Happy Day

There is a lot of good news to report from the Chois this week.
The first part of the good news, is that Aimee is finally getting a little relief from her hives. Poor kid has been itching for almost a week with little sign of ever knowing what was causing it. We think we may now have identified the culprit – the new fabric softener our ayi was using. We don’t know for sure, but we are going to stop using it and have washed all Aimee’s clothes without it. Add that to the cornstarch baths, the calamine lotion, aloe vera, allergy meds and we seem to have hit upon a winning solution. The rash is still there, but is not itching as bad and looks to be slowly getting better. I have to say that Aimee has been a total trooper through the whole episode. I would have been a nightmare, but she has approached this with a maturity beyond her 6 years. All she keeps saying is, ‘Mom I am glad the hives is getting better, then we can just focus on the Molluscum.’ Her class starting swimming lessons this week and we skipped the first lesson due to concerns that other parents and kids would panic thinking Aimee was some kind of threat to their health. Yesterday Rich and I went out and bought her a new swimming outfit to help cover her skin properly. Considering it was a thrown together outfit, she manages to pull it off as only Aimee can – with complete style. It consists of a long sleeve swim guard top, a pair of black ballet footless leggings and pair of black (boy) Speedo’s. She looks adorable in it and I think she may actually start a new fashion here, she looks like she is going surfing, but more importantly she is covered from head to toe and can therefore join her pals in swim class on Weds. To say she was upset not to join in on Monday is an understatement. This kid loves to swim. I would like to mention that her teachers and the school have all been so kind and supportive to us. We are so happy we chose SCIS as our school, they are incredible. As you know, Aimee is always told how beautiful she is and has not been easy on her to get unkind looks with her skin looking so bad. Through it all, she has held her head high and soldiered on regardless. In some ways it has been a good lesson for her (and us) to learn, but I still wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Aimee, we are all so proud of you and yet again you have proved you are even more beautiful on the inside – which is really where it counts the most.

So the second good news came in the form of an informal speech assessment we had done on Cady on Sunday. She and I met up with one of the only speech therapists here in Shanghai for a quick test to see how Cady is progressing and to see if she might need any therapy here. The good news is that Cady scored pretty much normally for her age. She has a minor issue with L’s and R’s, which we are going to work on at home, but otherwise she is right where she should be. We are so proud of how far she has come in the past 3 or 4 months. Bringing her to Shanghai on our look-see visit was a stroke of genius (thanks Neil!). It has helped her open up, gain confidence and most importantly she has found her voice and everyone is going to know what she has to say. I actually spend a good part of the time asking her to be quiet, lower her voice or (incredibly) to stop talking!! We are going to see how she continues to improve over the next six months and check in again with the therapist then, if we have any concerns. Based on where she was and how far she has come recently, we don’t anticipate a 2nd assessment.



This leads me on to our fun packed Saturday, when we attended our first FCC Shanghai family outing. We had a great day with a handful of Families with Children From China at the Shanghai Aquarium. We met up at 10am and immediately were welcomed as family by Kathy Sue and her beautiful daughters, Janna Mei & Jolene Fei (Kathy is from Kentucky – can you tell?), as well as Jennifer & Dan and their adorable, but shy little girl Remley. Another family was caught in bad traffic, so we started without them. Within minutes of being in the aquarium, the Choi kids had decided that they were among friends again. They immediately opened up to everyone and poor Dan spent most of the day carrying, lifting, spinning and generally playing with all 6 kids. I am sure he slept well that night. Cady in particular loved ridng on Dan’s shoulders to see over everyone’s heads. To say that the Chinese like to push to get a better view is an understatement, even the adults would push to get in front of the little kids. I had to have a quick word with my kids to tell them it was okay to push through all the legs and they did not have to wait their turn. This goes against everything I have been teaching them, but honestly we would still be there waiting, if they had used their usual level of manners.

The Aquarium was awesome, quite the experience but since it was quite dark I did not get that many good photos. One thing I was not expecting was the noise – it was so LOUD in there. I wish I had bought ear plus for poor old Cady and me who have an issue with noise. It was a relief to the senses to head back outside, but we had a lot of fun inside too. There were glass tunnels that enabled us to walk through the exhibits and feel like we were under the water with sharks, etc swimming just above our heads- very cool. Actually, aside from the noise the other hardship was the heat – there was no a/c in there. It was so dang hot, I was very happy to cool off outside. You can see from Dan’s shirt in the photos how hot it was in there. The other family (Rich, Yingxi, Kyle & Sarah) managed to catch up with us as we finished the tour of the aquarium and we all headed off to lunch together. So there were now 7 adults and 8 kids and only 2 midi-vans as transport and it has started to rain. When in China, do as the Chinese do! We all piled into the 2 vans with kids on our laps, no seat belts or kiddie car seats and made a dash for the restaurant. My kids were a little confused by the lack of personal safety that Rich and I are usually so anal about, but thankfully we were only going 5 minutes down the road.


For me one of the best parts about attending an FCC event in China is that we don’t have to add culture and cuisine for our kids – they are surrounded by it now everyday. This meant we got to go to a German restaurant for lunch – You know that made me very happy. The kids chowed down on schnitzel, Vienna sausages, bratwurst, spatzle, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Delicious! It was quite bizarre sitting in the middle of Shanghai surrounded by Chinese families eating German food and ordering in German. Life is never dull, that’s for sure. The best part for me was one of the mums who ordered a beer. When it came it was it one of those HUGE glass tankards and probably held close to 2 pints. We never had FCC events like this in Florida ;-)
After a delicious meal and way too much talking, we headed out to the garden so the kids could let off some steam. They all played so well together and it felt like we had known everyone forever.



Taking photos with The Bund in the background was just too surreal for me. I have dreamed of this place all my life and now my kids are playing in front of one of my favorite places on earth. Good news indeed. Being with the FCC really made us miss our FCC family back in Florida. It would have been wonderful to share the day with them too. It was made even more bittersweet knowing we were going to be missing our favorite FCC Florida event over the weekend. Our friend back in FL, were preparing for the annual Autumn Moon Festival event. This has always been a family favorite of ours even before we had Cadence. The evening starts with a delicious meal at Miss Yips in Miami, followed by a lantern parade down Lincoln Road dressed in our finest Chinese outfits to the stunning beach. At the beach, we send white balloons up towards the moon with special wishes to those we love, those we miss and those we may never know in this life, such as our children’s birth parents and families. As the balloons float off into the night sky I never fail to have a tear in my eye, it is such a sentimental moment for me. It is filled with so many emotions, love for my precious children, who I am so lucky to be Mama to, sadness for the loss they and their birth families have to endure, thoughts of my own parents and family who are so far away, the sorrow I have at the loss of Richard’s parents who will never know their grandchildren, and this year I add the loss of our family back in Florida. On the positive side, I am thrilled to be spending this year in our youngest children’s birth country and all that it entails. We are living our dreams.




Today (Tuesday) is a good day back in Florida since we are closing on our house. We are not getting as much as we would have liked, but in a declining market, getting anywhere close to a good offer is a miracle these days. We are sad to close the door on our beautiful home for the last time, we had many great times there and we hold a heart full of good memories as we start our new lives in China. Strange but true, the family we sold our beloved home to are Chinese!


Then finally, today is General Motors’ 100th Birthday! Happy Birthday GM. It is hard to believe that Richard has worked for GM for ¼ of those 100 years. Here is to the next 100 years. I know Richard and I will not be around to see what happens, but thanks to GM’s support our children and their children will be. Thank you GM and Happy Birthday.