words

Well Little Lu may not be moving much, but she is starting to be a talker. She put two words together on Sunday. She was up bright and early on Sunday, and we bid Kirk adieu before he got to the church for day. I was changing her diaper and she said DaDa bye bye and then waved. I said yes, Daddy left for church. She put her hand up in her high five position and I said yes, you gave daddy five before he left. She then said Mama bye bye and waved. I said nope, Momma, Lucy, and Cooper will go to church later. Her receptive language is good too. She's understanding so much. I just love this stage!

flu

Not much to post lately. Lucy had the flu two weeks ago for over a week. I had forgotten that my beautiful girl is normally smiley and pretty easy going. Then all of a sudden-- oh yeah, this is my daughter. Little man was very patient with her. However, I think he was a little frustrated that his spring break was taken up with a whiny little sister. We had little therapy session--he was playing with Lucy's Little People doll house and then a hurricane hit the house and the baby flew out the window! Now, as a child therapist I just had to laugh. It was textbook-- just perfect play therapy.
The picture is from a couple of months ago. I dressed her and gave her her doll not realizing they were wearing the same outfit! The only real difference was that her shirt had a flower and the dolls a bunny. Weird!

slacker

Ok, ok... Kirk is funny. But hey, I can contribute too. Here is the latest update. Lucy is adorable, funny, and adjusting really well. She is getting stronger daily. She is doing well developmentally, but is a little behind motorically. Her PT says that she should catch up and be able to do everything she wants to soon. She sees Ms. Pat once every two weeks and really likes her until she makes her do something that frankly Lucy couldn't care less about doing! Lucy definately has her own opinions, and is great about voicing them. Lucy fits right into the family with that one! She has the greatest smile and loves to laugh her very infectious laugh frequently. Here are some pictures...

…eeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!

You know… this realization just hit me like a cell phone bill… I can’t decide which is worse: Lucy’s non-stop taking at age one when I can’t understand her, or when she turns thirteen and I can? This kid is a talker! Now don’t get me wrong, I support a girl using her words…words are good, but silence is good too…at least a little silence would be nice. Lucy does have some favorite words, like the one she uses first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night when she wakes up for no good reason…..eeeyyyy…eeeeyyyyy…eeeeeyyyyyy…eeeeeeyyyyyyy…eeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!! Okay, okay!! We actually heard you the first time, but we were hoping you would put yourself back to sleep.

There is of course my favorite… Dada, which is not to be confused with Da(dog). There are those times when I think she is calling me a dog and that’s just what I need around my house… another comedian.

Peace,
Lucy’s Dada

Bless me Father for I have.......

Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been over a month since my last confession....I mean blogging. Blogging...what a name! It sounds like it should be included in a sentence with "water boarding". No really...I'm not a spy or a bad guy...please don't blog me! Or maybe it's a type of dance..... Hey what are you doing tonight? Me and my gal friend are going blogging. You wanna come along?

Okay enough of that nonsense.

Tricia was gone all week at some workshop in OKC. (or that’s what she says anyway…I’ll have to wait and see after our credit card bill comes in)
All week it would get asked over and over again, “you’re taking care of both kids by yourself?” If I could bottle up that utter amazement on people’s faces and sell it I would be a bit wealthier than I already am……

Is it that big a deal? Really….what’s up with all the amazement that a man, and me in particular, can take care of a couple of kids? It’s not like its rocket science…okay I agree it is much harder than rocket science, but still. People either don’t know me that well or they forget that Lucy is actually my third child. I’ve done this stuff before…..I just don’t always like it.

Anyway…..Cooper, Lucy, and I all survived the week and now that Tricia is home….well….I’ll get back to being lazy.

Peace…Daddy

Excuse Me......Are You Irish?

Okay…I know it is not uncommon for people to show their silliness when it comes to questions asked towards the parents of international adoption…but listen to this…...

Tricia, Lucy and I were traveling from Oklahoma City to Muskogee on our way back from our new bishop’s ordination. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat and meet up with a bus load from our congregation. I don’t know for sure if it is relevant or not, but I was wearing a black priest shirt with full round white collar. I was holding Lucy out in the “shopping” area of the Cracker Barrel and a lady came up to me and asked if I was with a sight seeing group. I said, no. She then asked me if I was Irish. I said, no. She looked a Lucy and said is she Chinese? I said, no and then she said she and her friends were just nosey.

Irish? What in the heck it that all about? Asking if Lucy is Chinese I understand, but asking me if I was Irish really through me for a loop. All I could say was no. If I had not been in shock from the absurdity of the question, I could have really had some fun with her.

Lucy is doing great…no more worms crawling out of her back side….oh yea, did I mention that Lucy had pin worms? Not something you just go around talking about.

Peace, Kirk O'Woodliff

Okay, Okay.......Here's More

Back by popular demand! I want to personally thank you all for your gracious kudos about my blogging. Okay…enough about me!

Lucy is nuts…. Are all babies so nuts? Maybe they are, but I guess parents just forget….it must be a survival thing, kind of like the pain mothers go through when giving birth. If they remembered how painful it is and then how nutty they are no one would have more than one.

Okay…how many days does it take for a 7 month old to transform their sleep patterns by twelve hours? Sorry, no punch line! This is a real question. How long does it take to shift the sleep patterns of a 7 month old by twelve hours? I’m not really asking for my sake, I’m asking for Tricia. She’s on Lucy duty and I’m responsible for Cooper. (Who’s kidding whom here? Tricia is responsible for both kids, but it’s my job to get Cooper to school on time which is a big job…..six year olds don’t like to brush their teeth and when they finally do they are normally wearing a nice coating of tooth past on their school uniform which requires either emergency surgery, or a change of shirt.)

We had our first “post placement” visit today. It went well, though it is hard to have a serious conversation with professional people when the baby keeps acting all cute and stuff. Really! What nerve Lucy has being all smiley and giggly during our interview. (Actually we told Lucy we would take her out for ice cream if she smiled and laughed a lot and made us look good.)

Oh…here is another one for you. How many minutes does it take to get smashed peas out of petite little Vietnamese nostrils? I don’t have the answer yet, but give me a day or two and I’ll let you know.

Have any of you ever experienced the genius that is called the “bumbo seat”? This is an amazing chair made of rubberized foam or something. This little jewel allows Lucy to sit up all by herself, and be stable too. I think we could make a bundle if we made some for adults and sold them to bar owners, however we would have to change the name from “bumbo” to “dumbo”.

For those of you that didn’t know it, last Sunday was take your kid to work day, and since I’m an Episcopal priest I thought I would participate. In hind sight this ended up to be a poor career move. I had this great sermon all prepared, and apparently not a soul heard a word I said (except for the one blind person and the two people who sit further towards the front of the church than Tricia. There I was offering the sermon of a lifetime. If they gave out Pulitzer Prizes for sermons this would have been a shoe in! This sermon was powerful, but apparently not as powerful as Lucy. There I was up in the pulpit being all priestly and everyone (except for the aforementioned three) had their eyes glued on Lucy’s every move, squeal, and smile. They didn’t hear a word I said! At the announcement time I carried Lucy into the pulpit and started my sermon over…...taught them a lesson.

Well maybe I have it all wrong…….. Maybe they really have been listening to me over all these years………. Yep! I’ve always said if you want to experience Christ, all you have to do is look into the heart of a child.

Lucy is doing great. She had her first trip to the doctor’s office and she left with a blue ribbon. Cooper is doing well too. One is his recent memorable quotes…. “Even though Lucy is loud and wakes me up at night, I’m still glad that she’s my sister!”

Peace, Kirk

PHOTO FINISH

Couch Time

Lucy and Her Brothers

Cooper and Lucy

25 hours of straight travel

We made it…… 25 hours of straight travel, but we made it. Let me offer a quick recap. We had a decent drive to the airport but engaging our driver was interesting. Minh, are wonderful friend and trusting Dillon International, Inc. guide, arranged for a driver to pick us up at 4:00 p.m. in the lobby. We got out the front door and all the Taxi drivers started signaling/waving to us. (Refrain using your sense of hospitality…don’t wave back) The very nice door man was trying to figure out how come we were saying that we were leaving, standing there with all our bags, and yet didn’t want a cab.

We were trying to explain that someone was coming to pick us up, but we did not know who. A man dressed in all black walks up and asks us if we need a ride. We say no and that someone was coming to pick us up. He said he would take us to the airport at no charge. We told him someone from Dillon International arranged a driver for us. He again said he would take us at no charge. The doorman entered the conversation and we figured out that this driver was sent to pick someone up and take them to the airport, but he did not know who, nor did he know how many people he was to pick up. He just knew that the trip to the airport had already been paid and that he was driving a 7 passenger vehicle.

The saving grace was that Minh mentioned that the driver would be in a 7 passenger vehicle…..so we said okay. It was odd not knowing for sure if this was really our driver, or if some wealthy businessman and his family were left standing at the curb. Well, if that was really the case, hopefully they caught a ride with our “real” driver. All we knew for sure, was that some stranger with a 7 passenger vehicle was willing to take us to the airport for free…..so off we went. We did discuss on the ride how it seemed that this driver was taking a much different and off the beaten path to the airport. It turns out he was bypassing rush hour traffic or something and we actually arrived at the airport a little sooner than we expected.

We have decided that we have extreme mixed feelings about the Hong Kong airport. On one hand it is very nice and modern. On the other hand, the security really stinks. In Hong Kong you have to go through security even though you have not left the secure part of the airport. While going through this security screening, (x-ray and metal detector), they did not take our bottled water that we had stocked up before we left the Somerset. (Hanoi didn’t take our water either). Things are going well…..we give our tickets and boarding passes and are heading down the tunnel to get on the plane. We then find more security and they are only searching bags and they are searching every bag by hand. It is here that they take our water and Tricia gets really pissed. She was about to mix up a bottle so Lucy could make it through the pressure changes during take off. The lady behind us had just purchased a bottle of water right outside the boarding gate. She was even more irate then Tricia.

Tricia complained to the flight crew right when she got on the plane and they brought her a BIG bottle of Evian…..ooh fancy! The crew was very nice. We had bulkhead seating so we could have an airplane bassinette. This was nice, but it locks you in your seat so you either have to climb over or under to make it to the bathroom or stretch your legs. The worst part for me was that the bulkhead seats were not as wide as the rest of the plane (smaller by 1.5 to 2 inches.) This is not a problem if you are of Asian descent, but it creates a huge problem if you have a huge bottom. I was literally wedged into the seat. This is extremely bad for a couple of reasons. First, this creates circulation problems in your legs and they are now advertising the importance of keeping the blood flowing so you don’t get clots and keel over! Secondly this wedgie per se was not good because I become claustrophobic if I can’t move freely. Obviously I survived, but my hips are really sore today. Other than having a fat bottom things pertaining to the flight went very smoothly and we finally got to see Spiderman 3.

Things went well at Immigration, but it does take a while when you are bringing in a new permanent resident into the USA. They are very nice, but don’t get impatient with them (they will be finished when they are finished). We were patient but some people were not. Who in their right mind gets impatient with immigration? It’s not smart to get upset with the officer that is processing your new immigrant paperwork…..someone actually kept going up to the officers and asking, “Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?

In LAX you have to physically leave the International portion of the airport and walk outside for about 100 yards to reach the domestic terminal. When we went through security again they found two bottles of water that Hong Kong missed (makes you wonder about the security of flights out of Hong Kong). It was nice to find these bottles of water because they allowed us to keep one unopened bottle to mix baby formula.

Our fights into Dallas and into Tulsa were uneventful, but to keep on par for the course, we arrived in Tulsa about 15 minutes early. Lucy was met at the airport by her brother Cooper, all four of her grandparents and other family and friends including Jynger and Rebecca from Dillon International. Everyone was excited except for Lucy…though she had been awake for the previous 3 hours, she fell asleep just before we landed in Tulsa and was out like a light and missed the homecoming.

This is all for now, but there will be more to come!

Peace, Kirk

Last Words From Vietnam

This will be our last blog until be get home. We talked to Cooper this morning and, as you can imagine, he is extremely excited that we will be home on Thursday morning.

We are scurrying around the apartment trying to figure out how best to pack everything (broken gifts are not much fun). Our cell phones are charging as well as our iPods. Lucy is watching the Discovery Channel and learning how to prepare a Taoist funeral in Hong Kong….you never know when such information will come in handy.

We have been told that we have to be checked out of our apartment by noon and we don’t leave for the airport until 4:00 p.m. Maybe we’ll drag our bags around Ha Noi and look for that vegetarian restaurant we ate at last night…..that should kill enough time (oops, is it okay to kill time when talking about vegetarian stuff?) Maybe we’ll just have some Pringles…you can always find Pringles in Vietnam.

We’ll I must wrap this up and finish packing.

Tricia and I want to express our heart felt thanks for all of the support and prayers we have received during this venture. We ask that you continue your prayers as we transition into all the changes that we will certainly face when we get home…..it will be some journey.

Peace, Kirk

Okay More Pictures

It's a Home Run....Going....Going.....Gone!

Speaking of the Olympics….. it’s going to be a marathon on the way home and at one point, time will even stand still. We leave Hanoi for Hong Kong at 7:10p.m. on Wednesday, August 29th. We leave Hong Kong for L.A. at 11:35p.m. on Wednesday, August 29th. We arrive in L.A. on Wednesday, August 29th, at 9:50p.m…..we actually arrive in L.A. 1 hour and 45 minutes before we leave Hong Kong……Isn’t that how Superman saved Lois Lane’s life?.......as the world turns!

After arriving in L.A. at 9:50p.m., and squeaking through Customs and Immigration, we leave for Dallas on Thursday, August 30 at 1:00a.m. This jaunt gets us into Dallas at 5:50a.m. giving us time to catch our 6:55 a.m. flight back home, which arrives in Green Country at 8:00a.m. This puts us at the baggage claim hugging Cooper around 8:10a.m. on Thursday morning, August 30th!

(note to Cooper: Let your teacher know that you won’t be in School on Thursday.)

We really wanted to leave today, but we feel very blessed to have seats on tomorrow’s flights.

The family we had to leave behind in Ho Chi Minh City caught up with us today. We went with them to the Temple of Literature. It is the oldest University in Vietnam dating back to 1010. Google “Ha Noi Temple of Literature” and you’ll see much of what we experienced in person. After that, Laura & Joe (our long lost friends), took us on a wild goose chase to find this Vegetarian restaurant she heard about. I think there should be a rule that Vegetarians should not be able to lead wild goose chases. The good news is that we worked up a really good appetite before we found it. Even better news is that it was an excellent dining experience.

Well……It’s time for a good nights sleep. We have a really long day tomorrow. I’m sure it will feel like the clock will be standing still…..oh yea, it will.

Peace, Kirk

Olympics Bound

Minh, our friend and guide, was almost speechless. We must be breaking all kind of speed records! Send us to the Olympics….we’re going for gold.

Our interview went well….so well that they gave us Lucy’s VISA on the spot and we don’t have to go back tomorrow afternoon as expected. What does this mean you ask? This means I’m currently doing everything I can to get on an airplane and get back to those I love.

This is great news, but…..we don’t yet know about flights. If our gold medal performance holds up, we’ll be home in a blink of an eye. However we have all watched the Olympics and witnessed the most talented favorite go down hard! We are not counting our chickens until they hatch…..and if they don’t hatch, we’ll make scrambled eggs and enjoy breakfast.

We took Lucy to the international health clinic this afternoon. It was good news. No major ear infection, just a very irritated ear canal. Nothing a little Tylenol won’t fix. This was the best $75.00 we have spent. You can’t put a price on peace of mind.

Someone call my travel agent and kick him in gear so we can get home!

Peace, Kirk

No Camera? Try Video!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Note to self……

Don’t forget to put the electric converter on the plug before you plug in the camera docking station. If you forget, it will blow all the breakers in the entire apartment and someone from the maintenance crew will have to come and fix it.

Even more important….if you forget and plug it in without the power converter it will blow the circuits in the camera docking station and you won’t be able to download any more pictures to the blog. This will upset your family members and friends back home and you will have to reveal to them that you “blew it”…. literally.

I agree that a picture is worth a thousand words…..now you are stuck with just words.

Peace, Kirk

Interview Day

This morning we got to chime in to a family reunion that was going on at our house……Both sets of Grandparents, God Grandparents, and the Coopster. Lucy was on her best behavior which was good. We didn’t want the family to know that she is a wild child (no not really). We hope everything continues to go smoothly and quickly…..we are really missing those we love back home.

This afternoon we go to the U.S. Consulate here in Ha Noi for Lucy’s VISA interview. I hope they only ask her easy questions seeing how she is only 7 months old and doesn’t speech English, or Vietnamese for that matter. (she smiles in English however) We should get her VISA tomorrow afternoon and then we can try to change our flights to get back home as soon as possible.

For those of you who are history buffs, our “hotel” is located on the same land as the
“Ha Noi Hilton”. Part of the historic prison still exists as a museum mostly to honor the Vietnamese who were imprisoned here by the French. The portion of the prison that housed American prisoners of war was torn down to build the Ha Noi towers which houses the “hotel” where we are staying.

Peace, Kirk