James and his Dad came to visit.

Great visit.  Whirlwind.  I can not fathom how Eric got the housework all done with two little kids underfoot.  House looks way better than usual.  Lili and Eric picked them up.  We had dinner and visited until bed.  This morning after breakfast the girls showed them around their school.  They are shocked at how big our house is and even more shocked at how small their school is.  They said that the number of kids would be just one grade in a Chinese school.  Jia went to school.  Luk and I picked up groceries for lunch, picked up Jia and came home to cook while Eric, big girls and guests went to look at first nations places and totem poles.  They brought a picture of a totem pole to show us what they wanted to see.  ;)  We smiled and said no problem...we have lots here.  We all had lunch and then they were off.  Eric and the big girls are taking them to see Chinatown,  the Empress, bus station,  Parliament, James Bay and mile zero before leaving them at their hotel.  James starts school on Friday and his Dad goes back to China on Sunday.

What an amazing connection.  Major experience for all of us.  So many different views.  Cultures soooo different. 

They report that Luk speaks lots of Mandarin.  Two and three word sentences.  He speaks considerably more English already.  Luk was wanting to cuddle with James Dad. 

I had thought that perhaps the student exchange was something that happened at the International School but James said no that 2012 was the only year and we were his only exchange opportunity.  He has a friend from his school in Victoria (visiting him tonight) and another friend in Toronto.  His home stay is with a single lady.  He reports the house is nice enough but very small. 

His dad manages a four star hotel in Beijing.  He's offered a reduced rate for us.  I think Fei and I will take him up on that for a couple nights before our camp.  Also occurred to me that I have Mr. Yangs cell number.  We will be able to arrange a day trip with him.  He's worked with us on the last three adoptions.  The plan is falling together easily. 

Heritage camp in Beijing.

Big news...Fei has decided she wants to do a heritage camp.  We got our application all filled out and in the mail today!  We're pretty excited.

At the same time we've been gearing up for Beijing Heritage Camp 2014 we've heard from James, the boy from the student exchange on Lili's 2012 camp.  He called today to let us know he is coming with his Dad to visit tomorrow!  Pretty exciting.  Exactly why these exchanges are so important and special. 

We're busy trying to get the house ready ;)  I've been attempting to rest and we spent the weekend doing CNY events.  We're a little behind on housework.  It's 10 and Eric is in the kitchen trying to put together a crock pot stew.  Not sure yet which ferry we're picking them up from. Explaining how to get here was interesting. 

Yesterday we painted horses for CNY.  Well,  the girls did.  I made a plate with Luk's hand print on it.  Then dinner out and a play here.  Today we went to a CNY show at the music conservatory in Victoria.  The show was great.  Lions were the best ;)  We thought Luk might be scared but he loved them.  We were in the front row, so close that the fur on the mouth of one of the Lions ran across my face.  I turned to Jia and told her the lion bite me.  Wish we'd captured the look on her face.  Then dinner out with friends.   Great weekend.  Glad we had some great down time with friends all the while celebrating the great benign news!

Benign

Benign!!  Is there a more beautiful word?!

Just got a call.  Benign fibroid something something polyp.  Not commonly found where it was.  Some odd cells found so it was sent to a second lab in Victoria for a double check.  Hence the delay.  Nothing to worry about.

What a relief. 

Off to celebrate!  Oh happy, happy day.

Jumping Jimminies

Luk's first visit to the indoor playground.  He loved it.  A lot. 

He did great scooting around on the plasma cars.  Good to know because we still have Lili and Fei's old ones around here somewhere.  Jia climbed and went on the slides while he rode his car.  He did some great rolling around in the padded baby section too.

Happy Birthday Isabel!

Isabel is four!  She has no clue but we're spoiling her today anyways :)

Eric and the girls are walking her today while Luk naps.  It's nice blue sky, just hoping now that it warms up.

This afternoon we're meeting friends to paint ceramic horses.   The beginning of our Chinese New Year celebrations. 

Can't think of a title for today.

Talk of vaginas and labias ahead for anyone who needs to skip this.

I went to the Dr. this afternoon to have my wound looked at and to get the pathology report.     The report wasn't in yet.  She will call when it is.  Could be up to three weeks and we're only on day 10.  Hopefully no news is good news.

In the meantime while we wait...

The news today was that the wound looks like it's healing.  One of the stitches was tearing the flesh so she was able to pull that one out today.  Hurt like crazy and was also a huge relief.  Then she told me there was some gaping on the wound.  Frankly, not a word one would want used to describe parts of their vagina ;) Then the huge shocker,  she told me she didn't think I'd need a cosmetic revision.  Holey Cow.  Not in a zillion years would I ever contemplate going through the last 10 days all over again for cosmetic purposes!  Tell me ladies, is this something any of you would ever contemplate?! 

It has been truly surprising how many of my friends and family didn't know where or what a labia was.  Some were also surprised that I would share where the tumor was.  It's not like I was thrilled myself with where it was.  Also, I don't see the down side of keeping my support system informed.  Otherwise, how will ya'll know when to support us? 

Other questions have been more about the actual tumor.  First, it wasn't a growth on the labia, it was really more like the labia itself was thickened or swollen.  Not hard, not discolored, not sore.  Not at all what I/we would have labeled a lump or tumor.  So, in order to remove it, the labia was cut off on one side.  It feels weird.  Very weird.  The pain has been wicked bad.  I'm pretty thankful that the pain is down to a dull roar now.

I will post when there is more news.

I figured we'd be celebrating or commiserating tonight.  Instead it's just life as usual.

Luk's first visit to the Dr.

Luk finally got a medical number last week.  We waited 55 mins. today for our family doctor to tell us she will send in a referral for Luk to see a pediatrician.  And so it starts.  No poking and prodding today so he thought it was ok there.

Grade One Piano Tests

Phew.  It's over.  Hoping for test results next week.  They have no idea how they did.  I could hear them and it all sounded ok to me ;)  I wasn't allowed in and there certainly was no picture taking.

New jammies

Thanks Leslie.   Finally some jammies that fit and he loves them.  Having a hard time finding bottoms that will stay up. 

Luk continues to rock the walker.  He scoots so fast.  He has fallen a couple times.  He was mad, fussed a bit and went right back to using the walker.   He's quite fearless.  It's truly amazing to watch him run around the house.  Tonight when Eric yelled supper time, the girls got up and headed to the kitchen,  Luk bum scooted to the couch, pulled himself up,  furniture walked to his walker and raced into the kitchen.  Wild.  

I bought Jia a fish Webkinz for her birthday, Fei and I finally got her fish online today.  She is completely thrilled and has named her Candy.  Her room in Webkinz land is under water.  Too cute.

The big girls are doing their grade one piano test tomorrow morning.  They are both so nervous.  Looking forward to it being over.

I'm finding my stitches to be a huge inconvenience to say the least.  I tend to overdue it every day.  It's definitely better if I can stay still.

Eric finally got back to riding on Sunday.   He said it was foggy but I think he had a nice time anyways.

Walker

I ordered a toddler sized walker for Luk a couple weeks ago.  I just looked at the tracking site and it's on a truck from Nanaimo for delivery today!  I have the day off, girls have no school today and I am so super excited that today is walker day!!  It will be amazing for Luk to have such freedom.  Fingers crossed it works for him.  Pictures and updates later.  Can't wait.

Update - In the first moment he was simply delighted and grinning.  Then it was hard to move, rubber feet wouldn't slide and he couldn't figure out how to pick it up.  It weighs nothing. He was in tears and pushing it away.  I suggested furniture felt to help it slide, Eric put it on and he was good to go.  He was running within three minutes!  Not kidding.  He is extremely proud and is zooming around going from person to person getting hugs.  Man we love this kid.  What a total joy he is.  I'm glad we were able to get him the walker and so pleased he likes it.  Wish I could figure out how to get video posted on this app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNVNVE8V-y4  figured it out.

James

I keep forgetting to mention that we've heard from our friend James in Beijing.  He was the student that we did the heritage camp exchange with.  We spent a wonderful day with his family and learned to make dumplings.  So...James and his Dad were delighted with everything we told them about Canada and although he had dreams of attending college in the USA, he changed his mind after meeting us and decided to go to Highschool in Canada.  He will be here Jan. 23 and will be here for four years!  He'll be as close as Coquitlam.  His Dad is paying.  I wish we'd known he was coming, would have been fabulous to have him stay with us.  At least we'll get to visit.

link to the blog post http://ershelnel.blogspot.ca/2012/07/james.html

New Year Miracle

The littles are thinking they like each other!  There has been giggles, hugs and Luk has even tried some kissing.  Total baby sweetness.  Love it.

Resting

OK,  procedure/surgery done.  Home resting.  It was thankfully quick.  I'm shocked at how badly it hurts right now.  Dr. said it would hurt for two weeks.  Yikes.  A bit scared about that.

Luk is napping, Jia is being considerate and careful with
Mommy, big girls are doing homework and chores.  I'm watching daytime TV.   Did ya'll know that the young and restless is still on?!

Nicole sent some flowers.  Thank you Nicole.   They look very festive with the CNY decorations that Jia and I put up yesterday.

Adding a photo of Luk modeling a funky hat.  He loved the pony tail.  Also a picture of the cousins at Ty's 16th bday celebration. 

Links

Links to the travel posts for anyone just looking for that here.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/shelnel/   the old website, with travel/gotcha posts for Lili and Fei.  Sadly not that many photos posted, wasn't digital then and the website was no where near as easy as a blog.  Dec. 8/02 for Lili's gotcha, Aug. 15/2004 for Fei's.

http://ershelnel.blogspot.ca/2010/10/leaving-today.html  Oct. 10/10 for Jia's gotcha.

http://ershelnel.blogspot.ca/2013/11/itinerary.html  Nov. 17/13 for Luk's gotcha.

Jake

Jia got a Jake set for her b-day.  Luk is enjoying it.  He came to me to show me his head band and told me it was 'very cool'.  New words every day.  Today's other new word was 'hug'.  Love him so much.

New Years Continued.

Tried posting pics first, now blogger app won't let me add words.  Glitchy.

New years was fun.  Same crew, same party, food was great, we had some laughs.  Best part of the night was watching Dagen dance.  Man does he have the moves and the energy!

We enjoyed our wee holiday at home.  Lots of cuddles and movies.  Great cacooning for Luk.  Almost everyone in our life has learned how to enjoy our new kids without touching them.  Luk is still learning what a family is.  Still figuring out that it's us from now on.  No staff changes in his future.  We do all of his care, friends just play with him.  We're not super concerned about people close to us spending time with him but we do shy away from allowing aquaitences from being touchy or familiar with him. 

I sent Jia out the other day to paint with hot water on the frozen glass railings.  Water just ran down.  Doesn't she look super thrilled ;)

I bought a second wii system the other day for $40.  I bought it so we could watch Netflix on the upstairs TV.   The kids have been all over it.  Apparently we desperately needed a second wii.  Who knew?  Not getting to watch much Netflix.

Closing off with news that I'm having a procedure on Monday.  I have a tumor on my labia minora.   I'm not thrilled about my day surgery but pleased at how fast I got in to take care of this.  No clue what recovery will be like.  I'll be awake so I'm freaked out about that too.  Penny assures me the wound will heal nicely in that area.  No clue how long we have to wait for results either. Send prayers this is scary stuff.  Keeping it real. 

New Years