Annabelly and her ears

Tonight I asked Annabel if I could call her Belle or Bella instead of Wan Yun or Annabel.

She said no!

Annabelly!

That's what I have been calling her as a nickname, but I am not sure if she understands what your belly is. Maybe I will stick with Annabel or Wan Yun, which I mispronounce terribly.

Why I would ever make us an 8:10 a.m. doctor's appointment is beyond me, but I think it was the first available and I grabbed it.

I had forgotten that we were out of eggs and a toasted bagel wasn't going to cut it for Annabel or Grace, so I thought we would get there early enough to eat out. I was not familiar with the doctor's building or even the hospital's area, so we ended up getting there just in time to search out a vending machine to stop one person from saying every few minutes, "I HUNGRY!!!"

Of course you already know there isn't a "good" breakfast in a vending machine, but it stopped the hunger long enough for the examination.

A quick aside.

I was trying to send this earlier but I am FOREVER losing my bifocals. (This time they were where I had been planting flowers!)

Anyway, her doctor had the neatest glasses that split and then hung around his neck! And they were RED!

So it took me a while to focus on the exam because I was so intrigued by those glasses! I had NO COFFEE! Sorry!

The doctor took one look in her ears and said she had no ear drum in one ear, the left one, and minimal hearing at this time. The other had, maybe bone marrow, scar tissue, but it was not affecting her hearing, so he would suggest leaving it alone.

After discussing all the potential problems with the surgery, including facial paralysis, loss of hearing, and that the surgery just did not work, I still agreed to proceed with the surgery at the first possible appointment. Until then she has no protection of her middle ear and no hearing on that side. It will be day surgery and while she will be down a few days, I pray that the long term impact will be HUGE!

Somehow she understands that she needs surgery. It makes me wonder if she was examined in China and someone explained it there.

At this point, all she wanted was us to HURRY! so she could get to school! Her friends would not know where she was!!

As I took her to school, Grace and I continued on to her doctor for her sinus infection.

I'm not sure how someone with a dozen kids does it. I wonder if there is someone sick all the time. I don't have very many vacation days left after being off from the adoption, so I have to get both well as quickly as possible.

Grace stopped at the restroom while I registered her in the doctor's office. All of a sudden all the lights went out! I felt my way down the hall to the women's restroom where there was NO LIGHT at all and helped Grace get out of the stall and back to the doctor's office.

You stay with me and you can always count on an adventure!!!!

School without Grace!

The school day barely got started before I received a call that Grace was sick and needed to be picked up.

Grace had worked long and hard on her Rube Goldberg machine for science and I knew she was not feeling well. But she did create an expandable hand to remove bugs safely and return to the outdoors without killing them.

I wanted to make sure that Annabel understood that Grace was going home. I went to their class and I think she understood, but was more anxious that I leave the classroom so she could get her work done on the computer.

As we were leaving they were having a fire drill.

It didn't dawn on me that no one would explain to her what was happening.

Grace and I spent a very quiet day, unless my eyes closed for a minute and then she needed to talk to me!

Annabel came home with lots of news about school.

First - No homework! Ms. Wu evidently came and helped her with her homework before she left.

Then she had news that at school they had WOO! WOO! WOO! today. I knew that was the fire drill but did not know how to explain it if you are trying to act things out. Grace did a good Chenglish explanation but still not sure if she thinks the school was actually on fire or understood the idea of a drill.

She had a long conversation with Nina then about, "what cho doin Nina?" Nina is not very conversational. If you don't have a treat or a scratch behind the ears, she gets bored quickly.

Poppa asked her what she had for lunch. This had been discussed earlier with us as well. So here is what she had:

4 chicken
1 green
orange
muka

Dad said, "one green"? What is that?

Annabel decided to pack her lunch and took the last 4 chicken wings, or 4 chicken. She packed a container of mandarin oranges. Then she wanted to add a dessert. She chose some apple flavored gummy fruit treats that were GREEN. That would be the 1 green.

The muka is milk and she had peach flavored.

This is the milk that we have searched all Asian markets for and now I am concerned about letting them drink it after the scare with baby formula.
Another thing they have recalled is a type of candy that both love called "White Rabbit". In fact Annabel had several pieces the night before the news story came out.

Tomorrow is her appointment with the otologist. She is ok with it as long as they are not going to cut her ear. I am anxious to hear the new doctor's take on what needs to be done. All this time with that type of injury and no medicine, not even an antibiotic. It will also be nice to get her hearing corrected.

Chocolate chips, 6 long, and dog have circle head?

The weekend flies by and sometimes I feel that we have run from one thing to the next.

On Saturday, Marcie met us for breakfast and then shopping for plants.


I had read a review of The Original Pancake House and been dreaming of the "best" bacon in Dallas ever since. It lived up to the review and definitely does have the best bacon. I ordered the Bacon Lovers Eggs and Pancakes for Annabel, with her understanding that part of the bacon was to be shared. It was difficult for her to give it up!

Too many carbs wear off too quickly so the flower shopping was cut short, but enough to spruce up our yard and some for Marcie's new house.

The "Green Pet" store was having their grand opening. Against my better judgment, we took our two maniacal dogs to try to find a better collar to help make our walks not be traumatic!!! Between the dogs barking incessantly and Annabel saying "I NO English!" and Grace was trying to cut a piece of chocolate cake, everyone knew we had arrived! And more thankful when we left.

Mom and Dad were expecting friends from Iowa and hoped we would go to eat with the group. But I think those situations make Annabel feel left out, so we opted to find "Chinese" instead.

This is so crazy that we continue to look for more of a "Mom and Pop" or I guess "Momma and Bobba" kind of Chinese restaurant, where we could become "regulars". This one almost fit the bill, with the Bobba taking initial order, Momma coming out of the kitchen to have a look, and son returning from delivering orders.

One slight problem, they spoke Cantonese, rather than Mandarin.

I'm not sure if the girls felt the same, but I felt like we were on display and was ready to leave.

We got to visit the friends after dinner and the girls enjoyed playing with their new twin granddaughters. Annabel would pick up one and take her to someone else. Grace would have kept both for the rest of the night!

I saw that when I first adopted Grace too. I believe they are called upon to care for anyone younger than them while in the orphanage. If you have been responsible for so many at such a young age, it doesn't feel like any fun to play with small children. Grace has just recently begun to show an interest in any child younger than herself.


Sunday starts with Annabel asking if she can have 6 LONGS again. Six Longs? Mom, you, me, Grace, Marcie, pandas?

Pandas? Hmmm, what could that be?

Grace is sure she wants pancakes. But I can't think that longs would mean pancakes.

Then she starts gesturing something rectangular shape.

Bacon?

Yes, yes, bacon, can I have 6?

We go for breakfast and this time Grace has chocolate chips on her pancakes.

Annabel - what's that?

Choclat

Me?

Now this is hard for Grace to give up, but she does share and Annabel is a new fan of chocolate chips! (she first put them in her pocket, until I convinced her they would melt and she could not eat them)

After Chinese school, Annabel announces that Grace's teacher must not be good since Grace - no homework, me (Annabel) lots of homework, so her teacher is good. She starts work on it immediately on the way home.

I cleaned out the freezer and needed to get rid of some things. I cooked a bunch of chicken wings and pizza rolls.

Annabel decides the pizza rolls are "gouda" (good). She asks for more.

We visit a friend's baby's first birthday party. Annabel came back from where the children were playing and waved her hand in front of her nose and said "all boys", blech!

The much dreaded Max Goldberg project that Grace was assigned is due on Monday. We had put it off as long as we could and while I am trying to understand what is needed, Annabel is working on her Chinese homework.

Every few minutes, "MOM!"

"Mom, Ollie/Nina head circle?"

Are Ollie and Nina's heads circles? I guess so.

Good

"Mom, Ollie/Nina eyes circles?"

OK...., yes I guess so.

"Mom, Ollie/Nina mouse black?"

Mouse black ..... mouth? I think it is red or pink.

Grace what English for by bed, Ollie/Nina snore, snore (sound only). Write English.

Pillow?

Yes, yes, Ollie/Nina sleep my pillow, long on floor.

That would be her body pillow that she puts on the floor and Ollie and Nina have claimed!

This was part of her Chinese homework and it was too funny to hear it read. I'm not sure if I would have written a description of the shape of their heads for a report. There was also a question about the color of their eyes, black? Yes, black.

We also got into a discussion about her sister in Jiangxi, which means it was in China. She ran and got her pictures that were sent with her from the orphanage and shows me a picture of a little girl. Best guess is that she is a foster sister, but I have posted on a yahoo group in hopes to find her. She knows she was adopted in 2004 at the age of 5. Grace has never been interested in finding her foster brother. I think he is probably here in the US, but will not pursue it for now.

We were doing our 20 minutes of reading and Annabel said, "wait!"

She still had 2 of those pizza rolls and brought them to bed with her! I guess she does like them!

A lot of fun but some worries

Tonight my mind is racing and wish Bill Gates would invent a machine to translate my thoughts onto my blog!

One of the Chinese adoption yahoo groups has asked for positive thoughts and white light be sent to a region of China where a group of US docs and Chinese docs will be performing neuro and gastro surgery on severe cases for children in the orphanages in China. This was accomplished through a group of women who have established a foundation and raised funds for these surgeries.

It's humbling(?) to think of what can be accomplished.

It is challenging too.

I work at a hospital.

I surely have access to some docs.

Is there more I can do?

There are so many children who need so much.

I look at my two girls and see so much potential, so much happiness, so much love to share. I wish every child could have the opportunity to just have a family. They don't need all the material things, but they do need the love, stability, and opportunity to grow.

My other musing for this evening is based on a meeting at work today.

We had a speaker who does statistics of consumer behavior.

He was specifically addressing the consumer driven behavior of minorities. He had expanded his research to include people from Asia. So much of what he reported sounded very familiar, the importance of maintaining two languages, the importance of higher education, cash payments, rather than credit.

I think about two birth mothers in China and wonder if I am doing the job that they hoped would happen when they left their babies for someone else to find. Am I maintaining the heritage of their birth?

OK, now that I have written it down, maybe I can reflect on all the fun in the last 2 days.

My good friend and former co-worker Danny was here on Thursday. We met while I was working at UNT. Danny was a student and came for his internship to work with me. He was so good that I hired him and began to expand the services we could provide. Along the way we had a great time and tons of laughs.

OK, this isn't an old friends blog, so onto the girls.

Grace continues to make huge strides in her piano playing. She has improved enough to move to familiar songs that are also more challenging. She just amazes me.

As soon as piano was over we hurried home to meet Danny for dinner.

He was anxious to meet Annabel.

She didn't disappoint him.

Her personality came through in a hurry when she announced with her arms folded across her chest, "I NO ENGLISH! You (hands flapping) blah blah blah." It does make it difficult and I feel for her. I remember the frustration Grace felt when she realized everyone was speaking a different language from her. Sometimes it is long and tedious to get an understanding between us.

But an offer of ice cream after dinner brought a "Woo! Hoo!" and back to good spirits.

The girls did not have school today due to staff development. I am so thankful to have Mom and Dad next door so I can go to work and know the girls have a good place to be.

My niece, Marcie was also off today also, but her school was out for Fair Day.

For anyone out of the area, the State Fair of Texas opened today. We always have a good time, but the weather for the fair typically is only one of two ways, HOT or raining. Today was no exception and it was plenty HOT.

But I am getting ahead.

Marcie was able to get free tickets for all of us. "Woo! Hoo!"

She guided us to one of her favorite exhibits that I had never seen. A variety of animals, most with babies, that you can feed. I think we could have stayed there the whole time. I'll have to get Marcie to show me how to include her pics on my blog. Annabel was in awe of every animal. It was like the next pen was even better than the last. Grace is much more subdued and loved being that close to all these "pets".

We had just a short time to visit but we saw a lot.

Too bad our fair is known for the fried foods. UGH! And I tried at least a couple. We didn't try the chicken friend bacon, but did have a corny dog and funnel cake. Dad gave each of us $5 to spend. Things are so expensive there, but the girls got to buy a bottle of milk and ride the log ride with theirs. (I used mine to buy the feed for all the animals!)

Annabel was so impressed with the giant Big Tex. I tried to show her some real cowboys but not even sure if there is a Chinese word for cowboy. There aren't a lot of cows in China!

Grace was more worried as to why Big Tex's color seems darker. I tried to explain that he had gotten a tan. "Really?"

We had a great time and glad to visit the fair. Annabel will appreciate the significance later. Grace was still trying to distinguish the fair from Six Flags!

One word of advice - Never go to the fair with my sister Lisa.

She has to see every exhibit, take their literature, sample all the fried treats, and stay until they close. I liked Marcie's way where we got to see a sampling of a lot of exhibits.

When we were younger, the school would give you a ticket AND a bus pass. My brave mother took all 4 of us more than once to the fair on the bus! I don't know how she did it. I don't know how they afforded for all of us to go. One year a kid threw up on the bus on the ride home. Within two weeks, we started, one at a time, developing mumps. Poor Dad was the last one to catch it. My poor mother, first the fair, and then all of us spreading mumps, one to the other!

Tomorrow is the first Saturday I can remember in ages with NOTHING scheduled. Annabel kept asking what we were doing tomorrow and I just said nothing!!

A big change and an early morning funny!

To start, the early morning funny - Annabel was going through the house this morning singing, "We will, we will rock you! Rock you! We will, we will rock you! Rock you!". Grace explained that Annabel's peng (friend) taught her that at school. Peng sounds like pon yo.

It was almost as funny to hear as Grace singing, "O my darlin', O my darlin'" in Goofy's voice.

Back to the big change.

When Jana and the girls stayed with me that month, I was in charge of laundry.

I washed my clothes the way Mom taught me. So I would ask if they had any wearable whites or wearable colors that needed to be washed. Jana looked at me so odd and asked what I was talking about.

To me, you did not wash your clothes that you wear with your towels, sheets, etc. They were a separate load, washed in cold water, probably fabric softener added. The same with colors. Towels, sheets, dish towels, etc. were in warm water, a longer cycle even. She laughed and laughed, but I continued my process; always making sure the machine was never overcrowded, so everything would get nice and clean. Their only little spa or whirlpool as it were.

When I adopted Grace, I had to adjust it a little.

She only had 1 pair of pants that she would wear and it is hard to make a full load of wearable whites sometimes, so they would get washed with sheets and towels.

Now with Annabel, I catch myself trying to wedge just one more wash cloth in and still make the lid shut. I never would have thought adding one small child to your household could increase the volume of laundry so dramatically. I feel like I am in the movie, "Yours, mine, and Ours" just trying to get through all the clothes each week. It seems to multiply over night.

I have learned an important lesson also.

My mother always smells of clothes to see if they are clean.

I have always done the same.

NO MORE!!!

If you see a pair of girl's panties laying around, assume they are dirty. DO NOT SMELL! Just wash them anyway.

Evening ritual

A big thanks to Gloria for her birthday gift to Grace. Grace wanted a bigger bike and Gloria was determined she would have one. So with her help Grace got a bigger bike. This allowed Annabel to have Grace's smaller bike.

Our evening ritual, after dinner and homework is completed, consists of the girls jumping on their bikes while I struggle walking the dogs!

This is the same neighborhood where I loved to ride my bike. Mine was a classy Stingray with the banana seat and tall handle bars. I loved that bike! Usually my cousin Dubby and I were out riding up one block and down the other, up to the school grounds, and back home.

Now I am doing the same with my girls.

They LOVE their bikes.

They love riding fast, but wait patiently for Ollie, Nina, and me to catch up at each intersection. Annabel is still learning our rules of the road.

We have several accidents each night, but they jump up, brush themselves off, and catch up with the other.

Nina worries the whole time that she is going to be left behind and works the hardest to get caught up.

We go up and down the same streets Dubby and I did when we were younger. I just wish Moore's grocery was still on the corner. Then they could collect coke bottles until they got enough to split a Popsicle!

Annabel makes each trip a little special though. She remarks "beautiful!" several times each night. Tonight's "beautiful" was somebody's solar lights marking the path to their door. Functional is what I thought when I saw them, but for her, they were "beautiful".

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Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug!

We had such a great time this weekend, especially with Lisa and Marcie. Lisa is an amazing photographer even if she can't remember how to log on and posts under my name!



Then Sunday we had Chinese school.



Annabel's teacher showed pictures of his book signings in China at the first class. He is standing under a banner of Harvard's elite graduates in one picture. Among other things, he teaches Chinese at one of the local colleges.



He greeted me with exclamations of how BRILLIANT Annbel is, how she is smarter than anyone else in the class. In fact, he feels she is smarter than most of his college students. I thought to myself that I wish everyone could know but they would have to take the time to understand and translate.

After Chinese school was the great Chuck E Cheese. No lack of brains on that one, she completely understands the games and the PRIZES (a rubber lizard this time).

Dinner with Mom and Dad celebrating Grace and my fourth anniversary completed a great weekend.

But reality has to get in the way sometimes.

I have been trying to locate a doctor to do the surgery on Annabel's ears. There are none in our network. This means going outside the network and paying a LOT more, for every part of the procedure, doctors, tests, hospital, everything.

But after learning about what happened at school today it cannot be too soon.

Today Annabel was supposed to understand the orders her teacher gave and since she did not, she took her book, and put it on her desk. This was one of her treasured Chinese books.

I have no idea if Annabel could even hear the teacher, doubt that she understood (all in English), and probably was so scared she would be in trouble for losing that book that she sat at her desk and cried while the rest of the class went to lunch.

Finally Ms. Wu was available to come and explain.

By then lunch was over.

She had to eat alone.

That afternoon something else was said or done that made her cry again.

Now I just want to cry. This is a child who is very tough on the outside. Crying is very RARE. Fear is what she knows. I resent anyone who uses fear to discipline a child.

It reminds of the time when Grace came home so very sad. A classmate had told her she was Chinese, as if that was bad. He continued to use this against her for the next few years. Thankfully we could talk about it and find better ways of dealing with this perceived threat or disgrace. He had nothing else to intimidate her with other than her ethnicity, because she surpassed him academically, socially, and of course behaviorally.

How sad that parents raise their children to threaten and intimidate their peers. But in a position of authority it is even worse.

But if any of it is due to a lack of hearing, repairing her ears must be a priority.

Happy Anniversary Grace!

Sunday marked our 4 year anniversary! It seems so hard to believe that 4 years have past since I adopted Grace.

I looked at some old pictures today and was surprised at how quickly she has grown and matured.

She is becoming a tween right before my eyes.

Our usual anniversary celebration is dinner at Antares, on top of the big ball downtown. The first year I wanted her to see the whole area! After that it was fun to have a tradition.

This year the restaurant is being remodeled.

Second choice to fancy dinner atop a ball overlooking downtown?

That's easy!

Chuck E Cheese, of course!

More Grace, Annabel, and Jerri