The surgery was a success!

Before his surgery, Quinn could barely reach his mouth, and that was only if he used his left hand to push up his right hand. Check him out now. Thank you, Dr. Waters!!

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First day of school

Quinn headed off for his first day at pre-school today. Let's just say any tears shed were not shed by the little student...






I'd taken him for a couple of visits to the school so when we pulled up this morning he said, "School!" We took some pictures, took him in and disappeared pretty quickly. Two hours later, BaBa and NaNa picked him up and he was as happy as when we dropped him off. Play Dough, playground, snack time and story time today - what's not to love?

And now Quinn is officially a Wheeler Wildcat.

Boy in motion

Multiply these few seconds by seven full hours and you'll get a sense of our day at the Boston Children's Museum. This was the day after Quinn got his giant cast off and he was ready to RUN!

All that money wasn't wasted after all....

Suddenly Quinn can't get enough of all those outfits I snapped up in China. Until now he pretty much hated them. Now, we have daily fashion shows!

BOOK REVIEW: Lucky Girl

I've been reading pretty much any adoption-related book I can get my hands on in the past few years, and I thought it might be useful to other readers out there to share some that I liked - and maybe some I didn't.

First up is my favorite so far: "Lucky Girl" by Mei-Ling Hopgood. This is a memoir by one of the first Chinese adoptees. She was raised in Michigan and had a happy, healthy childhood. She didn't have a strong interest in her birth family, and in fact for much of her growing-up years avoided things that seemed "too Chinese." Then the nun who had arranged her adoption casually mentioned she could probably find her birth parents. After some soul-searching Hopgood decided to make contact, and the book is largely a story of her budding, complex relationship with her large, loud, dysfunctional birth family.

As a journalist, Hopgood knows how to tell a story. She is succinct, and includes just those details that move the story along. I found this to be an honest, revealing portrait of an adoptee, her new relationship with the family that did not raise her, and how that new relationship affects the family that did raise her. It's sometimes funny, sometimes sad and always insightful. I loved it.

One awesome Nana

Just have to say that I'm so proud of Quinn's Nana (formerly known as my mom), who is handling her macular degeneration with such grace that she was invited to speak today to a class of the newly vision-impaired at a local non-profit for the visually impaired.

Here she is getting off the bus after her first ride on the handi-van. Freedom is hers once again!

Asian adoptees everywhere

We've back from Boston, where it seemed like every other family had an Asian daughter. By noon our last day I counted 10 families!

It was so awesome to see, and really got me thinking about where are the greatest concentration of kids from China. Hubby said he read Texas had the greatest number, but considering that those kids are scattered all over an enormous state, the concentration might not be that high.

Does anyone know which city has the most Chinese adoptees per capita?