Archive for February, 2019

Crazy story from a crazy week

Monday, February 18th, 2019

Our homecoming picture – you might be able to tell what decade it was from the hair.

This past week has been crazy. We had our Chinese New Year and Rinnah headed back to school with her roommate only to call us the next night from the ER in terrible pain. After a lot of craziness just to figure out what to do, misdiagnosis, ice storm, transfer to another hospital in our state which necessitated Nathan traveling to IN to get her, and then major miscommunication and mistakes at our hospital here, it was 2.5 days before she had surgery. Almost as soon as she was discharged, I had to leave for Chicago with Rachel for a string quartet competition and college visit. It’s been cray-cray. Fortunately, Rinnah is okay, and recovering well. Hopefully she’ll be able to catch up all the work she has missed, but we’re just so relieved she’s okay.

With all that, though, one hilarious story did happen, and I’m copying it here from Facebook:

Okay, didn’t think I was going to share this, but then I thought, whatever, we both had epic hair, own it! So, here’s the weird, pretty hilarious coincidence that happened in the middle of this terrible time with Rinnah’s emergency surgery.

Put yourself in my shoes. We’ve just spent a day and a half trying to get our daughter diagnosed and switched to another hospital in another state while also covering several things that were really important to our other 5 kids – it was terrible timing. Rin and I had both been up most of the night with pain and procedures, etc, and I had JUST fallen asleep hard for about an hour.

So, I’m literally passed out face-down on the worst hospital cot ever when I realize that there’s a doctor in the room talking to Rin. I wake up, sure I have pillow creases across my entire face, and he turns around to introduce himself to me as the surgeon. I reach for my 10 year old glasses since the other ones coveniently disappeared as I was racing out the door to the hospital, and my blind self realizes as he turns around that the surgeon is…

The guy who took me to homecoming a hundred years ago. Hahaha! What a strange moment! And exactly how you’re hoping to run into an old high school friend!

So, maybe I’ll continue the trend and rock the old pjs, unshowered, no makeup, ancient glasses look for my next class reunion! Or maybe not. ?

But at least I instantly remembered that he was kind and brilliant and wanted to do good in the world. Which he is apparently doing! So thanks, Dr, for being so good to my baby! Ironically, I found this picture so quickly because my mom got bored when she came to help me after Rinnah’s birth and put all my highschool pictures in order.

PS. He still has good hair.

Xīn nián kuài lè! Happy Chinese New Year!

Sunday, February 10th, 2019

Somehow we got everyone at the table! 19 people, woot!


Everyone pitched in – here we are making dumplings on the left (for Noah’s northern region) and rolling spring rolls on the right (for Ethan and Anna from the south).


Braised tofu, voted (shockingly!) favorite dish, spring rolls, and dumplings done pot-sticker style.


Whole fish symbolizes prosperity and abundance and is both very traditional and Ethan’s most, most, most favorite thing. This American mom was challenged, but this year we got it right, and it was definitely delicious (even if they are looking at you).

Happy Chinese New Year! One of the things we’ve found to be so important with our “littles” is to try to support them in continuing to celebrate and know their home culture. Our adopted kiddos came to us older, and they have lots of memories and many years of living in China. We don’t want them to lose such an important part of their history, lives, and identity, so we’ve been learning SO much about Chinese cooking, holidays, and culture, and we had our second annual Chinese New Year dinner together last night.

One thing that really hadn’t occurred to me before is that our kids had not really celebrated this in China. CNY is a family holiday, and our kids did not have family. So, they had seen it and been around it, but had never been a part of it. As Ethan said, “Now it’s our turn, mom!” So happy to celebrate with them!

Two of my brothers and their families were able to come, along with my mom, Rachel’s best friend, and Rinnah’s roommate from college came home with her for it too. We cooked forever, and then had a fabulous time!