While I was in China...

The first night I slept in Shanghai I left my phone on... Silly me since there's a 14 hour difference. I happened to notice my phone buzzing and decided to answer it. The person on the phone was from a preschool where Jordan was on the waiting list. Apparently there's a chance for her to attend, but we needed to decide within 24 hours.

But I was in China!! So I needed to contact Randy, chat with him and see if he could set up a school visit. He ended up going to visit the school yesterday with Jordan. He liked it a lot and Jordan warmed up to it near the end of their visit. Randy paid the deposit and we have her moving to the new school in two and a half weeks! Wow. That was fast. So I'm mentally grappling with the idea of Jordan attending a new school. I'm excited but also a little sad to leave a school where we've spent so much time. Cameron started there when he was 17 months old! It's been 5 years! Wow. I'm certain Jordan will be fine. I will miss the teachers and some of the kids... even a few parents!

It's big news for us. The move also means Jordan won't perform in her current school's performance of The Nutcracker. I'm a little bummed about that... But it isn't the end of the world. She does have a Winter recital at her other dance school. I'll get cute photos/video of that instead!

I am wrapping up my second full day in China. I've had a chance to video chat with the kids three times - I'm hoping to stay awake long enough for a fourth. I do get tired earlier in this time zone. I'm documenting the trip in photos... Feel free to follow this slideshow if you'd like to see it all. I've done some touristy stuff and today I experienced shopping and debating over the price of some cool things (I even got a "Prada").

I'm here... They're there

I'm in China and feeling like I've gotten my body adjusted to the 14 hour time difference in Shanghai. All it took was not sleeping for one night and sleeping a lot on my 14 hour flight from Chicago to Shanghai. Nutty stuff.

I'm happy to report I'm here and we were able to figure out how to get Skype's video chat function to work... So I got to see the kids before they went to bed. That was so awesome. The kids were giddy to see me and I have to admit, I was giddy seeing them.

I hope to have some pictures and possibly video later after we play tourist in an hour or two.

I'll leave with this silly screen capture of the kids:

Big developments

You may see a major trend in the photos I show here on Jordan's blog. Dance, soccer, football. Repeat. Dance, soccer, football. We've had a pretty active but consistent life in the last few weeks. Jordan has dance on Thursday and Saturdays have had the combination of Cameron's soccer games and going to football games. So my pictures of Jordan are clearly in a pattern of pink, green, black and gold.

But it looks like we're mixing things up. In November, Jordan and I are going to the Chicago area to work on her new prosthetic. We aren't going in the myoelectric direction this time. We're going to use a body powered prosthetic that will let Jordan really get some consistent function. There are some things she really wants to do: Swing a bat, ride a bike -- stuff she tries SO hard to do but her little arm is just a little too short to help with. Not long after that trip I'm going to China to conduct some training at a media group. Very exciting but overwhelming since I'm also speaking at a national journalism conference in between those two trips. Oy. Oh... Did I mention there's a major election the day before Jordan and I go to Chicago? Man I'm fried just thinking about it.

But I'm excited about the many big things in our future. I look forward to working with a new company and the possibility Jordan will be able to work with a tool that will help her really do stuff she wouldn't normally be able to do. And it won't piss her off. Her current prosthetic hasn't functioned like we wanted and it's gotten to a point where Jordan yells at it to open when she wants it to open. She also yells at it to close when the hand opens and closes for no reason. But I know she's ready for something that works. A couple of days ago we were hanging out with a bunch of adults when Jordan said she has three arms: her big arm, her little arm and her robot arm. I thought she was joking about three arms until she defined all three arms. She's right. She really does have three arms. I love it.