Hong Kong

I can't tell you how exciting it is to ride an Airbus 330 through typhoon weather on our way to Hong Kong. I'll just say that it was a bumpy ride. Makena cooperated and kept her seatbelt on and held my hand throughout the turbulence. The plane was full of people wearing masks - a constant reminder about the spread of swine flu across Asia. Not fun. Regardless, we landed safely and were greeted by sweltering humidity and more stormy weather to which my hair responded accordingly.


The second part of this adventure was to reunite with our Seattle friends who were now living in HK for the next two years. They were part of our adoption group and we met and befriended them when they were in China adopting their daughter Amelie (Esme's little sister).


Amelie and Jack hit it off right away which meant that Makena had to keep a close eye on the two as her sense of proprietorship kicked into full gear. Poor Amelie became a little frazzled observing Makena claim all of her toys as hers. We kept telling Amelie to ignore what Makena was saying and that worked for a bit. I also came to a very expensive realization while we were in Hong Kong which was that my children don't travel the world with the intent of actually seeing it (okay, Mak is three and has no say.)They put up with the travel to swim in new pools.


The kids were wiped out from the time spent in Singapore and by the time we landed in the apartment and getting them to leave this toy-filled sanctuary was quite trying. The constant rains and the allure of the Wii didn't help matters either. Esme and Jack bonded over some serious Wii tennis matches. Heaven.

So, Alas, I did not see much of the city but in all reality, I was wiped out too and glad to catch up on my reading. I did read a few tour guides therefore I knew what I was missing and I did escape with Doug and Kenwyn at night to have grownup dinners and walk around in the rain. I was taken to a few extraordinary restaurants and tried Manchurian and Nepalese food for the first time. Both cuisines made deliciously delectable use of potatoes. I still think about the potato and eggplant dish I had that will lure me back to that Manchurian restaurant when I set foot in Hong Kong again. Yum!


I did end up having to take Jack to the doctor a couple of days after we arrived because he was complaining of stomach ailments (and to rule out Swine flu at his insistence.) We tried to figure out if it was the sushi dinner our last night in Singapore or the malaysian curry lunch the day before that did it. His culinary curiosity may have gotten to him after all.

We found our way to a very large practice full of ailing foreigners. We were seen very quickly and Jack was given something for the cramps and told to eat white rice for the next few days, which did not go over very well. He was also told that he did not have Swine flu, which did go over well.

Although we took a cab to the doctor's office, we walked home and rode the longest escalator in the world, up the the hill, to the mid-levels where our friends lived. Jack experienced a feel for the city without walking too much. There were store fronts, cross streets and alley ways crisscrossing under the escalator that were bustling with businesses, shops and restaurants full of people. I was dying to explore them but knew I was pushing my luck so I could only study them from afar. Jack only tolerated the field trip home because I promised to get him back to the pool while the sun was still out.

I snapped this sign along the way. Hilarious.


Is - in Hong Kong

Sealed with a kiss

I had to embarrass myself by volunteering to throw a frisbee at a sea lion and have him catch it. I raised my hand and promised the MC that this was my sport. I stood up in front of a large audience, told everyone my name and where I was from and then was handed the plastic disc. For a brief moment I flashed on my friend J (this is actually how you spell his name) who is an extreme frisbee player and tried to channel him as I took aim and failed, over and over and over. I could hear Jack groaning as the sea lion made every attempt to reach it and missed. Ugh. He finally caught it and splashed me as he belly flopped into the tank. Whatever. My failure still won me first place in line to get my picture taken with the animal so I quickly grabbed Makena and led her up to the podium as Jack took off in the opposite direction distancing himself from me. I hate lines so bruising my ego was definitely worth it.


The zoo offered elephant rides so we had to try that. We also fed giraffes. Ran twenty miles chasing after Makena...

Singapore was all about close encounters with animals as well as hand sanitizer. I went through an entire bottle the week as I was there. I would pop the bottle out and squirt away. Makena and Jack never turned it down.

The snake charmer's business was dead until we paid him to have Jack's picture taken with his boas. A crowd gathered around us as I snapped my pictures and then a few other tourists did the same. I sent Jack to the bathrooms to wash up after that. I didn't have enough antibacterial on me and snake pee is really smelly.

We really enjoyed ourselves in Singapore.

Is - sad to be leaving

Singapore

The last straw was walking past the health monitors positioned at passport control who had pointed temperature readers at us to get our body heat readings. Thankfully, we were just hot looking. Swine flu was as big deal here and they weren't messing around since most of the recent cases had been brought courtesy of visitors from the United States and Mexico.

Anyway, by the time we crawled out of the baggage terminal and were greeted by Dominique, it had taken us twenty-nine hours to get to Singapore. The kids were well behaved if not a wee bit smelly and sticky.


Mak and Jack passed out the minute we reached the condo so Do and I caught up and created an attack plan to entertain them for the next seven days. Although I was disappointed that Do's husband was stuck working in Australia, it was probably for the best. He wouldn't have to suffer our jet-lagged three AM awakenings and Dominique wouldn't have to feel torn about giving us all of her attention. He wasn't there! We had her al to ourselves.


Sunday was spent by the pool getting used to the 100 degree weather and ridiculous humidity and then walking through an Indian neighborhood and checking out Mustafa's: The most insane six story shopping plaza/fire trap that sold everything from Reebok shoes in the basement to electronics, medicine and freshly slaughtered goat meat on the third floor. The aisles were narrow. The place was overcrowded. You had to turn sideways to get passed people and the stroller didn't fit down most aisles. The only saving grace was that Makena had fallen asleep so I didn't have to worry about losing her. That would come later. I made it out of there with rice milk and a box of frosted flakes cereal.


Day two was spent at the Singapore zoo. The most grand, clean and beautiful zoo I have ever set foot in. The white tiger exhibit was something to behold. All the animals were active and not pacing like I often see in most other zoos. Do and I lost five pounds chasing after Makena all day because she wouldn't wait for us and kept running ahead. If that wasn't enough, after a full day at the zoo, we decided to cap it off with a visit to the night zoo to see nocturnal animals in action and to eat an amazing (zoo purchased) dinner of Laksa (a spicy coconut, noodle, seafood dish). The day was repleet with stops at spotless restrooms where I would cool Makena off by pouring water on her. Seriously, Singaporeans know how to keep public facilities clean.


Of course, none of my photographs correspond to any of the places I have mentioned because I forgot the battery to my camera. Do has promised to send me the ones she took and I am still trying to figure out how to get the ones Jack took with his phone onto this blog. These will have to do for now.

More adventures to come.

Is-loving Singapore.

Far and away

Ok, so Jack graduated from fifth grade and I decided that I would mark the occasion by going away on a special trip to Singapore because Dominique now lived there and because we had an open invitation to go visit her. The trip was meant to be for just Jack and me and to last ten days but... as the planning began and after talking to EM about his schedule, and to Makena's teachers, everyone recommended that I not leave her for that long. It was better to go away for a bit longer and take her and deal with jet lag than leave her at home without me.

So the planning shifted to two weeks and we added a stop-over in Hong Kong because friends from our adoption group had recently moved there and had also extended an invitation to us to visit.

Our savvy travel agent booked tickets to Singapore via a layover in Taiwan and then flew us from Singapore to Hong Kong. The most difficult part of the trip for me was going to be the ten hour layover in Taipei after a fifteen hour flight. I've done some daring travel in my life but schlepping my volatile daughter halfway across the world with her brother BY MYSELF takes the cake. I did lose a few nights sleep in anticipation but then calmed a bit when I decided to hire a guide to pick us up at the airport, show us around, and return us in time for our flight. Mostly to make sure that I didn't lose my children because I passed out in the back of his car.

EM and I decided to have a party for Jack's class on Thursday the day before we were to leave. My flight was at one on Friday and I figured that I would pack after the party. I sent e-vites out to thirty students, other friends and their parents. I ordered the Margarita and snow cone machines and pizza. I cleaned the house and then I got a call from my travel agent to go over the details of the layover in Taiwan.

Thank God she called because if she hadn't I would have missed the flight. I was right in thinking that I was leaving at one on Friday. But wrong in thinking that it was 1PM. The flight was at 1AM!!! This meant that I actually had to leave for the airport on Thursday. So in classic Isabelle fashion, I decided to leave for the airport from our own party (and have EM clean up on his own). The party was held. Everyone came to celebrate and to laugh at me and ask me if I was packed. (I wasn't.) The party was supposed to be from 1 to 6 (giving me four hours to get my act together before having to leave). Of course nothing ever goes as planned and our guests partied until the last ones left around 8:30PM. I dashed around the house gathering the list of items I needed to bring... making sure I had the Benadryl and the DVD player... grabbing cameras bathing suits and Advil.

I surveyed my haul: One rolling suitcase (for the three of us for two weeks). One rolling carry-on. One stroller. One backpack and one tote. EM was impressed by my packing. My goal was to do laundry at my friends' and be able to move around the airport without Jack's help in case he was too exhausted.

The first seven hours of the flight went well because Makena slept. Then she woke up and tolerated the flight for another two hours until she decided that she wanted off the plane. The rest is a blurr. I do remember her screaming and crying so hard and for so long that she didn't want to wear the seatbelt as the plane began its descent into Taiwan and also that a flight attendant finally came up to me a minute before we landed and told me that they would not "see" me if I chose to hold her on my lap. So I did and Makena stopped her tantrum. Those Margaritas were beating drums inside my head.

Thankfully our guide was waiting for us when we cleared customs and took us around town for some sightseeing.


A stop at a Buddhist temple (to pray for a smooth layover and for a smooth flight to Singapore).


Chiang Kai-shek memorial park.


Makena phoning home.


The panda exhibit at the Taiwan zoo...


Making the best of it in 105 - high humidity heat.

Lunch at Taiwan 101 - currently the world's tallest building and then off to the airport for the flight to Singapore...

(To be continued)

Is-far and away

PS: All these pictures were taken with my Iphone because in my rush to get out of the house I took my camera but forgot to take the battery that was left in the charger.

The million dollar question

A writing contest was held by our town's Women's League for all the fifth graders from every school.

The question they asked was "What would you do with a million dollars if you couldn't keep it for yourself?"

This is what Jack wrote:

If I had a million dollars but I couldn't keep it, I would give it to the orphanage in China where my sister is from.

You see in 2005, my family had all made the decision to adopt a baby girl from China. So in August of 2006, my family including me went to go get her. When we finally got to the orphanage, there were at least twenty babies, but most of them had unsatisfying pasts.

When we found one of the foster moms, we had asked her "Is there anything we need to know about her?"

I remember she had said some pretty thoughtful things about her. But what I truly remember her saying was... "Your daughter was left at a gas station."

Those words broke all of our hearts and it shouldn't break anyone else's. That's why I would give my million dollars to the orphanage. Half of the million they could use to track and pay the families to repay them for giving up one of their kids.

Also with the other half of the money they can use it to buy products because another thing that I remember was that most of the kids didn't have any toys. They were either sitting down or held by one of their foster moms. So in conclusion, If I had a million dollars there could be a change in China. Making all children and parents happy.


Jack won first place for his class and a check for $150 to go along with it. I never saw what he wrote until the ceremony when he was invited to lunch and to read his essay. Needless to say I was a blubbering tearful fool when he was done.

I was also struck by what he remembered of the day we got Makena when he was newly eight and how it left such an emotional impression on him and not just because he was being asked to open his heart into welcoming a new sister. Jack is and remains a very emotional and empathetic child who really feels things deeply. This essay contest was a great opportunity for him to channel some of his thoughts and for us to talk about it further.

I asked him what he would do with the money and after careful deliberation he decided to donate it to help Makena's orphanage. Either by way of a tuition to help a child with his or her studies or to buy milk for the babies.

EM and the family and I are so proud of him.

We love you, Jack.

Isabelle
PS: For clarification, we never made it to the orphanage. We received Makena in a government office and the foster moms were in fact the SWI nannies. When I asked him about paying the parents, what he really meant was that he would give them the money so that they wouldn't have to give up their children for not being able to afford to keep them.

RIP

I'd like to think that Jerry had a good life. He was loving and patient and got along famously with Tiger. He let Makena hold him whenever she caught him. He followed me around and would lie on my lap when I wrote. He slept with Jack and he even had EM wrapped around his finger. He was a prolific hunter and brought us offerings of lizards and birds...

We loved Jerry and we miss him.

Isabelle

Okay

Yeah, it's been a while. I won't start to post about where I actually am right now, only to tell you that it's far away.


Makena did get potty trained. It took two good weeks and a lot of sanitizer but she got on with the program and cooperated even though she wasn't happy about it. During this time I discovered that she hates the flushing sound most public bathrooms make so I have her block her ears or have her leave the bathroom before I flush and that seems to work. I noticed that around the time this training started that she curiously began to line things up around the house and especially in her room. Pillows and her toy ponies seem to be the favorite thing to order.


But the most monumental change for us has been having her sleep through the night most of the week.

I had Makena re-tested for allergies and food intolerances. Seafood is to be avoided at all times but we also found out that she is intolerant of wheat, dairy, citrus, chocolate and tomatoes. Within three days of cutting dairy and wheat out, her perpetual runny nose stopped flowing and the waking up in the middle of the night ceased.

The doctor suspected that because she had a high tolerance for pain that she could manage any indigestion she had during the day but when night came, and she slept, her guard went down so the indigestion might have caused her to cry out and wake her up.

Pizza occasionally slips by us and chocolate is also difficult to avoid but for the most part we try to keep her off the no-no foods and she is good. Uninterrupted sleep for the first time in almost three years has done wonders for my sense of humor too.

The final count of bunnies I had to find homes for was sixteen. The last four were given away the day before we left.

Is- okay