Originally Posted by fezo (Post 148867)

Well, you'd have to overcome the curvature of the earth but...... I'm probably 90 miles southwest of the Empire State Building. Incredibly i have never been up it. My "tall building in New York" experience was going up the World Trade Center. Still spooks me when I think of that.

Ah! Another chance to talk about the "twins." We had decided to get a girl from China about a year and a half before it all happened. Wasn't a fertility thing. It was a 'those kids have a terrible time of it and you can't help the big picture much but can do everything for one kid" thing. Well, halfway through things Jen gets pregnant but we'd decided beforehand that if that happened we were still going through with it.

So Carrie was born September 21,2001. Believe me that was a weird time to be having a kid! We continue on things for Claire. In January 02 I have a series of ministrokes leading to a seizure. We pause and really started thinking this might not be a go. We tell the adoption agency we're slowing down but come May I get a call from the agency telling me she's looking at a picture of my daughter. I'm there "excuse me?" She had been away and never got the delay message. Says we can say no but in conversation says she was born on September 22, 2001. I know at that point that I'm going to go get her.

Jen was already in bed. i go up and tell her and first she's says we can't do it. Then i say "she was born on September 22 - I'm going." She was quickly on board.

The trip to China was at the end of June of 2002. At the time the girls were nine months old. Jen didn't see taking Carrie to China at 9 months so i took my oldest daughter, Jill. She was 13 at the time. On July 1 we arrive in Changsha, the capital of the Hunan province. They hand Claire off to us almost before I've put down my suitcase! Jen sends me an E-mail. Now we had named Claire before she was even conceived. i named her after my mother who just missed ever getting to meet her. The orphanage, where she had lived from the age of two days had given her the name Wei. We had checked on the meaning of that and when you look in a baby name book Claire means exactly the same thing! The Chinese speak of a red thread holding people together. If you are connected to another person by a red thread you will meet that person no matter how tangled the thread may get. We were obviously connected to Claire by that red thread.

It was tough early on because Carrie is such a laid back happy kid and Claire is very temperamental which we were warned first thing is a Hunan characteristic. They are often very opinionated and passionate. Mao was from Hunan. Carrie and Claire have become twins for all practical purposes. Best friends and worst enemies. More often friends.

I'll have to post a picture at one point.

Meanwhile, I'm tired but getting along. I imagine I'll have another blood trip on Wednesday. As long as i can keep it going which I'm sure I can.

Originally Posted by fezo (Post 149650)

Hey!

Well, I'm in again tomorrow for a couple of units... Will let you know how it goes. I'm beginning to try and plan my schedule around these things since otherwise I'd run out of sick days. You do what you have to.

The doctor was away on vacation for a week and then had a family emergency so getting everything done was wackier this time but I'm due in tomorrow morning now which is right on schedule.

Originally Posted by fezo (Post 149690)

So I'm back with two units from Columbus, OH.... We carry on..

So I get home and we just have some fried chicken from the store. Claire asks how they catch the chickens! You can't buy that kind of entertainment. Once she figured out that the chicken didn't live to a ripe old age you could see the wheels starting to turn in her head. Her 16 year old sister (my daughter Michelle) hasn't eaten meat in a year and a half.

Originally Posted by BILLW (Post 149758)

I was off meat eating for a good 8 - 10 hours after that. Really.
Bill :)