Tuesday, March 12

On our flight home from Hong Kong to Chicago last Friday we were privilege to an experience something only Dr. Emmett Brown thought was possible before he developed the Flux Capacitor in 1985; we traveled back in time.  Yes, that is correct, I said we traveled back in time.  The only difference was that we didn’t use a fancy Flux Capacitor or a DMC 12 DeLorean, there was just a nice tailwind pushing us along.  So Jen, Addison, Tovin, and myself along with a little over 380 other people on that same flight that left Hong Kong at 11:10am Friday morning March 8^th arrived in Chicago at 11:02am Friday morning March 8^th.  If that isn’t the definition of time travel I don’t know what is! 

By the time we finally made it home we had spent over 26 hours in transit, and were happy to be home safe and sound.  Considering all the issues that could have taken place with Tovin’s health being at the center of our concerns, everything went better than expected and was fairly uneventful.  Everything, that is, except the take-off from Hong Kong and then again from Chicago.  Neither one was too tense, but Tovin pretty much passed out; we weren’t sure if was from the lack of oxygen or from his exhaustion.  We just had to calm ourselves as we kept on eye on his continued steady breathing which was never in question. 

We’ve been home for four days already and we’ve had many joys and successes during these days.  We have also had some tough nights of Addison and Tovin trying to get over jet lag.  The other night Tovin finally fell asleep at 2:20am only to have Addison, who was in our room as well sleeping on the floor (I won’t tell you where she was sleeping, but it was on Henry’s bed!), roll over and say, “Daddy, I’m ready to get up cause I’m no longer sleeping.  Can we go play Barbie’s?”

During the bonding process of mom and son I’ve had a few opportunities to play Barbie’s with Addison, so the other night wasn’t my only recent exposure!  We’ve also played Mario Cart on the Wii, started teaching her how to juggle, worked on her spitting (don’t worry grandma’s, it’s so she can start brushing her teeth with big kid tooth paste), and played “Addison” billiards: where I put the pool ball in front of her pool cue in line with a pocket.  Then she says, “all I have to do is concentrate, take my time, …aim…, then hit the ball.”  It goes in almost every time.  What can I say, she’s a natural!

Just so you know, I’ve started the bonding process with Tovin as well.  However, as with some of the many processes involved with adoption, the bonding of one parent as the “mom” is the most important bond that can be made (in the adoption culture the parent that will spend the most amount of time with the child in the first six months after adoption is considered the “mom” whether that is the mom or the dad).  In this case that would be Jen with my going back to work next week and with her being able to stay at home with Tovin until next September. 

We’re adjusting as a family unit quite well.  Tovin seems to be learning new things everyday.  He still isn’t saying too many words, but more are starting to form as he figures out what the English word is for something he knows in Mandarin.  He doesn’t say what he thinks it should be, but you can just tell that he’s thinking, “now wait, that’s not what it’s called; why are you calling it that and not what I know it is.”  At times this transition has been frustrating for him but he seems to be responding better than most of us would in his situation.  Jen and I are thinking that this may be causing him to experience what seem to be short-lived periods of grief.  On more than one occasion he has just started moaning and quietly crying like he did in the first couple of hours on gotcha day, but with no apparent reason; this is our best and only explanation.  Even though we knew that this process was something we’d have to go through together, it doesn’t make it any easier to watch him go through these tough times.

We will be updating the blog every now and then to let everyone know how Tovin does in his upcoming doctors appointments.  His first is in two days, this Thursday, with Dr. Rios at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis with the specialized cardiovascular program.  We don’t fully know what will come from this first visit, other than they will be evaluating Tovin’s heart to make their own diagnosis, beyond Addison’s diagnosis of “blue blooditis”.  In visiting with Dr. Rios before we left to get Tovin, he said that he would most likely perform a cardiac catherterization. During this procedure, the Dr. inserts a catheter into a blood vessel in the groin, then guides it up to the inside of the heart.  They inject a dye and then take x-rays to see the structure of the heart.  The catheter also measures blood pressures at each value and oxygen levels of the blood coming into and leaving the heart. 

Thanks for following along with us,

The Kainz Family J