the playdate that almost never was

Early this morning Jeff wakes me with the announcement P** Energy is here. Okay and what does that mean to me? They're here, he emphasizes. Okay...? in the backyard. remember they're going to turn the power off for the day and be working in the backyard?!!~

Ahhh damn! they're here TODAY? buggers!!! about a couple of weeks ago we were told that the local energy company would be out "one day" soon to shut off the power and replace the transformer -- the transformer that hideously sits in OUR backyard. No word on which date.. just that it was imminent. i pretty much forgot about it thinking our Florida Monsoon had chased them away. Turns out they were just temporarily derailed. So i heave my tired bones outta bed, dress and march outside. Where's the Project Manager i demand! Outback the curious worker points. I track him down and quickly proclaim WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE. well i got his attention at least. so i back off a bit and explain that i have a KID'S party (that kind of stuff always gets them) in a few hours and there was NO WAY i could possible cancel now. it was after 8am and the party was in less then 2 hours. He tells me that this is their 3rd attempt to come out. weather and technical difficulties working against them. I let him know that last year we lost the use of our pool for the entire summer because two of the P* Energy companies weren't playing nice and talking to each other so no one came out and reinstalled power to our pool pump.... i look down to the ground. wordless (yeah me wordless) what was i going to do??? He thought about it. Could we share the backyard, I suggest? Sure he says the kids wont' be in his way.... okay i brighten, maybe this could work. of course fatty mcfatty will not be modeling her new bathing suit in ANY worker's presence, but i could live with that. then he mentions the noise factor. the machines are incredibly loud and they have to wear protective hearing devices. urrrrr... not good for the wee ones.

Not being one to take NO easily, I ask if he couldn't work at another house ... just for the morning. he asks our schedule. Give me Two Hours I ask. just until noon... hmmm what's he to do until then??? so seeing my pitiful look of desperation he thinks about it and says MAYBE he can work at another site today. Oh Could You Kind and Wonderful Sir? i remind him these are itty bitty kids coming to the party. we can't make them cry, can we??? so he says he'll run it up the pole and'll get back to me. within a few minutes the kids and dogs faces are all smashed up against the sliding doors. there he is, patiently waiting for me to come and open the door. okay he says, we'll work another site today. Y'all have fun today (we're in the south don't forget) so i proudly announce to Jeff that PEnergy is going to let us alone. Jeff is stunned. How did you manage that? naysayer! doubter! I asked nicely i tell him. he's marveling at the myriad complexities and pure chutzpah of his wife. Wow, I can't believe you actually got them to resked. They're notorious for not giving a damn. Oh well, i sweetly tell him, you just gotta know how to ask.

so we have our great playdate and the weather even cooperated for a few hours. of course my two terrors, having no one to play with other then themselves all summer long and having no inclination on wanting to share their house, their pool, their toys., were real pain in the patooties! such stinkers my kids can be. time out here, scolding there. "Who threw that toy/object/dog into the pool" accusations flying left and right. they were the only two NOT to enjoy this party... umm party planned for them btw. but i get that school's been out and with that the tacit understanding that we're required to be nice to each other. to share our toys. to not drown our fellow pool-goers.

Rain chases us inside for lunch and having that many kids and moms in one small space was loud but nice too. Emma, finding new courage at performing in front of folks, gets the idea that she wants to sing for everyone. she's a self proclaimed Understudy for Gabrielle in HS Musical. she doesn't quite know the words, but boy she knows every single gesture, mannerism, flick of the hair. Emma wants everyone to be quiet and listen to her sing. we do our best to hush the crowd of what seems hundreds of voices, fingers, and feet marching about. She quickly is reduced to a shy little angel and sweetly sings her verse, curtsies and stands back waiting for her huddled masses to deservedly adore her. we all applaud. but a monster is awaken., she wants MORE MORE MORE. she continues to tell everyone to be quite. david screams the same (not that he could care less, but it's a good excuse to scream inside the house) i try to console her and tell her, Honey everyone is talking right now, they can't listen to you. she points to one mom changing a poopy diaper... She's not Talking! emma points out. and with a huff she marches off. to call her agent and demand he get her out of this dump no doubt!

oh and as a sidenote, Mr Nice Project Manager stops by and asks how our party was. I thank him profusely for working with me. He asks ME if tomorrow will be okay! I assure him it will be great. knock yourselves out. I'll even serve the guys iced tea! he tells me most folks just come out hollering and he doesn't much want to work with them. so it's nice to be thanked and even nicer to be asked politely. Yes i agree, it's nice to be nice...

Look I'm Chinese!

well never let it be said i don't stack on more then i can ever handle! we have a big 1.5 week "campingesque" vacation coming up next week. for which i need to menu plan and pre-shop for all our groceries, stock up on major and unending supplies of bug squashing and annihilating repellent and then there's that ever hideous. ever evil, never friendly need for a new BATHING SUIT. now i haven't exactly maintained my once perky teenager figure. more like i ate that once lithe girl up.... and her best friend too. so bathing suit shopping is more akin to jabbing one's eye's out with a hot burning poker. not so much fun and really what's the point? but not wanting to scare the other campers or frighten the wildlife i decide to do the dirty deed and buy some much needed Nylon Threads of Conspiracy Against the Female Form.

Jeff pretends he's too busy at work and feigns former lunch dates so he can't possibly take the kids for a few hours so i can shop and torture myself in private. AND because i was brilliant enough to decide to host an adoptive families swim party at our house tomorrow (i'll need a suit for that) and because we have Thursdays at the Library and we have the party on friday -- which i was ridiculously out of my mind when i volunteered to make some VN dishes for the party. um don't know how to cook VN food and would have to do some serious Asian Food market supplies hunting. and then we're leaving next week... So realizing there really is no other day to do it i gather up the troops and away we go. now kids have a wonderful way of pointing out the obvious don't they? i get to Penney's (hey i never said i would pay a lot of money for my dreadsuit) and i promise the kids i'll try to shop fast fast fast. so loving david decides to help me and starts picking out random tops and bottoms. no i tell him, those won't work. be still a moment while mommy looks for a larger size. A LARGE SIZE MOMMY? HERE MOMMY IS THIS A LARGE ONE? LOOK WILL THIS BE OKAY IT'S LARGE? He kindly shouts at full volume. No i grab the offending item. and silently mutter it's not large enough... grumple grumple.

i finally get what i think are my sizes (nope too small) and as i'm trying really hard to undress and dress in front of two little ones (oooh look away from the horror my children) david, out of no where, puts his two hands on either side of his face and pulling back on the skin says, Look I'm Chinese. now if you stop for a minute to think of it, this is hysterically funny. my little Vietnamese fellow thinks angling his eyes a certain way will make him look Chinese. So, a little confused and amused by his actions i tell him you don't need to pull your skin back from your eyes. you are Vietnamese!! you big goofball. but no worries, he finds this insanely funny and he and emma start miming for the mirror. twisting their skin this way and that. hey at least they're not looking at the flesh monster!

5 years and almost 2 years

okay so here's looking at TWO baby! We're fast approaching our two year anniversary of adoption day. the day we 4 became a family. there's no way i could ever do justice to all the great and low moments of our two years together (and given my love of verbosity that says a lot!) And that's a sad fact for me. i like to read the blogs of other families and enjoy their little daily joys. mine.. well i sort of remember them.... they're all tossed around up in my head like the search for matching socks just tumbled in the dryer.

so instead of trying to detail our days ins and outs, Jeff had the clever idea to go back and read our original entries. as written 2 years ago that day. can't read the next day's entries, only that day's entries. what's really great for me is this is the first time i've been able to go back and read the darn opus i created so very long ago. it took me 18 months before i could even read the kid's dossier -- who knew what was written in it.. how much did i want to know about their (sad?) life before us.... so it stands to reason it would take me 2 years before i could go back and read those posts. first things first. i'm a darn funny girl!! okay i guess you're not supposed to compliment yourself. but considering my current lack of readership... i'm really only talking to myself right now, right? and in that case it's quite alright to speak highly of one self. (just ask Stuart Smiley)

Secondly, damn we really had some adventure huh? just reading about my wonderful experience with Meet The Barf Bag and the awful waiting and the heat.... and the beauty of the places we were lucky enough to visit. I really can't wait to go back! David will regularly ask about visiting VN again. I keep telling him when we've saved enough money, when it's not 300 degrees there and when he and Emma are big enough to walk all day long, we'll go again.

We've celebrated Adoption Day anniversaries in the past by going to our favorite VN restaurant. but a friend asked us why we weren't having a party? hmm good question. why weren't we having a party???? so we decided to table our regular plans in favor of a party. i'm even crazy enough to think i can handle making a spring roll or two (kids LOVE spring rolls, heck we all love the yummy peanut sauce and the spring rolls are just a tool to we use to scoop up the peanuty yumminess) so a party it will be. we should celebrate our adoption day and we should make it a big event will all our loved ones there happy to celebrate with us!

so short post for now. Jeff is chilling out watching tv and that really puts a curb on my creative juices. Sides i'm pretty chilled myself too. Oh and while reading our blog entries we both came to realize that today July 5th is the 5th anniversary of our first date. Whew! It's been 5 years??? so i guess i should hang with him a bit, huh? : )

Our One Year Family Day Anniversary

Celebrating our one year anniversary at our favorite VN restaurant.





































Well somehow we made it. Today marks our one year anniversary since Adoption Day. One Year ago we became a family. Hard to think that there was a time the kids were not with us. Impossible to imagine when they weren't here running around, demanding something, getting into mischief, saying how much David Lum Daddy, Emma Lum mommy (love).

I wish i could find a way to express all the happiness, surprise, concern, thrills that have been part of our life this last year. I look at the peapods two, and can't believe how big they've grown. They are getting along so well with their language development, and no question they are American kids now... every toy they see yields a request of "OOOOhhh David want that mommy". or Emma's emphatic: EMMA'S!

So much has happened in our lives. I wish so much I could go back to those first few weeks in Vietnam. If only i knew then what i know now. I would have been infinitely more patient with David. He had such a terrible time adjusting to those massive changes. I would have remembered to use that damn baby carrier we dragged all over VN and spent so much money on and never used once! I would have enjoyed and savored every little second of our first few days together. We played the videos of our time in Vietnam for the kids recently. David watched with a smile the scenes of us in the hotel. He watched intensely the scenes from the orphanage... a little guarded and gone was his smile. Emma on the other hand was quickly bored and went off in search of some new adventure. Maybe she was too young to remember much of her past and seems to have little interest in it now.

We never did learn anything from the kids about their former life in VN. I ask them if they remember their Me or Ba, and they alternate between yes and no answers. i showed them a picture of a tribal Co To leader.... but they were not phased. I guess i have a stronger need to keep them tied to their heritage and their past, then they do. I'd love nothing more then to book a tour of all the hill people countrysides. Submerse ourselves in their culture. Maybe one day when that grand jackpot falls at our feet, huh?

Adoption Day is a lot like a wedding. You have this huge lead up to it.... then the day comes and it goes by in such a swirl. You think.. was i really there? do i remember anything about that day? it was over so quickly it seems. But i look at my napping Emma and i remember her crying hysterically when we were in the municipal building. how the nanny tried to hold and comfort her but i walked right up to her and took my child into my arms. How i held her and rocked her. wow, even then the bond was so incredibly strong. I wish we could travel back and i could show all the wonderful nannies how well our two are doing. I wish i could travel back and scoop up half a dozen of those kids and bring them home. But as Jeff says, I' can do that with my next husband. spoil sport! that's okay, i'm getting him addicted to a new discovery. Jon & Kate plus 8. if they can manage 8 kids, hell so can we!

So much has happened and so much more will happen in our lives. All those "firsts" still to come. like when David finally feels confident enough to speak up in school. Or when Emma decides she no longer needs to be held by me or sit on my lap. Some will be good some will be hard. I wish i could capture all these precious moments. hold them in a jar. so i could look at them and remember when they were ohhh so little. before they became big kids. before they learned to do things on their own. I'm in no rush for them to grow up... but i do love the progress they make each day. I can't wait for them to (re) learn their Vietnamese language. I can't wait to sit down with david and finally... maybe? glean something of his life before us. I've been telling him how special this day is. how on this day, mommy and daddy flew (airplane, right mommy?) to vietnam and asked the wonderful people there if david and emma could come home with us. how we loved them so much and wanted them to come home. How we became a family. David always repeats Family?... yes david we are now a family.