Sticker Time

For Valentine's Day Joshua got a card that had some stickers in it.  He loves stickers.  Fast forward to this Monday (the 18th).  Joshua wanted his stickers so Heather put one on his arm.  He wanted the rest so he put them all on his arms, as you can see.

As usual, he's not content to just let them be so he takes them off and puts them back on.  See pic #2.

Later, he went outside to play.  While outside he was outside he apparently decided he was done with his stickers so he took them all off and put them on one of the patio chairs.  When he wanted to come inside Heather noticed that our chair was now covered in stickers and she told Joshua that he couldn't come in until he got all his stickers off of the chair.  He definitely got them off the chair...BRILLIANT!

Land of the Free

Got an envelope in the mail today from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration service.  Apparently they have found Joshua's paperwork to be in order and have declared him a real-deal US citizen.

So for the next 4+ years Joshua will actually be a dual citizen of both the USA and China (his Chinese passport expires 5 years after the date-of-issue).  Good for him.

So this got me thinking a little bit.  I work with some people that are in the USA as refugees essentially.  They came here seeking political asylum because it was no longer safe for them to continue living in their home country.  They came to the US approximately 11 years ago and have yet to get their US citizenship for two reasons (that I'm aware of):

1. It's a very expensive process.
2. It's a very time-consuming process.  If you try to save money by doing most of the paperwork yourself, it'll take you even longer.

In a way, this makes me feel almost a little guilty that Joshua got his citizenship so effortlessly (for him) when others have to struggle so much to become a legitimate citizen of the USA.  Especially when there are so many people the enter our country and reside here illegally.

All that aside, it's nice to know that immigration has done their part and our son is a citizen of the same country as us...

What's Eating You?

So after all the drama about loosing the poop sample, then collecting another one, and then insisting that they give us a receipt for poop....it turns out that Joshua still has his parasite.  So I suppose on the persistence was worth it.  THAT means that we have to start on the "other" medicine.  The first medicine they gave him for the parasite wasn't that offensive, generally wasn't a problem.  We've been informed that this option has a higher chance of success but is a bit more difficult to take.  We'll see.  In the meantime, Joshua has a small colony of anaerobic flagellated protozoans living in his small intestines (here's a pic, not of his intestines but a stock photo of these things, duh).

So maybe this explains why he's so picky about eating even though he always wants to eat.  No wait, I think that's just because he's a 2 year-old.  Well maybe it explains why he's irritable and goes from happy to screaming his lungs out in a matter of seconds.  Not wait, I think that's just because he's 2.  Well maybe it explains why he's clingy and whiny and wants his mom all the time.  Nope, 2.

So I'm left kinda wondering which is harder to deal with: a colony of life-sucking organisms that reside inside your intestines, or a 2 year-old.

Happy New Year!

In case you didn't know, tomorrow is the Chinese New Year.  It's the year of the snake, year 4710 for China (depending on who you ask).  We celebrated by attending the New Year Festival at the Chinese Community Center here in Houston.  We even saw our Chinese tutor and our "classmates" there.

Not sure why, but I was a little surprised by how many non-Chinese activities and performances there were.  There was even a Mariachi band.  Matter of fact the Mariachi band even played and sang a few Chinese songs - who would've thunk it.?

We also met up with a lady I work with who is Chinese.  (She's the same person that set us up with a day of free guided tours in Beijing.)  She showed us around a bit and took us to lunch for some more-authentic-than-usual chinese food.  It was very nice to get to know her better and see some of her world a little.

The kids got too tired and got a little ridiculous but overall it was a good day.

Update on A Few Things

Just to update you on a few things...

Shriners
Last week we had an appointment at Shriners Hospital with one of the orthopedic Dr's regarding Joshua's circle-hand (that's what Lora calls his "other" hand.  The Dr. explained that Joshua's hand was absolutely normal down to the point where it just stopped developing.  Meaning, his arm, elbow, shoulder, etc... was all perfectly normal.  She also said that a prosthetic hand was going to be just a waste of time.  Pretty much all kids with a hand like Joshua refuse to use a prosthetic because it has no sensation, is clunky to them, and in the end doesn't offer any more dexterity than their stump does.  He'll learn to use his circle hand to do anything and everything.

So all that was a relief although it was what we were expecting to hear.  I was kinda exhausted after we met the Dr.  As my dad would say, she was wound tighter than an 8-day clock.  She spoke so very fast and I don't think she stopped to take a breath the whole time.

Neurologist
Today, Heather took Joshua to see a neurologists.  His initial brain scan results indicated the possibility of something amiss.  We had several people look at it before we finalized our plans to adopt him, nobody really knew what it was but we prayed about it and decided we wanted him regardless of what might actually be going on in his head.  When we arrived in China we found out that they had re-done the CT scan of his head and whatever it was they saw before wasn't there anymore.  We carried his CR scan film half-way around the world and today we finally got someone to look at it.

All is normal...

Receipt for Poop?
We were asked to collect another set of stool samples for Joshua to ensure the parasite has been taken care of.  Heather did that and had her parents drop it off at the lab.  The lab said they didn't have orders for the samples so Heather called the Dr., they faxed the orders over and we presumed everything was alright.  The lab called the Dr. and said they got the orders but didn't have the stool sample (the lady at the lab remembered receiving the sample from Heather's parents but didn't know what happened to it).  Our Dr. informed us that we needed to turn the sample in and Heather explained to her that her parents already turned it in.  The Dr. then asked Heather if the lab gave her a receipt for the stool sample.  A receipt for poop, do they do that..????

Flash forward.  We got another kit to collect the samples, Heather collected them, and turned in the sample to the lab today.  She asked the lady for a receipt for the poop and the lady said it wasn't necessary.  Long-story short, Heather refused to leave without a receipt for the poop, and she got it...

Chinese Lessons
We had two sessions with out Chinese tutor.  To my surprise we've been able to put together basic sentences and I now know alot of words and simple phrases that I can use with the kids around the house.  So far, I don't think Chinese is nearly as hard to learn as people make it seem.  We still have a long way to go though...