Okie Ramblins

We Got Our LOA Today!!!

2011-04-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Angie got a call first thing this morning from our adoption agency representative who informed us that our Letter of Acceptance had been received. In fact, with an LID of March 14th and a date on the LOA of April 15th (32 days total), the agency said this was the shortest amount of time for any of their families.

Once Angie got off work she drove to Tulsa to pick up the actual LOA, went over our I-800 (Immigration) forms with our agency representative, drove back to Owasso for me to sign several documents, then went to UPS to have it overnighted to USCIS. Our I-800 approval should come back in 2-3 weeks.

In a nutshell, the LID to LOA wait was the biggest variable in determining when we would likely travel, as they had been taking as little as 5 weeks and as long as 10-12 weeks to process. Now, with our LOA in hand, it is looking more and more likely that we will be traveling in July barring any unforeseen setback.

We Are Now LID!

2011-03-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

We found out on Friday (March 18th) that we had our Log-in Date (LID) and that it was the prior Monday (March 14th). Our dossier had been sent to China on Thursday, February 24th, and was received in China on Monday, February 28th. So, exactly two weeks from arrival of our dossier in China to LID, and 4 days for that information to make its way from China to us.

Now we wait for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China. As of a few months ago, it was taking ~6 weeks or so from LID to LOA, but we’ve heard a few rumors that this part of the process has been going considerably quicker for some folks lately. That would be a very welcome surprise. As it stands right now, though, I’m sticking with the timeframe posted in my last blog entry, which puts our travel in the late-July to early-August neighborhood.

We watched The Amazing Race last night since it was taking place in and around Kunming, China. Since this is where Mackenzie currently resides, we were anxious to watch the show to look for some sites we had already gotten familiar with by other families. Sure enough, the show had the contestants spending time at the Stone Forest, one of the sites we want to visit while we’re in Kunming. In addition, the episode ended in a place in the city called Green Lake, an urban lake/park with lots of restaurants, entertainment areas, walking trails, gardens, etc. This happens to be the park directly across the street from the hotel we are asking to stay at (Grand Park Hotel – Kunming), as the hotel has come highly recommended from other adoptive families due to its location and amenities.

Not much new on the home front other than ongoing home renovations and a nearly complete reshuffling of how we store things…..not nearly enough storage capacity in this circa ~1970 house, especially with another child entering the picture, so I’m having to be creative with additional garage storage.

A Long Overdue Post

2011-02-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

A new blog post is long overdue! Suffice it to say that I have been extremely busy working three different jobs, 7 days a week. It actually works out quite well, but leaves me little time (or energy) for keeping this site updated. Nevertheless, I will attempt to make up for that with this post.

The biggest news, of course, is that we have accepted the referral of a beautiful little girl from the Waiting Child list. Her name is Du Hongmei (Mackenzie Grace Hongmei Hamel) and she is from the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province, located in Southwestern China. We received three initial pictures of her, then 2 additional pictures followed soon thereafter at our request. She has been living with a foster family since July 2010, and is a perfect match for us in so many ways. We are beyond thrilled to be adding her to our family, and eagerly await the time when we can finally travel to bring her home, most likely late July or early August.

At the time of my last blog post on October 10th, we were still putting our dossier together, completing the Home Study, and awaiting our immigration appointment. Since October, all of those steps have been completed. Our fingerprint appointment with USCIS was on January 10th, we received our I-797 (Pre-Approval) from USCIS on February 14th, and our dossier was completed and sent to China on February 24th. The day the dossier is sent out is referred to as DTC (Dossier to China) day. Here are the remaining timeline steps and guesstimated timeframes from each preceding step:

DTC: February 24
LID (Log in Date): 2 weeks (~March 10)
LOA (Letter of Acceptance: 6 weeks (~April 21)
I-800 (USCIS Approval: 3 weeks (~May 12)
Article 5 Letter: 2-4 weeks (~June 9)
TA (Travel Approval): 3 weeks (~ June 30)
CA (Consulate Appointment: 2 weeks (~July 14)
Depart: 3 weeks (~August 4)

It looks like we will probably travel alone rather than with other families. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, we have much more say in which hotels we stay in, what activities we do, where we eat, and what timetable we are on day-to-day while in-country. While in China we will be in 3 cities: Beijing (2-3 days), Kunming (5-6 days), and Guangzhou (6-7 days). We will arrive in Beijing first and will not yet have Du Hongmei, so we have already requested to go to Cameron’s orphanage as well as visit a hutong. It is highly unlikely that we will be allowed in the orphanage, but we want Cameron to show us those places he visited or spent time in outside the orphanage (his school, local shops, etc.). In Kunming, we definitely want to go to the Stone Forest, even though it is a 2.5 hour drive away. However, from Kunming through the rest of the trip we will have Mackenzie with us, so that is where our focus will be with our daily planning and, as you can imagine when uprooting a young child from the only life he/she has ever known, it can be quite difficult.

Now to get caught up on other things……a week ago we completed Cameron’s readoption here in the States. This will allow him to get an American birth certificate and passport, both of which he will need in the near future. He continues to do quite well in school, although he likes studying about as much as I like the Georgia Bulldogs (NOT!)! Good thing he’s a quick learner. He continues to like all things football, and the Oklahoma State Cowboys are his favorite team. He even wants to paint his room orange for his birthday! He achieved his first Hapkido (martial arts) belt a couple months ago and will be going for his next one in May. He will be celebrating his 12th birthday in early April and his top gift request is…….a power drill! What 11 year old kid wants a power drill for his 12th birthday????? I might have to install an electric fence around the house to keep it safe from Cameron’s experimentation!

We are in the midst of many house changes as we get ready for Mackenzie’s arrival. We are transitioning from 2 bedrooms and a man cave, to 3 bedrooms. I am less than thrilled at my loss of personal space, but Mackenzie is well worth the sacrifice. We are completely remodeling one bathroom and partially remodeling another. Add to that all the handyman projects of multiple ceiling fans being installed, additional storage going up in the garage, etc., and the house is going to look quite different when all is said and done.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention or include a picture or two of the epic winter weather we experienced earlier this month. Claremore, Oklahoma averages about 7 inches of snow a year. The previous high for a day was 12 inches and for a season was 22 inches. Within a span of just over a week we got three snowfalls: 20 inches, 4 inches, and 10 inches. For the first time in its existence, the Tulsa World did not have home delivery, and didn’t have it for 4 days. The physical therapy clinic where I work was closed for four days…..it took them that long to finally clear the parking lot. The snow was so high that most vehicles, including many 4-wheel drive vehicles, were too low to the ground, and thus acted like snowplows regardless of their traction. On top of that, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Oklahoma was achieved in a town a mere 20 or so miles from our house as the crow flies……31 degrees below zero in Nowata, so I’m sure we were within a few degrees of that at our house. Our cove was frozen solid and, one morning, there were a couple coyotes wandering around the middle of it!

That’s it for now! I’ll try to post more regular updates, especially when each of our remaining timeline milestones get met.

Another Step Completed, One to Go!

2010-10-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

It’s been a rather eventful week. Suffice it to say that things are moving along much quicker on our second adoption as compared to our first. On Wednesday I got an email from a Dillon representative informing us that we could go ahead and begin gathering our final Dossier documents. This is a huge step, as this and the I-800A Pre-approval are the final elements which need to be accomplished to allow Dillon to begin looking for a potential match for us on the Waiting Child list.

What are the documents that go in our Dossier? A Letter of Application to the People’s Republic of China. A copy of our Home Study. A Copy of the Birth Certificate for both parents. A copy of our Marriage License. A Certificate of General Physical Examination for both parents. A Letter of Employment for both parents. A Certificate of Financial Status form. A Police or Sheriff Letter for both parents. A Certification form with a copy of the original USCIS approval (pre-approval) notice attached. Copies of the Photo/Signature Page of the Passport for both parents. Each of these documents must be Certified and/or Notarized, and are time-sensitive (must be dated within the last 4 months or so). Since we had already been working on some of these items, we had virtually everything done by Friday with the exception of my Letter of Employment which, for some unknown reason, takes 3+ days to travel from Tulsa to Owasso via interoffice mail (Argh!). Nevertheless, one way or the other we will have this Letter of Employment by Monday (tomorrow) and Angie will be turning it in to Dillon International tomorrow. Once Dillon receives these documents, they then process them to get translated copies made as well as getting them Certified by the Secretary of State of Oklahoma. At any rate, as of tomorrow, this big step of submitting our final Dossier documents will be completed.

We are hoping that our final Home Study document is completed this week. If so, we will then send it in with our I-800A (Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country) application. Once that goes in the mail, we wait a week or two to get a response from CIS (Immigration) informing us of our fingerprint date and time in Oklahoma City, usually a month or so in the future. A week or two after that we will officially receive our Pre-approval to adopt a child. In a nutshell, as of tomorrow when we turn in our dossier documents, the CIS step just outlined is the final piece of the puzzle…..at least until accepting the referral of a child. Once that happens, the paperwork chase begins anew!

On a lighter note…..as you can see below, Cameron played paintball for the first time yesterday and had a blast. The family of a boy in Cammo’s class owns a large paintball facility in Collinsville, OK, and celebrated their son’s birthday there. A good time was had by all.

Cameron is really starting to ask a lot of questions about the second adoption and seems much more accepting and, dare I say, excited about it now. It has taken a lot of reassurance on our part to convince him that he neither needs to feel threatened about his place in the family, nor will he be expected to assume responsibilities toward his sibling that are more appropriately shouldered by the parents. It has taken quite a while to get to this point, but he’s been a trooper about talking and working through his feelings related to this second adoption.

A New Day Dawns

2010-10-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

It was little more than a year ago that we returned home from Beijing after completing our adoption of a wonderful little guy named Dang Niu, whose adopted name became Cameron Niu Hamel. The last year has been extremely challenging, yet intensely rewarding, and we have truly been blessed beyond our expectations. Those of you have adopted internationally will know just how loaded, yet accurate that last sentence is.

Ever since Angie and I first discussed the possibility of adopting, we always envisioned two children. After hitting the one year mark following Cameron’s adoption, we had a chance to reflect a bit and decided the time was right to begin the process anew. We emailed a group of 50 or so individuals (family and friends) in mid-August informing them of our plans and, since that time, I have intended to both update the blog and begin posting regularly once again.

Here’s where things stand as of October 3rd……. Since we transferred our original dossier to another agency to complete Cammo’s adoption, we have had a file with Dillon International that we had two years to reactivate, thus saving both time and money with the process. Once we reactivated his file in early August we had to update all of our information (still a rather lengthy process). We completed that about a month ago. Then, we had a series of 4 Home Study sessions to complete spread over a month or so, whereby we met with our Social Worker (Rebecca) both individually and together to go over everything imaginable. Our last Home Study meeting was yesterday. Now it will take Rebecca a couple weeks to write up our Home Study, at which time we will send in a copy along with our I-800 Preapproval application to USCIS (Immigration). Then we will get a letter back from CIS informing us of when our appointment is in Oklahoma City to get fingerprinted. Following that appointment and a week or two wait, we will receive a notice that CIS has preapproved us to adopt a child. We anticipate all of this will be completed sometime around the end of 2010. Until that time, we are just completing paperwork and waiting, but that all changes once we get our Preapproval.

For our second adoption we are on the Special Needs track. This means that we have completed a detailed medical form and spoken at length to our Social Worker about what types of Special Need we are comfortable with in any child we might adopt. China has what is called a Waiting Child List that is updated online about once a month. Dillon representatives will go through this list and, combined with our detailed medical form, information from the Home Study, what they know about us, and much prayer, they will look for a good match. Once they think they may have found a match they will call us with some basic information about the child. If we are still interested, a more complete medical file, photographs and other information is made available to us for several days and, during that time, we can review the file ourselves and/or with medical professionals. If we are still interested, we can accept the child, at which point we begin the arduous process of completing the months-long paperwork process before traveling to bring our new child home. We hope to travel back to China for this second adoption sometime next summer, but this is merely a ballpark timeframe at this point. For now, we wait!

A quick update on the family…….Cammo is now 6 weeks into his first year of school in America. Hard to believe he knew virtually no English a mere 14 months ago, yet is now making all A’s and B’s, including high A’s in both Science and Math, in the third grade at a very rigorous private school. What’s more amazing is that he has aced his first 6 Spelling tests and is one of the top three kids in his class with his AR (advanced reading) status. He still struggles with some specific areas, but is well on his way to adjusting to his new academic environment. He hates homework, but what kid doesn’t??? He continues to take weekly Karate lessons and is still enamored with all things football.

Angie and I are pretty much occupied with our jobs, helping Cammo with schoolwork, and working toward this second adoption. There is very little time for much else!

I will plan to post updates to this blog every week or two now!

Return of the Pelicans

2009-09-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

What a title for a blog entry. What does it mean? Well, every spring and fall brings a large migration of pelicans through Oklahoma which is a great indicator that the season is about to change. Last weekend we saw the first of the fall pelicans from our deck, and there are even more in our cove this weekend. Looks like fall is upon us.

It has been an eventful week for Cameron. While visiting his cousins on Thursday (while Dad was watching his beloved Yellow Jackets get trounced by Miami) he decided on his own that he was ready to ride a bike without training wheels. He promptly got on his cousins old bike which is very small and proceeded to just take off on it. Since it is so low to the ground, he can easily bail out when he’s about to crash. So…..we have now raised the seat a bit and he’s riding it all over the place. As you can see from the picture, it is clearly a girls bike, but he couldn’t care less. He has loaded the basket on the front with a newspaper, mail and his football. He likes to ride by the mailboxes out front and pause briefly to deliver the mail. Very cute! Soon he will be riding his own bike.

His swim lessons continue to go well. He is really enjoying them and is beginning to put the pieces together. It will still be a while before he is actually swimming, but his progress is noteworthy. He ought to be swimming like a dolphin by next summer!

This week he had another dental appointment. At this appointment they fixed his front tooth that was partially decayed. This was obvious to see every time he smiled, so now he has a wonderful smile with no blemishes.

This week he went to his first Pep Rally at his cousins’ school and evidently had a great time. Afterwards, he and Angie went shopping at a local consignment store and came away with a great deal on a Halloween costume for him…..Spiderman! He has really enjoyed donning this for everyone to see, and is so proud of it that he has it hanging on the wall in his bedroom. He loves putting it on and then acting like a fierce fighter, mostly with martial arts type noises and moves (he has yet to learn of Spidie’s actual superhero powers, although I doubt it will make a difference.......he'll be inclined to stick with his Chinese version of Spiderman!).

Tuesday was a very busy day. We had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor concerning his feet. We got some good baseline weightbearing radiographs, and are in the process of setting up an appointment with a doctor who specializes in the care of club feet. We are doubtful anything will need to be done right now, as his feet cause him no discomfort or limitation, but want these contacts in place should anything need to be addressed down the road. Following his swim lesson Tuesday evening we finally stopped by Wally World and got him a new MP3. It is at least comparable to his old one in features, but the data we lost on his old one is irreplaceable and priceless. Nevertheless, he seems to like the new one just fine. This one also has an FM radio built in, so that’s something he enjoys. The language can be changed on the MP3, so he has it switched to Chinese. We really like this, as it helps us in encouraging him to retain his mother tongue in reading, writing and speaking. As if Tuesday wasn’t busy enough, we also stopped by the local library and got him his first library card and books to read. Part of his daily schooling now includes reading, although these are the most simple of books…..it’s a good starting point. He especially likes Dr. Seuss!

We are currently following the blogs of two families we have come to know who are currently in China completing the adoptions of their Hope Project children. Our experiences while in China adopting an older child seem to mirror theirs quite closely, both the joys and struggles. Cameron currently talks with 2 of the other Hope Project children who have returned to America, while we are planning to call the third for the first time tonight. Cameron looks forward to calling the 2 children in China upon their return to the States in a couple weeks, which will make 6 children in all that have returned so far. Additionally, there are a few more families traveling next month, including one family who lives about an hour away who will be returning with 2 Hope Project children. It is heartwarming to see and listen to these children talk to each other and compare experiences and situations now that they are with their new families.

All is continuing to go quite well with Cameron’s homeschooling. His math has gotten much better, and he now breezes through the flash cards quite quickly. The alphabet and Pledge of Allegiance are now memorized. He is reading simple sentences, although comprehension is still fairly low. His vocabulary is steadily increasing, as is his written ability.

A Few Videos

2009-09-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

A Long Overdue Update

2009-09-07T09:12:00.001-07:00

It has taken me way too long to get this blog post out, but with all the additional demands on my time, it is difficult to find the time to sit down and write uninterrupted, especially with my tendency to write lengthy posts. If you are only interested in viewing updated pictures, please scroll down to the bottom of this post, as I have uploaded a couple dozen.

We have now been home for about 5 weeks, and all continues to go remarkably well. That is not to say that we have not had any challenges to face, but rather that things are following a “best-case” scenario. Cameron is a remarkable little boy, with loads of personality and charm.

Cameron is adjusting to his new home and family life fairly well. He continues to be very affectionate, always ready to jump on your lap to see what you are doing or to just snuggle. He is also very helpful; if he sees you doing some menial task, he jumps right in to help without being asked. He does best with a fairly busy schedule; if there is too much dead time he gets bored quickly. There are not too many toys he likes playing with. He prefers either video games or anything mechanical. A week or so ago he bought a little remote controlled helicopter with his own money and he has enjoyed playing with it outside. He does not care for any organized sports at this point. While initially quite afraid of water, he loves to play at almost any pool now, and is set to begin swimming lessons at the YMCA this week. We have even taken him out on our Sea Doo a couple times and he really enjoys it.

The initial barrage of medical and dental testing is nearly done. So far he has had 4 teeth pulled and is set to have two more capped or filled at his next appointment. The dentist says this should set him up nicely for when his adult teeth come in. His dental hygiene is getting much better, and he now brushes twice a day, uses mouthwash, and is even flossing a little. I’m sure this is quite a change from his hygiene in China. He still doesn’t know what to think of the Tooth Fairy, and he had to write her a note to make sure she didn’t take his teeth when she visited. For some reason, he also seems to think that Mother has something to do with the Tooth Fairy. Hmmmmm……Christmas and Santa Claus may get interesting this year!

Medically, he has had his initial checkup and it only required him to get one immunization shot. We have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor next week to take a look at his feet, mainly just to get a good baseline at age 10 in case he develops any feet-related problems down the road. He is quite healthy and has not had a single incidence of sickness in the 7+ weeks he has been in our family. A couple weeks ago he was able to “tell” us through the translator and gestures that he was 5 years old when he had his feet operated on. For those who are unaware, Cameron was born with bilateral club feet but, following surgery, has no limitations (running, jumping, etc.). He proceeded to walk around the living room a few times to show us how he walked up until his surgery. With his feet drawn in he was walking on the outside edges of his feet (similar to a position one gets in with an inversion ankle sprain). Up until that time, we were unaware of how old he had been when his surgery occurred, as it was not included in any of his medical file documents. He also has another scar on the outside aspect of one thigh. He related to us that this scar was caused by a burn when he came in contact with some sort of heater or radiator, also at about 5 years of age.

Angie began homeschooling Cameron several weeks ago and, after some initial difficulties, he seems to be settling in with the concept just fine. He knows his ABC’s and has begun “reading” simple words and phrases with some assistance. His vocabulary continues to grow by the day, and communication is not too difficult anymore, with the exception of anything requiring more detailed explaining or more conceptual thinking. We seldom use the handheld electronic translator anymore. He is currently counting to upwards of forty, and we are working on simple addition and subtraction with him right now. He has really improved on this in just the two weeks or so that we have been working on it. Angie has also been working with him on more everyday needs with communication such as time (he only knew digital time), money, directions, body parts, and household objects. We have also joined a local Homeschooling Cooperative in Owasso which is a valuable resource to use and provides many opportunities for extracurricular events, social gatherings, etc. It remains our intention to homeschool Cameron this year and then enroll him in private school (hopefully at Lincoln C.S.) next year.

Cameron has experienced a number of firsts since moving to the States. A couple weeks ago I took him to the Will Rogers Fly-in, and he enjoyed a morning of watching airplanes taking off and landing up close, climbing in/over a fire truck and ambulance, and playing on a Jupiter Jump. He has also experienced his first ice cream truck (I would have loved to know what he was thinking when that happened!), and now it’s our summer Sunday evening ritual to await the sound of the approaching ice cream truck so that Cammo can choose his treat for the week. One funny first that happened about a week after our return was when (unbeknownst to us until it happened) he encountered his first water fountain at the YMCA. He looked up at me like the water fountain was the strangest thing around, and we were crazy for slurping water from it. Upon reflection, though, it became apparent to us that due to a lack of drinkability of tap water in Beijing, he had probably never encountered a water fountain before. Now we point them out to him all the time, but he still won’t drink from them yet.

Cammo seems to think he’s some sort of fashion guru. He is adamant about selecting his own clothes, although his matching abilities could use some practice, and he can primp with the best of them. He takes great pride in his ability to apply gel to his hair and get it looking just right, especially with a swirl in the front. He will then put on his sunglasses and flash a peace sign to Angie and I like he is quite cool and proud of himself. He’s going to be a handful when he’s old enough to date! And when he starts belting out music and begins furiously playing an air guitar, it’s a sight to behold! I’ll have to catch that on video for posterity.

Cameron keeps his room impeccably clean and neat. He even dusts off all the surfaces! I’m not sure I’ve ever known a 10 year old that kept their room so clean…..it’s the cleanest in the house. He is also tremendously helpful. If I’m out mowing the lawn, he wants to be out raking and edging without being told. If I’m below the bluff clearing and burning debris, he has to have his own little burn pile, bring me the tools I need and bring water periodically to keep me from getting too hot. If Angie starts to clean the house for guests, he jumps right in and starts washing windows, vacuuming floors or putting things away. Once again, all without being told. Friday evening he decided on his own that he was going to clear the grass from all the cracks in our driveway. He worked on it for an hour or so, then said he’d finish the next day. Sure enough, the next morning, before he had even changed out of his pajamas and without the slightest reminder from either Angie or I, he went out and spent another hour pulling up the rest of the grass and then sweeping the whole driveway. Quite an amazing little guy. He kept telling us that the dogs needed a bath, so we had to bathe them outside this past Saturday. The dogs were rather indignant as you can see from the pictures, but Cammo had a blast!

A couple times over the last week or so he has become sullen for seemingly no reason. At first Angie and I thought he was upset at us but, come to find out he was thinking of his orphanage friends. He has had several good cries like this and Angie and I just hold him, cradle him, shed tears with him and provide whatever comfort we can while he grieves this loss. Sometimes at these times he will have us get the notebook he came home with which had entries from his classmates so that he can go through it with us. He points to his eyes, makes a hand gesture for crying, and points to specific pages to convey to us for who and why he is sad. It is truly heartbreaking. Nevertheless, as many more of his orphanage mates return to the States with their new families he will be able to keep in touch with them by phone as he has with a couple already. In fact, the families who are adopting this specific group of children are already making tentative plans for a reunion next summer.

Yesterday we had some friends over who have adopted two daughters from China. Cameron was so excited all day as he knows them well (we have already gotten together with them several times over the last few weeks). He played the perfect host…….cleaning the house, getting the sunroom and patio ready, helping with the grill and Tiki lamps, getting the silverware ready, arranging the music, and generally helping out any way he could. Needless to say, it was a wonderful afternoon and evening, and the full moon rising over the cove was a breathtaking end to a day spent with good friends.

I have included about 20 pictures below……..needless to say, lots to document in pictures over the last 5 weeks. Enjoy!

Life is good!

Blog Updating on China Trip

2009-08-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to confirm that I have added to the blog all the daily emails I sent out while on our adoption trip to China. I have not yet added all the pictures, as that will also take a bit of time, but will do so ASAP as time allows. Tomorrow is return to work day, so I'm getting ready to shake the rust off after 3+ weeks. Angie will begin acclimating Cammo to a home routine at the same time. I'll update the blog with a post later this week or next weekend.

China Update - The Return Home

2009-08-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hello from Claremore, Oklahoma! We have now been back for 4 full days and we are continuing to recover from our jetlag. It’s no fun to wake up at about 0100 or 0200 and to be unable to fall back asleep, knowing you will be utterly drained the next day as a result. Nevertheless, it is slowly starting to improve and by this weekend we ought to be back to normal, or nearly so. Cameron seems to be dealing with it better than us…..you wouldn’t know he has been on such a long journey just by watching him. All continues to go remarkably well on the homefront, as I will expand on in a moment.

Our return flights home went fairly well, although with lots of turbulence from Beijing to Chicago and Chicago to Tulsa. Our flight from Chicago to Tulsa ended up being delayed for about an hour due to weather surrounding Chicago. However, we didn’t really know it would be delayed…..until it was actually delayed. So…..we were nearly an hour late arriving to Tulsa but were unable to alert our well-wishers at that point. However, they were all troopers about it and still awaited our arrival…..a bigger contingent of family and friends than we were expecting. Many thanks to all who met us including 2 other adoptive families who we have befriended (Burnett’s and Peak’s), friends (Cohea clan, Delk’s) and family (Angie’s parents and sister/family). There was a nice welcome home sign and balloons. We greatly appreciated their warm welcome. Cammo was very shy upon our arrival (totally not like him, except when around unique people or situations) and I don’t think he said a thing between our arrival and when we left the parking lot. Angie, one of the two adoptive daughters of the Peak’s, walked up to Cammo and exclaimed, “I’m from China too!” Very cute. Cammo is great around other kids, both older and younger, so we look forward to spending time in the future with both of these wonderful families with whom we share the international adoption experience. You guys are awesome and we cherish all you have done for us.

Cammo is doing remarkably well so far. One of our big concerns was getting him acclimated (and vice versa) to our two German Shepherds. He was terrified of them at first, but by the end of the weekend was their best buddy. This took quite a bit of effort on our part…….they spent quite a bit of time in their outside kennel and behind closed doors in the house before he slowly began to warm to them. Now he enjoys giving them treats, taking them to potty and helping Angie groom them. We continue to supervise this closely, though, to ensure the safety of both Cammo and the dogs.

We are slowly working into normal family routines…..bathing and hygiene, meals, bedtime, etc. When we first met Cameron he was used to showering ~2x per week and was fairly resistant to any change to this. He now takes a shower every 1-2 days depending on our activities, and is agreeable to doing so without resistance. He continues to turn the shower on and off during the process……get wet, turn off shower and soap up, turn on shower and rinse, turn off shower and wash hair, etc. Once out of the shower, he makes sure to have us smell his hair to show us that he did a good job. He has also started using a kids mouthwash….saw dad using mouthwash so he had to try it, but didn’t care for the apparently strong “taste”. We got him some kids mouthwash and now he’s great about using it. However, the first time he tried it he ended up having an overflowing mouthful of bubbles that were going everywhere. After a few belly laughs at this sight he has since mastered the process. He has also gotten better about changing his underclothes…..very resistant at first (and we didn’t push the issue too much) but is now much better. He tends to wear mostly size 7 clothes, but some 8’s are okay.

We have kept his bedtime about what it seemed to be in Beijing, and he readily goes to bed without protest. We got a set of nightlights for him, but he prefers to have the bedside light on. We turn it off when he goes to sleep and, between the two nightlights in his room and one each in the hallway and bathroom, he has no problem waking up to this. The first night he was home he slept with us. The following night we gave him the option, and he chose to sleep alone in his bedroom. We told him it was fine if he awoke and wanted to come in with us, but he has done just fine on his own, and has not felt the need to do so, apparently. He readily sleeps throughout the night…..no waking that we are aware of. He does tend to grind his teeth a lot when sleeping, and is also prone to talk in his sleep a bit.

Cammo’s eating habits are evolving. He continues to prefer lots of fruit for breakfast, but has yet to develop an affinity for our yogurt (which tastes a good bit different than what we got in China). We initially kept to foods that we knew he liked in China but have begun to branch out. Believe it or not, he doesn’t really care for rice! He is beginning to like certain foods that, when he looked at them before trying them, he rejected. For example, we had some frozen seasoned fries that he said he did not want. However, after they were cooked, he tried one, liked it, and proceeded to have a small plateful. We also grilled some Italian sausages last night with sautéed onions and green peppers, and he had three of these in buns! Quite an appetite! He does not like mustard yet, though. We also keep a ready stock of Ramen noodles on hand, and we will put some shrimp or chicken chunks in with it to make more of a meal of it. Needless to say, I don’t think finding foods he likes will be a problem, although I’m sure we will have both hits and misses. We also have plenty of snacks for him available…..lots of fruit, trail mix, hard-boiled eggs, etc. He has quite an affinity for ice, now, and is mesmerized by the icemaker built into our refrigerator. Of course, he also likes to get small pieces of ice to give to the dogs, which has made him a big hit with them!

He has been spending some time playing with his cousins, and we also went to a family friend’s birthday party on Sunday and he had a great time playing with all the other kids, especially on the monkey bars. He is quite helpful with the other kids and there was no hitting, outbursts, etc. for the nearly 2 hours we were there. He is very enjoyable to be around. He is very happy most of the time, and on those rare occasions when something is bothering him (usually with something around the house or with us as he gets acclimated), he gets over it quickly and moves on…..no lingering resentment. Having said that, Angie and I have spent tons of time going back over all we learned through both Dillon International and Christian World Adoption, as well as through the Social Worker’s and support staff to make sure we are approaching each issue with sensitivity to his background and what will work best for both he and us. Needless to say, we “pick our battles” carefully, and Cammo has been awesome in adapting to his new environment (and us as well). Many thanks to those who have helped us prepare for this over the past 18 months…..Julie and Rebecca with Dillon, Mei and Jane with CWA, the Peaks and Burnetts, and the many books and courses we took…..we have needed all of it. Even as I write this, he is helping Angie with cleaning around the house…..vacuuming, dusting, etc. He loves to help out with things like this.

Communicating is still quite fragmented. We use the translator to communicate to him, but this is one-sided. Nevertheless, we have a system of gestures and words that allow for fairly effective, albeit crude, communication until he learns more language. Frustration on his part with this appears to be at a minimum.

We were able to call and get him his first dentist appointment for tomorrow morning. We also have his first doctor’s appointment for next Wednesday. We took him by the doctor’s office yesterday to get the paperwork we would need to fill out, but also to give him a chance to more gradually get comfortable with going to the doctor. This gradual acclimation is also how we’re approaching swimming…..he was quite scared of the water at first and would not go near a pool unless in the kiddie area (since he cannot swim yet, this is a good thing). I took him by where I work to show him the YMCA pool and youth area so he could visualize this. Then yesterday we took him to the Y’s splashpad and he had a great time. We stopped by the youth area in the indoor pool again, and he was much more agreeable to going in, and has even asked to go back. We think that after a couple sessions there he will be asking to take (or at least agreeable to) swim lessons.

As you can see, we could go on and on in this message about all that is going on in our family right now. Suffice it to say that Cammo is proving to be an even bigger blessing than we had ever envisioned, and we feel truly honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to be called his parents. We simply cannot imagine our lives without him now.

This will be the last post I will be sending out to this distribution list. As mentioned previously, we have created a blog which I will plan to update at least on a weekly basis, and anyone interested in following our ongoing journey can bookmark, subscribe to it, or otherwise check it on a regular basis. The address is okie-ramblins.blogspot.com Please note that it has not been updated in a couple months, but this will change over the next few days and weeks.

Over the next week or so I will attempt to go back over the emails I sent while in China and add them to the blog as well. We hope you all have enjoyed following our journey and, seeing as how a number of our followers are in the process of adopting themselves (most from the Hope Project), we look forward to following your own journeys. If we can help you in any way as you prepare for your trips, stay in China or whatever, do not hesitate to email me/us. May your lives be as blessed and enriched through this process as ours have been.

China Update - July 29 PM

2009-08-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Guangzhou! This time tomorrow we will be somewhere over northern China at about 35,000 feet, heading toward Siberia. It has been an awesome trip, but we are quite ready to return home. We are heading out to dinner shortly, so just a quick note to update you all before we eat and pack for departure.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Chen Family Temple. It was built in the 1890’s by three wealthy and influential members of the Chen family to honor their deceased relatives, as is customary in this culture if one achieves a measure of stature and/or fortune. It has also been made into a Chinese Folk Museum, so there were some interesting artifacts included. Following this, we traveled to the Pearl Market. It was an interesting place to visit, but seeing as how we were not in the market for any pearls, we merely people-watched and observed the surroundings.

Today was our big appointment at the U.S. Consulate. No pictures to show, as they did not allow any cameras to be taken into the building. The adoptive families as a group repeat and oath of truthfulness in the documents they have prepared. There were about 20 or 30 families competing their adoptions and taking the oath today. At the completion of the oath, we were given a sealed brown envelope that contains the documents that we have to present at U.S. Customs and Immigration upon arriving in Chicago and, upon perusing these documents and stamping their approval, Cammo will officially be a U.S. citizen.

As I write, Angie has taken Cammo downstairs to take some pictures of him on the well-known Red Couch, as well as some other pictures around the premises. He is wearing his new outfit, so these should be interesting and more traditional looking.

Tomorrow will be an extremely long day for us. We waken at 0500 Guangzhou time (1600 Tulsa time on Wednesday) to get ready for our first flight, an Air China flight at 1000 from Guangzhou to Beijing. We then have a 3 hour layover before taking a United Airlines flight at 1600 (0300 Tulsa time on Thursday) for the nearly 14 hour flight to Chicago. In Chicago we go through U.S. Customs and Immigration Service as part of a 4 hour layover before boarding a United Express flight to Tulsa which departs at 2000 and arrives in Tulsa at 2155. I will check my email first thing tomorrow morning and will also check it in Chicago on my cell phone. I will probably send a blurb out when we arrive in Chicago to confirm our departure to Tulsa is on time. We arrive a bit later in the evening, but would love to meet anyone who would like to venture to the airport at that time.

Once back home, I will probably continue to use this distribution list for a few days, then will convert back to blog’ing on our site for those interested in continuing to follow our journey. We look forward to introducing you all to our little man on our return! He is very excited about leaving, although I don’t think he’s looking forward to all the plane rides to get there.

China Update - July 28 PM

2009-08-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Guangzhou! Our day of departure draws near, and we are focused on completing the necessary steps to finalize the adoption. It has been a wonderful journey, but we are all (Cammo included) ready to continue our travels toward home.

Last night we went on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. The Pearl River is the third longest river in China after the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and is navigable from Guangzhou to the South China Sea. The city itself has a census population of 10 million, but some estimates place the actual population at over 15 million. Having driven around the city on various tours and adoption business over the last few days, we can confirm that this city goes on and on for miles. Guangzhou was formerly known as Canton and is renowned for its spicy Cantonese cuisine. The city also lies about 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong. The buildings along the river as well as the bridges are lit up at night and quite beautiful. The skyline goes on an on, and is also quite impressive at night. The food was satisfactory; however, the unsuspecting tourist needs to get used to how the Chinese often prepare various types of meat. Whereas we have sections with a complete bone (e.g., rib, chicken leg, etc.), they will often cut this all up into the dishes, so you really have to pick apart your food to get out the bones, tendons, etc. It takes a bit of getting used to.

Yesterday we took a stroll on the island and along the river and encountered a number of people seeming to take naps everywhere we looked – benches, against trees, in parks, etc. Also, a number of people were swimming in the river, some in the middle of the channel where large boats travel. They seem to do this in some cases for exercise and sometimes even for bathing. A few had handmade life preservers with them made of plastic soda bottles tied together and capped on top. Primitive, but effective. One thing you can’t miss when walking around on the island are the old banyan trees which are everywhere; quite majestic and beautiful.
Although there are buildings everywhere, with many appearing to be apartment-type buildings, Elvin told us that only the wealthiest people could afford them. The going rate for a 100 square meter (~330 square feet?) apartment costs about $2 million U.S. dollars. Most workers in the city either come in from the suburbs, rent a much cheaper apartment, or live in the much poorer areas. We drove through some of these areas on our way to the U.S. Consulate today, and it was quite eye-opening. Once again, we had to go through the local traffic. Words cannot describe what it’s like. The lane lines, I am convinced, are placed there largely for aesthetic effect, as nobody seems to use them very much, nor do they use blinkers much either. “Lane changing” has no rhyme or reason, but rather people just cut in front of each other within inches, and I am not exaggerating! And nobody ever gets upset! I have never once seen a finger or hand gesture, cursing, or anything. It seems to be the normal course of things here. Likewise, “lines” in general aren’t really adhered to much here. People cut in front of you or barge in like it’s nothing…..no acknowledgement or anything. In the States, we would find this incredibly rude and cause for a spoken word or confrontation. Not here. It seems to be the norm; a culturally accepted and expected practice. We continue to be amazed by it but, once you realize it’s nothing personal, you just go with the flow, so to speak.

I drove with Elvin and one other family representative to the U.S. Consulate this morning to complete the paperwork on Cammo’s passport. No problem. Now the only thing we have left is our Consulate appointment tomorrow afternoon for the swearing-in ceremony. We took a taxi back to the hotel from the Consulate. The fare for 3 passengers to go 17 miles, which took about 40 minutes, was 52 yuan altogether. That’s about $8! Try that in NYC!

This afternoon we are going to a local historical park (can’t remember the name), followed by a stop at the Pearl Market. It rained earlier today…..pretty much a daily occurrence here, so hopefully the weather will hold up this afternoon. Cammo continues to do remarkably well, and is anxious to get to his new home. Although we are anxious to return home as well, Angie and I also have lots of emotions about taking Cammo from his native country and know that, although he seems quite adventurous and adaptable, the adjustment to his new surroundings and culture will not be an easy one.

China Update - July 27 PM

2009-08-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Guangzhou! It is noon on Monday here in China. Three days from now we will be on the first leg of our lengthy return trip to the States. All continues to go remarkably well. We are loving our stay here and soaking up as much of the culture, cuisine and history as possible. Nevertheless, we are about ready to return home with our wonderful new addition, and we can sense that Cameron is ready as well.

Last night was fairly uneventful. We welcomed several new families to our group who had adopted with CWA from another province, and had now joined us in Guangzhou for the finalization. Following another nice dinner we stopped by a local store similar to a Wal Mart called Callefour Hypermarket (a French company). This was an interesting experience. I will never complain about the crowd at a Wal Mart again…..this place was packed with folks, and I mean packed! The prices were roughly comparable to the States given the current exchange rate. The store was 3 stories, and you took an escalator to each floor. The escalators did not have steps, though, but rather were a moving incline. The carts also had all four wheels turnable rather than just the front two like in the States…..these things really could turn on a dime! And at the entrance was a chicken feet kiosk, with different types of this popular cooked snack available for shoppers. Needless to say, we were the only Westerners in the store, so the stares were aplenty! At one point in the evening, Jane was introducing the new families to those of us who had arrived earlier. She introduced him as Dang Niu to one family and he jumped in with, “My American name is Cameron!” Then, he proceeded to correct her pronunciation of his name. Needless to say, she has retold this story a number of times today she was so tickled by it.

This mornings breakfast was typical fare. Cammo tried his first piece of bacon and decided he did not care for it. Unfortunately, he had decided to put about five slices on his plate, so mom and dad are now bacon’ed out for awhile! Once again, Cammo opted for two full plates of fruit, a boiled egg, and 2 containers of yogurt. At one point while eating, his egg disappeared. I asked Angie about it and she said he probably put it in his pocket. Sure enough, when we got back to the room he opened his pocket to show us the egg. Oops! Turns out it was a soft boiled egg, and was now a soupy mess in his pockets! We hurriedly got him to change shorts so we wouldn’t be late for the zoo tour. I also showed him how to use a knife more effectively this morning. He tends to hold it in his fist and tries to cut, but this does not work very well. I showed him how to use his index finger to apply pressure and guide the knife. He tried this method on a sliced peach and it worked awesomely, but he still decided to use his own method. If that works for him right now, so be it!

We were pleasantly surprised this morning by a call from our Owasso, Oklahoma friends, the Burnetts. Angie was beside herself as this was a quite unexpected, but delightful surprise. Cammo had to get in on the action and jabbered away on the phone as well. He is certainly a social butterfly!

The Guangzhou Zoo was an interesting experience. Quite a bit different from an American zoo. Some of the animal enclosures were quite nice, while others were fairly small (tigers, leopards, etc.). As seems typical by now, the landscaping was impeccable. My attention was immediately drawn at the entrance to the entry fee sign which noted that children were charged based on size (height) rather than age. I have never seen that before. Of course, we had to see the panda display where, due to the heat, he was lounging on a block of ice! We were particularly enthralled by the enclosures of several apparently rare and endangered species: the chipmunk and squirrel enclosure, as well as that of the milk cow. Not sure I’ve seen these animals in zoos before! Please note the attached picture of Angie posing next to another…..ummmm…..rather interesting animal enclosure! We were only at the zoo for an hour, but were absolutely drenched with sweat from the insane humidity. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it immensely.

Tonight we are going on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. Tomorrow Elvin, our guide, will take the American part of the paperwork to the U.S. Consulate to issue Cameron a visa for his passport to be able to enter the States. Wednesday is the visa appointment and swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Consulate.

Angie here. I just had my first Mother meltdown. I know all mothers can sympathize here. I was washing a pair of Cameron’s shorts in the sink. Thought I checked the pockets but apparently not enough. I washed his MP3 player. I feel absolutely awful. He bought this with his own money and has his Chinese music on it. How do we explain this to him? This child does not have much and I accidentally did this. I’m crying and Scott explains it as best he could on the translator; that if it was broken we would replace it and that we would need his help in putting his music on the new one. We could tell he was a little bit upset but was more concerned that I was upset and kept giving us gestures that it was OK. I held his face and told him I was very sorry and that I loved him. Thirty seconds later he was onto something else. Right after that he is blowing me kisses. What a wonderful kid. Lesson learned for me. Oh, this was Cameron’s first time to the zoo. It was neat experiencing this with him, but hard because of the language barrier. He had so many questions. Luckily Jane and her friend, also with CWA, explained things to him but we could not understand his reactions. We will take him back to the zoo in Tulsa. Till tomorrow.

China Update - July 26 PM

2009-08-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Guangzhou! Today is our rest and relaxation day, and we’ve been taking full advantage of this. Other than meeting for dinner at 1800, we had no set plans.

Once again, we had a big breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. Cammo loves fruit of almost any type. Today’s breakfast for him consisted of two large plates of fruit and 2 containers of yogurt. Nobody around here drinks milk, but they do like lots of yogurt, and the yogurt quality at the hotels has been very good. The yogurt even comes with a folded spoon on the inside. Angie likens it to what she was served in England years ago. Cammo is quite messy when he eats, but is meticulous about washing his face and hands with soap and water afterwards.

While I was typing away, Cammo and Angie went across the street to 7-Eleven to get a bite to eat. Cammo made sure when they got back to the room that both parents also had something to eat. Very considerate of him; he’s constantly doing things like that.

After breakfast and a bit of lounging in the room, we ventured out for a walk. Shamian Island is neat place to hang out. From the mid-18th to the 19th century, Shamian was the only place where foreign merchants were allowed to live in Guangzhou. It was conceded to the British and French following the Second Opium War in 1859. It was a center of trade for these countries from that point until the early 20th century, and you can clearly see this influence in the architecture and layout of the island. Various bronze statues are scattered around the island which depict life as it was during earlier periods on the island, as well as from more recent times. Guangzhou is known as the Flower City, and this is evident on Shamian Island as well. Cammo took a number of pictures with these bronzes, played in the park again, and stopped for a snack of cold water and chicken feet. We were once again approached several times by folks wanting to talk to us about America, adoption, what we were doing here, and to just practice their English. There seemingly are also a number of people doing photo shoots on the island all the time whether for weddings, tourism or whatever, but they seem to be all over. Also, you see many middle-aged and older folks who are out exercising in some form, including badminton and a game which seems similar to hackey sack.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s email that we had stopped by a local shop and purchased a New Year’s outfit for Cammo, and one for Angie as well. Angie was able to pick out the fabric style and was custom fitted, so we go back to pick it up tomorrow evening. Needless to say, she is quite excited about it. Hers is red coloring with a design on it, while Cammo’s is dark blue. Angie preferred a red outfit for him, but he definitely preferred the blue, so that is what we got. We got it just a tad big for him so that it will fit for at least a season. It is a custom here at the White Swan to take a last day picture on “the Red Couch” dressed in your new outfits, so we are definitely prepared. I think they are both going to look adorable in them.

I also forgot to mention something that Cammo brought from the orphanage that I thought was neat and which we will keep in good condition for him as he gets older. It was a small memory-type book with what appeared to have a page for each of his classmates to write down some thoughts for the recipient. Each page prompts them for such things as: My First Impression of You, Our Sweetest Memory Together, My Dream, etc. There were also a couple nice cards that I suspect the staff, teachers and/or “ayi’s” gave him before he left.

The White Swan is a very nice and historic hotel. The hotel was built during the early stages of China’s adoption of the policy of Reform and Opening Up, and its opening ceremony was held on February 6th, 1983. Among its distinguished guests are: Mr. Deng Xiaoping, former U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and George Bush, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Cuban Chairman Fidel Castro, French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, German Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, and many others. It borders the Pearl River and has wonderful views of the river and city of Guangzhou, as well as beautifully landscaped lawns and gardens.

That’s all for now…..hope we’re not boring you to death with the minutiae of our trip! Cammo has been an absolute delight today and is anxious to get to his new home. We miss you all!

China Update - July 26 AM

2009-08-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Guangzhou. I feel like I’m stuck in a sauna. No, really. It is unbelievably humid here. Of course, our trip coincides with the hottest part of summer but, nevertheless, the humidity is just crazy here. To our friends back home in Oklahoma, you have no idea what real humidity is. However, Guangzhou is also quite beautiful and has a rich history (especially Shamian Island), so it makes it easier to overlook the weather.

Today (Saturday) was medical exam day. There is a clinic about a 10 minute walk from the hotel where these are conducted for the adopted children. All went well here. We thought that they might not accept Cameron’s TB test result from the prior week, but would instead make us take it again. However, this did not occur. He did have to take 2 shots. I took a number of pictures in the clinic in order to document this part of the process, but Cameron did not like me doing so. You may see his disgust come through in the pictures. I explained to him that I was taking them partly for him to have many years from now, and he seemed to take it a little better after that. He did not care for the shots, one in each arm, but allowed them to be done without major protest.

On the way back to the hotel we met up with Jane, our CWA worker from Beijing. It was great to chat with her again. She and Mei had just completed their interviews of the children from the local orphanage that will be part of Hope Project 3. Hope 1 had primarily older children and Hope 2 had younger children, while Hope 3 is also older children. Angie had a chance to talk to them at length in the afternoon but, unfortunately, I did not as they had only one parent from each family meet with the guide when they were present. Mei is returning to the States today. Both Mei and Jane truly have a passion for these children and advocate for them tirelessly, and this was quite evident in our interactions with them. We will miss them both, and hope to visit with them again in the future.

We had lunch at a restaurant across the road from the hotel. I can’t remember the name of it, but the food was awesome…..we cleaned our plates! One interesting cuisine note that I don’t think I’ve mentioned is that after every meal they put a bunch of slices of watermelon on the sousan for everyone to eat. I think this was done at virtually every meal in Beijing as well. It’s almost like a light dessert. I’ll have to inquire about it.

In the afternoon, Angie met with our guide to go over paperwork. It is amazing how many documents are involved in the adoption process, and they all have to be done exactly right. This went smoothly, so we are ready to apply for Cameron’s visa and then have our Consulate appointment.

While Angie was going over paperwork, Cameron and I decided to go swimming. He does not yet know how to swim, so he stayed in the very shallow area set aside from the main body of the pool. After this we went to a local park and he tested out all the equipment while I chatted with a local who spoke broken English and was going to be in the States later this year. We had a number of people take our pictures here. Once again, they were quite polite, so we were not put off by this at all.

The White Swan is a very nice hotel located on Shamian Island, a sandbar island in the Pearl River. The rooms here are nice, although we have 2 much smaller beds than in Beijing. Nevertheless, we make it work just fine. The beds are firmer here than in the States, so they take a bit of getting used to. Our room overlooks the mainland rather than the river, and the old US Consulate is directly below. The buffet here is pretty good, so we load up in the morning.

Cameron is adjusting well. The relatively minor behavioral issues we’ve seen are rapidly improving as he learns to trust us. Bonding is going extremely well. He has no problem talking to us; however, the language barrier is pretty big. We communicate through the handheld translator just fine, and he is learning new words every day. He is extremely helpful and thoughtful and will readily share whatever he has with us. He thrives on close contact, and loves to sit on our laps while watching television or when on the computer. He hugs us quite a bit and kisses Angie on the cheek. He is prone to pouting a bit when he doesn’t get his way, but this is improving as well. He is quite happy, and is always jabbering away or singing. He is always trying to figure out how things work. When we first arrived at this hotel, he had to go through every closet and drawer, push every button, and figure out how everything worked. It’s great…..now we just ask him through gestures what we want, and he gladly knows which button or switch to push to do it. He knows it better than we do! Needless to say, he is quite inquisitive, but can get frustrated if he cannot figure something out or if it does not work the way he thinks it should. He is quite playful, but doesn’t always adjust the “volume”, so to speak, on the physicality of play. He seems to be quite adept at adjusting to his environment after the initial shock wears off, and we think this bodes very well for him as he enters his new life. Hopefully this gives you some insight into the remarkable little guy we’ve been given the opportunity to parent.

Today is an off day, so we’ll probably take it easy. Maybe walk the island a bit. Ciao for now!

China Update - July 25 AM

2009-08-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hello again from China…….Guangzhou to be exact. We arrived late last night on a 2-hour delayed flight, so we did not get to bed until 0100, and are now back up at 0530 to get an early start on the day.

Reagan, our Beijing guide, showed us off at the Beijing Airport. She did a wonderful job in both acting as tour guide and shepherding us through much of the adoption process. We can only imagine how much work goes on behind the scenes to make it happen so smoothly. We left with all our necessary documents for Cameron’s visa, as well as the many needed for the Consulate Appointment. Cameron was quite rambunctious during the flight. We had given him some medicine for motion sickness and, although he had his “bag” all prepared, it was not used at all! I think I pulled a bit of my hair out as Cameron simply cannot sit still for more than about 10 seconds, nor can he not manipulate every object around him, regardless of appropriateness or effect on others. So…..window blinds kept going up and down, the television/radio controller got fully poked, prodded, buttons punched, put in holder and taken out hundreds of times, pushing the seat up and back repeatedly, pushing the seat in front of him so much and with such force that the lady in front finally said something to us. His television wasn’t working properly after takeoff…….I think he probably burned the motor out before we ever left the ground! However, we cut him a lot of slack, as this is so new to him, and our flight into Guangzhou was otherwise smooth. Even if the little guy does something to upset you, you can’t stay upset with him for long, as he’s so darn cute and charming. He wants to help us so much and tries so hard to do so. For example, after dinner on the plane he started piling our dinner plates together and then pointed to the aisle. Thinking he needed to go to the bathroom, we moved over to allow him access to the aisle. He then proceeded to get the plates and began taking them to the back of the plane. We grabbed him before he got out of reach and asked him what he was trying to do and he replied that he was taking our plates to the back where the stewardesses were so that they could get cleaned and wouldn’t be in our way. We promptly told him that we could stay in our seats and they would come by for them in a few minutes.

Not a lot to tell you in this post, as yesterday was a pretty basic traveling day. Today we have Cameron’s medical exam this morning, and he may need to get a few shots. We’ll see how he handles that.

Since there is not much new to report, I have a few minutes to answer some questions people have asked. The stuffed panda bear that Cameron is holding in several pictures was given to him by Reagan when we got to Beijing. He really likes to keep the panda with him at most times. I’m not sure why Cameron and most Chinese do not appear to be smiling in the pictures we took. I hadn’t thought of that, but it may be cultural. For Cameron, many of the pictures were taken at sites that were of interest to his new parents but not him, so I think his lack of smiling has more to do with boredom and a desire to be doing something more geared toward his interests – play! Pizza Hut – yes, he seemed to like it, but it was only a Cheese Lover’s pizza, and they don’t use much cheese over here. In fact, you hardly ever see it. The omelets that the Wangfujing Grand Hotel had so little cheese in them that you would swear they forgot to add it! He seemed to struggle more with how to eat the pizza. He decided on a fork and knife, but not being very proficient at either, this proved to be rather ineffective, although entertaining to watch. We tried to help him, but he decided he was going to do it his way, so we let him. Oh yeah, he ate all the ice in his coke with a fork. He scooped them out and ate every one! As far as I know, he has not eaten any of the more colorful (and flavorful?) creature-on-a-stick items I detailed and gave pictures of last week.

Somebody asked a few more basic questions about Cameron himself. He was born on April 6, 1999. He was abandoned at a closed restaurant outside Beijing. We know very little of the other circumstances surrounding him, but some of the newer paperwork we have been given has more details than we had previously, including the name of the person who found him. We also do not know why his parents would find it necessary to leave their son for others to find and raise. Nevertheless, he has a bright future now. Obviously, there are many possibilities as to the “Why?” that we will likely never know. He was born with bilateral club feet which were surgically repaired at some point, but are not even noticeable now. He runs and jumps like a monkey, without a hint of pain or any sort of limp. He never complains nor shows any other signs of pain. Even when I tried to nonchalantly look for a scar, I found it barely noticeable from as close as a foot away. And he loves his sandals (the ones he was presented to us in)!!!

As for our return home. We are set to return to Tulsa at 2155 on a United Airlines flight this Thursday. Needless to say, it will be an extremely long day – 3 flights totaling 19 hours in the air, 7 hours of layovers, and the necessity of getting to the airport early to clear customs, immigration, etc. I’d rather get knocked upside the head by a hammer!

A quick shout-out to my sister Allison. She and her husband John are expecting their new little one at any time, as today is her due date. Let me be among the first to welcome Kenley Marie Geary into the world!

China Update - July 24 AM

2009-08-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again from China! Today is our last day in Beijing. There will be many firsts today for Cameron, not the least of which is his first airplane ride tonight. He spent an hour this morning (Friday) building a plane creation with his Lego’s. Hmmmmmm. This kid is a whiz with Lego’s, and really seems to enjoy building and creating with them. We brought two Lego Creator packs with us. He built both of them individually without any problem just by looking at the pictures, then this morning began making his own creations. One of them was a hybrid ground-based vehicle with airplane wings and paraphernalia. Very creative and detailed (for Lego’s). Turn your back, and he’d jumble it all around to create something else, then wanted to show us his new creation. We will definitely need to keep this guy intellectually challenged on our return to the States, as he will likely get bored very quickly if we don’t.

Yesterday we went to the Forbidden City. What an amazing place. It is quite large and is surrounded by a wide moat. Once again, our wonderful guide (Reagan) gave us lots of information to help us better understand the site and put all the buildings and objects in context. I am on the lookout today for a book which details much of this, as I find it fascinating. For instance, on the top corners of the roofs of each building are lines of actual characters (I’ll try to include a picture of this). The number of characters in the line reflects the importance of the building, with 11 being the highest number. So, if memory serves, Reagan said that the building where the government business was run by the Emperor had the greatest number of characters (eleven) while others would have less. Numbers also played an important role as well. For instance, the big doors used to enter the City had brass looking balls on the face of them. There were nine rows of these vertically, and nine also in each row. I don’t recall what the symbolism was, but I suspect it had something to do with safety, luck or longevity based on their location.

The crowd was quite large at the Forbidden City and our group contained some of the only foreigners. On several occasions, some natives would come up to us and use either gestures or broken English to let us know they wanted to take a picture with us. Well…..more specifically, the women with blonde or red hair (Cameron is fascinated by the hair on my arms and legs, and loves to pull it). Since many of the Chinese were in tour groups and came from outlying provinces and small towns, they had either never before seen or rarely seen anybody who looked like us. They were always quite polite and appreciative, so we were not offended in the least, but rather found it kind of cute. In fact, we took some pictures and video of them taking pictures with us! We had great fun at the Forbidden City. One interesting note when taking pictures. I had to learn to use care when taking them, as the natives seemed to have no regard for stepping in front of you or otherwise blocking your view even if they were quite aware you were taking a picture. I was taken aback the first few times, then realized that I was in a different culture, and they just have different expectations than us. Likewise, they have no problem elbow’ing their way to where they want to go. Once again, a cultural difference best recognized but not responded to, at least not as we might in the States. Needless to say, we soaked all this culture up all day and have many vivid memories to take back with us. I felt very bad for Cameron while we were at the Forbidden City as he seemed quite bored. He’s 10 years old, and visiting the Forbidden City was not “fun” in the least. He was ready to run around, climb something, capture some animal, or slay a dragon or two. Lots of energy to burn with this little guy, in a place with little opportunity to burn off calories in any sort of boyish way.

After the Forbidden City we toured a silk factory before lunch. They guided us through the process of how silk is made from start to finish, and we found this to be fascinating. Cameron was more intrigued by all this, especially with the silkworm cocoons and the silkworms in a huge writhing mass. We shopped in the silk store after this, and the prices were much less than what you’d find in the States, for obvious reasons. We nearly came back with a thing or two, but decided against it. Angie tried on a couple traditional Chinese New Years dresses but didn’t like the fit. We have been told you can get them custom made in Guangzhou, so she is waiting until we get there. Cameron has no interest in one for himself, so we will decide later whether or not to get him one.

It is interesting to see differences in hygiene Cameron displays. He brushes his teeth when we ask him to. Here’s the process…..he fills a cup with water and puts his toothbrush in it. He then puts some of the water from the cup in his mouth, swishes it around, then spits it out. He then proceeds to brush his teeth and rinse using the water in the glass. He always makes sure the sink is clean after this. If there is water on the counter, he uses the hair dryer to get it dry. He is cute to watch as he combs his hair…..this guy definitely knows how to primp. He will comb his hair meticulously, turning his head left and right while looking in the mirror to make sure it’s just right, and pays particular attention to the front, even using his other hand to make sure every hair is in place.

One other note before I forget. Previously we had noted his apparent left-handedness. Well, last night he drew a picture of his new home, and used his right hand to do it. So…..I guess he’s ambidextrous, I guess.
The afternoon was on our own, but last night was special. Humor us here……..we ate at Pizza Hut! With large glasses and ice! You’ve never seen a group of people devour 5 Cheese Lover’s pizza’s like we did! Don’t misunderstand me, we absolutely love Chinese food and all our meals here, but the taste of home for once after a week away was definitely appreciated. Our batteries were definitely charged by this meal! Interestingly, when the pizza’s arrived our guide asked us if we wanted any ketchup. We thought this was a rather strange request until Reagan explained that ketchup on pizza was the norm in China. She was surprised that we did not eat it that way in the States. Interesting.

Later in the evening I went to the spa to relax a bit. The “hot tub” water was lukewarm at best and I’m not embellishing, yet when a gentleman was getting in he nearly jerked his foot back because it was so hot to him. I nearly broke out laughing, but managed to keep my composure. When I found out he knew a little English, I told him that in America, the same water would be ~20 degrees hotter. Needless to say, he gave me the bug-eyed look of astonishment! Quite funny, actually, and we had a good conversation after that.

We pretty much have the day to ourselves today (Friday) until we meet at 1530 to drive to the airport. Our flight departs at 2000 and arrives in Guangzhou at 2300. I doubt we get to the hotel before 0100 or so, then get up bright and early for, I believe, the medical exam.

My last impressions of Beijing before our departure……a wonderful city with a rich history which is rapidly becoming more contemporary. I hope they are able to make a good balance of this before too much is lost, as things are modernizing here at a rapid rate. Once gone, it will be gone forever. The meticulous nature of the landscaping on the main roads is impressive, as is their cleanliness and upkeep. I suspect there is a significant dropoff to this once off the main roads. The cuisine is much different that the Americanized versions as is the whole dining experience……I think I have written about this extensively in previous emails. There are definite differences between our cultures in social experiences and expectations, but when one understands that this is the nature of unique cultures, it can be appreciated for what it is. In other words, the differences don’t have the negative connotations they would if one encountered them in the States. I am sure I am missing a great deal here but, then again, I am fully aware that writing is not something I’m overly skilled at, so my more analytical analysis will have to suffice for now. We will check back in to our email later tonight in Guangzhou. Until then, blessings to all! If anyone has any questions about China or Cameron, feel free to respond via email, as I’m sure there are a dozen other readers who have the same question and would like us to mention it. Although these emails are lengthy, I keep the computer running most of the day and add a little bit here and there to an update until I send it. When we’re out and about, I have a pen and paper and make notes about what I want to mention in my next email. These emails also allow me to keep a record that I will print off on our return to document our journey and experiences.

Angie here. Just a quick note. When they have air conditioning in their buildings they do not keep it as cold as we do in America so I have been the perfect temperature here!!!!!!!!!

China Update - July 23 AM

2009-08-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hello from China. It is 1530 Beijing time, although I probably won’t mail this out until later tonight (or, as it turns out, tomorrow morning). Today has been very productive; an overall great day in all respects.

We were going to be on the road all day today, so we met early to head to our first stop, a well known jade factory. We had a tour of the “factory” where they are produced, and a guide explained the process to us. It was quite interesting. Angie found a nice bracelet she liked which we purchased…..we need to get a few mementos.

Next we traveled to the Great Wall. Everyone should go there at least once in their life if they get the chance. It is hard to describe or put in words, as they don’t do it justice. The wall runs for several thousand miles and was built in many areas in the steepest part of the country. We can vouch for that. The mountains around here are extremely steep and seem to rise straight up from the ground. The wall itself has steps which vary in height, and some are very high. We decided to go up to the first watchtower. Cameron started strong, but quickly pooped out. Nevertheless, we all made it. I hope the pictures I send do it justice. The air was not very clear…..I’ll mention that again in a minute. It’s hard to believe the magnitude of an undertaking such as the Wall. Once we returned to the base, we found a couple simple ornaments in the gift shop for our Christmas tree….a tradition we started on our honeymoon and continue to this day (getting an ornament from the places we travel to and visit). Oh year I forgot to mention the heat and humidity. It was quite high at the Wall, and we were dripping wet by the time we got to the watchtower. I made a comment to one of the other fathers who is a high school football coach that if there are any coaches in America who think their teams aren’t adequately conditioned, fly them to China and have them run the “bleachers.” I can guarantee they’ll be begging for mercy!

We next went to the cloissant factory for a tour, lunch and shopping. It is quite interesting to see how these products are made, especially with respect to the time it takes, the detailed craftsmanship, and the temperatures use to finish them. Lunch was very good (oh yeah, only chopsticks the whole trip for the Hamel’s……..getting much better at them now…..no choice, I guess!). Angie found a nice scroll her in colors that will go great in our bedroom that has a Chinese symbol for “Faith by God”.

Next we drove by the Olympic Village. Looks just like it did on television. Unfortunately, today was very “hazy” and hard to see things more than ~1/2 mile away. The air is really weird around here. People talk as though it’s just cloudy, but I don’t think that’s it. There is very little wind here, unless it storms. So whatever is in the air just hangs there, and I think this is largely smog. It really is hard to describe unless you are in it, but I remember people talking at length about it during the Olympics……they are quite right! Of all the Olympic venues, I was a bit partial to the Velodrome, which is actually located some miles away from the Olympic Village, “birds nest” and “ice cube”. The Chinese are very proud of their having put on the Olympics, and you can sense this in their conversations with you. While I’m thinking about it…..does anyone reading this have a copy of the Opening/Closing ceremonies they can copy for us? We kept ours on Tivo since last summer but, alas, it got accidentally erased when we filled the Tivo memory and the oldest shows got automatically erased…..even though we had marked them as protected! If not, we’ll get on Amazon or CBS on our return and look for it, as I think this will be good for us to watch with Cameron (not many words needed) on our return as he gets acclimated early on.

While we were driving to the various places today (the Great Wall was 60 kilometers away from our hotel), Reagan, our guide, explained a ton of stuff for us about Chinese culture that was very much appreciated. She explained all about Hutongs, married life in China, jobs, cuisine, etc. She also offered to get some nice items done for the new children, and we all took her up on it. So, we now have a traditional jade stamp with both Chinese name (Dang Niu) and American (Cameron Niu Hamel). In addition, we also got a scroll that has his Chinese name on it. While driving around today, I saw my first and only bicyclist riding around with a helmet! Also had spandex and a jersey on, so I assume it was not a native. Of the tens of thousands of bicyclists and people riding scooters and motorcycles, none wear helmets. They just don’t wear them here.

Cameron continues to adjust well. As I mentioned before, he’s very smart and picks things up very quickly. Language continues to be a problem, but we are getting into a system where we can communicate the important stuff (gestures, etc). He is also starting to learn more words, but I don’t sense a great deal of motivation on his part to do so (understandable, since he’s still in his native country). I hope he does not get too frustrated when, all of a sudden, this changes in a week. We all laid on the bed last night and watched The Little Rascals movie (chosen for some sight gags, not as much language comprehension needed). The bonding and attachment are going well…..he is very endearing…..a charmer……with a mischievous side. He is getting much better about a couple less-appreciated behaviors, but these are to be expected given his orphanage background and his life’s experiences, and these are rapidly improving. He continues to be affectionate, and kissed mother goodbye last night when I took him to the pool. Oh yeah, he had not wanted to take a shower in the hotel room the last few days, and so he hadn’t. After the swimming, though, he was eager to get in the shower and soap up. Perhaps because these showers were more similar to what was in the orphanage (line of them, walk-in versus step-in, locker room feel, etc.). At any rate, after we got back to the room he ran up to Mother and wanted her to smell his hair to show her that he had showered and was now clean. Very cute!

We’re loving our trip, but I’m ready for a big glass of anything with ice in it (no ice here in drinks)! Supposedly they have it in Guangzhou, though. We are flying to Guangzhou on an 2000 flight rather than 1800, as our agency was not sure our passports would be ready at the earlier time. Today we will be touring the Forbidden City. Ciao for now!

China Update - July 22 AM

2009-08-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello from Beijing! It is now Wednesday morning, but I’ll try to fill you in on yesterday’s activities. Yesterday was very busy. We had originally intended to do tourist stuff yesterday, but that changed in an attempt to keep our original schedule intact so that we would not have to spend extra days in China. It worked!

We started off the day by going to Civil Affairs and getting our People’s Republic of China Adoption Registration, also known as the Red Book. This is the document that makes the adoption official in China’s eyes. We then went to the notary office to get a number of documents notarized, then finally to the police station to fill out the paperwork for the passports of all three children. They (CWA and orphanage staff) were able to convince them to expedite our passports and they agreed, so we will fly to Guangzhou with them on Friday.

We had a bit of spare time in the afternoon, so we headed to a famous local tea house for a demonstration of how tea is made, what the different types are and what they are good for. It was a really neat experience. Cameron liked the little “pee pee” tea guy (which “sprayed” on Cameron; quite funny) used to test whether or not the water is hot enough! It was!

Cameron continues to show his gentle, affectionate, and caring traits, as well as a mischievous side that, while endearing, might be considered inappropriate in American culture in certain circumstances. Nevertheless, he is always trying to help, whether it be by helping restaurant staff pass out items, throwing stuff in the trash for us, ordering KFC in Chinese for his “mama and baba”, and plugging in his headphones into the computer while listening to his music in order not to waken his mother. He really is a wonderful child with a free spirit and streak of independence, and has already blessed us beyond belief.

Last night we celebrated the completion of our documents by enjoying a nice dinner which included Peking Duck. I rather enjoyed it, but Angie didn’t care for it too much. An interesting note about meals around here…..the drinking cups are tiny. They are more like those tiny juice glasses you get from Shoney’s or Denny’s…..fits all of about 4 ounces or so and, of course, nobody uses ice in their drinks since the tap water is not drinkable unless boiled. I keep laughing about this because, in the states, the cup would be ~20 ounces, packed with ice, and refilled numerous times. Not so in China. I’m craving a Big Gulp or, preferably, one of those slushee drinks from QuikTrip (cola flavor). What are they called? Those things are awesome and, given the humidity here (deceptively high), we could use them occasionally.

Today we are headed to the Great Wall, jade factory, and the Olympic venues. Lots of pictures to be taken, I’m sure, and I’ll try to send a few along to ya’ll this evening.

China Update - July 20 PM

2009-08-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Beijing! I’ll fill you in on a few things, then let Angie relate her thoughts. I’m also attaching a few more pictures.

Today has been very active. We got up this morning and split into two groups. I went with Cameron and Jane to the immunization place to have Cameron’s results checked, while Angie went with the others to the bank (open on Sundays over here) and a local supermarket. When we arrived at the immunization place they took a quick look at his forearm and determined that his test was negative. It really didn’t matter too much, though, because it seems that the US government makes these kids take it again in Guangzhou even with a negative result. Sheesh! Seems they don’t trust the results back in the provinces. The nurses and staff really raved about Cameron…..two things mostly. One was how cute he is, and the other is how “naughty” he is. Don’t worry, that word has a different meaning in China. In China it doesn’t have a negative connotation at all, but rather translates closer to mischievous or rambunctious. He is definitely so…..I would describe him as a bit like an urban contemporary Tom Sawyer with a bit of Dennis the Menace thrown in. He continues to be quite happy and helpful.

After the immunization check, we took a taxi to meet the others at Civil Affairs to complete the Chinese side of the adoption. Everything went just fine for all three families. There also happened to be another Hope Project child there that we got to meet, the Kaden’s new daughter. She is very cute and charming. I videotaped her singing a song that I will be sending the Kaden’s…..I know how anxious they must be to get more information and to travel to bring her home.

After Civil Affairs we had lunch, then we were on our own for the afternoon. Although not intended, all the families went back to their rooms and ended up napping. Difficult to explain to anyone who has not traveled so far, but it was for the first time since being here, the deepest and most restful sleep……we didn’t want to get up to go to dinner!

We’re picking up on some habits of Cameron’s that he has brought from the orphanage. Whenever he awakens, he immediately puts his sandals on and then makes his bed. He has done this every time, like it’s second nature. In fact, this morning he was the last to get up. He immediately donned his sandals, made his bed, then pointed at me and our bed as if to say, “What’s wrong with you? You haven’t made your bed!” I think this is a habit we’ll encourage he keep. ;-)

I must journal at some point about the roads and driving habits in Beijing. However, I don’t think words can do it justice. It’s interesting, to say the least. Controlled chaos might be a good descriptor. I can honestly say that I have never encountered so many vehicles, people on bikes and scooters, as well as pedestrians moving around so closely on the roads without ever actually crashing. Oh, I’m sure it happens, but these folks are so used to the close quarters and “near-misses” as they appear to the untrained observer, that it is second nature to them. It’s quite amazing and amusing (and sometimes scary) to watch.

Cameron likes to go through the pictures I have on the computer………editorial break here……Cameron just came over while I was typing and gestured like he wanted us to listen to his mp3 music over the portable speakers I brought. We had not been able to get it to work yesterday, though, so I wasn’t sure it would work. He finally pointed to the computer, and when I hooked it up through the USB port, it worked. He proceeded to throw his arms up, had a huge smile, said “thank you” in English, and ran up and hugged me. He jumped up on my lap and we’re listening to his music as I type now (he gestured that he wanted me to keep typing).

Today he was playing a bit with one of the Lego sets a friend had gotten us. He followed the given directions to build the car it made, then proceeded to take it apart and rebuild several other machines that were quite creative. One was a bulldozer-type thing, and another was something with guns on the top. They definitely took some creativity, but he made it look really easy as he put it together…..he knew just what he wanted to build, and he built it!

Tomorrow we were going to go to the Great Wall, jade factory, and the Olympic venues. However, we just got a change of plans, as we have to go process his passport and visa tomorrow, so he Great Wall and others will be Wednesday, and the Forbidden City on Thursday.

For my therapy friends reading this…..there was just a commercial on television for the Beijing Qianhai Hospital of the Femoral Head. Three guesses as to what that means!

Angie here for the rest of this entry. Cameron is on my lap and we are listening to the Micheal Jackson song “It is a Better World” that is on his MP3 player. Ok, now Scott and Cameron are wrestling on the bed. What a great day! It was Adoption Day! Ok, he just came up and kissed me on the cheek!!!! It is official we are a family! After the paperwork was completed his whole demeanor changed. He is now more relaxed and we are all getting used to each other. He and I are starting to bond. He was brushing my hair earlier and feeling it. Earlier he was watching t.v. and said “Mother” and motioned for me to come and look at the t.v. It was a Mountain Dew commercial! He recognized my bottles!! That’s my boy! He and I are blowing kisses at each other. Last night he was putting away his clothes and I have him a hug when he was done. He turned around and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He says Father and Mother all the time. Even if he does not want us. He just likes saying it. Scott and I are having a hard time adjusting to the time change. We sleep until 2 as well as the other families. I just watched him sleep last night. He was the only one who got a good nights sleep. After the adoption we came back to the hotel and all of us sleep for 5 hours. Things are going great. There are still things we need to work on, but we will really start that when we get home. Julie, he has on your shirt today!! He does not know how to ride a bike yet. That will change when we get home, as he said he wants to learn. He loves looking at the shower pictures that First Bank of Owasso had for us. He loves looking at his gifts!!! Hey dad, I have a Chinese Pepsi for you! Till later, thanks everyone for your support and prayers. Angie

China Update - July 20

2009-08-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

As Angie is in the shower preparing for today's activities, I thought I'd pass along a few more things.

He's a lefty! I think that's a first in the family???

We asked him and his caregivers when he found out about us and was given his package and, it appears, merely a day or two before our arrival. I believe that the person answering told Mei that this is how they usually do it. He had an apparently new backpack they had given him, along with new sandals. That's all we could tell at first. He proudly opened the backpack to show us the hat and sweatshirt we had sent him, both obviously having not been worn. He also was quite proud of the photo album we had sent, and even put his own money in the sleeves in the back. We were given a set of ~4 inch stuffed animals from the Beijing Olympics from the orphanage staff. Cameron later showed us a little MP3 player he had that he bought with his own money. When we asked about this we were told that they (and I'm paraphrasing and giving this second/third hand, so it might not be fully accurate) start the month on paper with an "allowance". As the month goes on, they get some deducted if they misbehave, don't follow rules, don't do chores, etc. At the end of the month, what's left is theirs. According to Cameron, he had months where he had all his money, and some where he had had some taken out for whatever reason. So, for a number of months he saved his money, and now has the MP3 player that he likes to listen to, and you can hear him quietly singing to himself. Adorable! He's also been trying to get it to play on my laptop, but so far without success.

Although he doesn't know how to swim, he wanted to go to the pool last night. He didn't want to get into the pool since it was cold (to him.....dad was in the pool, though!). He decided he wanted to get into the hot tub. No problem. However, there was another father and son in at the same time. Cameron decides he wants to splash everybody.....not so cool. Had a time trying to get him to understand that this was not appreciated by the other folks. I'm sure this is just an offshoot of his orphanage rearing and what the kids would have done there. He also happened to slip and fall on the tile, thus skinning his hand and knee, with a little bit of blood (fairly minor) coming out. He toughed it out while the pool staff "triaged" him.....the whole nine yards - washed off, Q-tipped, antiseptic, then some kind of dry powder to dry and clot it, and finally four (yes, four!) bandages! Nevertheless, he's doing fine.......and now knows not to run on wet tile! Lesson learned, the hard way!

That's it for now.....heading downstairs for a cup-o-joe while Cameron and Angie get ready for the day. Cameron is still snoozing away on the bed. Wonder how that's going to work with Madison (our German Shepherd that absolutely *loves* kids) "nosing" him at 0-dark-thirty once we get home!

Ciao for now. Thanks again for all your thoughts, well-wishes via email, and prayers. We read all the emails and respond to most where possible. All is going well.....we absolutely adore our little guy!

China Update - July 19, Part 2

2009-08-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Not long after I posted this morning (late last night your time), we met Cameron for the first time. He was very nervous and apprehensive at first, but after a while, this quickly passed. After spending the whole day with him, this is what we can say for certain…..he’s very rambunctious, quite smart, independent, and is extremely inquisitive. Tell him or show him something once, and he remembers it. He is also quite helpful, always throwing his trash away, leading the way to wherever we’re going, holding elevators open, getting Angie or I a container of water, etc. He also has a fascination with anything mechanical (Grampa Yard!), which can be both a good or bad thing…….need to show him what is okay and not okay to “play” with (e.g., laptop, camcorder, etc.). He also has a fascination with taking pictures and, when dressed to go out this afternoon, told me (through gestures) that he wanted me to take his picture. He then proceeded to pose a few times on the chair while I did just that. You may see one of these attached to this picture. He is quite a cutie. He has shown several gestures of affection including reaching out to hold my hand in traffic for about a block, sitting on both Angie and my laps a few times, play wrestling with me at his initiation, a few brief hugs, etc.

Most of today was spent on process issues for the adoption. Tomorrow will be a full day of the same, as will Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday we will be visiting the Great Wall, while we visit the Forbidden City on Thursday. If all goes as planned, we will be flying to Guangzhou early Friday evening.

Angie’s typing here. Scott and I were nervous right before we met him at 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We met him in Mei and Jane’s hotel room with Mei getting it all on tape! Wow, what a wonderful experience that was! (I cannot explain it in this e-mail) He calls us Mother and Father. The language barrier is hard. Right now he does not care for the translator machine but we think that is because he has not mastered it. He did type on it, “This is real!” Wow, yes this is real, we are your family! I had to leave for a couple hours today to get adoption things done. Scott and Cameron had a wonderful time bonding during that time and he has really taking a liking to Scott. Scott is also very good with him. We all went swimming after supper and he helped us out in a bind and went to the desk and got locker keys for us. Scott and I did not know what we were doing. In fact, I went in the dressing room, came back out and told Scott “ I don’t get it”. Scott said Cameron has and he got us keys! Cameron had an accident by the pool and wound up getting three scrapes on his knees and one on his palm. That ended the swimming for today. He likes dogs and cats!!!!! The orphanage has a dog and cat. There is Mountain Dew in China! It tastes like ginger ale though. He is the size of Emily (our niece) maybe a tad bigger but not much. He really is a great kid. There are some boundary issues we need to address but not all at once. We are very happy to have him. I hope he feels the same. We are really enjoying China. Oh my gosh, that plane ride was something. The ride was good but way way to long. Cameron seems concerned and a little scared to get on the plane. Right now it is 9:30 p.m. Sunday, and Cameron is on Scott’s lap and they are watching t.v.. I hope this is a good program for him to watch. He seems to be enjoying it though. The food has been real good. That’s it for now!

China Update - July 19

2009-08-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

We are here safe and sound. It is Sunday morning at 0700, and we are set to meet Cameron later this morning.

Our flight was long, but uneventful, and we actually arrived an hour early. The route took us north from Chicago up over Canada , west of the North Pole, over eastern Siberia, and then south to Beijing . The new Beijing International Airport is huge, and was built to be ready for the Olympics. It’s very open and not at all crowded……quite easy to move around. Evidently, they relaxed the H1N1 rules somewhat just preceding our arrival (per our stewardess), as they did not come on the plane and take all our temperatures on arrival. However, we still have to go through numerous checkpoints and had our temperatures taken by sensors. Following all the checkpoints and Visa stamp, we took a group picture (3 families) and then met our guide “Reagan.”

Beijing is quite different than what Angie and I were expecting, although we only too major routes in to the hotel. They evidently like to plant things…..a lot! Everywhere are trees lining streets, well-pruned bushes lining roadways, flowers, etc. I suspect much of this is a carryover from the Olympics of last summer, and that outlying areas are not nearly as well-kept. Our hotel is near a shopping district that we walked through last night. Quite impressive. The road is closed-off, so there’s just a mass of people strolling and shopping, with some very nice stores and restaurants.

The hotel we are staying at is called the Wangfujing Grand Hyatt and is located in a central area about 1-2 miles from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City . Our room has 2 beds that are larger than we were expecting, so we have plenty of room for Cameron’s arrival. The beds are, for us, a bit harder than what we’re used to, but Angie and I were both unbelievably tired, so sleep wasn’t too difficult. We have been warned, however, that the beds in Guangzhou are much harder. We have already tracked down some water to put in the rooms mini-fridge, as the water is not drinkable that is coming through the spigots. So, everything must be bottled or boiled. Our room also has CNN (no Fox?????) and ESPN. They are really big on well-known sports figures here. When you walk in the shopping area they have huge video screens and advertisements with Shaq, Kobe , Tiger, etc.

Mei and Jane, 2 Christian World Adoption workers who were instrumental in our adoption, are also in Beijing and are staying at our hotel. This has been an awesome coincidence. Mei is actually here getting ready for Hope Project 3 which will be done from an orphanage in Guangzhou . We were able to spend quite a bit of time with Mei and Jane last including, including when they walked us through the shopping district. At any rate, they will be present today when the three families meet their children, and will be available for us somewhat until Mei departs for Guangzhou in a couple days. They were able to give us lots more information on Cameron, what to expect and how to prepare.

We had dinner as a group last night at a restaurant next door to the hotel. The food was quite good and was fed family style on a lazy susan type device. Quite good. We all ate with chopsticks…..not a pretty site, but I don’t think we’ll starve. Should be interesting eating with Cameron today, as he’ll be quite proficient with chopsticks I assume.

One interesting site last night was when Mei and Jane took us down a street that has a large open fresh food court. It’s on one side of a street and runs a couple hundred yards. Interesting sights, sounds and smells to say the least. It was quite busy. The mass of “fresh” cooked and raw, but ready to be cooked in front of you, items included squid, various animal kidneys and hearts, mealies (think cicada in it’s cocoon still), crickets-on-a-stick, scorpions-on-a-stick, and a number of other items. People were really snapping this stuff up to eat, so it must be somewhat popular as cuisine. Unfortunately, since we had eaten recently, we were forced to put off our taste-testing for a later time.

All the families are anxious to meet their children, and we are no exception. Cameron will be here in only a few hours, and we are quite excited. We will update you as soon as possible. Please note that our computer is, for whatever reason, not connecting through the land line in the room to the internet. I suspect the problem may be the software on this computer, which has caused me no end of aggravation and frustration throughout its life (and I hate Vista !). So, our postings may be a bit hit-or-miss until I can get this figured out or set up an alternate system to post.

Thanks for all your continued prayers and best wishes.

Waiting in Chicago (July 17 email)

2009-08-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

We arrived safe and sound at O'Hare at 0800, and now have a 5 hour layover until the nearly 14 hour flight to Beijing. We both got only a couple hours sleep last night, so we're hoping to catch some z's on this next leg.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out at the airport baggage checkin that the combined weight of our 3 checked bags was only 66 pounds! Much less than we thought. Perhaps this leaves room for more souvenirs on our return.

We are traveling with another couple who are from South Carolina, and are supposed to meet up with them in a couple hours when their flight arrives. They are adopting an 18 month old girl who is part of Hope Project 2.

Lots of emotions for both Angie and I as the time to meet Cameron for thee first time draws closer. We are quite excited. We will likely have met him by the time we email y'all for the first time from Beijing.

Upcoming Trip to China (July 11 email)

2009-08-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Scott and Angie’s journey to China …..our journey to Cameron. If you are receiving this email it is because you have requested to follow our upcoming journey. Although we do not depart until this Friday, July 17th, I need to make sure I’ve worked out the bugs on this communication tool, as well as to inform those following us of what to expect.

It is our intention to send out a daily mass email to a set distribution list (ya’ll) using the Category feature in Yahoo. Our original intent was to update our blog while in China but, due to blog access and posting restrictions in China , decided to use a simple email list instead. Here’s how it works…..each of you is part of a group I set up called China_Trip. My emails will be sent from Yahoo to this group (now composed of nearly 50 addresses) as BCC (blind carbon copy). In doing so, I am able to avoid a lengthy header in every email listing everyone’s name and address. In addition, those wanting to reply to us (Scott and Angie) in any email can simply hit reply and the message will be sent to our address only, rather than the whole list.

Our general travel itinerary is as follows:
Depart: July 17th at 6:00am on United Airlines from Tulsa-to-Chicago (2 hour flight)
Depart: July 17th at 12:41pm on United Airlines from Chicago-to-Beijing (14 hour flight)
Arrive: July 18th at 3:15pm in Beijing
In Beijing July 18th to ~July 25th
Depart: ~July 25th and fly to Guangzhou (flight not yet set)
In Guangzhou ~July 25th to ~July 30th
Depart: July 30th at 10:00am on Air China from Guangzhou-to-Beijing (3 hour flight)
Depart: July 30th at 4:10pm on United Airlines from Beijing-to-Chicago (14 hour flight)
Depart: July 30th at 8:00pm on United Airlines from Chicago-to-Tulsa (2 hour flight)

There is about a 12-hour time difference between the U.S. and China, give or take an hour or two depending on where in the States you are……China being 12 hours ahead.

Our itinerary is fairly fluid at this point due to a number of factors: new Hague requirements, new China requirements on stay times in Beijing , swine flu impact in China , new immunization requirements, etc. It is quite possible that our stay in China will be extended for several days. I will keep you updated as we learn more. In Beijing we will be staying at the Wangfujing Grand Hotel, located less than a mile from both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City . In Guangzhou we will be staying at the White Swan Hotel.

We are not sure when we will be introduced to Cameron, but it may be as soon as the evening of our arrival. Thus will begin our 24-hour “Harmonious Period”. From point of introduction until departure from China , Cameron will be with us. Needless to say, we are excited beyond belief. We received a number of documents in the mail this week. Among these documents was the original drawing Cameron made for the Christian World Adoption staff that had traveled to China in 2008 to get information on the original Hope Project. I have attached a photo of this picture to this email. This drawing will be in a nice frame hanging on the wall in our entryway, and will be among the first things Cameron sees upon entering his new house.

Please keep us in your prayers including for safe travel, bonding with Cameron (and vice versa), and a smooth adoption process while in China . We look forward to introducing him to you upon our return.

Like That Thing They Do In France - But In Tulsa!

2009-05-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

While waiting for our final Travel Approval, we decided to simply focus on having some fun this weekend. Friday night Angie and I went to downtown Tulsa to watch the initial night of bicycle racing in the Tulsa Tough. Those who know me know that bicycling is a passion of mine, and Tulsa initiated the Tulsa Tough series 4 years ago. In that short time it has grown exponentially, is now on the Professional Cycling circuit, and has the second highest payout - $151,000. Oh, and it’s mottos is, “Like That Thing They Do In France – But In Tulsa!” How cool is that!

The Tulsa Tough is a really neat and unique event which brings in 1500 Pro and Amateur racers from around the country and world. It runs for three days, Friday – Sunday, and the racecourse changes each day. The Friday races are in the Blue Dome District, Saturday races are in the Brady District, and the Sunday races are in a course down along the river, which includes a wicked downhill hairpin turn. The Brady and Blue Dome Districts are home to many restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other entertainment venues, and just adjacent to downtown, which gives some awesome day and nighttime views of the art deco buildings. You can see a couple of the huge jumbotrons in the photo backgrounds, one of which was directly below the Blue Dome. It makes for a real festival atmosphere and is loads of fun to attend. Also as part of the event there are touring rides Saturday and Sunday of varying distances, with those able to do both century rides (100 miles) on back-to-back days in under 5 hours each winning a coveted “Deuce” cycling jersey – not an easy feat! My best century time was an 18mph average on the Hotter ‘n Hell 100 in Wichita Falls about 7 years ago. I’ll let ya’ll do the math on that one! Needless to say, I’d fall well short, and no way I’d have the legs to come back and have any sort of decent time on day 2! The weekend also includes a “spandex-free” Townie Ride for those just wanting to do an organized short ride around town, as well as a festival area especially for kids. They also give away 225 free Trek bikes to kids in 4th through 6th grade. However, in order to get a bike they have to go through an extensive safety course and complete the Townie Ride. The event organizers want to build the Tulsa Tough into one of the premier events in the country, with sanctioned Pro racing bringing some of the world’s best racers, as well as growing the touring rides to 10,000 riders.
This year’s racers included Floyd Landis (2006 Tour de France winner (before getting it stripped) and a number of both male and female National Champions and Criterium winners. It was the first time Angie had ever watched any bike racing, and she seemed to really enjoy herself, although she definitely cringed at a couple of the nastier crashes that occurred right in front of us, including one which took out about 20 of the female Cat 1 and Pro’s! I think it also brings back memories of my nasty crash last year as well.

We grabbed some subs from Subway and headed to the festivities. When we got downtown we located a group of friends and riding buddies affectionately known as Team Crude.
They have a school bus that has been converted to a cycling transport vehicle and home base for camping and viewing rides/races. The inside has storage shelves in the back, a couple large couches in the middle, and tables with chairs in the front. The top of the bus has a full platform extending the whole length of the bus, with built in connectors for bikes (can hold 20+), but which also has attachments and add-ons so that it can be covered to provide a shaded hangout. It’s quite the spectacle. Lee Griffin, who takes care of the bus, had communicated with the event organizers and was able to park it right at the start/finish line all three days. As you can see from the pictures, there simply is not a better way to watch the races than from on top of the Crude bus! No shoulders to look over or craning to get a better view. Angie and I hung out here most of the night and it was absolutely loads of fun. It was also great to meet up with a bunch of friends I haven’s seen or ridden with much lately: Pedro and Sherry, Lee, Sylvia, Patty, Tyrone, Cindy Lou, Tom, Stillwater Kevin, and numerous others. Kevin is leaving next week on a cycling trip from Washington State to Maine, the second time he’s done it. Most of the others will be taking part in Oklahoma FreeWheeel, the cross-state bike ride that starts next weekend. This marks the second straight year I won’t be riding on FreeWheel, after completing 6 in a row……too close to adoption departure, and I must keep all my vacation time. I will probably be in a bit of a weird mood all next week……when you love cycling and all your friends are taking part in a particular event, it really eats at you that you’re not there with them! Nevertheless, I wish them strong tailwinds and mild weather the whole week.

Although I didn’t take part in the Tulsa Tough tours this year, I did get a nice 53 miler in yesterday (home-to-Oologah-to-Talala-to-Ramona-to-Vera-to-Collinsville-to-Oologah-to-home) and a 43 miler in today (home-to-WillRogersBirthplace-to-Oologah-to-Vera-to-Collinsville-to-Oologah-to-home). I’m still on my mountain bike (Cannondale F700 hardtail with road slicks), but it takes a whole lot more energy than a road bike, and I think I’m about to get my Guerciotti prepped for some riding. I’ve done a number of century rides on my Cannondale and, let me tell you, it’s one heck of a workout. I did the Tulsa Tough century on it a couple years ago and, with 25 miles left to go (just south of Avant), my legs gave out………that was one of the toughest last 25 miles I’ve ever done, but luckily was on mostly flat terrain. Two years ago a group of us did an awesome ride from Tulsa-to-Bartlesville-to-Dewey-to-Coffeyville where Oklahoma FreeWheel was wrapping up, then hitched a ride back to Tulsa on the Team Crude bus. What an awesome day that was!

For those with an interest in cycling, there’s a wicked cool video on YouTube that Lance Armstrong posted about on Facebook, and which has become an internet sensation and was the most watched video for a number of weeks. It’s a kid-friendly 6 minute bike stunt video of Danny Macaskill shot in and around Edinburgh, Scotland. The things this guy does on his bike are absolutely unbelievable, and it's got a cool soundtrack to boot! Take a look-see by copy and pasting into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o

Will Cameron be at all interested in cycling? We have no idea. We certainly hope so but, if not, no problem. We’ll find his interests and passions and get excited about those. We’re just anxious to get him home. Will this be the week we get Travel Approval?

Great News!

2009-05-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well…..there seems to have been a misunderstanding. Imagine that! Evidently we are not waiting on an Article 5 letter, but rather have already been waiting for our TA from the CCAA for about a week and a half! That’s awesome news, as the TA (Travel Approval) is the last hurdle we must clear, and puts us 2-3 weeks ahead of where we thought we were. So…..we ought to get our TA sometime in the next 1-2.5 weeks based on current timeframes. Once we get that, 2 dates/times are set: the US Consulate appointment in Guangzhou, and the Civil Affairs appointment in Beijing. Typically, travel occurs 3-4 weeks after getting TA. Here’s the catch – Civil Affairs has put a temporary hold on these appointments due to the swine flu, so nobody with children in Beijing can travel to pick them up right now, including us. However, since we don’t have TA yet, we’re not impacted…….yet. We are hoping, as are many other families, that Civil Affairs begins making appointments again ASAP. We are getting close. Very close. We (Angie and I) think we will be traveling in early July. Come on Civil Affairs……back to business as usual!

Waiting on an Article 5 Letter

2009-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

An example of an Article 5 letter can be found here: www.state.gov/documents/organization/105116.pdf.

We are now down to the last 2 significant hurdles we must clear before traveling to get Cameron: issuance of our Article 5 letter by the U.S. Consulate, and issuance by the CCAA of our final Travel Approval. We had originally thought we might travel in mid-June. However, the new I-800 immigration process takes 4-6 weeks longer than the previous I-600 process. It has been just under 2 weeks since our file was sent to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China for their review and issuance of an Article 5 letter. Our file actually was sent to a courier in Guangzhou who hand delivers it to the U.S. Consulate, then returns several days later for the letter, which the courier then hand delivers to the CCAA. We were instructed that this step would be fairly quick…..about 2 weeks or so. So…….we had planned to call our case manager last Friday to get an update, but found out that she was on vacation until after Memorial Day. We hope to find out this week that the Article 5 letter has been issued and that we are now finally awaiting the last hurdle, the issuance of our final Travel Approval. If so, Travel Approval has been taking between 2-4 weeks recently. I will post to the blog as soon as we get some additional information. Hopefully we are still looking at an early July travel date.

One thing that we have been following closely is the impact of swine flu on travel in China. We received an email from our case manager last week stating that China had put a temporary hold on Beijing adoptions due to the swine flu. However, there are a number of folks who are still traveling, so we are unsure what to think or how this may impact us…..hopefully not at all. Since we don’t yet have our Travel Approval, this is not pertinent to us yet. But in another few weeks…………

Angie has been experimenting a bit with her new wok. So far she has made a chicken and shrimp stir fry that turned out to be quite good, and a sweet and sour chicken dish that, to use her own words, needs a bit more refinement. She really likes the wok and how easy it is to cook with.

After a record 22 straight days of rain (the previous record was 13 straight days in 1935), the weather for the last week has been awesome. The Corps of Engineers was able to get the lake water level down enough to open the boat ramps and most campgrounds, although the beach is closed. Hmmmmm…..actually the beach is underwater! Nevertheless, it was great to see some boaters, tubers, water skiers and jet skiers cruising around the cove. On Friday night we stopped by the Redbud Bay Marina for some pizza. The marina is about a mile from our house and some entrepreneur just opened a pizza joint on the dock where he specializes in pizza and Italian Ice. Cookies and cream? Not so much. Cherry? Awesome! Made with ice and real cherries. If you’re on the water you can call them via cell phone and they’ll deliver the pizza to your boat at the dock! While waiting for our pizza we wandered around the dock and admired all the nice boats. Redbud Bay has a certified ASA (American Sailing Association) school, so there are loads of sailboats that call the marina home.

I-800 Approval Has Arrived!

2009-05-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

We received notice today that our I-800 Provisional Approval had been received by our adoption agency in South Carolina. For some reason, they received their copy today but we still have not gotten ours. However, it makes no difference, as we are overnighting tonight to our case worker the supporting documents she needs to then overnight it tomorrow to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. So…..one more step in the process is done. Next up…..the US Consulate reviews our documents and issues an Article 5 letter. Hopefully this will not take more than a couple weeks.

Waiting.....

2009-05-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

Not much new on the adoption front to report in this post, although I will ‘ramble’ nonetheless. We are currently awaiting receipt of our I-800 Provisional Approval from the US Immigration Service (USCIS). This typically takes about two weeks to process, and we overnighted our application on Tuesday, April 21st, so they received it on the 22nd. Assuming we get it this week, our next step is to wait for an Article 5 Letter. Here is how that process works: After USCIS provisionally approves the I-800 it transfers the case to Consulate Guangzhou through the National Visa Center (NVC). At the same time, we will send a copy of the Provisional Approval along with a DS-230 Visa Application for Cameron to our agency. The agency will then send these items along with a copy of Cameron’s growth and medical reports, original signed LOSC (Letter of Seeking Confirmation), and a passport sized photo of Cameron to Consulate Guangzhou. Upon receipt of all required documents and fees, Consulate Guangzhou provisionally adjudicates the DS-230. Consulate Guangzhou signs the LOSC and issues and signs an Article 5 Letter which gets sent directly to the CCAA. An Article 5 Letter is a document from the Consulate stating that Angie and I are suitable adoptive parents and that Cameron will be able to enter and reside permanently in the United States. This is what the CCAA needs in order to issue Travel Approval.

It still looks like we are on track to travel in mid-June. However, there is just a bit of uncertainty right now as a result of the swine flu scare. We are hopeful that this does not impact us; however, there are some indications that the CCAA is advising against travel for adoption at this time, and may hold processing of TA’s until they get a better feel for the severity and scope of the flu’s impact.

Nevertheless, we continue to prepare for Cameron’s arrival. We have been working on two online older child adoption courses, have completed one, and should complete the other within a week or two. Upon updating our home study with our social worker, we agreed to complete these courses when we decided to adopt an older child, and have found them to be quite beneficial.

Angie’s workplace is planning a ‘baby’ shower for us within the next few weeks. It is so difficult for us to recommend what to get, as we are unsure of Cameron’s clothing size. We are planning to do most of our clothes shopping for him upon our return from China. I cannot say enough about the way Angie’s co-workers have taken an interest in and supported our adoption efforts. As I blogged previously, they even gifted us with a handheld electronic language translator that is likely to be invaluable on our trip and immediate return.

Angie continues to work on the master bedroom/bathroom remodeling project. As you can see, she has been painting the bathroom today. Next comes installation of new light fixtures and window treatments. Her next project is to paint Cameron’s bedroom, and she is hopeful to begin that next week.

Angie has been working with her friend Wendy to begin honing her Asian cooking skills. Wendy is a young lady we were introduced to at church who is a native of China, married an American, and is now a US Citizen. Her parents recently immigrated to the States, and her father had been a chef and owner of a restaurant in Shanghai. They invited us over for lunch a few months ago, and the food her dad cooked was absolutely incredible, but quite different from what you are served in most “Chinese” restaurants in the States. Wendy was quite gracious in readily offering her services to assist Angie in learning how to cook some authentic Chinese dishes. They met at Nam Hai (an Asian supermarket) a couple weeks ago so that Wendy could advise Angie on the sauces they use. As you can see from the picture, you are not likely to find these at most neighborhood grocery stores. We also ordered a wok online this morning (once again, with Wendy’s feedback), and Angie picked up a rice cooker last week. I can’t wait for the cooking to begin!!! Wendy’s dad cooked two dishes in particular that I can’t wait for Angie to master. One was a scrambled egg dish that was unbelievably good, while the other was a green bean dish that seemed simple, yet delicious and unlike any I had tasted before.

It’s been raining buckets around here for the last few days and the lake level is quite high. The area east of us (Claremore and Pryor) had quite a bit of flooding, as some areas got up to 8 inches of rain within a matter of hours. Since our house sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Oologah at a height above the top of the dam, we have no worries, but do sympathize with those not so fortunate. A couple years ago the water level in the lake got so high that the whole parking lot at the dam was underwater for quite some time and the boat ramps weren’t open until mid-July. It was strange to see a nearly empty lake until mid-summer. Hopefully that won’t be the case this year.

Along with the Spring comes lots of yardwork. In our case that means LOTS of yardwork, not due to its size, but rather its makeup. We absolutely love where we live and the wonderful views we enjoy from our house. However, most people have absolutely no idea how much work it is to maintain this yard. Our house sits on a bluff, with dropoffs and uneven ground. My father-in-law actually fell partway off the bluff last year and was extremely lucky to suffer only some large and nasty bruises…..it could have been much worse. The area below the bluff is inaccessible to anything motorized, is very rocky and uneven, and steeply declines toward the edge of the lake. Have I mentioned the ticks and poison ivy? Hopefully the photos give some idea of just how rugged it is. Unfortunately, these areas are out of reach of any mower, and get overgrown extremely fast if not kept in check. Due to the sheer number of rocks interspersed throughout, a weedeater is not very effective for much of it. However, I have discovered (or rather was introduced to by the two brothers who built our deck) an effective herbicide – Crossbow. This stuff is awesome, although it’s a pain in the butt to apply. When mixed with diesel fuel, it kills EVERYTHING! That’s the good news. The bad news is that due to our yard’s terrain, I am currently relegated to a hand held (and hand pumped) sprayer. This is extremely time-consuming and sometimes messy. It can also be mixed with water, but doesn’t seem near as effective. Needless to say, since this has to be applied regularly throughout the Spring and Summer, I don’t enjoy this part of our yardwork one bit!

Angie and I don’t watch much television, but recently came across a show we have become somewhat addicted to. It’s called The Locator, and is on the WE channel on Saturday nights. In a nutshell, it’s about a guy who re-connects lost loved ones. How cool would it be to have this guys job? Is anybody following our blog familiar with this show?

I get a quizzical look every now and then when I write down or tell folks about the name of this blog. For those still unsure of its origins, here goes: The Okie part is easy, as I live in Oklahoma The term ‘Okie’ was made famous (or infamous) by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. (As an aside…..Will Rogers, an Okie immigrant to California himself, once remarked jokingly that the Okies arriving in California increased the average intelligence of both states!). As for Ramblins, that comes from my alma mater, Georgia Tech. Tech’s mascot is the ‘Ramblin Reck’, a 1930 Ford Model A Sports Coupe. Tech students and alumni are often referred to as Ramblin Reck’s, as in “I’m a Ramblin Reck from Georgia Tech and a helluva engineer.” So there you have it. And no, there is no “g” on the end of Ramblin!!!

Argh!!!!!

2009-04-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Although we were on Cloud Nine after getting our LOA on Friday, this weekend was a nightmare as far as getting the next round of documents ready. Why can’t the government just once create a form that does not require a team of experts to decipher? The new Hague-compliant Form I-800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative) was such a joy to complete! NOT! Unfortunately, it will require a call to our social worker before every blank is filled in, lest we answer a question incorrectly. Nevertheless, we ought to have two overnight packages going out tomorrow via UPS: one to CWA which includes our signed Letter of Acceptance, and one to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) which includes our (soon to be) completed I-800 and a bunch of supporting documentation.

So what are the steps and timeframes from here? CWA will return our Letter of Acceptance to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) so that they can complete the processing of our “Notice of Traveling to China for Adoption” or the “Final Approval” or “TA”. Before doing so, however, the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China has to give consent to the CCAA. They will give their consent upon receiving notice from CIS that our I-800 has been processed and approved. It should take about 2-3 weeks for us to get word back (same timeframe for the US Consulate) on our CIS approval. Figure another week for them to review and forward their consent to the CCAA, and that makes it about 4 weeks until getting our TA.

Once we get our Travel Approval, we apply for our China Travel Visas, which are done through a travel agency CWA recommends. At the same time, CWA requests visa appointments from the US Consulate in Guangzhou. Figure another 1-2 weeks for this step. Once the appointment dates are set, we can proceed with making travel arrangements. So, we should be making our plane reservations in about 6 weeks, with travel 2-3 weeks after that. That puts us in the mid-June timeframe for departure.

We are responsible for the international flight to Beijing and home from Hong Kong. CWA makes all in-country arrangements including hotels (the Wangfujing Grand Hotel in Beijing and the White Swan Hotel near Guangzhou), meals, flight from Beijing to Guangzhou, sightseeing, guides, etc. We will most likely be introduced to our son on the first day, and he will be with us from that point on. We will be in Beijing for about 10 days where we will spend a considerable amount of time sightseeing (Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.) in between getting adoption items taken care of, and will then travel to Guangzhou for about 4 days for Cameron’s medical exam, visa appointment and swearing-in (or however that’s done for a child). Since both Angie and I are traveling to China, he will be a U.S. citizen upon touching down in the States.

That should give you a pretty good overview of what lies ahead for us over the next 2-3 months. Those followers of this blog who are adoptive parents (or prospectives) are likely quite familiar with this process, while those who aren’t may think this is pretty involved. If you are the latter, let me just say that I have put forth a greatly abbreviated version. It can be quite confusing, even with detailed instructions. If you have not gone through the laborious and time-consuming task of adopting internationally, you likely have no idea of the toll this takes on you, both emotionally and physically. Suffice it to say that this journey has been quite an adventure so far, and it’s only just begun. We would have it no other way. Hang in there, Cameron, we’ll be there in a couple months!

LOA Has Arrived!!!

2009-04-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

We just got notice this morning that our Letter of Acceptance has been received by our adoption agency and they are overnighting it to us along with a packet of information to guide us through the final stages of our adoption preparation. It will be a busy weekend of filling out paperwork which needs to then be overnighted to others: US Immigration Service, China, and our adoption agency. We were not anticipating getting our LOA until around day 90, so getting it on day 63 was quite a pleasant surprise. We should be travelling to China in about 8 weeks, or mid-June, barring any significant holdups. I'll post more over the weekend and after we get our packet.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

2009-04-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

It’s been several weeks since our last post, but not much new to report. Today is day 58 of our LID-LOA wait. We have gotten some recent information that indicates some LID-LOA times are currently in the 75-80 day range, although we have also heard of several that are much higher, including one at 123 days. We certainly don’t want to get our hopes up too much, but will begin to be on the lookout for our LOA in another few weeks. The adoption agency we are working with for the completion of this adoption, Christian World Adoption (CWA), currently has several employees in Beijing working on a second Hope Project group of children at the #2 Children’s Welfare Institute where our little guy (Cameron) resides. Mei, our social worker, is one of the employees in Beijing and, upon her return to the States next week we are hopeful for an update. There seems to be some online discrepancy as to if and when the children are made aware that they have a family in process, as well as if and when they are given the care packages that are sent to them. We have absolutely no idea right now what Cameron does or does not know, or even if he has been given his care package.

Cameron turned 10 on April 6th. Angie made him a small cake and had her folks come over for some cake and ice cream. No candles, though, as he needs to be here to blow them out. Angie’s coworkers got him a couple Bionicles, which are small lego creatures. They are actually kinda cool, and are perfect to take with us to keep him occupied a bit on our trip. Also, a “friend of a friend” of Angie’s gave us some size 8 jeans and shorts that they were going to include in a garage sale. They found out that we were on the lookout for some size 8’s since Cameron is smaller than his age might indicate, and they were very generous in donating them to us.

I’ve been able to get in a few bike rides this year. This picture was taken last weekend when I hooked up with a bunch of cycling friends for a FreeWheel Training Ride. From left to right: Pedro, Cindy, Sylvia and me. Pedro is sporting his new bike, an Orbea Orca……a very sweet ride! I cannot begin to express how great it felt to be back in the saddle again after my accident last year and to share the road with some great friends, even with the wind howling at 30-40 mph. I really wish I could ride FreeWheel again this year but, alas, I simply do not have enough vacation time built up and I have to prioritize taking a week or two off upon returning from China. My new work hours will allow me to ride a lot more, at least until Cameron arrives, and I’m aiming to average 100-120 miles a week. My legs are only good for about 25 miles right now, but with a few more weeks of training I ought to be back up into the 50-60 mile range at a pretty good pace and, hopefully, do at least one century ride (100 miles) before we leave for China.

We are celebrating Easter later today at Angie’s parents…..an indoor egg hunt (due to heavy rain) for the nieces and a nice dinner afterwards. We volunteered at church last night and attended the service afterwards. Pastor Willie had an awesome message that really hit home for a number of people. Andy and the band did an awesome rendition of Amazing Grace with video testimonials of redemption between verses that really fit in nicely with the sermon title: (Because) He Was.....I Am (Redeemed). It was quite moving.

A Season of Change

2009-03-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Spring is definitely in the air. You know it’s Spring in Oklahoma when the severe weather arrives. Sure enough, we are supposed to get some severe storms this afternoon/evening, the first of the year. Thus begins the rainy and stormy season in Oklahoma, from now until around the 4th of July, a season of high winds, tornadoes, wall clouds and lots of rain. Why the crazy weather? Well, as I understand it, during the Spring months the moist gulf air sweeps up into the Midwest and clashes with cooler air and fronts coming in from the West.

Other signs of Spring abound…..lots of redbuds, daffodils and tulips in the neighborhood. Although we saw 3 bald eagles soaring over the bluff last weekend, I suspect those will be the last sightings until next winter. With warmer weather will come the Spring fishing season, thus bringing many fishermen into the cove, as well as pontoon boats and sailboats for the more leisurely weekend crowd. And, who could forget the season of “one bird per buoy” at the dam (an inside joke for a certain blog follower) and the return of the hummingbirds in a few weeks? Yes, change is in the air.

There are also changes going on in the Hamel household as we continue to prepare to bring our little guy home. I mentioned in a previous post about the possibility of making a change of work environment, and this has been finalized. Beginning April 6th I will be working in the Owasso clinic which is connected to the YMCA. My hours will change to 7:30-4:00, Monday through Friday. We think this will be much better for our little guy as it will have me home by 4:30 each evening, thus allowing me to be of greater assistance with housework, homework and evening tasks with our little guy.

We have also purchased a used vehicle in good condition, a 2002 Chevy Malibu which we got a great deal on from a family friend. The vehicle I currently drive, a Toyota Celica has 192,000 miles on it. Since we want to return to China in a year or two for another adoption, reliable transportation long-term was beginning to become a concern. This vehicle was garage-kept and only has 45,000 miles on it. It allows us to have 2 practical family vehicles, with Angie driving the Malibu and me splitting my time between the Celica and 4-Runner. At least we shouldn’t have to worry about reliable transportation for a few years.

We continue to do some home remodeling projects. The master bedroom has been completed with the exception of the closet doors and some furnishings, and we are moving on to the master bathroom. Our little guy’s room still needs to be painted and have a ceiling fan installed. We are also converting the back office into more of a combination office and classroom. Most of my projects are on the outside and include clearing below the bluff (a veritable tick incubator and poison ivy farm!), treating our large deck, a bunch of caulking on the exterior of the house, etc. Lots to do, but we won’t want these projects hanging over our heads and consuming our time upon returning home from China.

Our homeschooling plans continue as well. Our curriculum is set as far as Phonics, Handwriting and Reading. We still have a bit of decision-making to do with respect to Language and Math, although we will probably use the Singapore Math curriculum; we just need to get a better idea of what grade to start him. The Tulsa World did a lengthy 2-part series this weekend on homeschooling which can be viewed at the following address: tulsaworld.com/homeschoolseries.

Angie is a huge Duggar family fan. For those not aware of who the Duggar’s are, they are a family with 18 children who live in Arkansas and have a show on television every week. They have just written a new book and were in Tulsa on Saturday for a book signing at Barnes & Noble, which also included some Q&A, family singing, etc. So…..since Angie was gracious enough to go see Sean Hannity with me a few years ago (on her birthday, no less!), I thought it only fitting to take her to see the Duggar’s. There was quite a large and enthusiastic crowd on hand, and Angie really enjoyed herself. No, that is not us in the custom made t-shirts, nor do we know who they are.....it was just the best close-up picture we were able to get!

Today marks day 38 of our LID-LOA wait. Absolutely no new news or contact since the last blog post 2 weeks ago. As mentioned before, this is really a dead period since we can reasonably expect to wait 90-120 days, although some folks have gotten theirs recently in the 60-90 day range. At any rate, when our LOA arrives we will have 6-8 weeks of frantic preparation before traveling, which I will go into more detail on at a later date.

Hurry Up and Wait.

2009-03-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Not much new to report. We continue to be very busy with preparations, but still no word on our LOA. This is to be expected, as we are on day 24, with projections at 90-120 days.

We have begun to look more closely and prepare for his homeschooling. Thanks to the feedback of some other homeschoolers (kudos to Susan, Lisa and Jaci!), we have been looking into different options as a starting point. Our first component is phonics, and we have decided to use the Explode The Code curriculum. It actually begins with 3 primers: Get Ready for The Code, Get Set for The Code, and Go For the Code. We are also looking into some language/reading comprehension books and handwriting modules (possibly A Reason for Handwriting), and will likely also use either Alpha Phonics or Happy Phonics. Finally, we are strongly considering using Singapore Math as it tends to be similar to what is taught in China. We want to get some more information on this, though, and are not quite sure at what grade of Singapore Math we would start him, whether at current grade or some grade prior (he’s in Fourth Grade in China). We will likely hold off on any structured History and Science teaching until he has a better grasp of the language (reading and writing).

I am looking into the possibility of making a change at work to a 5-day work week with shorter daily hours (7:30-4:00). This would allow me to be home by 4:30 every evening and provide more support to Angie with evening housework and homework, more consistent daily structure for our little guy, as well as more daily opportunities for bonding and attachment. It would also allow me to work much closer to home (20 miles away versus 33). I would not be changing employers, but rather the clinic at which I practice. I should know more in a couple weeks.

LID Received Today!

2009-02-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

We got our LID today!!! Our China Case Manager emailed me (not long after posting my previous blog entry) to let me know that confirmation of our log-in arrived in their (CWA) office today. It was logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs computer system on February 13, 2009. So…..we are actually 10 days into the 90-120 day countdown from LID to LOA. Awesome! Updating the calendar math, our best guess on travel is now late June (with receipt of our LOA in mid-late May).

What this all means is that our dossier is being sent for translation, then reviewed, and then approved for Letter of Acceptance. This part of the process takes about 3 to 4 months.

We’ll be celebrating tonight!!!

Put a LID on it!

2009-02-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

Another week has passed and still no Login Date (LID). We were really hoping that it would happen by the end of last week, but ‘twas not to be. Interestingly, I received an email from another adoptive family who recently received notice of their LID two months after the actual LID. Perhaps we already have an LID but just don’t know it yet? Wishful thinking more than likely, but it is a possibility. Since the wait from LID to Letter of Acceptance (LOA) will likely be in the 90-120 day range, it would be nice to suddenly get our LID and realize that it was a couple weeks ago, and thus we’re 10+ days into the LID-LOA wait. Hey, we can hope for a scenario like this, can’t we?

We were notified by our China Case Manager several weeks ago that we would be able to get an update on our little guy in a few weeks. We sent her an email this morning requesting this update. It is our understanding that it should include current measurements (height, weight, etc.), as well as feedback on what his response was to our initial care package. We are hopeful for an updated picture and whatever additional information we can get, especially on his personality and interests.

Angie was surprised on Thursday when she went to work and her co-workers presented her with a gift that was totally unexpected, an English Chinese Translator! Since language is such a big initial barrier with older adoptees from China, this is a great tool to ease the communication barrier and transition. Families who have already traveled to China strongly recommend having one, and we had planned to purchase one at some point in the future. This is the model most often recommended (AM101). You can type a phrase in English or Chinese and it will instantly convert it on the screen, or you can have it speak it in the other language. It’s awesome! Angie and I are so appreciative and grateful to the German Corner FBO team she works with and their incredible generosity. You guys are awesome!

We spent a lot of time this week getting information and learning more about home schooling, as this is the path we want to follow with our little guy. A fellow Hope Project parent who, by chance, lives about an hour away and home schools, was kind enough to email me some information on some Tulsa area home schooling resources. Thanks, Susan! Angie is getting more and more excited about home schooling our little guy, although we still have a great deal to learn since this is all new to us.

Angie and I had the pleasure to attend the launch of a good friends church planting in Claremore yesterday. It was the first time I had ever attended church in a movie theatre, complete with popcorn! No kidding! Ricky is one of the most genuine and down-to-earth Christians I know, and we wish him all the best as he follows this calling. Angie and I both commented to each other at what an awesome job his team did at their launch. We have no doubt The Well will become a pillar of the community, and reach every nook and cranny in town to demonstrate the love of Christ. Our prayers are with you Ricky, Amy and The Well team!

Life is Good!

2009-02-16T17:43:00.001-08:00

It has now been two weeks that we have been waiting for our LID, not including the week of the Chinese New Year. We had hoped that we would hear something as early as the end of last week, but it appears that it will be a bit longer. Since the next few months will be a relatively slow period as we wait for our LOA, I will probably only post to the blog once a week unless something significant occurs.

Our son is part of a program called the Hope Project. As one of three participating agencies included in this program, Christian World Adoption accepted responsibility for finding “forever families” for 24 orphans, many with special needs, who were residing in the #2 Children’s Welfare Institute in Beijing (BCWI). Thus far, all but 4 of these children have found their families, although the families are in varying stages of completing their adoptions. One family has already returned from China with their new daughter, while two other families are currently in China uniting with their new children and completing the adoptions.

Many families set up blogs to document their adoptions both during the planning stages as well as while they are in China. The family which has already returned with their daughter, and one of the two families currently in China, have created blogs that we have been following. We are finding this quite beneficial, as we are not only able to share in their joy, but also to learn and better prepare for our own “Gotcha Day” and the acclimation of our son into his new family.

A few things have already arisen which seem to indicate trends. The bio’s originally posted on the CWA website invariably noted that an individual child was not a picky eater. While this may be true for authentic Chinese cuisine, it appears that there is a great deal of adjustment toward Western (or Westernized) food. Apparently, however, both KFC and Pizza Hut are very popular in China. In fact, it was noted that there are more KFC’s in China than in the United States! We might be frequenting the one’s in Claremore and Owasso on our return. The orphanage children also seem to have quite an affinity for sweets. Good thing we sent our little guy some in his last care package!

Since today was President’s Day, Angie did not have to work as the bank was closed in observance (miss ya, Dutch!). We decided to do some shopping for our new son, and hit quite a few good deals. Due to not having accurate information on his measurements, we are trying to get clothes that are adjustable or versatile to wear, preferably at deep discounts so we’re not out much should they not be adequate. We happened to stop by Sun ‘n Ski and, lucky for us, they had quite a sale going on. A lot of their kid’s stuff was in the 70-80% off range and of good quality (Columbia, North Face, Sierra Designs, etc.). Most of the shorts have drawstrings so we can adjust them as needed, as our little guy is fairly small. We also got a pair of really cool cammo shorts at a consignment shop, a pair of nearly new Old Navy khaki shorts for $2 at the Goodwill store, and an OSU cammo hat for $2 at TJ Maxx. What little guy doesn’t like cammo? This should tide us over quite well while we’re in Beijing and until we’ve had a chance to shop more “fittingly” (groan!!!) upon our return!

We also happened on a neat bedroom set for his bed that fits in with what we’ve already done to his room. It included a comforter, sheet set, pillow shams and bed skirt. His room is now nearly complete. All that remains is a coat of paint (we’ve already picked out the color) and installation of a ceiling fan. Of course, I’m sure it will look completely different once he’s put his mark on it with various toys and knick knacks which more closely mirror his personality and interests.

We’re fervently praying that our LOA is expedited, as the wait is killing us!!!

The Last Long Wait Begins

2009-02-08T16:15:00.001-08:00

Our crazy weather continues. It’s supposed to be in the upper 60’s to low 70’s for most of the next week. For us, that’s significantly above average for this time of year, when daytime highs average in the mid-50’s. Hey, we’ll take it! For those not from Oklahoma, Spring brings the stormy season, including tornadoes. No, it’s not Spring yet, but Angie and I both noticed that the air felt that way yesterday for the first time this year. Most of our really bad storms occur from around April through June. With the days getting longer, the warmer weather is quite welcome, although we’ll inevitably get zapped with some more cold weather before long. In fact, I split several wheelbarrows full of firewood and restocked our garage supply in anticipation of the next cold front.

Two years ago, we were entertained all Spring by a family of foxes that had taken up residence below our bluff. Each morning before daylight, they could be found frolicking in our front yard. As they got a bit older, they would venture out periodically during the day. I snapped the picture above while doing some yardwork. This particular juvenile fox decided he wanted to play, and grabbed one of the work gloves I had set down on the ground. Fortunately, he dropped it when I gave chase!

On Thursday we were notified by our China Case Manager that the orphanage in China (#2 China Welfare Institute) had received our care package. So…….our little guy should know by now that he has a family in the process of adopting him. We wish we could have been there to see his response. What were his thoughts as he looked through the photo album we sent him?

The next few months will be quite slow in our adoption. With our dossier to China on 1/22/2009, our next step is to get a Log-In Date (LID). This should occur in the next week or two if all goes well. Then, it usually takes the CCAA 3-4 months to issue the Letter of Acceptance (LOA). Waiting for this is the “dead period.” However, once we get our LOA, a great deal happens in a short period of time, and our travel dates should be around 6-8 weeks after getting our LOA.

In the meantime, we are doing lots of homework to prepare. CWA has enabled all the Hope Project families to get in touch with each other. In fact, a Yahoo group has been set up to do just that. One family has already returned with their daughter, representing the first Hope Project child through CWA to return to the States. Another family is leaving this Wednesday. We look forward to following their blog as they experience their “Gotcha Day” and getting acclimated with their new child. We have also joined a couple Yahoo discussion groups that are proving to be quite beneficial. One is for those adopting children from our particular orphanage (#2 CWI), while the other is for those adopting older children. It is quite enlightening to hear about the experiences others have had and how they have dealt with certain behavioral and other issues. One common thread of advice seems to be to “prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Needless to say, the personal histories of these children have shaped who they are to this point, for better or worse, and it may take lots of unconditional love, understanding and well-thought out behavioral modification techniques to fully acclimate them to their new lives.

More Progress

2009-02-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Our I-797C arrived in the mail on Thursday, exactly 2 weeks after mailing it in. What is an I-797C? It is an approval from the US Immigration Service (CIS) to adopt a child within the characteristics spelled out in our Home Study. We had originally been approved for a child up to 24 months of age. However, since our little guy is currently 9 years old, we had to update our Home Study and submit a revised application to CIS. Once we mailed it in, we kept our fingers crossed that it would be processed quickly, as there are a multitude of stories about how long the wait can be with CIS. Our China Case Manager had told us it should be in the 2 week range…..how right she was! We are ecstatic that things are finally moving in our adoption process. Next up? Getting our Log-In Date (LID) from the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). With everyone in China back at work this week after the Chinese New Year, we are hopeful this will occur expeditiously.

We have acquired a Chinese language program from a professional acquaintance and friend, and have begun the laborious task of learning Mandarin Chinese. Both Angie and I took the first lesson yesterday, then spent the rest of the day saying words and short phrases to each other. Needless to say, we’ve got a long way to go! We really like the immersion techniques the program uses, and are strongly considering using the Chinese-to-English version as a tool to help our son learn his new language as quickly as possible upon his arrival in the States.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I will be enjoying the game at my in-laws, enemy-territory since they have Pennsylvania roots and will be cheering for Pittsburgh. I, however, am rooting for Arizona, as Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt was a player at my alma mater, Georgia Tech back in the early 80’s while I was there. Coach Whisenhunt is the only 5-year letterman in Tech history, and was a walk-on to boot! Oh yeah, he was also born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, where I spent several years while at the Medical College of Georgia as a Physical Therapy student. Go Cards!!!

Freezing Rain and Sleet

2009-01-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

Mother Nature was kind enough to throw us a winter storm yesterday and today. Thank goodness our area was nothing like the infamous ice storm of December 2007, although it looks like other areas got hit pretty hard. It started yesterday as freezing rain, which quickly made the roads a mess. It’s easier to drive in 6 inches of snow than a tenth of an inch of freezing rain…..you can get traction on snow and even sleet. However, overnight it turned to sleet, so the roads are a bit better. Hard to believe that 1 inch of this can bring things to a standstill. Angie stayed at her sister’s house last night, and also will tonight, as it’s only 3 miles from her work as opposed to 18 to get home. A friend drove her the 3 miles, and it took 45 minutes!

I stayed home and camped out on the living room floor with a warm fire and my 2 favorite furry friends. I was able to exercise them before the storm began, so they are content to snooze the day away.

We are currently looking into ways to get more information about our little guy while we complete the adoption process. Any information we can get will help us prepare. What are his interests and hobbies? What is his personality like? What size clothing and shoes does he wear? What are his food preferences? What school subjects does he like the most? Is he introverted and shy, or does he make friends easily? We are also hoping to get an updated picture or two.

Still no word on the new I-797C. It’s only been a week and a half, though, and we’ve been told to expect it in the 2-4 week timeframe. Due to the Chinese New Year, our LID is probably at least a couple weeks away, if not longer.

Care for a Package?

2009-01-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

We put a care package in the mail to our little guy today. According to the USPS, it should arrive there in 6-10 business days. When I put the package on the counter at the post office, the lady asked me to fill out a Customs form. No problem, at least at first. In the space for the foreign address I didn’t know what to put, as I’d been emailed the address to send it to, but other than “Beijing, the People’s Republic of China”, it was all in Chinese! The clerk had never encountered that before. After talking to her manager and making a couple calls she decided it was okay to simply photocopy the address and stick that on all 6 (yes 6!) copies of the Customs form. It cost about as much to send the package as it did for the package contents.

In addition to what’s in the picture above, our package also included a map of the United States and a map of Oklahoma, with our location circled. Needless to say, we are not exactly next door to Disneyland, so I hope he’s not disappointed about that! The package also includes a one page letter which our China Case Manager was gracious enough to translate into Chinese, in which we gave him a little information about ourselves, where we live, hobbies and interests, etc.

Tulsa is under a winter storm warning (freezing rain and sleet), so we’re hunkered down with plenty of firewood and a few food essentials. The last time we got an ice storm here, December 2007, we lost power for 5 days, as did much of Tulsa. Supposedly that was a once in a lifetime event, so hopefully this one won’t be too bad. I just wish it would snow instead, as some of the best times I’ve had with the girls (Gentry and Madison, see picture above in my profile) were when we got 5 or 6 inches of snow. They get so giddy and playful…..and tired! One of the pictures we sent our little guy shows them along with me and our 2 nieces (on my wife’s side) playing in the snow. Great fun!

Chinese New Year

2009-01-26T10:43:00.000-08:00

Today is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Year of the Ox. The ox is the second of twelve animals associated with the Chinese lunar calendar. People born in the Year of the Ox are said to be hardworking, tolerant, and persistent. The Year of the Ox ends on February 13, 2010. In China, fireworks are set off, as it is believed they scare away ghosts and spirits. The occasion is also often marked by special events such as parades and parties.

The Northeast Oklahoma chapter of Families with Children from China got together for dinner in Tulsa at Beijing Gourmet. Some friends we have made in Owasso who have two adorable adopted daughters (as well as two adorable daughters by birth), were kind enough to remind us of the dinner, so Angie and I enjoyed a wonderful evening with a number of kindred families. It’s simply amazing to me how well-adapted the majority of these children are, although I’m sure the parents can readily recount a number of early challenges. We look forward to attending these and many other Chinese events when our little guy arrives home.

DTC!!!

2009-01-22T16:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, most of you have no idea what that means. DTC is an acronym for dossier to China, and is a huge day/event for those folks involved in an international adoption from China. After taking a year to put our dossier together, it is finally on it’s way to China, the next big step in our adoption. I got an email late this afternoon from our China Case Manager informing me that UPS had picked up our dossier. The next step is for the CCAA (the China Center for Adoption Affairs) to log it in, thus giving us our next important step, our LID (log in date). We are hopeful this step does not take too long. However, the Chinese New Year is about to begin, so everything will be shut down in China for about a week. How’s that for timing?

Angie drafted a letter to our little guy last weekend for inclusion in a care package we’ll be sending him next week. Our case manager translated it and sent it back to me by email. I sure hope he can read it, because it’s gibberish to me!!! Of course, that’s what English will be to him, I’m sure, at least to start with. Boy, will we likely have our work cut out for us in teaching him a whole new language, alphabet, etc. Needless to say, we’re lining up all sorts of resources before his arrival.

We’re still waiting on our new I-797C from the Immigration Service. It’s only been a week, but that’s long enough for us to open the mailbox with hope each day!

In the meantime, we continue to prepare…….Since we don’t know his hobbies or interests yet, we’re setting up his room in a Georgia Tech motif. No particular reason other than we have loads of little GT knick-knacks, dolls, flags, fleece throws, paintings, etc. At least it will give his room a starting theme, although we will likely change this upon his arrival or soon before/after based on his personality and/or interests.

A Week of Progress

2009-01-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

Our adoption process is actually starting to gather some steam. On Monday, our local adoption agency handed over our dossier to us, for us to then send to the adoption agency in South Carolina which is handling our son’s case. It was a bit surreal to know that this folder contained all that we had worked a year to put together. We overnight mailed it to South Carolina. It should be on its way to China in the next few days. Also, along with our dossier, our local agency handled our updated home study since our son is older than what we had originally requested. With all updates comes the need to get it approved by CIS (the US Immigration Service) through a form I-800A. We overnight mailed our updated home study and new forms to them on Monday. Our original I-800A took 11 weeks! We are hopeful this will be quicker and, in fact, have been told by our case manager that it should take only 2-4 weeks. What CIS mails to us is called an I-797C, a preapproval. There are still many steps to complete in our adoption journey but, in a nutshell, we should be on track to travel to China in the May-July timeframe.

Angie put together a letter for our son, which we emailed to our China case manager earlier today. She will translate it for us and send it back, and we will include it in a care package we are preparing to send him at his orphanage in Beijing. I’d love to be able to know what he thinks when he sees the pictures of his new house and family.

An Easier Way to Communicate!

2009-01-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our new blog! Why, you ask? Well, it's not because the life of the Oklahoma Hamel's is very exciting, as it's not. However, we are involved in the intricate process called international adoption, and thus get many queries from family and friends for updates. There you have it. Our primary goal will be to document the process and post updates as we prepare for this momentous change in our lives. Hopefully you will find this at least a wee bit entertaining. Over the next few days I/we will try to add posts to give a background as to what got us to this point, as well as where things stand now. Feel free to post a response or email us with your thoughts.