JSQ's Adoption Blog

Violet is in surgery now. She's been a brave little trooper today. There was no crying until she had to leave Mommy.

Violet's surgery is scheduled for 1:10 pm this afternoon. The Doctor will be lengthening her columella (part of the nose). She will also cut out her lip scars and attempt to align them better. It's supposed to be an outpatient surgery, but given how late it is in the day, we suspect we will have to stay the night. The surgery should last about an hour and a half. Recovery will be at least 2 hours but most likely more.

Noni informed me that we hadn't shown any pictures of Halloween costumes. Q made a great "sharp-tooth", but he probably would have preferred to be a plant eater like a Brontosaurus. Odd, isn't it? The boy who won't touch green food-stuffs wanting to dress up as a plant eater. Violet dressed up as a fairy. Of course, if you ask her, she was a butterfly.

Except for some cold wind coming off of the pond, the kids had a blast at Noni and Papi's farm. We started at the pond with fishing. It wasn't long before Papi and Violet were reeling in their huge catch.

Quentin was a little frustrated as the fish weren't much interested in his lure, but between the two of us, we managed to bring in one perch that had to weight at least 2 ounces, maybe a little more. Violet managed to hook and land 3 such beauties. No doubt it would have been a bountiful feast had the kids not released the fish back into the pond.

After fishing, we headed back up the hill to the cabin for a picnic lunch. Papi grilled hot dogs while Q and Vi walked circles around the cabin's corner post.

With some full bellies, the kids took turns sitting on the tractor pretending to drive.

Finally, we had a walk in the woods with a little bit of running for good measure.

We then spent the afternoon and evening in Stillwater saying hello to Kita, playing with toys, watching football, and generally being hyperactive and crazy. With the Cowboys down 21-7 to Tech, we decided to head for home. Thanks to Noni and Papi for a great day.

Fairly frequently, I experience difficulty sleeping after working late, and I end up either watching tv or pointlessly browsing the Internet until I think I'm tired enough to fall asleep. One of the sites I sometimes visit is an adoption forum I frequented prior to our trip to China this past January. On the rare occasions where I return like I did tonight, I typically look for families adopting children from Huizhou SWI like us. It's a small group, and it's interesting to share experiences and pictures.

Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for. I found something else:

Smoke chokes 8 disabled children to death in fire at southern China welfare home

The actual story the post pointed to disappeared from Yahoo so I'll summarize the content here. In March 2008, 8 children from Huizhou SWI, ages 4 to 8, died of smoke inhalation when a blanket fell on a lit mosquito coil. The Governor of the province, Huang Hua Hua, has promised severe punishment for those responsible.

Unless I'm mistaken about the SWI (which I don't believe I am since they mentioned the adjoining retirement center), these were children Violet probably knew. If we hadn't brought her home in January, she would have probably been in a nearby room. "Those responsible" could very well be one or more of the caregivers we met, and severe punishment in China usually means much more than fines or jail time.

For her first 2 1/2 years, Violet likely considered the kids in Huizhou SWI to be her brothers and sisters and the nannies her parents. For all intents and purposes, this was her family for those 30 months, and she may have lost several of them just 6 weeks after she joined our family.

While Mommy was away at Bunko (is that even spelled right???), the kids and I broke out the knives and matches for some good, old fashioned pumpkin carving fun. The night basically went like this:

Violet: YUCK!

Jason: Stop wiping your hands on your clothes.

Quentin: If you want your hands clean, rub the top of the pumpkin like this.

Violet: Ewwwww....Yucky.

Jason (while carving...to Violet): KEEP YOUR HANDS BACK!

Now just put that on a loop a few hundred times. Still, though. You have to admit they're kind of cute.

You turn your back just for a second here in Oklahoma, and even though it's not Spring, a small tornado touches down right in the living room.

Things don't look too bad at this point, though. President Q was already hard at work with the cleanup and rebuilding.

We'd like to send a special thank you to Nana and Grandpa without whom this might not have been possible.