one was amazing, He was doing the cutest thing, but I've got one of those really cheap digital cameras that has a glacial delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken, during which he wandered off so use your imagination...

Okay, caught him this time. He's got the side rail from the toddler bed we thought we might need before he came home. We still may someday, who knows? In the meantime Kai has been putting it to use as a ladder.

And now just so you don't think we are totally negligent when it comes to Hui-Hui's safety, here's some pictures of him out on his new bike. See, he's wearing a helmet! Of course it's so big it may be obstructing his vision. If he wipes out though, we'll have it on film!

Oh yeah, Stinky Mouse got an update too, so click HERE

Stinky-Mouse's New Home!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-24T13:53:52-08:00

Stinky Mouse has had a bit of a makeover and now has his own blog. Yes, that's right, it's the blogosphere's version of a spin-off! Everyone here in the production headquarters for Hui-Hui's World is hoping for a successful launch of this new quality programming outlet, and that all of our beloved readers will check out Stinky-Mouse's new digs! To visit this exciting new website, just click on the picture below!

Regular programming here on Hui-Hui's world will continue as usual. We appreciate your patronage and promise updated entries on a semi-regular basis.

China Flashback - "New" Video

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-19T22:41:44-08:00

I haven't edited any more of the video from our trip to China in several months. I keep meaning to do this but have been really short on round tuits lately.

I have one sequence I finished back when I was working on this and have finally uploaded it to "Hui-Hui's World". It's of our day trip to Longxing Si in the old city of Shijaizhuang. We were really impressed with this temple. It is quite old and has a couple of very impressive images of Guan Yin Pusa. I have some friends who are anthropology/archeology buffs that I think will really find this clip interesting. ;-)

I'm posting this one now because I have been reading China adoption travel blogs again and feeling nostalgic for our trip. It was all of six months ago. I love the driving sequence in this video because it has Hui-Hui in Tina's lap (no carseats in China) and he is really starting to show his cuddly playful nature (this was his 3rd full day with us) and in the background you can see the semi-rural countryside of China rolling by.

Clicking on this picture will take you to our video page
then click Shijaizhuang Temple Visit

A few notes on the music I used for this video: The first track is from a disc of contemporary music featuring the Hulusi, or Chinese gourd flute. Our guide "Bob" played this disc for us in his car and loaned it to me so I could make a copy. The music I used for the temple sequence is from a CD we got at the Six Banyan Temple in Guangzhou. We were very interested in the Buddhist practices in China which really seemed to please our guide Connie. I know there are adoptive families who use their China trip as an opportunity to evangelize Christianity. I think the guides probably bear the brunt of many of these efforts as they have quite a bit of "face time" with us adoptive families, but I felt this was our opportunity to learn about their lives and faith. Because our visit to the Six Banyan Temple was our second temple visit, I think (or hope) we didn't appear to be quite such bumbling novices regarding the practice of lighting incense, etc. Connie asked if we were Buddhist. I told her no, but said we were quite interested in the faith. She explained that she was, and that her family regularly came to this temple for festivals. She then took us over to a table that had free literature and scriptures. She gave us a number of small books (in Chinese) and the CD with the track I used for part of the temple sequence. The part with the monks playing for the man praying is actually live music we caught with the camcorder.

Blogging about Blogging

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-18T13:48:55-08:00

Blogging is a great way to let family and friends keep up with us, and has also been an amazing way to connect with other adoptive families. We read a bunch of other blogs too and I want to share a couple of my current favs: The Cady Chase is our online friends Karen & Scott's blog of their journey to their daughter Cadence. They are in China RIGHT NOW so tune in and follow along! The other new blog I've really been enjoying is And Zen What. The writing on this blog is very good and I highly recommend checking it out! While I'm mentioning other blogs, I've added a "blogroll". I don't like sidebar menus that go on forever, so it's on a sub-menu page. Check it out to see some of the other blogs we read.

I've made a few other minor changes to the layout as well: photo albums are now under a sub-menu page, and I've finally added categories to the blog entries. Now if you want to see everything about "Stinky Mouse" you can click on the category heading in the sidebar and see the archive of those related entries.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-17T22:20:47-08:00

Okay! As promised - the pointless arguments with media wonks have been set aside and we return to our regular pointless content...

Arguing With Peter Goodman

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-15T22:04:55-08:00

First an apology to those of you looking for a new episode of Stinky Mouse, I promise to post the next one on Saturday morning.

This post is a follow up to my last one. Peter Goodman is the author of the article published in last Sunday's issue of The Washington Post. I saw that the Post allows you to email their writers. I assumed Peter might be receiving a good number of emails from rankled folks in the adoption community, but I wrote him all the same. I figured at first he would probably not even read what i wrote. I'm not really very good at this sort of thing: politely expressing my displeasure with someone. And this is a complicated issue. The ethics of international adoption are murky at best and is something I struggle with personally. Still I felt that while his article dealt with important issues it was constructed in a subversive manner. What I ended up sending him was less than I had originally written and ended up being a short comment expressing my disappointment with the article:

I'll assume you are aware of the ripples your Sunday article has sent through the community of families who have adopted from China, so this message is probably an echo of many others you have already received. I see from Brian Stuy's blog that he has written to The Washington Post in response to your article. I hope you read what he wrote.

You have been afforded the opportunity to have your words read by many, many people. Your article was hurtful to my family and many others. Please be more thoughtful in your future efforts.

I was quite surprised when I promptly received a reply from him. Upon reading the reply it became apparent to me that this was most likely a boilerplate response he was sending out to everyone who had written him in opposition to the piece. Here is his reply:

Dear Scott,

Thanks for your note. First, I can assure you that I do fully understand the stakes involved here -- the emotions for adopting families, the clear benefits of the foreign adoption program -- and I am cognizant of the impact of the piece. Surely, for a family that has adopted from China, or is considering doing so, my piece dredges up a lot of uncomfortable questions. But I fear that your reaction to the piece is indicative of the general reaction from the US adopting community: You are reflexively trying to spin away uncomfortable facts rather than confronting this reality in a spirit of bringing about positive changes and perhaps pressuring the institutions involved -- US-based adoption agencies, the Chinese and US governments -- for some accountability. You are blaming the messenger.

I visited Hunan and Guangdong and spent several months investigating the events in question. My piece quotes by name a lawyer for one of those convicted, as well as the mother of that defendant, in addition to a prosecution source and others familiar with events in Hunan and Guangdong. Let's revisit some of what they tell us: 1) Roughly 1,000 baby girls were brought from Guangdong for money to orphanages in Hunan and then put out for adoption, nearly all of them to foreign families. 2) The defense side claims the babies were first abandoned and then sold, a distinction that would determine whether their clients are executed or merely get lengthy prison sentences. In any event, they are copping to large-scale trafficking. That, again, is from the defense attornies. The mother of a defendant confirmed all of this. That the trafficking occurred is beyond question: It was reported in China's official state mouthpiece, China Daily, and confirmed by the people I spoke to. That it involved the abduction of children comes from the prosecution and the court verdict.

Roughly 40,000 Chinese kids have been adopted by foreigners in the years during which this ring has been operating. That means -- assuming this ring is the only one operating in China during that period -- that 2.5 percent of all foreign adoptions involve kids who landed in the adoption program illegitimately. This is according to the defense attornies themselves, supplemented by a prosecution source and a police expert on trafficking. You don't think 1,000 kids is a problem worthy of investigation? Do the Chinese families figure in your thoughts? Isn't it more than a little selfish to simply focus on the impacts of my piece for American families wanting healthy babies?

Your letter is dismaying to me because it illustrates how a lot of people whose emotions are on the line here are adversarially dismissing these uncomfortable truths with ad hominen attacks and name-calling rather than taking on what seems to me to be their moral imperative -- demanding from US-based adoption agencies and the US and Chinese governments a thorough investigation of the trafficking situation in China to ensure that the foreign adoption program is not affected.

Yes, the foreign adoption program has done an awful lot of good, for kids being raised in good homes and for well-run Chinese orphanages that now have funds for better facilities. Protecting it demands that it be safeguarded against abuse. And that can happen only if decent people press to unearth unpleasant realities and fix them, rather than self-servingly trying to cover them up.

During my now five years in China, I have seen repeatedly how reporting of sensitive issues by the foreign press can lead to action from Beijing. On SARS and AIDS, for example, initial government cover-ups of the extent of these problems eventually gave way to credible public health campaigns after sustained reporting by our paper and others. So I really have a problem with the position you are taking, suggesting that we should effectively self-censor ourselves lest China stop handing over healthy infants. The foreign adoption program is in so many ways an excellent thing, and may it continue -- above-board, scrutinized and protected from abuse rather that riven with problems that some would simply push under the rug to keep the babies coming.

I do appreciate that this is an issue you care about and that you took the time to write. I hope you take my response in the spirit in which it is intended -- as a way of clarifying and shedding light.

Best wishes,

Peter S. Goodman
Asian Economic Correspondent/ Shanghai Bureau Chief
The Washington Post

I read through this response several times. Each time feeling a bit more insulted by his tone. I should just let this crap go, but the stupid voices in my head just wouldn't let me. so I shot off the following:

Dear Peter,

Thank you for replying to my email. I appreciate that the intent was to "clarify and shed light”. I wish that intent were more clearly apparent in your original article.

You imply I have resorted to calling you names and have tried to discredit your article through personal attacks on your character. I have done neither of these things. In addition, your response makes a number of assumptions about my position, which I am not, sure how you arrived at based on what I wrote. I kept the comments in my original email to you very brief as I assumed you might be receiving a large number of emails on this article. I am sorry if my brevity confused you.

You accuse me of reflexively trying to spin away uncomfortable facts and promoting self-censorship. These are not my positions. I do not question that trafficking of infants has occurred in China. Nor do I believe this fact should be swept under the rug. The problem I have with your article is the way you have structured it to lead people to believe things for which you have no proof. You state, "assuming this ring is the only one ... 2.5 percent of all foreign adoptions involve kids who landed in the adoption program illegitimately." Obviously this is an issue that is more than worthy of investigation. However your efforts cheapen genuine investigative reporting when you twist things in order to generate lurid headlines. I am dismayed, but not surprised to learn money has changed hands in China over the exchange of children. But of these 1000 children, how many were "stolen" as your headline implies? Was it your intent to for readers to believe that a 16-month old named Fei Mei was taken to supply the international adoption market or was this simply the result of poor editing?

You accuse me of focusing on the impact of your piece for American families wanting healthy babies. You are mistaken. My focus is on the thousands of children languishing in orphanages in need of families. My newly adopted, special needs son waited for 33 months in an S.W.I. to be adopted. The PRC's official estimate of the number of orphans in its care is 500,000. Some outside groups put it at 2 million or higher. The number of all children adopted internationally out of China added together doesn't even dent this. For an article so riddled with inconsistencies it seems somewhat glaring to leave this fact out.

You ask if the Chinese families figure into my thoughts. They most certainly do. I wish the birth parents of my adopted son had had the resources to enable them to keep and raise him. I wish they lived in a culture that valued both genders equally and were accepting of people with physical defects. The unbearable social pressure generated by China's one child policy coupled with the traditional value placed on healthy sons forces women into abandoning countless children every year. The human rights issue here is huge, yet instead of even mentioning this, your article implies the demand of foreign adoptive parents has created a market for stolen babies. I apologize if I come across as selfish when I ask you to avoid sensationalism and to practice responsible journalism.

Sincerely,
Scott Ocheltree

Okay, I figured this would be the end of it. Probably wasted bandwidth on my part, but I just couldn't let the things he had written go. And then I got this next one back from him:

I appreciate where you are coming from. The foreign adoption program has been a very valuable way to provide homes for kids in need, and I applaud your concern for the kids. Now that program is being exploited by corrupt elements in China. That is simply beyond debate. As for the girl in the lead of my piece, nowhere do I say that she landed abroad. I am very clear in saying that we don't know where she is. But that's precisely the point: We know she was taken in a place where a trafficking ring has been operating. We have defense attornies for a convicted trafficking ring acknoledging that their clients have delivered 1,000 babies to orphanages for money for the foreign adoption program. How many kids are abducted as opposed to be being abandoned and then sold? Don't know. I'd like to, and it's an important question, one that I'll keep after. But I know that some kids have been abducted -- the court said that, and it was reported in China Daily... I mean, c'mon! -- and I know that the foreign adoption program is vulnerable to such abuse. I fail to see how it "cheapens investigative reporting" to highlight a problem and a vulnerability. I would hope that you would spend more time leaning on US adoption agencies now spinning reassurances for some accountability, as opposed to criticizing journalists operating in the public interest.

Peter

Now I'm really surprised. He does seem to be reading my emails. Still I am bothered by his hubris. He is completely ignoring my main point and has even spun my words around on me. Why can't I let this crap go?
I write again:

Peter,

Your habit of spinning words around to change the appearance of things is apparent even in your last reply to me: I never said "highlighting a problem and a vulnerability" cheapens investigative reporting. I said twisting a story to generate lurid headlines cheapens investigative reporting. And THAT is my point. You have taken a very serious issue and spun it for its shock value.

I don't believe the international adoption community has sided against you for your reporting of the facts surrounding baby trafficking. People are upset because you have used this tragedy as a tool to smear them. You say I should be pressuring agencies who are "spinning" reassurances instead of bothering you. I haven't been exposed to any of their spin, but then they don't have the front page of the Washington Post as a platform.

You printed the headline: "STEALING BABIES FOR ADOPTION" . Then went on to say Americans pouring into China with dollars in hand have transformed once-unwanted Chinese girls into valuable commodities worth stealing. I find it amazing that in an article of this length concerning the adoption of abandoned children from China you managed to not even mention China's one child per family policy.

"...i mean, c'mon!"

I am glad you view your role as a "journalist operating in the public interest"; I believe a big part of that job would be to report the facts honestly instead of shading the truth and omitting parts of the story to create a sensational headline. Again, I take no issue with the facts you presented in your article. It is the way you spun them, exactly like you spun what I said into something else.

Scott

And now it appears to me that the Asian Economic Correspondent/ Shanghai Bureau Chief for The Washington Post is just as stubborn as me and doesn't have anything better to do either, for he responded again:

Scott,
We could bandy about on the headline. (Reporters don't write headlines, by the way, as lame as that sounds. I wouldn't have written it that way.) And I take your point about the one child policy. I had a paragraph in there originally about it. It got chopped for space, but I didn't argue strenuously against the change because I felt we were covered by noting that child trafficking predates the foreign adoption program by a lot.

Yes, this is a serious issue, and, yes, the front page of the Post has real impact and that carries real responsibility. You sound like a reasonable and serious person, and I'm sorry if I've lumped you in with some of the less reasonable people with whom I've been unfortunately corresponding these past days. But I do think that your judgment is being clouded on this one by your position as an adoptive parent -- a perfectly noble position from where I sit, by the way, for whatever it's worth. Given that the DEFENSE admits they illegally procured about 1,000 babies to feed the foreign adoption market, how can you possibly argue against the reality that the program has turned healthy baby girls into commodities?

Now, it is true that the defense contends that the kids presented into evidence so far in Hengyang were abnadoned and then sold and not abducted. And that is obviously a very significant distinction. It is also true that the court found otherwise, and my prosecution source says that the other several hundred kids did include cases of abduction.
None of which fundamentally indicts the foreign adoption program. But it seems an inescapable fact that a byproduct of the program is that healthy baby girls have been turned into a commodity, as the very people who have participated in the trafficking have told us.

Peter

Okay, I surrender. Peter is incapable of conceding that his reporting of this tragic story might be colored through his rhetoric to portray international adoption and adoptive families in a negative manner. At best this will be a verbal stalemate, and he is much better than me at quickly crafting a reply which redirects my argument.
The CCAA made an announcement today stating that no abducted children were placed with adoptive families from the U.S. You can read the AP version of this story HERE. For a clear, and not so happy interpretation of this announcement see Brian Stuy's analysis on research-china.org.

Sorry for the long boring post. Anybody out there still reading? Post a comment and let me know you're there.

A Serious Issue

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-14T08:32:12-08:00

Since we've been home from China, this blog has pretty much been about the fun stuff going on in Hui-Hui's world (along with a few updates as to the antics of Stinky-Mouse). However, over the last month or so, there has been a fair amount of press coverage regarding the issue of child abduction within China, and allegations that it is related to China's international adoption program. I am bringing this up here because of the obvious connection our family has with this program, and I hope that by directing a bit of light on this issue I may help to inform a few family and friends as to what the "facts" are regarding this issue as best as they may be known.

At issue here is a recent case in which a Chinese orphanage director and nine other people were sentenced to prison, and another 22 officials were fired in the southern city of Hengyang in Hunan province. Allegedly the director of the Hengyang County orphanage (an orphanage that participates in the international adoption program) brokered children into his orphanage, as well as orphanages in other Provinces. Anthony Kuhn of National Public Radio (NPR) reported this story on February 23rd. You can hear his report by CLICKING HERE. While this case clearly shows that corruption and greed has tainted parts of China's international adoption program and SOME of the Social Welfare Institutes that work within this program, it does not support the inflammatory allegations appearing in current headlines. When this story first broke I followed it closely, as I do almost any news story regarding adoption from China. However, as of late, this story has appeared to spin into something different.

On Sunday Peter S. Goodman wrote an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Stealing Babies for Adoption". In this article Mr. Goodman states a number facts, then creates connections to allege things which cannot be proven. As a parent who has been through the process of adopting a child from China, I obviously have a bias here. However, I also have a fairly clear understanding of the program, and feel that this article does a great disservice to many, many families. In this article, Mr. Goodman references Brian Stuy. Mr. Stuy writes a fascinating blog on issues related to adopting from China called RESEARCH-CHINA.ORG. I have had a link to his site on my "Interesting Links" page for several months now. He has written a number of entries on this particular issue, and if you take the time to bother reading the Washington Post article I strongly encourage you to read what Brian Stuy has to say in response to it.

It seems to me that Mr. Goodman's article is little more than an attempt at generating a sensationalized headline at the expense of the international adoption community. In rebuttal, I will quote Mr. Stuy who wrote:

"Goodman begins by detailing the tragic abduction of a child from the streets of Dongguan in Guangdong Province. He artfully transitions to China's adoption program, leading readers to conclude that somehow the seven month old girl had been kidnapped to satisfy an adopting American family.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence to establish this link, and in fact considerable evidence to disprove it. By Goodman's own admission, 50,000 children were adopted to the U.S. since 1992, an average of 4,000 per year. I suppose Goodman proposes that these 4,000 children represent a significant number of China's 1.2 billion people to result in kidnapping rings to develop, but the sad reality is that annually an estimated 250,000 children (mostly girls) are abandoned in China, 35,000 of which end up in China's foreign adoption program. One can readily see that there is no shortage of adoptable children."

All of this is very unfortunate and confusing. It is my hope that the truth will prevail, and that ultimately the children of China and the rest of the world will one day all benefit by having the loving families they deserve.

The Further Adventures of Stinky-Mouse

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-11T09:35:30-08:00

Just in time for your weekend entertainment! It's another installment of:

Children’s Hospital Part II

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-09T22:28:57-08:00

On Tuesday we went to Children’s Hospital in Seattle for Hui-Hui’s second consult with Dr. Hanel. “We” are me, Tina, Hui-Hui and my Mom, Evalyn (NaiNai). Hui-Hui went because it’s his hand that Dr. Hanel is interested in. Tina and I went because we are his parents and want to make sure that he receives the best care possible. NaiNai went because she is the expert and wanted to hear for herself exactly what Dr. Hanel had to say. She knows better than to trust Hui-Hui’s care to rank amateurs like Tina and me.

Evalyn has been visiting us for the last couple days, which has been great! And really, I can’t imagine going to “Children’s” without her. Mom has been very involved with the care my nephew Devon has received there and knows her way around the place. Having her with us for these trips down there have made the process much easier.

On our last visit Dr. Hanel refrained from giving us any clear directive as to what we should do, which left us a bit perplexed. When we started this process, over a year ago, we assumed Hui-Hui’s hand would require some kind of corrective surgery. So when he told us that with Hui-Hui’s condition there was no clear directive and it was up to us, we were left with a perplexing situation. We had sort of assumed Dr. Hanel would present us with a clear course of action. Suddenly we were adrift. What should we do?

To clarify, only his left hand is affected. He has what is called “radial club hand”. His forearm is quite short, the radius more than the ulna, and he has no thumb. His index and middle fingers are also affected as they are somewhat fixed and don’t flex properly.

He has what I have been inappropriately calling “a funny hand”. But since he has been in our lives I have come to love that funny little hand. And it really doesn’t slow him down much. Somebody asked me once if he was right-handed. Um, yeah. He’s VERY right handed. But he uses “Little Lefty” quite well.

So on our last visit Dr. Hanel said we could really go either way. He told us to go home and think about it. He had an O.T. make a splint for him to sleep in to help stretch tendons in case we decided on surgery and told us to come back in March.

So we went home and tried splinting his hand at night. We were wimps, and when he fussed we took the splint off. It’s in mint condition.

We read up on radial club hand and pollicization surgery. We joined forums like limbdifferences.org, helpinghandsgroup.org, reach.org.uk. The more we learned, the more we wondered if surgery was the right thing. We talked with my sister about their experiences with my nephew Devon who has arthrogryposis and has had a series of surgeries at Children’s Hospital.

We decided to ask Dr. Hanel directly, what he would do if this were his child.

Now the blow-by blow:
It was a two-hour drive down. We thought it wouldn’t take this long as we would miss rush hour – WRONG. We got there late and it took forever to get checked in. Fortunately Mom had Tina go up to the orthopedic office and tell them we were here or we would have missed our appointment. We finally went up and waited in the second waiting room. Tuesday is “Hand Day” so we saw lots of other funny hands and little tiny kids in casts waiting with us. Finally they called us back. Hui-Hui was not excited to see Dr. Hanel, but he had nothing to worry about. Dr. Hanel’s bedside manner is excellent. He quickly put us at ease and commented on how much Hui-Hui had grown. He wanted to get a look at Hui-Hui’s elbow and with a little persuasion Hui-Hui gave him a quick glance.

Dr. Hanel then told us that in his job he often has to tell parents that a specific course of action or surgery is absolutely necessary and to not have it done would be negligent. Other times there is nothing that can be done. Then again, there are times like with our family where it could really go either way and all he can do is say what he would do if this were his child. Then he told us he would leave Hui-Hui’s hand the way it was. He sited a study of children with similar conditions that found children who had surgery actually fared somewhat worse as to functionality. If both of Hui-Hui’s hands were affected surgery would be a clear choice, but as he is affected unilaterally it’s just not going to help him that much.

We were very relieved to hear this. While I wish there was a way to make his hand perfect that is not the case. He has a funny hand. Surgery could rearrange it, but he would still have a funny hand. It would be different than it is now, but it wouldn’t be like his right hand. And since his right hand is perfectly fine, he’s going to always favor it. He already has a number of strategies for using his left hand and if we surgically rearrange things on him it will likely disrupt his present functionality.

Dr. Hanel told us he didn’t even recommend O.T. He said everything Hui-Hui’s doing right now is O.T. He told us to take him home and let him be a kid. Keep feeding him and loving him. This all sounded like a great plan to us!

It seemed like a great plan to Hui-Hui too! He was very pleased to get out of the exam room without being strip-searched or injected with any antigens. He swaggered back down the hallway to look at the fish again before we left, and then we went out for Chinese food.

We had a great lunch at China Village, just down the hill from Children’s, which I highly recommend. It’s a great place for lunch and they have food Hui-Hui will eat: soup and rice! If you give them 24-hour notice they can even prepare Peking duck for you.

Our trip ended with a small drama. When we left the restaurant and got in the car to head home we discovered Stinky Mouse had gone missing! We searched the car - no mouse. We double-checked the table we sat at in the restaurant - no mouse. WE LEFT HIM AT THE HOSPITAL!!! Fortunately we were just down the street. We drove back and Tina ran in to check with the ortho clinic to see if they'd found a stuffed mouse...
THEY HAD HIM! Life is good!!!

Portrait of Stinky Mouse

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-08T22:03:56-08:00

The evening we got home from Children's our oldest son Cam got out the crayons and sat down with Hui-Hui at the little table. Cam used to fit at this table much better, but it was great to see him still using it. A bit later he handed us what he had drawn it was a ~~still-life~~ portrait of Stinky Mouse

When I saw them sitting together at the table I wanted to take a picture but didn't want to distract them. Here's a picture of Cam and his girlfriend Brittni having "tea" with Hui-Hui at the little table from about a month ago...

Hui-Hui Finds Another Old Friend!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-04T08:43:18-08:00

We received a great email message on Friday from Helen and Paul in Minnesota. They were Google searching for information about the S.W.I. in Baoding and found our blog! Now the reason they were looking for information about the S.W.I. is because they are in the early stages of paper-chasing one of Hui-Hui's little friends!
They sent us these great pictures:

Hui-Hui really seemed to recognize him and agreed with us that his name is "Mo-Mo"!
This is the third boy from the Baoding S.W.I. whose family we have connected with. They told us that they also know of another family adopting a boy from Baoding as well. Counting Hui-Hui, that will be the Fifth Boy From Baoding!
We feel very lucky being able to make these connections for Hui-Hui. I think it will be comforting to him as he grows up to know of other children with whom he shares a common past.
We hope Helen and Paul are able to travel as soon as possible to bring home their son, and that someday he and Hui-Hui will see each other again!

Stinky Vs. Pooh

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-03-01T22:49:23-08:00

It's a whole new month here at Hui-Hui's world, so if you're new here you might want to scan through the monthly archives in the sidebar!
And now, due to the massive response Stinky Mouse received last month (5 comments!), we are starting out March with his next adventure!

Five Month Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-28T21:59:37-08:00

We have been home for five months as of today. I've tried to blog updates on our monthly anniversaries but have missed a few. Today seemed like a big day in lots of little ways, so I'm glad I remembered to write.

One of the parents at pre-school asked me a funny question a couple weeks ago. She asked, "So is it what you expected?"
I know it doesn't seem like a funny question, but it made me stop and realize, I really didn't know what to expect before we got him. I think I was actually afraid to expect anything. Of course I had fantasies about reliving all the fun toddler stuff we did with Cam and Ben, but I consciously prevented myself from creating too many expectations. I do remember being more than a little scared as we boarded the plane out of Seattle. "What are we doing?" I thought. "What if this is a big mistake?" "What if he has serious problems?" "What if he doesn't like me?"

I think if you've been following along on here for a while you probably know that none of these fears were warranted. In many ways it has been like a fairy-tale. Hui-Hui is an amazingly affectionate and joyful little guy. It amazes us how cuddly he is!

I'm not going to tell you that every single second has been sunshine and roses, we do have some concerns. Developmentally Kai has delays, particularly in the large motor and language areas. He still won't eat any solid foods. We worry we don't know enough about his thalessemia. We haven't decided for sure whether or not we are going to have anything done about his hand.

But all in all, things are going well and the progress he has made so far is amazing. The big news today was that he actually used the potty! This was something that we didn't even really try with him at first. We got a potty for him when he first got home, and he knew what it was for, but never produced anything on it. Then tonight when Tina was changing him into pajamas for bed he said, "pee mamma". This is not a routine, we ask him occasionally, but I had pretty much figured we would just wait till summertime and weren't even trying. But Tina asked him then if wanted to pee, and he went into the bathroom. So Tina went in and put the little potty-seat on the toilet for him and sat him down on it. At first it looked like he was just going to sit there and do nothing, but then after a little prompting he peed! Tina yelled for me to come in and we were both praising him big time. Then I said to Tina, "now if we could only get him to go poo on the toilet." And then as if on cue he got that look on his face. Yes, THAT look! And he pooped in the toilet!!! I know this was probably just a miraculous bit of luck as he shows few signs of being ready but it's a step in the right direction!
(for those of you wondering why I don't write much about the older boys on here, they just don't seem to want me sharing these types of details regarding them with all of you)

Now even better than potty achievements, when he and Tina were on their way home from the store in the car, he was chatting away as usual, (he usually talks away about cars, lights, bikes etc.) but he had a funny giggle and was covering his mouth and being silly. Tina asked him what he was talking about. He giggled and said, "Ai ni Mama, ai ni!" and giggled and covered his mouth again!!!! He said, "LOVE YOU MAMA, LOVE YOU!!!" Now, we've cajoled and tricked him into saying Wo Ai....but never Ni! If we say, "wo," he will repeat. If we say, "ai," he will repeat. When we say, "ni" he will just stop or laugh and turn away. And it's never self-initiated!

Gnome Crossing

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-26T21:06:48-08:00

The following set of photos were all taken in our front yard. From the look of these pictures it appears that Hui-Hui lives in an enchanted forest. It's actually just a quarter acre lot on a suburban cul de sac. Still we do get a fair amount of wild life. Nothing terribly exotic, big gray squirrels, stellar jays, etc. Last week we saw a big red-headed woodpecker, and on Saturday we had these four deer wander through. We have a little clearing in front where I laid out a 7-circuit Cretan labyrinth a few years ago. The deer looked quite magical out there. It's been such a wet winter that Hui-Hui hasn't gotten out there much, so today I took him out to walk the paths and look for gnomes. He almost caught a couple!

See You In The Funny Pages...

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-22T23:20:55-08:00

Our older two sons make fantastic movies with our video camera. I thought it would be great fun to make a movie about Hui-Hui's friend "Stinky-Mouse". But I couldn't really think of a story line and don't have time to film it, or edit it. (I should be editing the rest of our video from China) Then I learned about a really cool piece of software called Comic Life from our online friends Karen and Scott. So I spent this evening cranking out the following...

Portraits

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-19T22:14:37-08:00

Why Am I Doing This?

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-16T17:46:00-08:00

Blogging that is…
Why exactly am I still writing this thing?
It began a little over a year ago as a way to journal our adoption experience. As we began the process we became connected to other families who were all at different steps along the way of bringing a child into their lives. These connections were forged through Internet discussion forums. There are a lot of these focused specifically on adopting from China. Tina was more active on them than I was at first. The one she got really involved with is our agency’s forum for families adopting Waiting Children. She dabbled around on a few other ones and happened to find a brand new one that a woman named Donna in California had formed. I started reading that one and got hooked. It turned out that Tina and I got to actually meet Donna and her husband Andrew on a trip we took to San Francisco last year. That made our online friendship even stronger. Donna, as well as a number of other online friends, were writing blogs about their adoption experience. As a certified computer nerd (it’s true, I actually have certifications) I felt this was something I had to do as well. So I started journaling the process we were going through.

It took us 9 months to adopt Kai. That’s counting from the date we turned in our application to our agency, to the date we received him in China. This is actually quite speedy, because Kai was a “Waiting Child”. As we checked items off our adoption “to-do” list we obsessed over other adoption blogs. Truly, the highlights of these are the travel stories. We constantly checked TheStoryofYou site, wondering as read how those stories would compare to ours.

I am very glad I made the effort to journal our trip in real-time. It is by far the most interesting part of this site, and an important part of our family history. After we returned home I didn’t want to stop writing, so I kept going.

Now it’s become a full-fledged hobby. When I began, I didn’t really care who looked at this. I also didn’t allow comments. But now I’ve put on all the bells and whistles: RSS feed, commenting, a hit-counter that gives me all kinds of details about who is visiting the site.

I’m still a very small player in the “Chinese Adoption Blogging” world. It amazes me when I see the hit count on some sites – they should start selling ads. It cracked me up when this site got mentioned on one of the really popular sites last week and my site traffic went up by 50%! Yeah, I actually watch that kind of thing. What's even cooler though, is when this thing connects us with someone. An old friend from college got in touch with us through the site. And then we got a comment from somebody in ShijiaZhaung (the city wee stayed in while adopting Kai), this gentleman wrote:

“After wiping away the tears, and due to the lack of a proper PC to trackback to find your names, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for restoring some type of kindness in this world. I am an English teacher in ShijiaZhaung, I have been here for 10 months now, and living here when you were here. My flat is not to far from the Century hotel, so possibly I passed by you on my way to school. I am not sure what drew me to read your blog as I rarely read them, sort of a uninvited guest syndrome. But as I sat there reading it I found that I was touched in ways I had forgotten that I could be touched. Hui Hui, is a very beautiful name and a boy, I surely will pray that he is beyond your wildest dreams. I will continue reading and thank you from the bottom of my heart for touching this mans life.”

That’s the best comment I’ve gotten so far, and is reason enough to keep posting for a while.

Blogging isn’t just writing though, it’s reading too. I keep up with a bunch of blogs. My “Real World” friends are always telling me how great this blog is. I always have to tell them that it only seems that way to them because they don’t read any other adoption blogs. So this will give them something to compare with. These are most of the adoption "related" blogs I regularly follow (but only a VERY SMALL sampling of how many are out there)...

Adoption
American Family
Ashley Rose Ring
Attachment Parenting
Baby Girl Bainbridge
Bringing Liam Home
Brinley Elizabeth WeiYa
China Adoption News
clueless in carolina
Davis Days
Do They Have Salsa in China?
Double Happiness!
EmpressElizabeth
Family of 4 and a cat
The Grouchy Ladybug
Jenna Joy Elizabeth Wells
Journey to Charleigh
keiraxingfulynch
Ken, Ellen and Bei in China
Letters From the Zoo
Loving Lydia
LWB January Trip to China
Macy Day
Mager Madness
Mindful Parenting
Morgan Lela Qian
The Murphy Adoption Adventure
The Naked Ovary
OmegaMom
Once upon a Cadence
Our Adoption Journey
Our Journey for Sarah Grace
Research-China.Org
The Smith Family's Adventures
So, it's come down to this
Spilling my coffee/beans...
TaiwanIndependence's Xanga
The Taming of Tenley!
Twice the Rice
The Vickerman's China Adoption
Watching China

Many of these bloggers keep what's called a "Blogroll" on their site, in which they list all the blogs they follow. I don't do that because I don't want to have to maintain the list, weeding out sites that become extinct, etc. Though I have to admit that I get an ego boost when I see our site on someone's list (it's on a couple). So how does anybody keep up with this many blogs? The only way to do it is a site called BLOGLINES. It keeps track of all the blogs you read and lets you know when they're updated so you don't have to keep checking on them when there's nothing new to read.

So I guess that kind of answers why I'm doing this. If you're enjoying it stop and comment. If you're blogging and I didn't list your site above, please link it in your comment so I can check it out.

Souvenir from Taiwan

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-15T21:13:41-08:00

One of Kai's friends from pre-school is a little girl named Yoshimi. Yoshimi's mother Shuhsin is from Taiwan. Their family visits there often and had been there for Chinese New Year. They brought Kai back a souvenir from the 2006 Taiwan Lantern Festival.

Kai got a real kick out of this little lantern...

I thought it was pretty cool too, so I fired up Google to learn more about it.

This logo was printed on the top of the lantern.
I had not heard of the Taiwan Lantern Festival before. It looks like a pretty cool event. You can see the official website by clicking on the logo.
On the site I learned that these little lanterns were passed out free of charge to children. "They are named "Mechanical Dog" and are designed to inspire an interest in science, technology, and mechanics among children in this new technological age. These lanterns exemplify the concepts of environmental protection and safe toys. They also represent the pursuit of newness and change."

Below are pictures of the event's "Theme Lantern" which according to the website:
...is titled "Pan Hu Re-creates the Heavens." (Pan Hu is a divine hound of Chinese mythology.) This huge lantern masterpiece is in the shape of a mountain with three dogs perched on its flank. The male dog, eyes to the front, is in a powerful and majestic pose as the protector of home and country. The female dog sits with an affectionate attitude at the side of her mate, while their pup plays with a globe-shaped holographic lantern. The idea is to portray a land of stability, ethnic harmony, prosperity, peace, and happiness.

CLICK HERE to see a cool video of the fireworks display at the event!

Got Our Taxes Done

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-13T22:44:00-08:00

I'm really hoping what they say about asian boys being good at math is true. I gave him the receipts and he seemed to really enjoy the task. I'm going to have him look over my 401K plan to see if he has any suggestions on that too.

What's That Big Bright Thing In The Sky?

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-11T18:13:38-08:00

For those of you living in warm sunny places, maybe you're used to it this time of year, but here in the Pacific Northwest it's been WET! In January it rained, and it rained, and it rained. We didn't get 40 consecutive days and nights, but we got 40 out of 43. I don't mind the rain most the time, but that's because normally it doesn't rain MOST of the time! Even up here north of Seattle, sure it rains, but not ALL the time. Okay, you probably get the point now, it's been wet.
But it finally stopped, and the sun came out to remind us why we live here; because when it's sunny here, it's the most beautiful place on earth! So here are some pictures of Hui-Hui playing outside this week...

Click on the picture to go to the slideshow...

New Family Portrait

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-08T23:39:38-08:00

I wish this was my original idea, but I'm not that clever. We got this idea from the blog of one of our online friends. You can see theirs HERE.
I used THIS WEBSITE to build the caricatures. Cam was very pleased with his; apparently whoever built the website has similar taste in music as the "Children of Bodom" t-shirt was actually a choice on the site. I had to touch up the teddy-bear option to make it look more like Stinky Mouse.

Pusa Video

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-02-03T10:00:00-08:00

I've been surfing around on youtube.com's site because there are a number of China adoption videos on there. While I was searching through the site I found another interesting clip I wanted to share with you. This is a video of the China Disabled Person's Performing Art Troupe presenting a modern Thousand-hand Guanyin, or Goddess of Mercy dance. All the dancers are deaf. The laser light show backdrop gives it a bit of that odd "asian-disco" feel, but it's still very beautiful with a hypnotic, other-worldly quality to it. This performance troupe is a branch of the China Disabled Persons' Federation. I was not familiar with this organization before, but am very interested in it now.
If you have followed this blog you probably know I am very fond of Guanyin Pusa. Pusa, is Chinese for "bodhisattva", a soul who, through compassion and altruism, has earned the right to leave this world of suffering and enter nirvana, but has chosen instead to stay on Earth to instruct others to until all beings are enlightened.
Hui-Hui really loved watching this video. He moves his hands in patterns like the dancers. While watching it he also spontaneously started a gesture we call "pray to Buddha". This consists of him putting his hands together and raising them up and down while "singing". He has done this since we got him in China. Ben's the one who named it and was able to get Hui-Hui to do it by simply saying, "Pray to Buddha."
I would like to find other videos of this performance company. From the pictures on their website it looks like they do some amazing things.

(Oh, if you're one of my workmates trying to watch this at Premier, our web filter blocks the "You Tube" site so you'll have to watch it at home... sorry!)

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-29T23:35:53-08:00

Kai and Daisy wish everyone a very happy and prosperous Year Of The Dog!

As you can see from the picture above, Hui-Hui has overcome his fear of dogs. Daisy on the other hand has begun to develop a fear of Hui-Hui!

This is the first year our family has celebrated Chinese New Year. The traditional Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycles, and the New Year festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. You can read more about it by CLICKING HERE. Tina and I took Hui-Hui to a local asian market to buy red envelopes, some decorations and other goodies.
It was a busy day with other activities as well, Cameron competed in the local level of the WMEA Solo and Ensemble Contest. He played violin, both solo, and with the Bellingham High School's advanced chamber orchestra. The performances are single songs played in a classroom for a judge who provides the student with a constructive critique. Hui-Hui was very well behaved as we sat in on the performances. Cam did well and it was fun to hear him play pieces on which he has really worked hard.
For dinner we all went to the Lychee Buffet with two other families with children adopted from China. There were 14 of us in all and it was very fun. Hui-Hui's little friend Mimi was there and the two of them had a great time together. I forgot my camera again so I will now subject you to more pix shot with my crummy cell phone camera...

Our local newspaper ran an article (CLICK HERE TO READ IT) on extravagent dinners being offered for New Year's Celebrations by restaurants in China. One of the restaurants they mentioned was Quan Ju De. This is the Duck restaurant we went to when we were in Shijaizhuang!

The article talks about their most expensive holiday menu which feeds 10 people for about $1000. I would love to see that meal as the one we had there for 5 people had more food than we could every hope to eat in one sitting and the bill for everything came to only $45!

Apart from dinner out and red envelopes for the boys we haven't done too much else this year. There are some big celebrations both locally and in Seattle and Vancouver that we hope to be able to take Hui-Hui to when he's a bit older.
We have been enjoying a variety of great documentaries on China that are playing on the Discovery Channel this weekend and on CBC television.

Okay, So Hui-Hui’s Not THAT Lucky!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-29T10:01:32-08:00

A number of friends expressed concern over my recent blog entry regarding email messages Hui-Hui has received regarding large foreign lottery winnings and shady sounding deals involving the movement of large sums of money.
Do not worry; we are aware these are scams. And now we’re aware my sarcastic sense of humor is not as broadly appreciated as I like to think it is. ;-)
If you have received messages like these and were wondering what they’re about you can read about these scams on the FRAUD WATCH INTERNATIONAL website.

What a Change 4 Months Makes...

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-23T20:55:51-08:00

I meant to blog about this last week, but didn't. Since I waited though, I have more accurate data to report. Tina took Hui-Hui to our doctor today for his "Three Year Check Up". Since his last visit in October he has gained over three pounds and grown two inches. We are very proud of this! It's nice to have him measured by professionals, our scale here doesn't seem to be very accurate. And while we think he's growing it's hard to tell when you see him all the time. So I changed the picture of him at the top of the blog. The old picture is one we took the day we got home from China...

He's had his hair cut a couple times now, trimmed is more like it actually. The first time was a couple months ago, when I was getting mine cut. His China buzz cut had been growing out and was getting shaggy around the edges so we sat him on my lap and had the stylist clean up around the back and over the ears. Then last week we took him downtown to the hip salon, Jake's B.S. (stands for Barber Shop) and tried getting a real cut. He put up a pretty good fuss when it started but he fell for the old "have a drink of water" trick - that always distracts him. We were trying to get the long thing in front to blend in without chopping his bangs too bad. It almost worked. We're going to just let it grow for a while now and see what happens. Forgot to take the camera with us so these pix were snapped with my cell phone...

On Sunday Hui-Hui was invited to Mimi's 2nd birthday party. Mimi is the daughter of our friends Heidi and Kim, they have three daughters adopted from China. In addition to Mimi's sisters and Hui-Hui there was another little girl named Eliza who came home with her family from China at the same time as Mimi, Eliza's four year old sister, and a pair of teenage girls who are friends of Mimi's family. So there were 7 girls and Hui-Hui. He had a great time. Tina and I aren't used to "girl" parties. It was really nice, the big girls kept the little ones entertained and played games with them. At one point the big girls were holding Mimi and Hui-Hui on their laps and trying to get them to kiss. Mimi's dad, Kim, called them on that one though. All in all, Hui-hui had a great time, he does really well with other kids. Here's a few pix...

Hui-Hui Is Such A Lucky Little Boy!

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-20T21:46:11-08:00

This is something we have been told very many times. We heard it a lot before we went to China to get him. People saying it mean it mostly as a compliment to Tina and me. Or sometimes they mean he is fortunate to be able to leave the orphanage and have a family. While people saying this mean the very best by it, it's considered to be inappropriate language in the adoption community. The thinking is that you wouldn't normally say this to a new parent of a biological child, and as a child grows and is able to understand things being said around them, hearing this repeated again and again can make them start to feel like a life-long charity case. When people say this to us Tina and I are always quick to respond that we feel we are the lucky ones, and if you've met Hui-Hui you would know that this is true!
But the thing is, Hui-Hui really is A VERY LUCKY BOY! In fact, in the time he's been home with us it appears he has potentially come into almost $37,000,000!
Hui-Hui has his own email address and in the last four months he has received the following messages. We are looking into the best way to execute these transactions to optimize his earnings. We figure the whole college fund thing is going to be completely taken care of!
-----------------------
INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY PROGRAM
MADRID SPAIN
FILE REFERENCE NO:
PP2005-001-MLI
BATCH: 1505/004NL
TO WINNERS IN OUR PROGRAM
We wish to congratulate you over your success in our computer balloting sweepstake held recently.
This is a millennium scientific computer game in which email addresses were used. It is a promotional program aimed at encouraging internet users; therefore you do not need to buy ticket to enter for it.
However,your email address was attached to ticket number 10CBG3471913; with serial number 19034 draw the lucky numbers 1-9-74-31, which eventually won the lottery in the first category of the draws. This entitled to a cash award of €500,000.00 ( FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS). This is from total prize money of €15,000,000.00 distributed
to winners from 1st to 3rd categories.
Note that this program was largely promoted and sponsored by a group of philanthropist, industrialists from the internet ware industry and some other big multinational firms who wish to be anonymous.
To begin your claim, please contact the claims coordinator
Mr. Mack George
TEL: +34676020575
Email address: cristinadie1@netscape.net

Yours Faithfully,
MRS. CRISTINS ROSA

-----------------------
FROM THE DESK OF DAYZERS E-MAIL LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
PROMOTIONS/PRIZE
AWARD DEPT.

REF: S23/15/40/12/29/
BATCH: 54/010/0-PD

RE: EMAIL
WINNING CONFIRMATION NOTICE:

We are glad to inform you that your E-mail address appears as the confirmed Winner of our last Dayzers email lottery program held on the 30th November 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 216-365-787 with Serial number 34/15/65 drew lucky numbers 32-15-54-35-47, which Consequently won in the 2nd category, you have therefore been approved For a lumpsum ayment of EUR 500.000.00 euros.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

This promotional program takes place every year. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system rawn from over 100,000 companies and 50,000, 000 ndividual email addresses and names from all over the world.

In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence. We ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims
has been processed and your money remitted to you. To file for your claim or for further details, please contact our agent:

CONTACT NAME:
VAN BOMAN
CITY/ COUNTRY:AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
FREE SERVICE NUMBER:
0031-616-140-156
EMAIL:dayzersinfo002@netscape.net

In respect of our commitment towards helping the less previledge, we ask that you voluntarily contribute 1% of your Global winnings to any charity organization you desire at your convinience.

Note that all winning must be claimed not later than 24th of December 2005. After this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Vanessa
J. Smith

This email and its attachments are confidential and may contain legally privileged information. You should not disclose the contents to any other person. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system.
-----------------------
My Dear,

Compliments.

I am Madam Joyce Rssll,Account Director in Post Bank Netherlands, and I represent the former C.E.O of an Oil Company in Russia. I seek your partnership in using your name and informations to Re-Profile Ten Million United States dollars(10,000,000.00), kept in a finance firm located in Europe .You will be offered 20% as management fee for investment in your country or outside your country in which you will advice me.

If you are interested, write back WITH YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION LIKE PHONE AND FAX NUMBER,YOUR FULL NAMES AND ADDRESS.by Email: joycerssll@netscape.net and I will provide further details.

I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
Madam Joyce Rssll. www.postbank.nl

FROM: MR.JOSEPH NGOBE.
TEL: +27-8-333-7753-3.
EMAIL: jogobe01@sify.com.
Or jogobe01@yahoo.com
-----------------------
ATTN: DIRECTOR/CEO.
REQUEST FOR URGENT TRANSFER.

In my quest for a reliable and trusted partner for a highly important and lucrative venture cum investment, I came across your contact as a reliable partner for this venture. I am Mr. Joseph Ngobe, one of the senior Accountants of AMALGAMATED BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA (ABSA). To highlight you on this proposal, there is an account opened in this bank since 1980 till 1990 after which, nobody has operated on this account again till date. After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it would be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is Mr. Ben Andreas, a foreigner, and a miner at Kruger gold co., a geologist by profession who died since 1990. No other person knows about this and my investigation further proved to me that his company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved as he made it his personal account. The money outstanding before his death was (USD 26 Million) Twenty Six Million United States Dollars. I am now contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a national with a local bank account here. But can only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in US dollars and the former owner, a foreigner. I implore you to act as foreigner and beneficiary to the fund as I will then intimate you on the processes abound as well as procure all the necessary documents required to lay claim to the money.

If you are capable and willing to handle such amount in strict confidence and trust according to my instructions and advice for our mutual benefit I shall highly appreciate. I need a trusted person like you in this transaction because I do not want to make mistakes; I need your strong assurance and trust. With my position now in the office I can effect transfer of this money to any foreigner's reliable account, which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my arrival in your country for disbursement. On the alternative, you can come down here to South Africa for us to meet one to one.

Send me your private telephone and fax numbers upon receipt of this proposal, if you genuinely want to assist and be a co-partner. I will also wants us to meet face to face, to enable us sign a binding agreement. As soon as you receive this money into a foreign account or any account of your choice where the fund will be safe. I will proceed to your country for onward percentage distributions and investment. I need your full co-operation to make this work because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner, who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you later immediately. I will use my position and influence to effect legal approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and foreign exchange departments. At the conclusion of this business, for your assistance, 25% of the total amount will be accrue for you, 70% for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of the transfer.

I implore you to maintain the absolute confidentiality of this transaction.
Your earliest response is urgently awaited.
Truly Yours,
Mr. Joseph Ngobe.

4 Month Anniversary

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-19T20:58:55-08:00

I have been very busy at work this week with a committee project that has been very intense. This means I have not been able to accompany Hui-Hui at pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday morning. In order to accommodate this schedule my mother has stayed with us and taken my place at pre-school. This has been great as it has given her a chance to be with us in a relaxed "real life" setting. She was able to really get to know Hui-Hui a bit better. This schedule has left me little time for playing with the blog, so I missed posting a "anniversary" post yesterday which was the four month anniversary of the day we received Hui-Hui.
Today however is the actual anniversary of his adoption (unless you shift things for time zones, as Cameron pointed out). So I wanted to write about how much he has changed and grown. Maybe I'll have some time to do that this weekend. But I do have what I think is an even better entry. On this day, four months ago, after we completed the adoption at the civil affairs office in Shijaizhuang I had to drive 2 hours back to Baoding alone with our guide. Tina was alone with the three boys. While I was gone she wrote an entry for the blog that never got posted. Neither of us remembered that writing for some time, until I found it again the other day. So here is Tina's story of how Hui-Hui came to us...

4 Months Ago Today

Yes! I am finally officially mama to didi KaiHui Ocheltree~and getting a moment to check the computer! Kai is resting, Scott went back to Baoding to hand deliver the paperwork to make sure we get our passport for Kai by Friday. Our guide Bob didn't want to chance the mail~he was concerned it wouldn't come in time for our flight. Very nice man.
Our day yesterday was an odyssey that has continued into today on our journey to Kai. I have to say that China is an incredible, awesome, enchanting...and completely foreign land! The people have been more than gracious and kind to us. Our guide Chen Chen in Beijing was fantastic, and we had a wonderful time exploring Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the Jade factory with the Oppliger family. We really enjoy their company, and their son Adam is a trouper! Looking forward to meeting up at the White Swan! Chen took very good care of us, and shared so much about her own life growing up in Beijing. As we headed out Sat. morning for our adventures she announced to us that we would be visiting the orphanage after all, and receive Kai the next day. Dare I say we lost it!!! So much for focusing on our day ahead!
She recommended that we take the East Great Wall, so our family did that, and the Oppligers did the West. (main one) I made it to the second to last tower and found myself completely alone for up to 20 minutes at a time. It was a crystal clear day, and the beauty and power of it was overwhelming. I highly recommend the East Wall.
Yesterday we wandered to the local grocery store for water and moon cakes before our new guide Bob picked us up to head to Baoding to meet Kai. We headed southwest on a hazy warm day out of the explosive population and building of Beijing into miles and miles of farms and deserted communes. It seems China is in the midst of another revolution. Out with the old, in with the new. We would pass truck after truck loaded with "stuff." We are guessing it is the remnants of all that is being torn down to make way for the new. Very curious. We also got to catch a glimpse of the Marco Polo bridge, and where the Japanese invaded China.
As we pulled into Baoding and worked our way further into the city I began to realize just how lucky we all are. And yet, with what appears to us to be such poverty, the people are happy, kind and enjoying a kind of community we just can't seem to grasp in our culture. As we drove up to the orphanage it looked like a palace next to it's surroundings. We were welcomed by the director of the children's section, and another man. They brought us water bottles, and soon Kai's nanny Tseng Chin-yen brought him in the room. He had just woken from his nap, and was very confused. We spent a few minutes getting acquainted and then it was decided we should all go to lunch! So, Chin-yen went with Kai (Dang Hui) back to the children's building. As we got to the van she reappeared with him, both in new clothes! So we all piled in and headed to "deep China." We were also told we would take Kai's visa photo while we were out. The whole day was so surreal. It soon became very apparent that Chin-yen was more of a foster mother to Kai than a nanny in the orphanage. She did not want to let me too close to him, and would only reluctantly let me hold him when told to by the director. So there we all were, in a back room with our family of 4 and 6 others, men smoking and drinking beer, eating chicken's feet and ???, plus little Kai in complete befuddlement. It was actually a great way to warm him up to us, and begin the transition to his new life. From there we went to a photographer's place a few blocks up the street. (walking) OK, at this point I could go on and on, but all I can say is that the whole time felt as though we were in some foreign film, but didn't know the whole story or our lines!! We got the photos, and family and all group photos inside and out, and then went back to the van.
When we returned to the orphanage (Chin-yen sat in front away from us. :( ) We went inside, answered questions, gave gifts and then were told we would be taken on a tour of the orphanage!! And yes, our sons could take pictures and video tape! The moments in the babies rooms were beyond what we could describe, or really process. Let's just say that we really need to do more to help them. The deepest depth of human need, and strength of those caring for them in one place.
On a much happier note, we asked about Liam (Carol's son) and we got to see him!!! I can't say more yet in case Carol hasn't seen my post! :) :) :)
They took us on a tour of the grounds, and showed us a new building that is being constructed for the older babies...all donated by Jackie Chan!!! Really!!! We'll post pics on our blog. It is beautiful, and will be ready for winter! We finally were given Kai, and after many teary goodbyes and thank yous (even our guide was wiping tears) we got in the van and I held Kai for the 2 hour trip to Shijaizhuang with him sleeping in my arms. He is pretty much in shut down, but is very cuddly with me and Scott, and warming up to his brothers. We even got a couple of smiles! He slept well, and is still on a bottle!!! :) Happy mama dance!
As this is getting really long, and Kai is going to wake up any sec, I will just give a brief story of today. We went with Bob to the Civil Affairs Office. The staff from the orphanage arrived, and Chin-yen swiftly had Kai. This was SOOO hard, but they both needed it. She brought him a beautiful amulet for long life on a red thread and tied it on him, and a shirt that she put on him. As we left for the notary she really wanted to take him in her car. (freaked us out!) The director made her give him to me, and he cried hard for about 30 sec. He was fine in the car, and I gave him a bottle of cereal and formula. When we got there....they pulled up and he was hers for this paper work session too. After a while the director once again told her to let "mama" hold him. He of course was not happy, but only cried for a few seconds, and then fell asleep (shut down). We waited for a long time, so I passed him back to her in the blanket Scott's mom made so that she could hold him one more time.
He was still sleeping when we departed. He is very tiny (20 pounds), and it will take a while to really know what he will need to catch up, but we know he will eventually let us see the wild side of Kai!
This has been the most difficult and wonderful 2 days of my life. As hard and long as this "gotcha" was, I know it was as it should have been. Kai needed to transition, and even more, the woman who has cared for and loved him since he was 9 days old needed to be given this time. I will never be able to thank her or express my gratitude for the what she has meant to him, and to me. I can only weep for her sadness for having to say goodbye to such a beautiful and sweet boy. Even the director was crying. We have been given a very precious gift.
Time to play, and eat some dinner!!
Hugs to you all!
Tina, Scott, Cam, Ben and "Mr. Peanut!"
P.S. The big boys are having a grand time and are off to the mall across the street to buy a guitar and harmonica to play for their didi!

Radio Program

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-12T23:20:55-08:00

Last November Tina and I participated in a Radio program with our adoption agency. I have put a copy of the audio on our site in MP3 format. You can listen to it by clicking on the radio...

The Boys From Baoding

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-11T21:59:05-08:00

The internet is such an amazing tool for connecting people. Our first glimpse of Hui-Hui was through our adoption agency's website, and now he is our son! Because we knew the Wickstrom family through the internet we were able to recognize their son when we were in China and bring back video and pictures for them. And now because we shared our story with Jackie Chan we have met another family who have adopted a son from the Baoding S.W.I.

Katharine, the webmaster for the Jackie Chan site, sent the following email to Hui-Hui:

Dear Hui-Hui,
I am forwarding a message and photo to you from a family in Tennessee. They read your story on the Jackie Chan website and would like to correspond with you. Here it is:
----- Original Message -----
From: hilary & Kurt hales
To: webmaster
Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2006 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: contact e-mail
As we were browsing through the Jackie Chan website, we came across the story about Hui-Hui being adopted from the Boading City Social Welfare Institiute.
We were very interested, because we got our son about 6 weeks ago from the very same place. We were also very impressed with Jackie's generosity and caring.
We were able to tour the new building that he had donated and saw the blessing it will be to all the children. We showed Hui-Hui (Andrew's) photo to Yang-Yang (Nathaniel),
and he was very excited to see him and it appeared he recongnized him. We wondered where you all lived and if we could contact you.
Please let us know if you are interested in getting together/corresponding. Attached is a picture of Nathaniel to show Andrew.
Kurt and Hilary Hales
----- -----
This was really exciting for us because we instantly recognized Nathanial from the pictures we received from the S.W.I. last summer. You can see those pictures by clicking HERE. Nate is with Kai in a number of them. In the pictures of them eating the two of them are sitting next to one another. Nate is about 6 weeks younger than Hui-Hui so I would guess they would have been together pretty much all the time at the S.W.I.
This is especially exciting to us because most of the children adopted from China are girls. I think it will be really nice for Hui-Hui to know other boys from the same S.W.I. While neither of these boys' families live close to us, we still will be able to have contact with them through the internet, and we hope to be able to arrange visits from time to time as they grow up.

Care to Comment?

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-11T21:11:50-08:00

I have had mixed feelings about commenting on blogs. Part of me feels that a blog is personal statement, not a dialog. I have always felt that if you wanted to comment on this site you are welcome to email me. If I wanted an online conversation I would post on a forum.

However, lately I have found myself leaving an occasional comment on other blogs and felt that maybe it would be nice to let people comment here if they like.

So If you'd like to post a comment, now you can. Go on, tell me what you think.

Stinky Mouse

socheltree@mac.com — 2006-01-07T21:52:18-08:00

I want to make an accusation:
It was Scott,
In the kitchen
With the Febreze.

For those who don’t remember wasting rainy Saturdays trying to develop their deductive logic skills with the help of the Parker Brothers, that's a reference to the boardgame Clue.

The victim in this case was Stinky Mouse.

I have blogged about Hui-Hui’s predilection for “thumb snuckers” before. For the most part he’s not terribly picky about a specific toy to cuddle, but over the last couple months he has developed a preference for one particular stuffed animal. This little favorite has come to be known as “Stinky Mouse”. Actually most of the stuffed animals that get any regular rotation as a “snucker” start to take on a distinct odor. Stinky Mouse by virtue of his heavy use had become quite smelly. I wanted to wash Stinky Mouse, but he couldn’t go in the washing machine because he had beans inside him, his label said to “surface wash, air dry”. I suggested we spray him down with Febreze. Tina protested this idea very strongly. She hates the smell of Febreze. My argument was that Febreze kills bacteria and I was pretty sure that bacteria was what was giving Stinky Mouse his unique aroma. Tina said if I sprayed him with Febreze that Hui-Hui wouldn’t like him anymore. I was willing to risk it. I looked up the Febreze website to make sure it was safe to use on children’s toys. It seemed perfectly harmless, so I lightly misted him down and let him dry overnight.

The next morning Stinky Mouse was a new man. His stink was gone. He did have a slight cologne quality to him, but it wasn’t heavy and you could tell this wasn’t masking the old smell. You couldn’t hope to mask that. But not only was his smell gone, so was his mojo. Hui-Hui would have nothing to do with him. It wasn’t like this was a big tragedy. There’s plenty of stuffed animals he’s more than happy to snucker up with. But still I felt bad. Stinky Mouse had become a bit of a sidekick to Hui-Hui.

Tina, of course, put everything right again, She took Hui-Hui to the store and found Stinky Mouse 2.0. As you can see in the photos below he is every bit as serviceable as his predecessor was before I did him in. The stink is coming on nicely and should be at full potency in no time.

Grampa's House

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-31T22:44:15-08:00

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR SLIDESHOW

We finally made it "Over The Hill" to see Tina's dad and her brother's family. They have been so supportive of our family as we have gone through the entire adoption process that we wish we could have had them meet Kai sooner, but all the same it was a great visit. Tina's dad is 87 years old and lives just down the street from her brother's family. We visit them a lot, but this last year has been busy and our usual summer visit this year was made by just Tina and our younger son Ben. Cam and I were both busy with work.

We talked about having them come visit us on Veteran's day, but felt it would just be too much. At that point we had only been home from China for about 5 weeks and having 5 people (and possibly 2 dogs) was just more than we felt Kai was ready for. To be honest it was definitely more than Tina and I were ready for! So we postponed until Christmas. We were concerned about driving over the mountains in winter. We have done it pretty regularly over the last few years, but earlier this fall the weather had been pretty bad and we were feeling uneasy about doing a six-plus hour drive with a toddler. Thankfully Tina's dad helped us with airline tickets as a Christmas gift.

So instead of a 6 or 7 hour drive we were looking at a 35 minute flight. The kicker: The drive from our home to SeaTac, parking the car, shuttle, checking bags, security check, etc... doorstep to doorstep was just over 6 hours travel time. You can't win.

All the same Kai was a real trooper. He travels easy and is amazingly agreeable. A couple of fun footnotes on the journey over include stopping for dinner on our way to the airport at the same restaurant we went to when we flew to China. The waitress we had the first time was working and remembered us, she was really excited to see Kai. Then at the airport we ran into our niece's boyfriend Max. He had to fly back to L.A. to play a gig. Our boys are friends with him and were a bit bummed they weren't going to see him this trip, so this gave them a chance for a short visit to catch up with one another.

During the visit Kai pretty much stuck to his schedule. We weren't hard and fast with it, but for the most part he just went with the flow. It amazes me to see how easily he adapts to change. Kai had fun playing with his cousins and meeting his Grandpa, Uncle Bill, Aunt Erin, Aunt Peggy, and cousins Caitlin and Hailey. We even had an outing to the antique carousel in Spokane. Stupid me forgot the digital camera on that outing - have to get those photos next trip.

I'm glad we waited to make the trip. Kai has had the time to settle in a bit here and feel more rooted, which I think helped him be confident and comfortable meeting new people.

It was funny when we got back to our house, he was very excited to see his home again. It made us wonder if he thought we were going to come back here or not?

Merry Christmas!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-24T21:25:27-08:00

We hope you have a Very Merry Christmas!

This year, as I'm sure you can imagine, we are thankful for so very many things! Not the least of which is digital photography. This is one of 27 shots we took - you don't want to see the rest of them. It took longer than any of these three boys wanted to be in the silk outfits we bought in China, so we are also thankful for moments of cooperation on the part of teenagers and three year olds.

Fruit Ice Cream

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-23T16:49:00-08:00

Okay, we're guilty...
We let Hui-Hui watch TV.
As former Waldorf parents we are all too well informed regarding the evils of television and the threat it poses to the developing minds of young children.
But he likes it.
We limit it mostly to a bit of PBS children's programming and a few DVDs like "Big Bird in China". Well, there's been a few holiday specials too, he really seemed to enjoy "It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Christmas Story". We're hoping this doesn't leave him with much more permanent damage than what Tina and I sustained as kids.

But now we've found a program which we are trying to expose him to as much as possible: "Fruit Ice Cream"
We stumbled across this program on the local World Television Channel our cable provider carries. We look at this channel occasionally, and wonder if the program on at the time is in Mandarin, or Cantonese, or Korean? I wish I could tell, but I can't. So one morning a few weeks ago I was home with the flu. I was laying on the couch with a low-grade fever feeling miserable. So I'm flipping through the channels and there was this asian children's program on. Tina and I both keyed in on it and wondered aloud, "Is this Mandarin?" Then one of the little puppet characters came on screen appearing upset, and the Grandma character said to it "Mei guanxi" - "It's Okay" in Mandarin, one of the few Mandarin phrases we recognize!

I looked up the cable channel's website, (KBCB TV) and found their programming guide which confirmed the program is in Mandarin. There was some writing in Chinese, but it didn't say the name of the program in English, just "Mandarin Children's Program". I was really curious to learn more about the program but couldn't find anything on the web. So I emailed the Chinese writing to our friend Meimei who translated it for us. It's called "Fruit Ice Cream". With this knowledge I began Googling more aggressively and I finally found some good links.

The program fascinated me as it had a number of unusual qualities, the first being that the grandmotherly hostess is obviously a man. And while there are slick Sesame Street-like puppets, the pacing of the show is much more like Mister Roger's Neighborhood.

It turns out the program is an extremely popular one which is produced by Taiwan Public Television. It's been on the air for 6 years and there are over 800 episodes filmed so far. There is an interesting article about the show you can read by CLICKING HERE. The article mentions that the Grandmother character was partially inspired by Robin William's Mrs. Doubtfire, which is exactly who we thought of when we first saw her.
You can see the English webpage about the show on the Taiwan Public Television website by CLICKING HERE. This page has a short video clip of the show you can watch in Windows Media Player format. The episodes we are seeing air here at home are apparently older ones, and aren't quite as flashy as the one in the video clip online, and we don't get any English subtitles, but we are all enjoying them.

We feel it is very important to try and maintain Kai's Mandarin as best as possible. We feel this is one of the strongest ways we can preserve his cultural identity and provide him with a valuable tool and skill when he is older.

Children's Co-op PreSchool

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-13T23:32:12-08:00

- CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE SLIDESHOW -

Tina teaches the Two-Day Class at Children's Co-op Preschool. The co-op is a great program that's coordinated by the local community college. The program involves parents in the classroom and is a lot of fun. We enrolled both our older sons in this co-op when they were little and were very involved in the program. So much so, that Tina is now the teacher!

Her class meets on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and is for 3 and 4 year olds. On the mornings Tina teaches I arranged my work schedule so I could be home with Kai. While it's great that we are able to always have one of us home with Kai, it's gotten a bit boring around the house for him; we don't have a very big social network of 3 year olds in our personal life these days.

One of the recommendations that came out of the early childhood development evaluation we had done for Kai was to get him into a preschool program. Rather than a remedial program, it was suggested that we try to find a program with "regular" kids. Hmmm... where could we possibly find such a program? While the answer seems obvious, it wasn't quite that easy. Even without his developmental delays and language issues, Kai isn't chronologically old enough to enroll in the co-op program. Still we thought this would be a great thing for him, so Tina discussed it with her facilitator from the community college and the co-op board parents. They agreed that this would be a good thing for him, so we decided to bring him to the class and have me there with him full time. I am not one of the regular working parents, I focus pretty much exclusively on Kai. I make sure he stays on task and doesn't disrupt the program for other parents. Also, as he isn't potty-trained I cover that area as necessary. We have been bringing him to co-op preschool now, since Thanksgiving and it's been wonderful! Kai loves being around other kids, and it gives him an opportunity to experience a wide variety of activities. I have been able to pretty much just be there to "spot" for him. initially he was pretty reserved, and kept to just the "sand" table and water table. But as of last week he has really started to break out and try some different things. He doesn't like to do the art projects as they are usually messy, and he is very apprehensive about anything that's sticky or gets your hands dirty. But he's playing in the kitchen and even with the playdough a bit!

So far we have been having him there just for the open activity portion of the day. We've tried the "circle" a few times, but he has a hard time focusing for that. Lunch is also difficult for him, so I have just taken him home for lunch, which means he also misses the "Big Room" (large motor play) and story/closing circle.

Tuesday was the last day of preschool before Christmas break and it was also Kai's birthday, so we decided to try having him stay for the whole day. This went VERY well! He enjoyed celebrating his birthday at circle - getting to wear the crown and sit in the special chair, etc. He didn't eat too much at lunch, but enough, and he got to stay for the Big Room.

I have to do less and less for him as he finds his comfort zone. Some of the things you would expect to be difficult for him are second nature; things like lining up to wash hands, sharing toys... yet these are the things he must have obviously dealt with daily at his home in China.

It's funny being in a preschool with Tina again. This has been a part of our life together since high school when we took an early childhood development class together. In college we worked together in a daycare, and as young parents we taught Sunday School together. For the last few years this has been Tina's exclusive domain, but now that we have Kai, we are both in it together again.

Tree Hunting

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-10T21:19:10-08:00

This is the third time the debate has been waged in this house...
Do we really want a Christmas Tree with a Three Year Old?
One year with Cam we actually had a table-top tree. Some might say we were wise. I think we were cowards. Ever since, we have always had a real Christmas tree. A few times we've bought them off of tree lots here in town, but we live in logging country. Out here in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains trees are for cutting down. So that's what we do.
Just a few minutes down the Mount Baker Highway from our home, Christmas Tree Farms are as thick as strip malls in California suburbia. We've been to a number of different farms over the years. This year we went to one called River's Edge, named for it's location along the Nooksack River. We chose this one because they have a wagon ride that takes you out to the trees. It was a really beautiful day, clear and not too cold. We got a bit of a late start as Ben worked today, and Cam took the ACT exam, but we made it to the tree farm before the sun dipped below the hills. Here's the view from where we were...

This has become such a big family tradition we don't even have to beg the teenagers to come along. They are Veteran Tree Hunters, and once we get to the tree farm we have to chase after Ben. Here they are with their young apprentice...

We rode the wagon out to the trees...

And began our search for the perfect tree.

We always go round and round on the selection process...

Mamma and Hui-Hui says, "Here it is!"

We all watched as...

Ben got ready to cut the tree.

Cameron helps steady it.

One reason the teenage boys may be so eager to come along is that we always visit Everybody's Store after we get our tree. This place is great! They have a deli sandwich bar that makes HUGE sandwiches, and if you come along and help cut the tree down you can have whatever you want.

We waited to bring the tree in the house until after Kai went to bed. He was quite surprised the next morning to find a tree in the livingroom! Tina and I put the lights on while he watched. This was very frustrating for him as he really wanted to "help". We managed to get it lit and called it at that until after his bedtime. It's been up and decorated for two days now, and he's been really good about leaving it alone. He likes to look at it, and has poked at it a bit, but it's not been a problem. He's too busy pushing the eject button on the CD changer.

Liam's Family is in China!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-08T08:35:25-08:00

The Wickstroms are in Beijing and are on their way to get Liam!
You Can follow them on their adventure by reading their blog. Here is the link:
Bringing Liam Home

Liam is the little boy we met at the Social Welfare Institute in Baoding where Kai lived. The Wickstroms are adopting Liam through Children's House International, the agency we worked with to adopt Kai. We feel very fortunate that Kai and Liam will be able have a connection to one another as they grow up.

Children's Hospital

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-07T10:11:34-08:00

On Tuesday we went to Children's Hospital in Seattle. Our appointment was at 8:00 in the morning. MapQuest says it should take an hour and 33 minutes to get from our house to Children's Hospital. We left our house at 5:30 AM and barely made it. I do not envy Seattle commuters! We stopped in Marysville on our way to pick up my mom. She has been very involved in the care our nephew Devon has received at Children's Hospital so it was nice to have her along. We didn't have to think about driving directions or parking, etc.; made the trip MUCH easer.

This was a preliminary visit with Dr. Hanel to discuss Hui-Hui's hand. A physician's assistant gave Hui-Hui a general exam, which he was NOT happy about. He was quite distressed over being undressed in a clinical setting, but he calmed down by the time Dr. Hanel came in to see him.

I really liked Dr. Hanel. He has a calm, present, and gentle manner. He looked at Hui-Hui's hand and explained that we had a couple of options:
1) Do Nothing
2) Surgery

Before we went in, I was worried the doctor would immediately advocate for surgery, and as the physician's assistant looked at Hui-Hui, she said that he would probably want to straighten the wrist and build a thumb out of his forefinger. She said this as though it were a forgone conclusion. But When Dr. Hanel looked at him, he said it wasn't that obvious of a choice. If both of his hands were affected it would be a much more simple decision to want to create an opposable thumb. In that Hui-Hui's right hand is normal the need isn't as clear. Dr. Hanel also told us about a recent study of children who have had the procedure and ones who have not, and that the effect on functionality wasn't especially clear. For Hui-Hui, the decision to have this done is also complicated because his index finger doesn't flex properly, and the "quality" of this finger
effects the success of the operation.

The procedure of building a thumb out of a forefinger is called "pollicization". There is a good newspaper article which profiles Dr. Hanel and explains the procedure you can read HERE.

So we left the visit with an appointment to return in three months to discuss it again. Dr. Hanel asked us to think about what we want to do, but he did not give us a clear recommendation, as it's not a clear-cut case. He did have an OT come in and make a splint for Hui-Hui to wear on his hand at night. The splint holds his hand in an extended position to help stretch tendons and soft tissue. This will make surgery easier if we decide to go that route. Hui-Hui did not like getting the splint made. It wasn't really invasive, but the whole process was overwhelming for him. While we waited for the splint to be finished Gramma took Hui-Hui out of the exam room for a little walk around the hallways. This was very sweet, as it let her have an opportunity to connect with her new grandson, she was able to be there for him as a source of comfort in a stressful situation. Tina and I finished up with the OT then went to catch up with Hui-Hui and Gramma out in the lobby where they had gone to look at the fish tank. As we headed down the hall we could hear my Mom talking with someone and we saw a little asian girl standing in the lobby. It was Aimee Oppliger! We met Aimee's parents in Beijing, and Aimee in Guangzhou. They live near my sister outside of Marysville and adopted Aimee through our agency, CHI. Aimee was very interested in seeing Hui-Hui again, though Hui-Hui wasn't feeling very social after all he'd been through in the exam room. Aimee has fused fingers and was seeing Dr. Hanel as well. We were all just stunned that we had appointments on the very same morning!

Afterwards we went to Gramma's house for lunch. This was our first one-on-one visit with Gramma, and Hui-Hui really had a chance to connect with her.

Yes, that's Dori in the fish tank, Nemo was in there too.

Hui-Hui and Aimee meet again

Us with the Oppligers

At Gramma's House

Ho, Ho, Ho!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-04T16:53:17-08:00

Waldorf Holiday Faire

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-04T11:17:00-08:00

On Saturday Tina and I took Hui-Hui to Whatcom Hills Waldorf School's Holiday Faire. This is the first time in eight years that we have not been parents of students at the school. It's funny how excited the two of us were. We have gone to this event since Cam was three, long before we were a part of the school community. Now we were returning as alumni parents and we were anxious to show Hui-Hui all the cool things! We have many good friends at the school we have not seen since our trip to China and we were excited about having them meet Hui-Hui for the first time.

Tina has brought Hui-Hui to the school a couple times before to visit the Roots & Wings store so this was not his first time there. Still, he seemed very apprehensive when we got there. Maybe we were too eager. We rushed to the Gnome Village and got in line.

We have been very cautious about taking Hui-Hui out very much. He goes to the store with us, and has been to some of the boys music events. These have included not only orchestra concerts, but brief visits to football half-time shows as well. However, visits to large social settings have been rare for these first two months. The few we have attended though have not been a problem for him. But this time he was not too sure about what was going on, and was very clingy. He wouldn't let Tina put him down, and was not interested in meeting Pocket-Man or digging for crystals in the Gnome Village. So we decided to slow down and break for lunch. We went to the "Wooden Spoon" cafe they host in Alia Hall and found a table. The place was packed and there was live music playing. We bought our lunch and had brought along custom Hui-Hui chow we knew he would eat.

Somehow, the noise and chaos of this room seemed to be just what he needed. After he ate, he got down from the table and started to wander in gradual circles away from us. He moved among the other tables then looped back to us as we visited with friends. Eventually he worked his way out of the hall and saw the swings on the upper playground; suddenly he seemed to be in his element. He wanted to swing and run across the snow-dusted courtyard.

We visited with old friends while he tugged on us to follow him. We wandered through the craft vendor displays at the rate of a distracted parent of a toddler - glancing briefly at treasures then chasing off after our little charge. It felt right. We whacked his schedule we have worked so hard to maintain, but it was a good thing.

The School Courtyard

Entrance to Gnome Village

A little leery of Gnomes

In The Gnomes Crystal Mine

Virtual Scrapbook

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-02T13:39:20-08:00

When we were in China I squirreled away a bunch of stuff to bring home for scrapbooking. Some of it was actually interesting and some of it was just stuff I kept for reasons I can't recall now. I have scanned some of it to put on the blog here. Many of these things have websites associated with them so they make a nice "on-line" scrapbook. I encourage you to click on these artifacts to see their links. If you do, please be patient and wait for the sites to load. They tend not to be the fastest sites, and Chinese web designers like lots of Flash animations and music.

This is a scan of a ticket stub for The Forbidden City. This was a fascinating place to see. They have a website too, which you can visit by clicking on the ticket...

How do you get around in China if you don't speak any Chinese? Most hotels have these handy cards you can show to the taxi driver, so you can always get back. The trick is getting to where you want to go first! Click on the images of these cards and you will go to the hotel's website. The English page for the Hebei Century Hotel doesn't work, but that actually makes sense based on our experience there!

PiyoPiyo and BoboHouse are brands of baby clothes and stuff that we bought in China for Kai. These are scans of packaging for things we bought. Both have cool websites you can see by clicking on the pictures...

Now I'm guessing that you probably recognize this package even if you can't read the writing on it. If you click on this picture you will go to the Chinese McDonald's website. It seems quite a bit flashier than the US site.

Hui-Hui's "Gotcha Day" was on Chinese Moon Festival Day. These are Moon Cake packages. The boxes contained individual cakes, each the size of a cupcake, but very heavy. These images may be upside down as my Chinese reading skills are non-exisistant. These link to the Wikipedia page on Moon Cakes

Messing With The Website Format...

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-12-01T07:53:51-08:00

If you tune in regularly you have probably noticed the general look of this site has changed a couple times recently. The program I use to create this website is an amazing little tool called RapidWeaver. If you use a Mac and want to publish a blog or a simple website, this is a great program. It's very inexpensive and very easy to use. Creating the custom page headers is a little tricky but I've gotten pretty quick at it. If you are keeping count, this is actually the fourth header to appear on the site.

The dragon graphic in the top right corner is a scan of a painting we had an artist do for us at The Yu Long Friendship Store near The Great Wall just outside of Beijing. The original painting is about 12" x 28" in size. Here's an image of the full painting.

The first three images are the letters: K A I made of birds and flowers. The last image of a flower, dragon, and mountains is a stylized representation of the Chinese character Kai:

We had this painting made the day before we got Kai, and didn't know we'd be calling him Hui-Hui, otherwise we probably would have had his full name painted. Unfortunately the painting took a bit of a beating during our travels and has some creases in it, so we haven't put it up on the wall. I think we will probably be able to get it smoothed out, but it will need to be framed for it to look right. Fortunately it did scan pretty nicely, and I like being able to use the graphic here on the website.

Note: now that it's December all the posts from November have been moved into the monthly archive available for viewing from the menu on the right.

Two Months Home

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-28T23:00:13-08:00

Today is our two month anniversary of being home with Hui-Hui. Things continue to go amazingly well with him.

So far in regards to general health we haven't had many concerns. Our biggest surprise and worry was when our doctor told us that he tested positive for thalassemia. This is a genetically inherited form of anemia (sort of like sickle cell anemia) where the red blood cells are too small. The lab results we got on this labeled his form of the disease as "asymptomatic alpha thalessemia". This is pretty good news, as it means he doesn't show signs of problems which would require treatment. For some people thalessemia requires ongoing blood transfusions, and consequently a difficult and uncomfortable treatment called "chelation". We are going to see about further testing to make sure we understand the exact nature of this condition in Kai. If you would like more information on this, CLICK HERE to view the March of Dimes information page on thalessemia.

We have an appointment on December 6th with Dr. Hanel at Children's Hospital in Seattle to look at his hand. We have no idea what, if any, treatment this will require. We think he could use his left hand more than he does, and wonder if he was discouraged to use it at the S.W.I. Either way, it is unlikely he received any helpful intervention regarding this, but the reality is that we simply don't know. He does compensate for it amazingly well, and it's almost hard to notice it when you watch him.

Because Kai was in an orphanage for the first 33 months of his life he has a number of developmental delays. This is normal for children in this situation, and they will usually gain ground rapidly once they are placed with their family. Our doctor suggested we have him evaluated by the hospital's children's neurological development center to see if there are any local programs which may help him in this area. We went to the center and had a fun time with an O.T. there who did a basic evaluation of him. Because language is an issue she was not able to give him the full battery of tests, but she seemed to think he was doing just fine. We are going to have a follow up visit with them in our home this week.

Eating continues to be a bit of an issue. We have adapted to his diet and see that he gets plenty of nutrition, but he still refuses to eat any foods that require chewing. That is, no cookies, crackers, dry cereals, solid meat, cheese, etc. The most common daily diet consists of organic instant oatmeal for breakfast which we make with Boost supplement instead of milk, then we mix in unsweetened applesauce. This is very sweet tasting, and is the only sweet thing he seems to like. For lunch he usually has Top Ramen with eggs and maybe a little milk added. He also likes jarred baby vegetables and will usually have a jar for an afternoon snack. For dinner he usually has some type of soup. We have also taken to liquifying things in the blender to make "soup". This way we can get meat and other types of vegetables into him.

Talking is starting to come along. He clearly says Mama and Baba, and Daisy (our dog), which he says in a high "sing-song", like when we are calling her. He's getting close on "water" (again in a sing-song) but usually says "guh" when he wants to drink. He says "gah" for car. Cam and Ben are both something like "Hem", sometimes Cam is more like "Ham". He says "c'mon" when he wants you to come to him or follow him. We have gotten him to mimic a few words including "Tuesday" and "Black Shoes", again these were both sing-songy chants and not really in context. Over the last couple days he has begun to babble almost constantly. He looks at you and "talks" away in a very deliberate manner. I really don't think it's Mandarin, but rather just toddler babble. When he does this he appears as if he is trying to communicate, but he's such a little mimic that sometimes I think he is "play-talking", and just imitating what he sees and hears us doing.

We continue to use a small range of Mandarin expressions with him:
Wo Ai Ni - I love you
Wo Shi NiDe MaMa - I am your Mommy
Wo Shi NiDe BaBa - I am your Daddy
Ta Shi NiDe GeGe - This is your older brother
Zhe Shi Gei Ni De - This is for you
Bie Ku - Don’t cry
Gui Heidze - Poor Baby
Mai Gui Shi - It's going to be okay
Ai kwan shui shui ba - It's time to sleep

I am trying to expand my Mandarin vocabulary in this area, both to help him understand us, and because I really want him to maintain his native language.

He has overcome his fear of dogs. We no longer use gates to keep Daisy out. He's still not particularly fond of her, as she is big and gets in his way. I know I would not really want a dog around that was taller than me and over four times my weight. But he will pet her with us, and he enjoys chasing her with his ride-on car, or with his toy broom.

This is such a funny stage to start a relationship with a child at. I really wonder what things will be like in a year. I imagine all of this will seem like a dream then. Sometimes I think I want him to develop more quickly: start talking, be potty-trained, eat regular foods, etc. But really, we are enjoying him so much just the way he is, that I'm not in a hurry for those things. They will all happen for him, and I want to enjoy watching the process. I guess my desire for faster development is really about wanting him to be less frustrated by the current obstacles in his path.

Hui-Hui's Friend Liam

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-27T19:26:21-08:00

I have written about Liam on the blog several times. He is the other little boy at Hui-Hui's S.W.I. in Baoding who is being adopted by another family with our agency, Children's House International. Tina had the presence of mind while we were at the S.W.I. to ask to see him. We took pictures of him for his parents, Tim and Carol Wickstrom, in California.

Liam is 5, and I think it was a good thing for him to meet us and see this process happen with Hui-Hui. The S.W.I. staff had Liam accompany us as we toured the facility.

I finally was able to put together a video of him for his family. They are leaving in about a week to get him, and we are so excited for them!

They let me put the video I made for them on the video page so you can watch it if you like. I think you will agree that Liam is a very sweet little boy and his new family is very lucky to get him!
CLICK HERE to see the video.

Feeling Thankful

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-27T09:19:38-08:00

We are very thankful this year for all that has come to pass since we began the journey of bringing Kai into our family. We are thankful for the good fortune which has allowed us to do this. We are thankful for the loving support of our extended family and friends. We are thankful for workplaces that support us in our need for flexible work hours, and value commitment to family. We are thankful for the opportunity to have seen a small piece of China and the beautiful people there. And we are thankful for the joy and renewed sense of wonder that Kai has brought to our lives.

The holiday season has officially begun, and we are enjoying being able to experience our family traditions with Kai for the first time. We drove down to the home of my sister's family and had a wonderful turkey dinner with them. This was the second time Hui-Hui had been to their home and he had a great time playing with his cousin Devon. He was very affectionate with everyone and gave kisses and hugs to his Gramma,

And even let Aunt Kris give him a hug ;).

He enjoyed watching some football with his Uncle Mark too!

On Friday night we went to our neighbors the Gudmundsens to listen to music.
Ben has had his drum set over there for a couple weeks now.

He and his good friend Traesti play with Traesti's dad, Bob.

Cam brought over his guitar...

and the four of them played a number of songs including: Brown Eyed Girl, House of The Rising Sun, and License To Kill.

Then Ben and Traesti played a set of songs on acoustic guitar and bass that they have been working on for a while. They play beautifully together and it was great to get to hear them.

We would have stayed longer, but Hui-Hui turns into a pumpkin at 8:00 PM every night.

Film Is Truth...

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-22T07:47:06-08:00

One of the things that Tina and I loved doing while we waited to adopt Hui-Hui was to watch other people's "Gotcha" videos on the internet. I admit that after you watch enough of them you see patterns emerge, and it's kind of like watching wedding videos; there's the same songs, the same scenes, the same things happen. And yet, while I can't imagine watching other people's wedding videos, I continue to watch adoption "Gotcha" videos. I think it's because of the drama inherent in the fact that the children don't know what's happening. Everybody in a wedding video is a willing participant and it's like a little play. Gotcha videos have much more of that "reality television" thing going on.

I wanted to make one of our experience, and I feel very lucky because our two older sons, Cam & Ben, shot great video during our trip. Cam will be using this material to make a presentation for his senior culminating project, but he is letting me go through and make some family videos.

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard said, “Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie.” I have made a short movie showing the truth only 15 times a second, and have riddled it with lies. The video I have put here on the web is a VERY condensed version of our home movie. My intent was to share a bit of the flavor, and let people see where we were. My most liberal act of "reality distortion" is the actual "gotcha" sequence. In this video it appears that we enter the S.W.I. get Hui-Hui, and drive away. We did all three of those things, but the actual process took about 4 hours. And it involved leaving the S.W.I. with everyone for lunch, a photo studio appointment, returning, and touring the facility. In this version all of that is missing, and clips are rearranged for artistic purposes.

So, with my apologies for playing loosely with "reality", I hope you enjoy watching this short film about our first meeting with Hui-Hui...
CLICK HERE FOR THE MOVIE PAGE

Weekend Update...

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-20T16:39:12-08:00

I'm still using most of my computer time to edit the video. We have 6 hours of tape and 1200 photos to sift through. It's coming along, but so far it's looking long. My first draft of it is really just for our family so I'm putting in as much as I can.

We had a great phone conversation with Carol Wickstrom this evening. Carol and her husband Tim are adopting Liam, a little boy living in the same orphanage Hui-Hui is from! They leave December 6th to go get him!!! We are so excited for them, and feel so lucky to be connected to the family of another little boy with this tie to Hui-Hui! They currently live in California, but we are hoping that we will be able to arrange visits for the boys from time to time as they grow up.

I finally unloaded the pictures we've been shooting over the last couple weeks, so here's a bit of what Hui-Hui's been up to...

He likes to help his big brother Cam practice piano...

He's pretty much over his fear of Daisy. He still doesn't like her much, but he's not as afraid of her anymore. Actually she's starting to be afraid of him!

Playing with soapy water in the sink while Mamma cooks is good fun!

Sometimes we worry that aliens may be listening to our thoughts, so we wear protective equipment...

We like to cruise the living room with our Monkey!

We're starting to like Play-Dough

Our good friends Alex and Kim came for a visit. Hui-Hui played them both hard!

Big Brother Cam helped me rake the leaves...

Mail From Hui-Hui's Buddy Jackie!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-17T21:03:00-08:00

Today Hui-Hui got a package in the mail from Hong Kong. Inside was an autographed photo of jackie Chan! I am really impressed with this man, I think he is an excellent role model for all three of our sons. Here's a scan of the photo...

On top of that it was a pretty busy day. Hui-Hui and I went to Tina's preschool! This was our first shot at this and we think it went well. He's not really old enough for this program, and with his developmental delays and size it shows. But all in all he did well. I came and stayed with him from 10 to 11:30, then took him home for lunch and nap. Because we're all up at about 6 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays he's pretty tired by this point and it was a trick to keep him awake on the drive home. He had a good time though. We played in the water table, and the cornmeal table, and the play kitchen. We did the circle time too, but this is a bit beyond him. To be fair, some of the other kids have a hard time with this too. We're going to try it next week too and see how it goes.

Then this afternoon We were guests on a local radio station! This was again at the request of our local adoption agency, Children's House International to help them with their efforts to raise awareness during National Adoption Month. I am going to get a copy of the program and hopefully will post it here.

Hui-Hui Vision!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-11T21:36:00-08:00

Okay, my apologies...
This really isn't an updated entry. I have been using my time to edit the video of our trip to China. I promise that as soon as I can, I will post some clips of it here. In the meantime, I couldn't leave Joe Bates picture at the top of Hui-Hui's blog anymore. So with apologies to Mr. Bates, Hui-Hui's face is back at the top!

This entry is still about the KVOS TV news spot that featured our family a couple weeks ago. You Can Click on the Picture above to see the clip...

U.S. Citizenship

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-09T21:05:00-08:00

Dear Fellow American:

I am pleased to congratulate you on becoming a United States citizen. You are now a part of a great and blessed Nation. I know your family and friends are proud of you on this special day.

Americans are united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, and that no insignificant person was ever born. Our country has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by principals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every citizen must uphold these principles. And every new citizen, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.

As you begin to participate fully in our democracy, remember that what you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to serve your new Nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens building communities of service and a Nation of character. Americans are generous and strong and decent not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

Welcome to the joy, responsibility, and freedom of American citizenship. God bless you, and God bless America.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

Homecoming

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-06T18:38:00-08:00

It's a Big Brother Post on the blog!

This weekend was homecoming at Bellingham High School. On Friday night Tina and I took Hui-Hui to Civic Field to see his brothers perform in the drum line during the half time field show.

Ben's the one in the "Woolie Beanie", and Cam's the one with "The Hair"

The Band: About To Take The Field

And on Saturday night both boys had dates for the dance.

Here's Cameron with Brittni posing at our house before they left for dinner

And here's Ben with Emma at her house...

Ben was in the running for "Freshman Prince" but didn't make the final vote. Both boys were drafted into the homecoming assembly as a "Senior/Freshman Sibling Team". Tina and i didn't get to see this, but as we understand it they were in some sort of race that involved sticking marshmallows on each others faces and carrying one another across the stage.

On Saturday afternoon, Tina and I took Hui-Hui down to visit at my sister's house near Lake Goodwin. This was the second visit for him with this crew and it went great! We did the hour drive down during his nap and stayed for just two and half hours. He was rested and it was the perfect length visit. He and his cousin Devon really got to play together, and as you can see from the photos they really enjoyed one another...

With Grandma...

With Aunt Kris...

Hui-Hui's Friend Jackie...

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-04T11:45:00-08:00

I have always liked Jackie Chan. I originally knew of him through his Hollywood movies like Rush Hour. I found his martial arts skills amazing, and was very impressed by the physical stunts he would perform himself in his films. But other than that I didn't know too much about him.

Then on one of the most amazing days of my family's life, we were touched by the influence of Mr. Chan...

That day was September 18th, 2005: the Chinese Moon Festival, and Kai's "Gotcha-Day"! On that day Tina and I, and our first two sons, Cam and Ben, all drove from Beijing to Baoding where we recieved Hui-Hui into our family. We first met him at the Baoding Social Welfare Institute. While this is a large S.W.I. it's primarily a nursing home for senior citizens. In all it cares for around 70 to 80 orphans. The building where the children lived was showing it's age, and was beginning to be overcrowded.

One of the first things the orphanage directors told us as they gave us a tour of the facility, was how excited they were about a new building for the children which was nearly completed. This new building had been paid for by Jackie Chan. We could tell they were very proud of this, and we were very impressed. It was a large beautiful building.

After we returned home I began to wonder about this gift to the S.W.I. from Jackie Chan. I was curious what his connection to Baoding was. I started trying to Google-search his name and Baoding but didn't really find anything. So then I went to the official Jackie Chan website and I discovered that the beautiful gift of this building was just a small piece of the amazing charitable works of Mr. Chan. I was very impressed by the scope of work his foundation does.

I wanted to thank Mr. Chan for his gift to the S.W.I. Having been able to visit this facility and see the children whose lives will be affected by this gift I felt very moved. These are children who had been Hui-Hui's friends. It is comforting to know that the quality of their lives is being improved.

I looked for a way to email Jackie through his website. In the section for children I found a form children who would like to be profiled on the site could use to tell why they liked Jackie Chan. I filled it out as best I could for Hui-Hui. Here are the questions and the answers I wrote...

What is your name?
Kai-Hui Ocheltree

What is your email address (required)?
hui_hui@mac.com

How old are you?
2 (I'll be 3 in December)

What country are you from?
U.S.A (formerly from China)

How long have you been a Jackie Chan fan?
Since my new parents adopted me in Bao Ding last month and found out that Mr. Chan had donated the money for the new building at the orphanage where I used to live.

How did you discover Jackie?
My parents have shown his pictures to me.

What is your favorite Jackie Chan movie?
I am not old enough to watch Mr. Chan's movies yet, but my parents and older brothers really like Rush Hour.

Why is this movie your favorite? Talk about your favorite parts.
Mr. Chan is very funny in this movie, and we like that he helps a child in this movie.

What do you like best about Jackie? Be specific!
Jackie's charity work. Especially the things he has done for children in China.

How has Jackie influenced your life or made you a better person?
The new building, made possible by Mr. Chan, at the Baoding Social Welfare Institute will make life much better for my many friends I left behind in China.

If you could tell Jackie one important thing about yourself, what would it be?
My family is very grateful to the people of the Baoding Social Welfare Institute for all they have done for me. Mr. Chan's gift will make it possible for them to serve other children even better.

If you could ask Jackie a question, what would you ask him?
How did you find out about our Social Welfare Institute in Baoding, and that we needed a new building for the babies?

The very next day Hui-Hui received this email...

Dear Kai-Hui,

I know that you are only almost-3-years-old and probably can't read this, but maybe your parents can help out with that.

I want to tell you how touched I was to read your story. It is so good to hear that you have been adopted and are now living in the US with your loving parents. We are very happy that your friends can have a better life in Bao Ding after Jackie's contribution.

Today I showed Jackie your photo and told him your story and he was so happy. You made him smile. He wants me to tell your story on our website.

So Kai-Hui, will you ask your parents if we can tell your story on the website at jackiechan.com? We promise not to use your last name or even say what state you are from. But it's such a wonderful story and we want to share it.
Please email me back and let me know what their answer is. We hope it will be "yes."

Love,
Katharine
Webmaster

I was very impressed that we heard back so quickly, and told them that we would be happy to have Hui-Hui on the website. If you would like to see the story they put on the site you can go to www.jackiechan.com and click on "scrapbook", or JUST CLICK HERE.

Happy Halloween!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-01T20:32:00-08:00

Okay, It's November, but it takes me a little while to post this stuff. Here's the Halloween snaps:

Tina really wanted to dress him as a monkey and I liked this idea. I thought we could make it into a Monkey King costume. But I argued for the cute little China Boy outfit on the grounds that we already had it, and besides, it's not going to fit him in a couple weeks, so we should get a few miles out of it!

In this shot, if you look closely, you can make out his "queue" the traditional braided ponytail worn by men in imperial China.
Our very nice neighbor lady across the street asked excitedly, "Where did you get the costume?"
She felt silly when we answered, "China."
I wish I could refrain from the sarcastic comments, like: "The make-up took hours!" But I'm a very bad man. ;-)

Here he is posing with the neighborhood's "usual suspects". Yes, they are all too old to be Trick-or-Treating. But they dressed up, so how can you stop them?

Here's Kai on his first stop. Our neighbor, Ian, is helping him make his selection. The observant eye, will notice that his loot bag on the ground is from The White Swan hotel!

Ben: the Hippy Pumpkin Carver:

and the Hippy Pumpkins!

Thumb Snuckers

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-11-01T18:44:00-08:00

Hui-Hui is a very passionate thumb-sucker. At night sometimes I hear him working it so hard in his crib I worry for the thumb's safety. It is, after all, the only thumb he has!

When He sucks his thumb, he prefers having something to hold onto. The very best thing right now seems to be Baby Eyeore's tail. But if Eyeore isn't around he is not that particular. Above I have a few pictures I snapped on Sunday afternoon to show some of the things he will use for what I like to call: Thumb Snuckers!

Crayons are a particular favorite, and are actually used more for this purpose than coloring. He is starting to let us play with the bumble-bee finger puppet, but usually if he sees it, he will want to have it and immediately put it to work as a "snucker". In a pinch he will grab a fold of his shirt, and I have even seen him use a scrap of paper.

Visit To Stoney Ridge Farm

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-29T18:27:00-07:00

Tina and I headed out north today on an afternoon adventure. We went about as far north as we could and still be in the "lower 48". Our Destination was Stoney Ridge Farm. All three boys were invited but the only one who came along was the one who didn't have a choice. The big ones had been before, and apparently both had more pressing social events to attend.
Hui-Hui, the boy who came along, was quite interested in the whole operation. Stoney Ridge Farm is basically a roadside attraction out in the county. Today was their last day for pumpkin stuff and by the time we got there it was pretty quiet. We took advantage of a couple of the photo ops they have set up...

Hui-Hui was pretty suspicious about what was going on with all of this, and was even less sure of the animals they had on display...

So when we saw the old guy with the barrel train we thought, "no way is Hui-Hui going to do that."
WRONG!

He spotted it and wanted in! I'm thinking, "yeah, right. I'll put you in, but as soon as this guy pulls out you are going to freak, and I'm going to have to chase this guy down and save you...
WRONG!

And the old guy driving it was a nut too! It was a fast, bumpy, whip around kind of train ride. Loved every minute of it!

So once again we are shown, you cannot predict how kids will react. Fun Times!

One Month Home

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-29T18:15:00-07:00

Yesterday was our one-month anniversary of being back home from China with Hui-Hui. It’s been an amazing time in our family’s life. There has been a lot of change in our routine, and even more change for Hui-Hui, but the addition of a toddler to our family has been less disruptive than I had thought it would. There is more clutter about the place, and we are a bit more housebound, but he has actually brought a calming rhythm to our lives.

It’s also amazing to see how he has changed. He is much more confident and assertive than when we first got home. I joke with Tina by asking if she’s seen that quiet, cooperative, little orphan that was around here a month ago? That kid’s pretty much gone. We now have another wacky Ocheltree boy in the house!

When we first got him he was so helpful when we dressed or diapered him, holding out his arms or legs, laying still. Now he runs away, and wiggles all over when you catch him, much more like what I remember from our first two.

At mealtime when we first got him in China, we had to feed him. Now we are not allowed to touch his spoon. He has also gotten over the non-stop eating. He will usually eat a pretty big serving, but when he’s full he stops, and sometimes he will balk at eating anything, even when we think he should be hungry.

His overall energy level seems much better. I think this can be attributed to being rid of the intestinal parasites, as well as better nutrition. We have him on vitamin and iron supplements, and pump extra nutrition and calories into his food by using PediaSure and formula powder. He still only eats soft foods, but we have him on a pretty good diet, so we’re not worried about the chewing thing yet. He will see the doctor again on Friday, so we’ll have an accurate weight check then, but he looks like he is starting to round out a bit.

When we first got him home he had a real hard time using ride-on toys, like his Little Tykes car. He had trouble straddling them and getting on or off, as well as difficulty pushing them. We actually acquired 3 different models, trying to find something he could use. Now he’s quite proficient with all of them, but prefers the Little Tykes one because it’s good to use for standing on when climbing to get things out of reach.

He still looses his balance sometimes, but we see much less of that “drunken sailor” gait that he had a month ago. He runs the loop through our house with confidence and loves being chased, especially after bath time when all he has on is his hooded towel.

He still is apprehensive around the animals and doesn’t like it if the dog is between him and us, but he is no longer terrified by their presence and will even smack the dog around a bit if she’s laying down and we are there to back him up.

All in all, it’s been a really great month we’ve had a number of adventures and we are looking forward to the ones ahead of us!

Senior Pictures

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-26T08:20:00-07:00

Some Big Brother Time on the blog. Cameron had his senior portraits taken last Thursday. Hui-Hui went with Tina and his brother to the studio and was very well behaved. The photographer, Heather Elliott, is a parent at the Waldorf school. We are going to have her take some family portraits for us as soon as possible. Cam wasn't very interested in having his portrait done, but he was pretty compliant for us. I love the ones with his violin. The instrument was originally Tina's Dad's. And the hair, damn I wish I had hair like that!

CHI Gathering!

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-24T21:48:00-07:00

Sunday was quite the day! We went to a get together hosted by our adoption agency, Children's House International. The gathering was at a little park just down the street from our home. There was food and crafts, and balloons. We went right after nap time and had a fantastic time! Hui-Hui was actually quite the little animal! He took right off into the fray and had a blast! Ran around with his balloon and fought over the ride on toys. It was really the first time since we've been home that we've had him in a large group event. We were pretty surprised to see him so at ease. He did keep an eye on us, but didn't seem the least bit worried about stepping out a bit. We think the slow, quiet pace we have given him is paying off.

Hui-Hui with Aimee Oppliger. They first met each other in Guangzhou. Aimee lives near my sister's family about an hour south of us.

Finally an Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-20T12:47:00-07:00

I've gotten a number of complaints again about not posting for too long. I'm sorry about that. I was working on a little essay I wanted to write. I don't know if I really expressed my thoughts as well as I wanted to, but I really wanted to write something about Guanyin Pusa. I have put the piece in a separate page here on the blogsite. You can CLICK HERE to read it, or select it from the menu on the right.

So, Back to how Hui-Hui is doing!

(Please note, I have increased the size of the pictures I'm posting. I was using smaller ones when we were in China, because I was concerned about uploads. But now that we're home, I think this size works better for seeing just how cute this guy is.)

We've been making some steady progress. We are working hard on establishing a consistant routine for him here at home: meals, naps, baths, bedtime, etc. Not easy with two teenagers to look after as well, but we're doing our best. He does much better when we keep things simple for him.

He is starting to get a little braver around our animals. This is still an area where he is pretty anxious, so Daisy is not allowed in the house much when he's awake. He does like to help feed both the dog and the cat...

This is good because now he can get out on the back deck a bit more. Here he is in his swing, and riding around the deck on a scooter...

Are these great dimples or what?

Another great development is that we got a major upgrade in the stroller world...

Pimp My Ride!
You call this a stroller? The free strollers in China were sturdier!

Dude! Now THIS is a STROLLER!

Our next door neighbors, Eric and Jennifer gave us this beautiful jogger stroller. Their daughter Makenna is now 7 and they don't use it anymore.

We are still exploring different foods. We made Phad Thai noodles the other night and he really liked these. He didn't actually get that many in, so we had some of Tina's homemade soup too. But check out that chop stick action, he's a natural!

And a few more cute picture:
Flying around the house with our cape on...

Playing with trucks - This truck was made by RoundHouse toys, where I worked with my sister over 20 years ago...

Playing with balls is always good!

Compulsive Blogging...

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-13T21:40:00-07:00

Okay, I'm blogging out of habit now, so you can skip this entry unless you're obsessing over this site too.

Side note: while I'm writing this Cam is trying to tune his er hu, and get a tolerable tone out of it. Check it out, one of the brothers made it into the blog! Yes I feel guilty for not devoting whole websites to each of them, but they blog on their own. You'll have to figure out what they call themselves on MySpace.com if you want to see what they write.

Today was my third day staying home in the morning with Hui-Hui while Tina went to work. We are actually getting a bit of a routine to our days together. So far it's been nice enough each day that he and I can take Daisy the dog for a little walk. I also like to spend time rolling around on the floor with him listening to music.

He is a really messy eater. I probably could have been better at containing the disaster, but I'd rather spend my energy mopping than battling a two-and-a-half year old over a bowl of Top Ramen. Besides, I got distracted by the woman from the Public Health Department who called right in the middle of our meal. It seems they have been made aware of the little menagerie he's housing in his lower GI tract and wanted to make sure we weren't putting him in daycare or letting him work in restaurants until he's rid of his little friends. And then she and I got all chatty because she told me she had just adopted a daughter from China four months ago. So we each shared a bit of our experiences and she emailed me the link for a Play Group in Whatcom County for Children Adopted From China.

After his lunch I headed him back to bed, and did my best to restore a semblance of order to the house. We read Good Night Moon together and I sang a bit, then I put him in his crib. Like usual, he was happy to lie down, and I left him with the bedroom door open so he could hear me moving around. After about 15 minutes of virtually no noise out of the bedroom I peaked in to see if he was sleeping. Not. He's in there standing at the foot of the bed with all the stuffed animals tossed out, and he's trying to reach the little bedside lamp between our bed and his. He flashes me this look that says, "busted!" and quietly sits down. So I came in and sang to him some more and stroked his head. Such a funny little guy. While I'm busy cleaning, he's in his crib being very quiet and naughty! He didn't want me back there with him, he needed some time to himself.

When Tina got home she took him to visit at the neighbors house and they also got out and used the little swing we hung on the back deck for him.

It was kind of a wacky evening because it's Tina's "Friday" (she doesn't work tomorrow) and she wants to take Hui-Hui up to the Waldorf school for the assembly in the afternoon because it is her former class presenting.

When we did finally get him headed to bed we got out the "Chinese Language For Adoptive Parents" phrases on the computer and played things like "It's time to go to sleep", and "lay down", and "Daddy's tired". He actually seemed to understand this, and got a funny look on his face.

Well now it's time for me to go to bed too.
Thanks for reading.

Eating And Health Update

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-12T21:13:00-07:00

Today the eating thing settled down a bit. Okay, he still won't eat food you have to chew, but for now we're going to let him get by with attributing that to being two and a half.

For breakfast we made him a bowl of "super" oatmeal. We used Pedialyte for the liquid and added a scoop of formula powder. After zapping it in the micro we added PediaSure to cool and thin it, then added applesauce as well. It's like cooking for a body builder. He eats this stuff though so we're going to stick with it till he starts bulking up.

Our doctor called us this evening and told us that Kai tested positive for entamoeba, you can click on it for the CDC webpage, but basically it's another single cell parasite. Fortunately the medicine he's taking for giardia should kill this bug too. And he's taking the medicine more easily now. This is good because these bugs are not good things to have living in you.

The other news we got from the doctor is that Hui-Hui may have a condition called thalassemia. We are not going to start worrying about this until we get a confirmation of the diagnosis and know exactly what it means for his future.

So for the fun stuff today. Tina dug through the old children's videos we have from when the Big Boys were little and found Winnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree. We know he shouldn't be watching TV, but it's something he's used to, and we're getting a bit tired of Big Bird in China everyday. It was pretty cute though, because he wanted his Winnie-The-Pooh toy to watch with him.

We finished our day by taking Hui-Hui to Bellingham High School's orchestra concert to see his brother Cameron play violin. He really enjoyed the music and was very well behaved. We only stayed about 45 minutes. He would have been fine to stay for the whole thing, but we were late getting him to bed as it was and we didn't want to press our luck.

What Does Hui-Hui Eat?

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-11T21:21:00-07:00

Hui-Hui's nursery is decorated in a "Classic Pooh" theme. Actually "nursery" isn't the right word really. The room that was to be, and still may be Kai's room in the future is really more of a playroom. His crib is next to our bed in our room. The crib is decked out in all the "Classic Pooh" swag you can imagine: bumpers, blankets, ruffles, and a good number of the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods.

I love Winnie-The-Pooh. And by that, I mean A.A. Milne's original books. Disney did an OK job of the first Pooh films, but like everything else Disney touches it becomes a corporate money machine, so I'll stick to my little hardbacks of the original text. I read these books countless times to my older sons, and can't wait to start reading them to Hui-Hui.

I think everybody possesses characteristics of all the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods. Hui-Hui is a lot like Winnie-The-Pooh, in that he is basically happy most of the time. But like Piglet he is A Very Small Animal and can be easily intimidated. And he has a number of qualities of Tigger too. Hui-Hui has come along a little later in our family's history; Tigger didn't show up until chapter two of the second book:
In Which
Tigger Comes To The Forest And Has Breakfast

Pooh is quite concerned that Tigger might eat all his honey, but as it turns out Tiggers like everything except honey.

That is until Tigger tries a bunch of other things that the other characters eat. He's certain that he likes haycorns best, what Piglet eats, until he tries them. Then thistles, what Eeyore eats, but Tiggers don't like those either.

This has been a bit like finding out what a Hui-Hui eats is like. Talk about fussy! And now we are trying to sneak a variety of medicines and vitamins into him. We thought he was picky about food before! Don't try hiding a little bit of medicine in his bowl!

Hui-Hui has giardia (click here to see the CDC page) so we are concerned about dehydration, etc. I tried giving him some diluted instant GatorAid in a sippy cup. You should have seen the face! Not good. Handed me back the cup, shook his head and waved me off with his hand. Tina brought home some unflavored Pedialyte. He's not drinking that either. I tasted it, tastes like very slightly salty water. He just looks at us suspiciously. He won't take a bottle or sippy cup with milk or formula. He was drinking formula from a bottle in China, but has refused it since we've returned. Because we're concerned about his size and nutrition we also gave PediaSure a try - "Talk To The Hand".

In the food department we've tried a few variations on pasta: spaghetti, mac&cheese, crab fettucini. He'll eat the skinny noodles and the sauce, but any lumpy stuff that would require chewing comes back out with a disgusted look. The mac&cheese was the fancy little "Annie's" brand shells. He made a valiant attempt at these but didn't really get very far.

So far we've got a few things we know he'll eat: oatmeal with applesauce in it, Top Ramen with egg and yams, mashed potatoes with yams and shredded chicken, and Tina's chicken-rice soup. He will also eat a number of different jarred baby foods, but those are such nasty (not to mention expensive) things to feed a kid.

Tina tried giving him oatmeal today with his iron supplement in it. Wasted. Dinner was yams with some milk and formula and his giardia medicine. Wasted.

Since he has been having more frequent loose BM's, (more like diarrhea) a symptom of giardia, we are concerned about dehydration. So we tried whipping up a modification of the BRAT diet (BRAT is an old pediatric acronym we remember from when the Big Boys were little, it stands for Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast and is used for diarrhea), we made rice cereal using Pedialyte for the liquid, and added applesauce and mashed bananas. Hui-Hui definitely does not like that! At least we didn't waste another shot of expensive meds in it!

So Tina cranked out a plain bowl of oatmeal with applesauce (actually she did smuggle a bit of vanilla PediaSure into this) and he ate it. Of course it was going on 8:00 PM by this time so he was probably getting pretty hungry.

I did get quite a bit of water into him at bath time too. NOT bath water either! Which has been an ongoing battle. Now I keep a sippy cup with clean water with us during the bath and poke it in his mouth while he works on all of his pouring experiments. After his bath we let him have a Dixie cup and unlimited access to a running tap, so I think he went to bed pretty well hydrated.

We finally decided to just force the giardia meds down his throat. We figured this was going to be the only way we could make sure he got it. So I held him and Tina shot it into his mouth with a syringe. I hate making babies cry. And this guy just seems like he's gone through enough already. But he got over it quickly and we moved on. Now it's just three times a day for the next week. I'm guessing he's going to get better at fighting us off.

So do you remember what Tiggers do eat?

Roo's "Strengthening Medicine": Extract Of Malt! Which Roo hates!

Okay, and so you'll know we aren't too freaked out about all this, here's a picture of Hui-Hui eating Top Ramen:

When it's something he likes, he packs it away.

And some advice: don't turn your back on an eager toddler when you're filling a bath! I distracted Tina for a split second and Hui-Hui climbed over the side of the tub as it was filling and slid in fully dressed! We were both in the bathroom with him!

He actually thought this was pretty funny!

Product Endorsement

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-10T17:18:00-07:00

I meant to write about this while we were in China, but failed to do so. When we were preparing to go, we brought with us a number of snacking foods to have as backup for me and Tina and the Big Boys. The idea was to have quick and easy high energy foods for when we didn't have time, or simply couldn't find, food we were "comfortable" with. We took things like nuts and dried fruit, and beef jerky, and instant GatorAid. But the Best thing we had with us, which was really a lifesaver, was Belly Timber! Our friend Mary Goit makes these and gave us a case to take along!

You can find them in places like PCC Natural Markets, Town & Country Markets and Central Markets in the greater Seattle area, and at Whole Foods Markets in Portland, Seattle and Bellevue.

In Bellingham you can find them at Terra Organica, the Old Town Café and the Community Food Co-op REI, Fairhaven Market and the Mt. Baker Ski Lodges.

Click on this picture to go to their website!

A Busy Weekend Comes To An End

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-09T22:31:00-07:00

Friends and family came to see Hui-Hui this weekend.

On Saturday our friends Paul and Mei-Mei came by to say hello. They have been very kind, and Mei-Mei has translated a number of things for us. We had a nice quiet visit and Hui-Hui warmed up to them pretty quickly. Mei-Mei spoke Mandarin with Hui-Hui and after a bit he took her by the hand and led her through the house. He even let her hold him for a bit. It was nice to have someone who speaks Mandarin spend some relaxed time with him here in our house. She was able to understand a number of his expressions, and could tell that he understood some of the things she was saying to him. We really want to be able to preserve and develop his Mandarin along side of English. I try to use Mandarin interchangeably with English for the few words I know. I wish I knew more because I know he will have an easy enough time learning English. The trick will be not forgetting Mandarin.

Paul and I worked on a couple magic tricks while they were here. Hui-Hui found this very interesting so I got him his own deck of cards to work with. Right now he spends most of his time taking the cards in and out of case. I told him that he needs to develop a good force, a couple false shuffles, his double lift and the classic pass. I figure once he gets these down we can begin some basic "ambitious card" routines and maybe even a gambling demonstration.

On Sunday Tina and I took Hui-Hui on a shopping spree to Target. Our friends Pat and Paula had sent him a very generous gift card. Here's the loot we got:

Here's a picture of Pat and Paula's son Jasper. Jasper and Hui-Hui are going to continue in the tradition of their fathers, and their grandfathers by being Great Friends!

After nap time on Sunday our house was invaded by my mom and my sister's family! You could see the tension within them as they did their very best not to overwhelm him! They brought in huge gift bags with crazy amounts of loot inside. Hui-Hui managed to get through some of it. My sister Kris had said she just wanted to scoop him up and hug and kiss him. She did really well at holding back. Here's a picture of Hui-Hui at the table with his Grandma, Aunt Kris, and cousins.

They were all watching him very closely trying to read his body language in an effort to determine how soon they could begin ravishing him.

Devon, who was dying to play with his new cousin finally got to spend some quality time in person with him.

But the kicker was that the one who Hui-Hui really reached out to first was my Brother-in-Law Mark! Mark had been in and out of the house to check the game scores in their car because I wouldn't let him have the TV on in the living room (Hui-Hui turns into a vegetable when the TV's on). When he was inside he kept his distance so as not to intimidate Hui-Hui. But after a bit Hui-Hui decided he wanted to hang with his 6'4" bearded Uncle Mark!

And best of all, Mark got the "pat-pat" invite to "come lie down on the floor with me"! Who can resist?

Aunt Kris was pretty jealous but she did get some one on one playtime too.

It was a fun visit and really good to see everybody. Hui-Hui is handling the excitement of his new life quite well. We are trying to make his adjustment as easy as possible, and we worry about over-stimulating him. But when we think about what our week and half with him in China was like, it would take a lot more than a few relatives to shake up this kid!

T.G.I.F.

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-07T23:00:00-07:00

Hui-Hui's first week in America drew to a close on Friday.

It was a very busy day. Tina and I took him to the doctor for his first examination here in The States. We have talked about wether or not we should be using a pediatrician or try to seek out someone who specializes in foreign adoption, but have decided we are very happy with our family physician, Harry Herdman. We are confident in his skills and approach to medicine, and today just confirmed our impression of him again.

Harry was very gentle with Kai, and I think Kai could sense our level of comfort with Harry. Kai is usually very timid and withdrawn around strangers, but today he relaxed pretty quickly and let Harry give him a pretty thorough exam. He let him look through the scope into his ears and nose, but didn't allow him to see inside his mouth. Harry was so cool about it too. We had told him about Kai's issues around his mouth: the not eating any hard foods, and not letting us brush his teeth. And Harry moved back the instant Kai showed distress. Because he's eating okay and doesn't seem to be in general discomfort or show obvious signs of mouth injury or infection, we figure he has enough going on right now that this isn't an immediate concern. It was really nice to see our doctor be so in sync with Kai's feelings and to really follow his lead as opposed to just forcing his way through an exam.

We had to have two "sticks". One for a TB test in the doctor's office, and again across the street at the hospital lab for a blood sample.

The hospital lab was another amazing visit. the phlebotomist who saw us was a young guy whose namebadge said "Elton". When we first went in he asked us if Kai spoke Mandarin. We explained that he didn't really "speak" a whole lot yet, but we are sure he understands more Mandarin than English. He then began speaking to Hui-Hui in Mandarin. His mother was from Taiwan, he explained. He shared some of his family history, including a great story about his grandparents during the Chinese civil war and how they fled to Taiwan in 1949. He seemed quite sympathetic to Kai, and took extra time to make sure he knew exactly how much blood he needed to take before beginning. He was very skillful and hit a good vein neatly on the first try, all the time saying reassuring words to Kai in Mandarin. Kai cried a little but quickly regained his composure when the procedure was over, and happily waved "zaijan" to Elton as we left the lab.

When we got home and had our lunch the mailman rang our doorbell. He had a pair of big boxes for us which came from the Wickstroms in California. The Wickstroms are the family of Hui-Hui's friend "Liam" at the S.W.I. in Bao Ding. They sent us a whole bunch of goodies, including 14 pounds(!) of cheese from their dairy farm, as a thank you for the pictures we sent them of Liam.

Liam seemed like such a sweet boy the day we met him. We are hoping that the Wickstroms will travel soon to bring him home, and that he and Hui-Hui will be able to stay in touch with each other as they grow up. Here are a couple of the pictures we took of Liam back on Hui-Hui's "Gotcha Day":

Hui-Hui Goes To The Farm

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-06T22:22:00-07:00

Another part of our “regular life” is that Tina works two mornings a week teaching pre-school. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I come home from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and have fun with Hui-Hui. We hang out, do lunch and go down for nap.

Today was the second day this plan was to go into affect and already we are changing things up on him. Tina's class went to an "Apple Farm" today to pick apples, hazelnuts, carrots and pumpkins. This is a small family farm in the county that is open for U-pick stuff and class visits. Tina thought it would be fun if Hui-Hui and I came along too. So we gave it a go!

And like an idiot I forgot to bring the digital camera! So I shot few images on my little camera phone and emailed them to myself. This explains the fuzzy/wonky quality of the farm shots below...

Hui-Hui was pretty apprehensive at first, like he is in most circumstances meeting new people, but he got into it and really had a good time. It didn't rain while we were there, but everything was pretty wet. Hui-Hui liked how the water dripped down out of the trees on us when we picked the apples.

Tina brought a picnic lunch for us, Kai had a big soup thermos full of leftover mashed potatoes and chicken. The guy is still very serious about his eating. One of the other preschool families there had brought a bag of the little frosted animal cracker cookies which they were sharing with everybody. They asked if Kai could have one. I told them I didn't think he'd eat it. Everybody thought he should be given the option as this might be the thing he finally decided to chew, so I said, "sure, go ahead." But Hui-Hui gave them "The Hand". and turned his head. If it ain't "hot soup" he ain't eating it!

In my department at work, Hui-Hui isn't the only new arrival. Two of my colleagues wives also had babies just before, and during our trip to China. The wife of another friend in the department decorates cakes so she sent in special cakes for all three new babies!
Hui-Hui was interested but was willing to share with the rest of us.

This was a very busy day and when it was finally time for bed he went down hard. It looks like Tigger is giving Pooh Bear a little competition in the "favorite snuggly" department...

Settling Into Real Life

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-05T22:49:00-07:00

Our household is returning to its normal patterns. The big boys are back in school. They come and go like they always have. Their friends are slowly being introduced to Kai, who seems to take all of this in stride. He continues to be this joyful, inquisitive, little boy.

He's becoming a little more comfortable with the dog and cat. We keep Daisy gated in the garage while Kai's awake. He can now go down the hallway past that gate when she's sitting there. He also "asks" us to bring the cat in for very short spells.

When I say he "asks" I mean he gestures this is what he wants. He's quite the little pantomime and gestures at us all the time. He beckons us to follow him, to sit down beside him, to get up, etc.

He continues to eat quite well, but he's not drinking milk or formula, so we sneak it into his cereal and other "bowl foods". I think we're going to try him on PediaSure and see if he'll take that.

"Hey! These aren't chopsticks!"

He goes to bed about 8:00 PM and will sleep as late as 8:00 AM. He naps from noon to 2:00 PM. He needs all this sleep because when he's up he's going all out!

A few more pictures...

Hui-Hui's impression of Babba...

Instant Karma

socheltree@mac.com — 2005-10-01T13:27:00-07:00

When we were at The Temple Of The Six Banyan Trees our guide, Connie, said something to us that was so sweet it made Tina and me both cry…

She was telling us about the pagoda tower in the center of the temple grounds. The pagoda is 17 stories high inside, but is designed to appear 9 stories high on the outside. This is because the number 9 has special meaning to the Chinese. It is considered the biggest, and therefore, the most auspicious number.

Connie told us that building a 9-story pagoda to honor Buddha is considered an act of great virtue, and will insure much happiness in the next life. The only act considered more virtuous is that of saving a life. Then she told us that she believed people who adopt orphans with special needs into their families, have in fact saved a life, and so in affect have built a 9-story pagoda in their hearts.

We did not begin this journey in hopes of attaining any rewards in our next life or even this one. We set our feet to this path with the wish of bringing another child into our lives. It’s funny though how life works out. We didn’t even have to wait for our next lives. This has truly been the most miraculous event we could ever have imagined. Who would think that you could travel halfway round the world and find the very child meant for you waiting there?

Tina, Cam, Ben and I are all so in love with him. It will be another miracle if he doesn’t end up spoiled rotten! We are trying very hard to convince Cam and Ben that when he misbehaves (ie: throwing cups of milk!) it’s NOT funny! Teenage boys may not be the best influence on toddlers.

Ben is determined to teach him all the necessary skills though, beginning with skateboarding!

Hui-Hui seems less affected by jet-lag than the rest of us, but he was still up at 4:00 AM. Once he got going in his ‘Squeaky Shoes” The rest of us all got up with him too!

I brought Daisy the dog back from the kennel today, but we have kept her in the garage or in the back yard. Hui-Hui knows she’s here, and has seen her, but he is very afraid of her. We are taking it slow and hoping he desensitizes quickly.

Other than that, it’s been a quiet day, and he just keeps warming up more and more to us.

News From Hui-Hui's World

We've Moved!

Happy Halloween and Re-Adoption Day!

Blogroll Update

New Look for the Blog

Photo Fun - Hippy Pumpkins

Chinese-American Gothic

Fall Farm Visits

Friday Foto Fun

Moon Festival 2006

One Last Post

Family Vacation

The Fair

Baba's Car

How Do You Sleep?

Life's a Beach

Where's Hui-Hui?

Google Earth Rocks!

More Cameron

Graduation

Stinky Mouse Update

"Home"

Stinky Mouse Update

Super Trooper

Love Without Boundaries

Stinky Mouse Update

8 Month Anniversary

Mimi & Kai Video

Back to Blogging

Grampa Visits

Driving

Cam's Culminating Project

Speaking Whale

Earth Day

Fu Li Finds His Family!

Kai and Jasper!

Carrousel

You know you’ve been a child of Waldorf when…

Pre-School Dropouts...

So Tell Me A Little Bit About Yourself...

Stupid Things I Do At The Mall...

Fascinating Radio Program

Play Date With Mimi

Pictures of Hui-Hui!

Stinky-Mouse's New Home!

China Flashback - "New" Video

Blogging about Blogging

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Arguing With Peter Goodman

A Serious Issue

The Further Adventures of Stinky-Mouse

Children’s Hospital Part II

Portrait of Stinky Mouse

Hui-Hui Finds Another Old Friend!

Stinky Vs. Pooh

Five Month Update

Gnome Crossing

See You In The Funny Pages...

Portraits

Why Am I Doing This?

Souvenir from Taiwan

Got Our Taxes Done

What's That Big Bright Thing In The Sky?

New Family Portrait

Pusa Video

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Okay, So Hui-Hui’s Not THAT Lucky!

What a Change 4 Months Makes...

Hui-Hui Is Such A Lucky Little Boy!

4 Month Anniversary

Radio Program

The Boys From Baoding

Care to Comment?

Stinky Mouse

Grampa's House

Merry Christmas!

Fruit Ice Cream

Children's Co-op PreSchool

Tree Hunting

Liam's Family is in China!