Well, I can tell you what his name ISN'T

In the interest of family solidarity and happiness, I asked my husband to reconsider the name we'd originally chosen: Owen.  He said that it was his least favorite, but if it's what I wanted, he'd learn to love it.  "O.K.," I told him, "so I'm calling L.L. Bean and will have it monogrammed on a Christmas stocking.  If I do that, we're committed.  You're fine with that?"  "Yes," he said, "name him Owen."

I called L.L. Bean within the hour and felt at peace that the decision was finally behind us.  I planned to keep the name a secret from the kids until we decorated for Christmas.   They'd find the new stocking in the box with all of the decorations and ornaments, and they'd cheer and celebrate and we'd sip our hot chocolates and make a toast to our little boy.  At least that's what I'd imagined.

And then I got this from my husband....

"It just doesn't look right."

Lyle said he'd tried to like it.  He'd really tried, but it just had no meaning for him.  Each one of our children's names has meant something to us, something beyond us just liking the sound.  And so the name Owen wasn't meant to be.  For us.  But if you happen to know of anyone expecting an Owen, let them know where they can get an awesome deal on a stocking.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

Contrary to popular opinion, when I said we were sleeping at Lyle's dental office, we were not sleeping in dental chairs, although I do appreciate the image.  We were in the spacious staff lounge and had brought an air mattress from home, so we were hunky dory.

Unfortunately, the power still hadn't come back on at home by mid-morning on Thanksgiving, so we loaded the car and drove 2 hours east to Lyle's sister's house.  The dinner was fantastic, the company couldn't have been better, and being in a home with electricity was simply divine.   We heard that night that our power at home had come on and we rejoiced.

We woke up Friday morning to a phone call alerting us that a pipe had burst in our rental house next door and the cute little cottage was now more akin to a swimming pool than a domestic residence.  We took only enough time to change out of our pajamas before we hit the road.  Thankfully some friends and neighbors helped bail (literally) us out and we moved furniture into our garage and slogged sopping carpet and pad to the dump.

Did I mention that the turkey was really good?  It was a Thanksgiving to remember.

Powerless

Have you ever watched that show "Everest" and contemplated your odds of reaching the summit?  I've always known that I wouldn't make it past base camp.  I have toes that freeze when the temperatures plummet below about 70 degrees.  So when we lost power on Monday and the temperature outside was in the teens, I knew we were in dire straits.

Bruder was huddled up with friends and the rest of put on coats and hats and multiple layers of socks.  We do have a gas fireplace, four of them actually, but they all have electric switches to turn them on rendering them useless.  Yesterday we brought sleeping bags and and pillows and lots of board games to Lyle's dental office and we've been here since, contemplating Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant.

Because He's Cute.....

And because things are relatively quiet here on the home front, I thought I'd share Xi Xi's baby pictures.  I only have two.  Actually, I have three if you count the grainy black and white newspaper finding ad, which is hardly worth counting.  I can't even imagine having only two pictures of Bruder's whole babyhood.  During his first year, I probably averaged at least two pictures every day.  And that was even before digital cameras!

Most boys who are abandoned in China have a visible special need and our Yun Xi was no exception.  Cleft lip and palate, club feet, and other limb differences are common amongst the boys in China's orphanages, but Yun Xi did not have any of those things.  What he did have is what doctors in China called a "vascular malformation" or hemangioma on the inside of his left cheek.  Hemangiomas are relatively common and not a great cause for concern.  In fact, they often go away on their own.

When Xi Xi was nearly 8 months old, though, he spent a week in the hospital where an oral surgeon performed two operations to remove the hemangioma.  From the smiling face I see in post-surgery photos, it looks like he did a great job.   Still, I think his chipmunk cheek was rather endearing.

Not surprisingly (to me at least), my dentist husband is eager to get a look inside his son's mouth to see where they performed the operation.  There are many things in Yun Xi's file that could have been more detailed, that I wish were more detailed, but let's just say they were quite thorough in their description of the removal of the hemangioma.

Lyle found it fascinating reading.

Made it!

Back in July, when we respectfully asked China to allow us to adopt Yun Xi, we were given a deadline of 90 days to have all of our papers signed, sealed, delivered and logged-in in China.   Several agencies said there was no way it could be done.  Our agency however is made of sterner stuff.   "Let's do this warp speed," they said.

In 90 days we had to (just a sampling):

*Get notarized documents from California, Oklahoma, and Utah.
*Have physicals.
*Get police clearances from all of the places we've lived since age 18.
*Have a social worker make visits to our house.
*Get friends and family to write letters of recommendation.
*Do on-line training.
*Get fingerprinted.
*Make countless trips to the notary.....she'll be getting a Christmas card.
*Visit the Secretary of State's Office in Olympia.
*Send documents to consulates and embassies in San Francisco, Houston, and DC.
*Wait for all of the government agencies to stamp, sign, or do whatever they needed to do to the above documents.
*Etc., Etc., Etc....

Our deadline was October 23rd.  I knew when we sent our papers to China that we'd be close.  Depending on how long it took on the China side to log-in our papers, we may or may not make the deadline.  Well, just this morning I found out our log-in date.  It was October 22nd!  We made the deadline by ONE day!  It makes all of those overnight fees and courier charges worthwhile.

So on this momentous day, I'll share another Yun Xi picture.  This is a rare photo of him not in full-out grin, but the grin is obviously right under the surface.

We're still hoping to travel in March.  I planted some daffodil bulbs last week and thought of how happy and bright they would look in the spring, welcoming our little Yun Xi home.

Fourteen

Fourteen years ago yesterday our little Hawkeye made her entrance into the world.  We were at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City.   Lyle was in his prosthodontics rotation during his junior year of dental school, and we wondered if he'd even make it for her birth.  Thankfully he did.  At that time of our lives, I was watching other people's children in our '70's era condo during the day and in the wee hours of the morning Lyle was cleaning the dental lab.  Our toddler boy was a chubby little package of endless energy.  We were poor and busy and tired, and on October 25, 1996, we were blessed with our sweet and confident Lucy Loo.

When he met her at the hospital, her brother leaned down and whispered loudly in her ear, "I've loved you from the day you were born."  Obviously not long, but a sweet sentiment still the same.

Last night she was gifted with an I-Pod that she finds adorable.  My guess is that I'll find it in the washer.  The shirt she was wearing was picked out by Cholita and bought with her very own money.  When I asked her what she thought Lucy would want for her birthday, she said, "I think she'd like to see me in a white dress."  When she saw my look of disapproval, she quickly said,  "Just kidding.  What I meant to say is that she'd like to see me in a white skirt."  She's a sly one.

Rose also labored over a present and also used her own money.  Lucy absolutely loved her ring.

And Bruder's present?   In the card he'd taped to the box, he wote, "I'll have you know that I had to summon up all my courage to go up to the cashier and actually buy this item......".  What could it possibly be?

Taylor Swift piano music.  

That's a truly sweet brother.

Happy birthday to our wonderful fourteen year-old.

Sweet Pea Spa

Or I also could have titled this post, 
"The Best Big Sister EVER"!

Here are the "under twelves" enjoying a relaxing drink before beginning their spa experience.  

Notice the massage center in the background.  

Normally I'm not too keen on the kids using my bathroom, but anything that keeps the littles entertained for literally hours, is a good thing in my book.

And if a foot soak is what it takes to get these two calm, cool, and collected, then so be it.

Lucy took these photos and I just love them.  

And toddler feet?  Well, I love those too.

From the foot station, they moved onto the hands.

Lotions, ointments, and nail polish.

And now, introducing one of my favorite pictures of all time....

I give you......

Spa Cho!

AKA Queen Cucumber

Poor little brother will wonder what fate has befallen him.

Lyle grew up with six sisters and lived to tell the tale. 

 Let's hope Xi Xi can handle three.

Since when did this become a democracy?

And who gave 5 year-olds the right to vote?

In case you can't decipher, it's a subtle message from Cholita:  

"Mom I vot Owen"

See what I'm talking about? 

Coming soon: The Disney wrap-up

The girls are snoring.....

...in our hotel room.  In Orlando.  While Dad takes classes at the ADA convention.

Lucy has known about it for a long time.  The little ones knew only about 2 hours before we left for the airport.  Rose, with shaking hands, opened a parchment postmarked from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy granting her early admission.  Cholita had an invitation to a royal princess ball.  Bruder is home with friends, which makes us all sad, but it's hard to take time off during his junior year.

The Harry Potter park at Islands of Adventure is amazing.  And amazingly crowded.  The hour wait to get into the castle was surprisingly worth it though, just to see Rose's face.

Poor Cholita, who simply could not wait to go on Small World, found that Small World was closed for renovations.   Cholita is a very cautious park-goer.  She refused to ride "Snow White's Scary Adventure" because of the word "scary" and anything that looks even slightly fast is a no-go.  The carousel is her type of ride.  I was getting tired of waiting with Cholita while Rose and Lucy had all the fun, so I told her that The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was just a choo choo train.  She said, "Oh, I like trains!" and on we went.  She's wasn't happy with me afterward but did puff up with pride as she told her dad that she rode on a roller coaster just like a teenager.

We have two more Disney days and one more Islands of Adventure day and Lyle has about a zillion more classes on teeth.  Glad I'm not him.

A Prayer Answered

As I struggled this week with the realization that our son has always been in the orphanage, I prayed that he was being cared for and that the idea of love and family wouldn't be a completely foreign to him.

Through a Yahoo group, I received a message from a woman who brought home a teenage daughter just recently from Yun Xi's orphanage.  She reassured me that her daughter is kind and loving and very well-adjusted.  Her daughter reported that the children were arranged into "families" and that she was very close to her "siblings".

I sent her a picture of Yun Xi, hoping that possibly she might have known him.  Her mother wrote back saying that her daughter saw his picture and yelled, "Xi Xi!!! Xi Xi!!!  He was my little brother!"

I wrote the mother back immediately.  I had so many questions for her daughter!  With the use of a translator, she gave me such a precious glimpse into Xi Xi's life.  She said they lived in a dorm-style room and that each child had a locker and that there was a large window into a beautiful garden.  She said that she'd known Xi Xi (what an adorable nickname) from his infancy and can remember him taking his first steps!  She told her mother that we shouldn't worry because he's "a very obedient boy" with "a bright and smiling face" and "a very loveable personality."

Coincidentally, at the very same time that this sweet young woman was meeting her family in China, we were praying over her little brother's file.  I told this girl's mother to tell her that she'll always have a special place in our hearts for loving our little boy before we could.

What a delightful and immediate answer to prayer.  Xi Xi has been loved and even in the orphanage has had a "family" where he's been cherished and where a big sister cheered on his milestones, like learning to walk.  And in this family, he's watched his siblings leave to forever homes with mommys and daddys of their own.

Soon it will be Xi Xi's turn.