Brace Yourself

Well, the braces are on. Charlie was really good about the whole thing, paid attention to all the instructions, and actually seems to be following them. He was sore the first few days, but that passed quickly and he was soon back to his usual happy self.

Happy Beginnings (AKA Emptying out the Orphanage)

Just wanted to give everyone an update on some of the characters mentioned in the earlier part of my blog, because we are doing a good job of getting the orphanage emptied out.

If you remember from our trip to the orphanage when Charlie went to say good-bye and pass out presents, we met a boy with albinism who really touched us because his adoption had disrupted the week before we got there to get Charlie. It was so distressing to know that he would probably never get another chance at adoption, since they were unlikely to re-list him after a "failure" like that. (Like it's the kid's fault, right???) Amazingly, a conversation thread started about him on the Yahoo group set up for parents from that orphanage. They were following my journey on the blog and were outraged at his circumstance. Then one of the members said she thought a friend of hers was paperchasing him and she'd invite her to join the group. His name is now Brian. His family loves him to death, and I recently saw him singing "Baa-Baa Black Sheep." He looks very cool in his sunglasses (which he needs to protect his eyes, since his albinism affects how he tolerates light).

The little boy that we got measurements for and pictures of because his adoptive parents already had their referral and wanted to know if we saw him? His name is now Emmett, and he came home a few months after Charlie. He has an interesting story, because his parents originally adopted a girl from that orphanage, and when they went to get her, they saw what close friends she was with this boy. They ended up going back for him so that her best friend could be her brother. You should see their pictures of the two of them together as sibs--they're adorable and so obviously happy to be together again.

Another couple from Canada contacted me for the orphanage director's address shortly after Charlie and I got back. The orphanage director sent me some photos of the child they were adopting to pass on, and Charlie knew the child in those photos, so he was happy to see that this child was also being adopted. Their son's name is now Aidan, and they got back in the late summer/early fall timeframe.

And last but certainly not least....Does everyone remember Jen, my sherpa, and the child she "accidentally" (yeah, right!) made eye contact with while we were in Charlie's classroom? They were a love story waiting to happen. Jen and her husband went through a long period of prayer and contemplation, and then started learning ASL and filling out the paperwork to bring him into their family. God knew exactly what they needed when they needed it, because a part-time job turned up for her husband just at the point where it looked like they would have to send Jen over alone for the adoption. Thankfully, they were able to both go. They got home four months ago, and their new son Eli has settled in beautifully as a member of their family and is much loved by his brother and sisters. He is attending their local deaf school and signing up a storm. (Unlike Charlie, the orphanage had not sent him to the deaf school in China, so he did not know Chinese sign language and grew up without any real language to speak of, making his wants and needs known with gestures.) I am so thrilled that Eli has a home with loving arms and signing hands.

According to Charlie, there was only one other deaf child at the orphanage besides him and Eli, a girl much younger that he didn't know very much about. I don't have any info on her, but I could certainly e-mail the orphanage director to find out if she is still there, if someone is interested in starting a paperchase!

There have been other people join our orphanage's Yahoo group once they get their referrals for children from this orphanage and discover this group exists, and we've seen three newbies over the past two weeks, so the orphanage is still getting kids out there. Unfortunately, I suspect they take in new children just as fast, since the one-child-rule politics in China that cause this situation still haven't changed. But we'll keep growing our group to support each other and cheer on those who are bringing their children home.

Pow

Next belt test: Green belt, March 12!
Stay tuned....

Money Matters

Last weekend, Charlie and I are sitting at the dining room table, just chatting, and he happened to mention that he had some checks he needed to deposit. He has been tutoring someone in ASL off and on via videophone, and after every few sessions, he gets a check to cover a few sessions at a time. We had opened a savings account for him back in September with his first couple of checks. Now he's ready to deposit more.

I decided the time was ripe for a teaching moment. I had him get his quarterly statement, which had just recently come in. He brought it over to me, and I showed him the money we had initially deposited. Yup, he remembers that okay. There's $38 in there.

Then I showed him the entries for the next 3 months that each had 6 cents. He gets a perplexed look on his face and signs, "But I didn't put that in there!"

So I explained how interest works.

He gets a wise, understanding look on his face and says, "So I guess I should put that other $200 in there, huh?"

Now you must understand that we recently had a very serious misunderstanding, and I am no longer willing to trust that I have completely understood him perfectly. I'm quite willing to believe I did not really see him say $200. So I said, "You mean $20, right?"

"No, $200."

"You do not have $200."

"Yes, I do."

"Where?"

"Up in my room."

"Nuh-uh.....Show me!"

Off he goes to his room. He's up there a few minutes, and then he comes back with this HUGE wad of cash. It's about 3 inches thick. Mostly fives and ones.

Now, I knew the kids work for an hour each day at school. Some help out in the office, some work at cleaning, and Charlie works in the cafeteria during the little kids' lunch. For this, they get paid. I thought it was $5 per month. Occasionally I will see a candy wrapper in the kitchen trash can of a type of candy that I have never bought before, so I figured Charlie uses his $5 per month to get himself a special treat. And that's fine.

But no, it turns out they get paid WEEKLY, not monthly. And Mr. Charlie will occasionally buy himself a treat, but for the most part, he brings the money home and stuffs it in a drawer in his desk.

By the time we finished counting all the cash and the $15 in checks, the kid had $250 sitting there.

I told him it can't gain interest sitting in the desk drawer. And if someone steals it, it's gone. Safer in the bank. His answer? "Well, I didn't KNOW I should put it in the bank."

Yeah, well, I didn't know you had anything WORTH putting in the bank!

Next field trip: Drive-through teller, learn how to make a deposit and read the receipt.

I think he has more money in the bank than I do now.

Aging Gracefully

Martin Luther King day. Charlie has an appointment with an oral surgeon. To back up a little, Charlie is about to get braces. After the initial appointment with the orthodontist, we were asked to go see an oral surgeon, because there were some bright spots on the x-rays they wanted checked out.

So here we are, Charlie seated in the surgeon's chair. The surgeon examines him, examines the digital x-ray, and then asks, "How old are you?" Charlie answered that he was 14-1/2. The surgeon mutters, "His dentition is more mature than that."

I was busy interpreting for Charlie, so the ramifications of that statement didn't sink in until later, when I had a chance to process it in mommy mode instead of interpreter mode. I spoke with the surgeon later by phone and asked him just how much more mature the dentition was. His initial guess from memory was 16, but after looking at the films again, he said Charlie has the dentition of a 17-year-old, but to remember that this isn't an exact science.

I'm not quite ready to believe 17. When Charlie was found, they estimated he was 2; if he is now truly 17, that would mean he was actually 4-1/2 when he was found. There's a BIG difference between a 2-year-old and a 4-1/2-year-old, and I'm really having trouble believing they were that far off. I think the truth is probably somewhere between his legal age of 14-1/2 and 16.

What am I going to do about it? Absolutely nothing.

In the deaf school, you have until age 21 to get a regular high-school diploma. If you can't attain that, you can get a certificate of completion from the school. Charlie is shooting for the diploma, but he's at a disadvantage to start with, not knowing English as well as his peers yet and starting from scratch. He's in the 7th grade now, but he can stay in high school through age 21. If I change his legal age now, that would severely curtail the amount of time he has to achieve this. I think he is right on target with where he needs to be, and socially he is fitting in well with his peers. His attitude is sometimes more mature, but that's okay; it just means he sets a good example.

I really can't see short-changing him on the amount of time he has to get his diploma and graduate. I see no benefits whatsoever to changing his legal age. Besides, he knows his birthday and that is part of his identity. I think it would be a jolt, after all the adjustments he's dealt with in the past year, to suddenly be told he's older than he is.

I did tell him, but I also explained my reasons for keeping him at age 14, and he's fine with that. He seems to take everything in stride.

Besides, I don't want him to start asking for the car keys just yet.

It does explain the mustache, though.

You Can Dress 'Em Up

Except for the too-long sleeves poking out, I think Charlie cleaned up pretty good, huh? This was taken at mom's house after church the Sunday before Christmas. My church is very informal, so Charlie usually doesn't dress like this, but he went with me to a cantata that I was interpreting at another church, so I made him dress up. My mother didn't recognize him when he walked in the door with me!

Nerves

Sorry it took me so long to get back to blogging! The picture from exam night tells the story. He got the yellow belt. I think (and his instructor agrees) he would have had a red, but the one thing we didn't have him practice was how to recover from a mistake. I don't know if he was nervous or what, but during one form he made a turn backwards and he stopped, trying to figure out what he had done wrong.

You just don't stop. You keep going and make it look like you MEANT to do it that way. He had never flubbed up in class, so we never had to pound that into him.

But he was a good, strong yellow performance. Rick and I were so proud of him, and he looked so happy as he went down the line of instuctors with the other students who had been promoted, accepting handshakes and hugs from them all.

Then they all sat down, and the two students (one child, one adult) were chosen for the Outstanding Achievement trophy. Since Charlie is over 13, he counts as an adult. You should have seen the look of SHOCK on his face after the head instructor presented the child's trophy to some kid and then Charlie's teacher was asked to come up and present him his trophy. He just doesn't seem to understand how remarkable it was that he tested a full cycle early and still turned in a strong performance.

What's funny is that he never told anyone at school. When I went to his IEP meeting a couple of weeks later, I said something about the trophy to his teacher, and she got a look of shock on her face. "Trophy? What trophy? He didn't tell ME about any trophy! Can he bring it to school???" For some reason, he refused to take it to school and show it off. Modesty? Dunno.

Great job--We love ya, Charlie Chan!