I woke up this morning and realized that --Holy Cow! -- I only have 15 days to get ready for our trip to China. It is that weird feeling where I know that I have tons of things to do, but it is still far enough away that all I feel is overwhelmed. I do a little here and a little there, but overall I don't really feel like I am getting anything accomplished. Most of the things that I am doing to prepare are trivial things that will be helpful in the end, but they don't really push me further toward really being ready to travel to China with a family of eight.
So, what do I do instead of prepare? Yesterday I spent a total of 13 hours trying to update my stupid iPhone with the new operating system (which, by the way, is way cool). I had taken too long to back up my phone on the computer, so it took forever. Finally I just gave up on it and rebooted the entire system. I'm sure that I lost a few things that I had added since the last backup, but since I couldn't figure out what they were I guess they weren't that important. The frustrating thing was that the iTunes program would freeze up over and over and over while I was trying to do all this, so I think that I had to restart the computer at least fifty times yesterday. So frustrating!
While I was trying to update everything I finally uploaded all the photos and videos from the phone. Now I can be sure that they are safe since we back up our computer files with an external hard drive as well as online backup through carbonite. (I lost almost a year of photos right after JoJo was born, so now I'm a bit compulsive about backing things up.) I found some sweet gems in the pile of photos on my phone, so I'm glad that I finally took the time to get them on the computer.
Then I finally went through my g-mail accounts and organized everything. When I started I had over two thousand emails in my inbox. Now there are four. It makes me smile to look and see things in good order. I always tell myself that I will never let things get so unorganized ever again each time I organize, and yet I know that it will get this way. I am just way too laid back about things most of the time to really take the time to organize as I should. And then I pay for it later. Oh well! ---And, speaking of doing things other than preparing for our trip and organizing, today my packing procrastination activity will be to organize our office downstairs. It is a nightmare. I can only describe is as looking as you might expect an office to look after a Category 1 tornado. Between my lack of proper filing for months at a time and six kids who rifle through all the craft items and office supplies, it is a disaster. But I always find that I can get it back to working order in about two days. So I'm headed to do that this afternoon.
So, what are we doing to really get ready for this trip? We are loading up on Chinese culture and travel information. These are the books that we are reading over and over. We are also doing a lot of internet research. We have divided up the rest of the days until we travel, and on each day we talk about what we will be doing on the corresponding day in China. Each family member takes a day and researches the activity for the day. Then Laney made a series of paper chain links that we tear off each day to count down our days until China. We have had a lot of fun looking up youtube videos about the different areas where we will travel. Things that look super fun so far -- taking the toboggan down the Great Wall at Mutianyu, Eating any number of crazy creatures from a street vendor at the Wufangjing street market (the scorpions seem to be the tamest of the offerings), karaoke at one of the many karaoke bars in Bejing, the toilet themed restaurant (Spencer's request), eating Peking duck at Da Dong restaurant. Things that seem memorable but horrifying -- using some of the crazy public toilets in the more rural areas in China (eek!). I don't know if I will really ever be ready for this trip. I like to be very prepared for our vacations with detailed itineraries and a good idea of what to expect at each stop. Herman is more of a seat-of-his-pants kind of traveler. He likes to show up and see where fate takes us. That completely freaks me out, especially in an area where we will not know the language or culture very well. We'll probably end up combining things a bit so that I'll get a little bit of planned activity, and Herman will have some time to see what happens. Hopefully it will be low stress for all of us.
Of course the big thing will be finally picking up Minsy in Wuhan. I am really hoping that that will go smoothly. I can't even begin to imagine how scary this process might be for Minsy. Even if her situation in China were horrible and we were the best family on the planet it will be hard for her. I know that one of my brothers came to our family from a less than ideal foster situation, and he still cried for days and days and days. I really hope that Minsy will not be too terribly distraught. Hopefully having the other kids with us will help her to relax soon. Hopefully our overly enthusiastic clan will not overwhelm her. I am trying to learn phrases of comfort in Chinese so that I can try to assure her that there is nothing to worry about and that we will keep her safe. It is just so hard for me to prepare myself mentally for this situation because I don't know what to expect. So much depends on Minsy's personality. Herman feels confident that she will adapt very quickly, and he usually has excellent intuition about these things, so I'm hoping for that. I sent Minsy one last care package from us (see above). It was a bedtime package and was supposed to have jammies, a blanket, a doll, and some little items. I had them replace the blanket with a fall dress because we already sent Minsy a blanket, and I couldn't expect her to bring a load of blankets with her when she left China. I also added a book. It is that very strange looking pig book at the bottom of the picture. I bought some good quality tea to give to her foster family, and we got her a pink backpack so that she had something to bring her stuff with her when she comes with us. I also included a letter for her. Ann from RedThreadChina translated it for us, and that translation is shown at the bottom of the photo. Apparently it was delivered to her on Monday. I hope she enjoys it and that her foster family enjoys it as well. It is crazy how much the orphanage keeps the foster families from the adoptive families. I guess I would understand if this was the wish of the foster family, but I really think that it is because of orphanage policies. I would think that this foster family would want to keep getting information about Minsy after she comes to the US, and I would love to at least thank them for all that they have done for her. But that isn't going to happen, unfortunately. The best I can do is send updates to the orphanage and hope that someone passes the info on to the foster family. I'm just excited that I was able to send this last package to Minsy and her family, letting them know that we would be there soon and how much we were excited to meet her.
So, I think that I have bought most of the trinkets and travel sized items that I will need to survive in China with my family for a month. I still want to buy a bit of food to have with us. Other than that we should be okay. I ordered these sweet chopsticks to take with us on our trip. The ones on the left are chopstick cheaters that are connected at the top to make them squeezeable and easy to use. The ones on the right are kids training chopsticks that help them know where to place their fingers to make the thing work. We are okay at using chopsticks. Laney is probably best at it. But I have funky thumbs (Laney calls them spoon thumbs). They are squatty and fat, and they make using chopsticks difficult for me. I can do it, but I get tired of it soon. These chopsticks will keep me happy on the trip if I need to use them. I think the kids will love the trainers. So, we should be prepared enough. I just need to start loading up suitcases to see how everything looks.
Other sweet things that have happened in the last two weeks -- I turned 40. I thought that it would be something strange, but it was pretty much like any other birthday. I still feel like I am in my twenties, so I don't feel especially old. My body is a bit slower, I guess, but this is definitely the best time of my life. I have a family who I adore and who adores me. I feel confident in who I am and where I am going. I'm embracing life and all that it offers me. Who could ask for more? Also I got my first mention in a published work. Courney Cole published her book "My Tattered Bonds." This is the book that she asked me to beta read. I finished that for her last week, and it was great fun. I felt like I helped her a bit clarify a few things, and I let her know that I really loved the direction she took with the story. She thanked me in her remarks at the end of the book. I really do highly recommend her Bloodstone Saga books. They are inexpensive ebooks, and they offer a neat look at history and mythology as she weaves those into her story. She also sent me a couple of chapters of her new series which is a spinoff of the Bloodstone Saga, and it looks even better. I can't wait to read it. I think I could really get used to being a beta reader for authors. It is right up my alley because I love reading so much, and I did a bit of literary criticism with my French major in college, especially with the Honors thesis paper that wrote my senior year in college. My main problem is that I might be a bit too unwilling to criticize too much. But I can't help it. I'm pretty easy to please as a reader, and I recognize the heart and soul that authors infuse into their writing. How could I be overly critical of that? I really enjoyed this. So head out and check out Courtney Cole's books. I love them!
Now the iphone update is complete. I have no more excuses. It's time to clean/pack/procrastinate!
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