You want to do WHAT??

Minsy hates doctors. She absolutely hates them. It's been that way from the first time we met her. I don't know what happened in her early life to cause her to have such intense visceral reactions to medical facilities, but something has caused her to have some intense negative feelings when it comes to doctors and all they represent. At first she would say nothing, but we would notice her sitting very, very still with a look of pure terror on her face, trying not to be noticed as these tiny little tears would be rolling down her cheek. So, so sad. So heartbreaking. But what could you do? She had to see these doctors. Now she is a bit more vocal about her dislike. If we ever make the mistake of mentioning the fact that she has a doctor's appointment in the future she will come up to us CONSTANTLY to say, "I don't want to go to the doctor." Over and over and over. When her pleas go unanswered and we load up the car to head toward a doctor's appointment she breaks out into sobbing tears. Her anxiety about this is so strong that she had a mini-meltdown when we were stuck in the American immigration holding cell ... er, waiting room ... for two hours last month. It seemed so much like a hospital waiting room that she was convinced that we were bringing her to the doctor. Poor girl. We have tried what we can to make the process not as terrifying for her, but nothing really works.

Knowing Minsy's negative feelings about doctors, I wasn't feeling super hopeful that we would have a positive experience visiting a pediatric gastroenterologist this week. What does a gastroenterologist do? They basically specialize in conditions involving the digestive tract.

Basically a gut doctor.

I did a little looking, and it seemed like most procedures involving such a doctor would be invasive and not too fun. Oh no!

Why was Minsy seeing a specialist like this? I don't know if you've noticed or not, but Minsy is a tad small. REALLY, really small. Even using the Chinese growth charts which account for the generally shorter Chinese people, Minsy is on the extreme lower end of the chart as an almost five year-old. To make things even crazier complicated, there still is this strong possibility that she really is almost seven. In that case she doesn't even touch the chart. She is almost dangerously small for her age. We have been seeing an endocrinologist for the past two and a half years, and he has been tracking Minsy's growth and development. She has grown right along the chart curve, just at that lower end. If she had been malnourished as a child we should have seen a marked jump in her growth rate as soon as she started receiving better nutrition, but that hasn't happened. She just seems to be meandering along at her own pace, way below schedule. When Dr. Schwartz learned that the Mercy system in Springfield would be adding a brand new pediatric gastroenterologist this summer he signed Minsy up to see her right away. He wanted to make sure that there was not something about her digestive system that was preventing her from getting all the nourishment she needed. 

When the day of our appointment arrived Minsy was a mess. She cried and cried and cried as she begged us to just stay home that day, but I was a big, giant meanie and put her in her booster and drove on our way to Springfield. Minsy cried forever, it seemed, but by the time we got to Lebanon she was fast asleep. She didn't sleep all that long, though. When I was driving past Marshfield I heard her wake up and say in a super happy voice, "Are we at the doctor's yet?" A happy voice. Who just woke up in the back seat of my car? It couldn't be Minsy, because she NEVER shows any joy at being driven to a doctor. But Minsy was super happy to go. Then when we arrived at the clinic in Springfield she hopped right out of the car and danced and sang her way all the way to the doctor's office. What in the world? A big tender mercy.

Dr. McGhee's office was perfect for Minsy. There were very few patients in the waiting room, and the room just looked like a big, giant play place for kids, not the sterile, boring rooms that she normally sees. She saw that her favorite cartoon was on the television and there were some little games she could play as she waited. She walked right in and put on her normal happy social face and greeted everyone in the room. It's hard not to love Minsy.

Dr. McGhee. Love her!!

This appointment was just an initial visit to see what was going on and what course of treatment we might pursue. I absolutely loved the nurses and Dr. McGhee. They were all so peppy and positive, and they made Minsy feel right at home. I told Dr. McGhee all that was going on, and she looked at the charts that Dr. Schwartz had sent her. The big problem we face with Minsy is that we have no family history, so we have no idea what we are really dealing with. If her parents are both three feet tall, then Minsy's growth is normal for her. We aren't exactly sure if her body is having trouble absorbing all the calories she is intaking or if we just aren't giving her enough. So the first thing we need to do is to figure out exactly how much is entering her body. This will be a hassle, but it won't be too hard. 

I told Dr. McGhee that we have just been letting Minsy eat all day whenever she wants in order to let her have more calories. We figured that if she was constantly eating that would naturally lead to more calories and faster growth. I learned that this is actually not the best plan. What happens when she grazes all day long is that she can fill herself up with lower calorie, non-helpful foods and then end up not eating as much of the higher calorie stuff when she sits down for dinners. She told us that we immediately needed to get her (and our family) on a strict eating schedule with three sit down meals and just one snack in between with maybe one before bed. That would help to regulate Minsy's eating, keeping her hungry enough to scarf down the higher calorie meals we prepare for her. In order to help her the entire family was going to have to adopt this schedule, closing the kitchen for a good part of the day. I know they will survive. That is the way things were when I was growing up, but our kids have gotten used to just being able to grab a quick snack whenever they needed one. When I broke the news to them that night the scene looked much like this one:

Anyway, regulating the food would require a change in lifestyle, but it was doable. That was step one. Step two involved recording every single thing that entered Minsy's mouth for three days. We would keep a journal of her foods and then send it back to Dr. McGhee. Then she would sit down with a nutritionist and calculate exactly how many calories Minsy was eating each day. That would give us a good idea of what we were working with. If Minsy was getting enough calories and not growing, then something wasn't working right. But if she was not getting enough calories each day we needed to move to step three.

Step three did not sound fun. We would have to put a tube down Minsy's nose and throat that would stay there for at least a month. During the day it would just be there, but at night we would use that tube to feed her the extra calories she was not getting during the day. It sounded AWFUL. I can't imagine having a tube stuck up my nose all day. But Dr. McGhee assured us that kids generally don't notice it at all once it is in. She said the worst part of the whole experience is getting it inserted, but after that kids just learn to live with it. I don't care what she said. It still sounds horrible.

But that nose hose seemed like heaven compared to Step Four. If it turned out that Minsy showed growth and improvement with the added nightly calories then we would need to do something a bit more permanent ... not forever permanent, but surgery and in for a while permanent. They would go in and put a direct line into her stomach that would allow us to add the calories without her having to wear the nose hose all day. I guess it is better because you aren't sporting the nose accessory, but the surgery sounds a bit icky to me. 

I was a little horrified when I heard what they were proposing. Surgery? Would that really be necessary? I immediately asked if we had to do such a thing. Did this mean that she was having to have surgery simply because I was doing a horrible job feeding her? If that was the case I would just feed her more. We could just sit her down all day long and make her eat if that would prevent her from having to have surgery. But Dr. McGhee reassured me that it has nothing to do with how I am feeding her or not feeding her. Some kids just need a little extra oomph to get them growing as they should. This would provide that. I believe her. I do. But still I feel like I will first make sure that I am doing all I can on this end before we force Minsy to this solution. After all the good feelings Minsy had in seeing this doctor, it would be a shame if this doctor was the one who ended up having to do the invasive surgery on her. 

Still, we have several steps to work on before we get to that one. Our first mission is to better regulate all our family meals. That'll take some time and skill, but we can do it. Hopefully that is all that it will take. We shall see. For now I am counting my blessings that we have found at least one doctor out there who inspires peace and happiness in Minsy. I'm hoping that we can keep it that way. Sadly, right now after all this talk of food regulation I find myself badly in need of my own second breakfast. Oh well.

Minsy with "Oma" , her bus driver.

You've got questions? We've got answers!

I have the best seminary class ever this year. Seriously ... the best. I just love them to death. They are enthusiastic about seminary. They all get along. They are smart and funny and talented, and they put up with me and my foibles. They are practically perfect in every way. This is an interesting year for me teaching. I have two brand new converts in my class along with a Muslim from Kazakhstan and (occasionally) a Hindu from India (foreign exchange students living with two of my students). Interesting. Challenging. But super fun.

We just had the best activity we have ever had in my seminary class. The best. It'll be a weekly thing, and I think it will be super beneficial for my class in so many ways. I have to explain how I came up with it before I tell just how amazing it was.

I have one of my seniors who is an excellent young man. He is making plans to go on a mission. He is a leader in the class and with the young men at church. He's great. With seminary he is always involved. He doesn't sleep in class or blow off reading assignments. He does what he needs to do, but it was always the bare minimum. He never took any extra time to memorize or learn scripture mastery. He didn't really have a good grasp of the scriptures. He was indicative of most of my class ... an excellent young man, but not driven to search the scriptures on his own very often (at least when it comes to seminary). But this young man had been going out with the missionaries each week, and one week they visited an investigator who had tons of great questions about the gospel and why we believed certain things. My seminary student realized as he was sitting there that he didn't really have a good enough grasp of the scriptures to answer the man's questions. As he heard our full time missionaries using the scriptures to explain basic doctrine he realized that he needed to step it up and learn the scripture mastery verses as well as basic doctrine found in the scriptures. When he came to seminary the following week he was on fire. He wanted to learn all of these things for himself so that he could be prepared to teach others. It was amazing! He was amazing!

I thought of him and that experience this summer. I thought about how being forced to explain doctrine using the scriptures in a missionary setting was a driving force for this young man. Then I thought about my daughter, Laney, who is out serving right now, facing those same questions and having to be a representative of the Lord as she offers answers to some important questions every single day. And Laney is not alone. We have tons of young men and women serving missions from our area. All of them are all over the world, and they are all facing the same basic questions about the gospel and the Plan of Salvation and all that encompasses. It made me think of this idea of how to help my students see that the scriptures have the answers to all these questions. They just need to learn how to find them. And that led to this AMAZING activity this week.

I started out by sending out an email to about ten missionaries who are currently serving all over the world ... Idaho, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Germany, etc. This was my explanation letter. I told them about our seminary class and asked them if they would be willing to send one question that they were asked by an investigator that week pertaining to the gospel. It could be super basic or super complicated. Either type would work. Each Sunday I would simply send out an email that said, "Any questions???" Then they would only have to respond with their question. It wasn't meant to take any more than 30 seconds of their P-day. Super simple. Super easy.

The missionaries responded super positively. They were all excited to participate, and several asked if we could send the answers our class came up with back to them. I refined my plan a bit more, and here is how it went ...

On Monday I had received about six questions. I put them on little sheets of paper and stuck them in a cup. Then we drew one question out. The question we got this week came from Adrienne, who is serving in Russia. Because most of the class knows Adrienne it made the question seem real and relevant to them. It was, "If I am a good person, why does it matter which church I attend?" It was the PERFECT question for this week since we are talking about The Great Apostasy and The First Vision. A perfect question. On Monday I wrote that question on the board and asked the class to ponder it for a few days. Because of our school's late start on Wednesday we have a longer seminary class, so on Wednesday we took some time in class to answer the question. I REALLY wish I could have devoted way more time to the activity because it was so effective, but I need to follow the curriculum and stay on target there, so I only really gave them about ten minutes to work on this activity, but it was so wonderful to see how it played out.

I divided the class into four groups of four or five people, and I put my four strong class leaders in charge of the groups. They were to first talk about what they thought the answer might be to that question and then open up their scriptures and see if they could find scriptures that supported that idea ... or maybe they would find, after looking in the scriptures, that they needed to refine or edit their idea a bit. We talked about how to use the index and topical guide to find answers. We talked about using the scripture mastery verses for basic doctrinal answers. And they went to work. Everyone participated. Everyone. We didn't end up having enough time to actually come back together and talk about the individual answers on Wednesday. They were so involved in talking and searching the scriptures that I didn't want to break that up.

Today we came back together and I took just five minutes at the beginning of class to discuss their answers. I asked the group leaders to represent their group (or delegate a spokesperson) and share one idea and one supporting scripture for that idea. Then I asked one student to be our scribe. He would record the answers we received and put it together for the emailed answers we would send back to the missionaries. The four answers we got were insightful and spot on. I thought they would all be about the same and use the same scriptures, but they weren't. Each group had a different emphasis, and each group pulled from a different book of scripture. We had Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and two New Testament scriptures that were used as examples. Everyone was quick to add additional thoughts as we were recording our answers to send to the missionaries. It was magical, truly magical.

This Sunday when I send out my "Any questions???" email I will stick this information at the end of the email for them to print off, if they are interested. It will say that our question came from Adrienne, a missionary serving in Russia, and our answer was compiled by Jordan, a sophomore at Waynesville High School. Who knows? Our answers might be a blessing to those serving in the field right now.

What I LOVED about this activity was that it showed my students that there are real answers to real life questions in the scriptures. We just need to learn how to find them. They were able to test this and see that they don't have to just ask someone else for the answers. They can search and find for themselves. This was the perfect activity to lead into our lesson today .... Studying the Scriptures. I shared this amazing quote from Boyd K. Packer:



"If [you] are acquainted with the revelations, there is no question -- personal or social or political or occupational -- that need go unanswered. Therein is contained the fulness of the everlasting gospel. Therein we find principles. of truth that will resolve every confusion and every problem and every dilemma that will face the human family or any individual in it." ("Teach the Scriptures" [address to CES religious educators, Oct. 14, 1977], 3-4).


And what was wonderful was that after reading the above quote, the students were able to bear testimony of the truth of that based on what we had just done. They had seen that they could find answers to questions through the revelations and principles found in their scriptures. They weren't just taking my word for it. They knew.

AWESOME!!!!!

So I adored this activity. We'll be doing it every week this year. I don't want it to dominate each class. I imagine that as the year continues the students will get better and better at knowing how to find answers in the scriptures, so they won't need as much time to complete the activity.

I really, really love the opportunity I have to wake up each morning before the birds so that I can come to church and have opportunities to watch the light bulbs light up in the spirits and minds of these great youth. It really is the best calling ever.

Katie

I don't think I've taken time to devote a post just to my sweet daughter, Katie, but I think she's due for one today. She is growing into a beautiful young woman, and she had a stellar Sunday that I wanted to share.

Katie got to give her very first talk in church on Sunday. She was asked to talk about courage and friendship. She spent a good amount of time during the week pondering that subject, looking for supporting quotes and scriptures, and planning her talk. I didn't help her all that much. The only thing I did for her is help her at first when she was a bit confused about how courage and friendship could go together as a subject for a talk. I just reminded her of the Dumbledore quote from the first Harry Potter book when he speaks about how Neville stood up to his friends when they were not following the rules.

That opened Katie's eyes to the possibilities, and she just ran with it. I was so impressed with the way that she prepared for this talk. She showed a maturity in her preparation that you don't often see in twelve year-old girls. Normally I make sure and check out the talks the kids have prepared before they get to church, just to make sure their doctrine is sound and their words flow logically, but I didn't look at Katie's until just a few minutes before Sacrament Meeting. What I found was a paper with a few notes prompting Katie what she wanted to say, but she hadn't written down her entire talk. She was going to go up, trust the preparation that she did, and follow the Spirit as she spoke. Wow! I didn't know how it would turn out, but Katie seemed confident, so I hoped for the best.

How did it go?

She was AMAZING. Absolutely amazing. She stood before our congregation and was poised and confident for the most part. I could see that she was a bit nervous, but she didn't let her nerves throw her off at all. She felt good about the things she had prepared, and she had no problem sharing them with us. As she stood and spoke she reminded me so much of Laney. Savannah said the same thing after the talk was over. It was a bit freaky how much like Laney Katie seemed. There was a point at the beginning of the talk when Katie was explaining how her understanding of the topic evolved. She told of how she didn't understand exactly what the bishop wanted her to speak about, and how she tried thinking of it several different ways without feeling good about the results. Then she said, "Finally I just raised the white flag and asked my mom." It was such an odd thing for a twelve year-old to say. At that point she sounded exactly like Laney would have sounded if she were giving that talk. I was super proud of her.

That night her beehive adviser posted a video of her on facebook. Katie was holding her adviser's daughter on her hip as she directed the young women in their opening song, and the little baby started directing with her. It was super cute, and I loved watching the joy and enthusiasm Katie showed as she directed the song. Here she is:

So there is a little love thrown out to my Katiebell today. She is a wonderful young woman. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her.

Just Call Me Rosie

Our dishwasher drives me crazy. What should be a wonder of modern convenience is instead a source of constant annoyance. It should be easy. Load the dishes up in a nice and orderly way. Add the detergent. Turn the machine on to the proper wash cycle. Go away and do something else. And then return to a machine of nicely washed dishes, ready to be immediately soiled by our minions. But what has happened instead for it seems like forever is that I open the door to find things mostly clean. Mostly clean would work if you are talking about a mad dash around the house to straighten things up before the relatives arrive. It would work if you are talking about getting the car ready for a big trip. But mostly clean does not work when it comes to dishes. Our poor dishes come out of the dishwasher with most of the main food rinsed off, but there is always a significant layer of grime that now is dry-baked onto the items. The top rack is the worst, with nothing coming out smooth and clean, especially not if there is any sort of dried food on the items. If there is a food particle showing anywhere it has to go to the bottom rack. 

The straw that broke the camel's back and convinced me that something drastic had to change was when we had the Stewart family over last Sunday. They were newly back in the area, and they got to see the Blau family at our worst, I think. The house was in complete chaos. Routine is not our forté during the summer. We are super laid back, and for this final weekend of the summer it finally began to take its toll on the house. It was a mess. But the absolute worst thing that happened was when we had one of the kids grab a drink of water for one of the Stewart boys. They went to the dishwasher, pulled out a "clean" glass, and filled it with water. When they brought it out there was a noticeable ring of old milk on the inside edge. Sis. Stewart was so nice. I think she was still going to give the drink to her little boy, just to spare our feelings, I'm sure. But Herman and I were mortified, and Herman got up to find a better cup. There were not many to be found. All the glasses were caked with debris. Ick!

We were tempted to just go and buy a new dishwasher, but this one was not that old, and it has really great reviews, so we thought there had to be an easier solution. I looked online (yea for internet searches!!) and found some possible ideas. The first ideas were easy ones. Many suggested using liquid detergent instead of the tablets because the tablets sometimes do not dissolve properly. Others were insistent that a good rinse agent was all that was needed. I headed to Wal-mart, grabbed some liquid detergent (the expensive stuff, just in case) and some good detergent booster, and headed home to see what would happen. Turns out ... nothing much. The fancy detergent change made no difference at all. The dishes were still MOSTLY clean.

Now it was time to really work the problem. The next thing required me to take the dishwasher apart. Oh no! I was not so excited about that. Taking things apart can lead to lost tiny parts, incorrect reassembly, broken appliances. It could be messy. But at this point our next option was to just buy a new machine, so the worst that would happen as I attempted to disassemble things would be that I would be forced to buy a new machine. 

The problem potentially involved either a clogged filter or debris in the chopper. Taking the water assembly apart that forces water through the machine was not all that difficult once I figured the instructions out. I didn't seem to break anything. It was a little complicated to get to the filter at first, but even that was a piece of cake once I could see what needed to be done. The filter wasn't all that dirty. There were some hard water deposits around it, but that was easy to wipe off. Once the filter was removed and cleaned I found a bunch of plastic pieces, including the metal top of a pencil, and lots of corn pieces next to the chopper assembly. I removed all of them and figured the problem would now be solved. I didn't actually remove the outer housing from the chopper because it sounded complicated, and it looked secure, so I thought that would not have any debris in there.

I reassembled everything, loaded the dishwasher up again, and ....

There was still grime on the dishes!!! Ugh!

Well, now I was really frustrated. But until I did every last step I wouldn't feel right replacing our mostly new machine. So this morning when I should have been doing so many other things, I decided to bite the bullet and open up the chopper assembly to see if it was damaged. This time disassembling the dishwasher was a piece of cake. I knew exactly what I was doing. Everything was off in record time. Now I was down to the plastic casing covering the chopper. The instructions made it look hard, so I was super nervous, but I gave it a go to see what would happen. It ended up being pretty easy. The thing just popped off. Hooray! 

What I found inside was just wrong. The whole chopper assembly was filled with plastic pieces, a pop tab off a soda can, sunflower seed casings, corn (what is the deal with so much corn in the machine?), and various ultra tiny obstructions. I pulled all of it out. It felt like there should be more to do, but that was all that I could see. 

Hopefully that will solve our problem. If it does I will feel super accomplished. I saved our family a few hundred dollars in expense. I managed to do it myself without having to ask Herman for help or call a certified repairman. I'm feeling pretty good about myself today. 

So today I'm going to ask that you call me Rosie the Riveter for kicks since I am soaking up my new found ability. Of course, that'll change if it turns out that my cups come out grungy again, but I'm hoping for the best. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE:  The dishwasher's first post-cleaning cycle just ended and ... I THINK IT WORKED!! I put some fairly dirty stuff on the bottom, and it came out clean, and the glasses on top are super smooth and sparkly. Hooray!! We'll see how it lasts. 

Gotta Have It ...

Yesterday I signed us up for new health insurance. I HATE doing this. I think I would stick around with bad insurance just so I didn't have to go through the process of having to sign up for something new, even if it would benefit us in some way. I hate the process so much. And before I get ten thousand "Obamacare sucks!" comments on this I should point out that the process was a nightmare way before the new healthcare law was passed. The system was just as bad for us ... just a different sort of bad. I want to just write down a few of my thoughts about my own personal experience, but it isn't meant to be any sort of springboard for political rantings where people throw out the political talking points that have been hand fed to us by either side of the debate. Life is not always so black and white. Healthcare is complicated, and so is healthcare insurance. Things aren't going to be solved with a few cute political memes on facebook poking fun at the other side of the argument. (Please. I love you all so much. It hurts my heart to see so much hatred thrown out in the digital world when politics is involved. Be kind to others, even when you disagree.) There are valid points all the way around. I just want to share my own personal experience. So here goes ...

In the early years of our marriage we were blessed with AMAZING health insurance. Herman worked as a telemarketer for MCI (remember that long distance phone company?), and they offered wonderful benefits to their employees at the time. So even though Herman was working part time while he was in college we were able to have insurance that covered maternity care and our basic needs for little expense. It was a huge blessing. After graduating from college Herman began teaching at WHS, and we received great health insurance as well. It wasn't quite the killer deal that we had at MCI because only Herman's coverage was paid by the district. We ate up a good chunk of our paycheck adding coverage for the kids and me. Still, it was good insurance, and it was worth the expense. We didn't have to worry about choosing the coverage or mediating problems with insurance payments for services because the district had a dedicated employee who mediated for us. Nice. I didn't give much thought to our health insurance. I was just grateful that it existed.

All that changed when Herman decided to leave the district after ten years in order to start his own business. Suddenly we were not under the umbrella of a large employer. We were the employers. Our business was tiny with few employees. We hadn't made any real money yet. But I would not go without insurance, no matter what. For the first time in my life I needed to find my own health insurance options. And, oh my!, what a nightmare it was!! The process still gives me little nightmares sometimes when I remember it. We had to fill out GIANT applications that asked super detailed questions about every single health event of the past ten years for every single member of our family. They had to pull medical records from every doctor we had ever seen. Luckily, our family was complete (well, other than our Minsy adoption) so we wouldn't need maternity care. I don't know what we would have done then because there were no maternity plans available that I could see that wouldn't involve a GIGANTIC increase in premiums. For the added expense we could have paid for our own hospital deliveries of two or three babies, I think.

I became a huge wrench in the process because I had several grand mal seizures after Spencer was born and was diagnosed with epilepsy (a great story for another day, but it involved the scariest wake up call ever as I awoke suddenly at 2 am to see Herman and two paramedics staring down at me in concern. Freaky!). Anyway, because of my epilepsy diagnoses no one would cover me. I was not taking any medication. I didn't see a specialist at all. The seizures were not happening at all. There was no extra cost for me to the insurance company, but I posed a risk, so no one would cover me. We ended up signing up the rest of the family on a plan while I used the COBRA option available to keep the school insurance for six months while I tried to find a solution. For awhile it looked like I would need to latch onto the state high risk insurance pool ... which cost a fortune. I understand why, but still, yikes!!!  That didn't look too appealing. Finally I found one insurance company that was willing to cover me if I would opt out of receiving any reimbursements for things relating to epilepsy. I took it. In the meantime I went to get another EEG for some reason. I think that I was convinced that my epilepsy was gone since it had been so many years since I had a seizure. This is another one of those stories for another day, but I believe I experienced a true healing miracle. I really do. Because when I went to get this final EEG there was absolutely no trace of the epilepsy at all. No trace. My neurologist was amazed. I was given a clean bill of health. All was wonderful in Blauland ... but I still struggled to get insurance. Urg!

Long story short ... our family was covered. We kept our health insurance all these years, even in the year or two when our first business began to really struggle and we weren't getting paid much, we kept our health insurance. It is important to me that our family is covered in case of something catastrophic, so I found a way to make those payments, no matter what. The cost per month was staggering. Absolutely staggering. Our family really doesn't have a lot of medical problems these days. We were definitely a money maker for our insurance company, but I don't mind so much because I wanted to have the piece of mind, knowing that we had some sort of recourse if something horrible happened.

But insurance life was not all puppies and roses for us. At first we decided to go without dental insurance since our dentist didn't accept any private insurance out there that was not attached to some large group plan. We figured we would just pay cash for our visits. No big deal. We could handle it. But I would get so upset each time we got our bill and saw what we were being charged for routine checkups. You know, large insurance groups work out payment agreements with doctors, hospitals, and dentists. The providers charge a gigantic amount on paper. The insurance companies say, "No.We'll pay this smaller amount." The provider says, okay. And everything is hunky dory ... sort of. That's the way the system works. I get the feeling that neither side is totally happy with it, but that is what it is. The people who really get the bum deal in this system are the people paying cash because we don't get the discounted rate even though we are totally eliminating the middle man. We pay directly ... no paperwork, no arbitration. We're paying cash. And yet we had to pay the inflated cost that the insurance companies wouldn't pay. Frustrating. We finally left our dentist, even though we liked him a lot, and headed to a different office where they would accept private insurance, and we found a plan that at least allows us to have the negotiated lower price. I'd love to just pay cash each time, but it didn't make any financial sense.

I would look at our healthcare system as it was ... is ... and think how ridiculously inefficient it is when it comes to how things are billed and paid for. We had the opportunity to go to a luncheon at Phelps County Memorial Hospital in Rolla held for a few community leaders about five years ago. I'm not sure how we got on that list for invites, but we showed up. The hospital administrator talked about the struggles they had with providing services and receiving reimbursement for those services, whether it was from Medicaid and Medicare, private insurance, or non-paying uninsured patients. She made it sound as if the hospital was in dire financial straits. Maybe it was. I don't know. I know that I have heard the same story from insurance companies and doctors groups and every other medical entity out there. I know friends who did not carry insurance and then found themselves in a difficult health situation that required lots of expensive care and medicine. Did they get care and medicine? Yes. And I'm grateful for it. But they did not end up paying for it. Every other patient at those facilities did through increased costs. But I also know friends who do have insurance. They've paid their premiums faithfully for years, only to find that when they really, truly need the insurance, their insurance company covers little of the cost of care, leaving them with thousands and thousands of dollars of expenses that deplete their years of savings and send them into bankruptcy. Do you want to read an article about the cost of healthcare that is really depressing/infuriating? Check out this excellent article from Time Magazine (just click on the magazine cover, and it'll take you to the full article):

Or you can watch this great video from John Green. I like him, but I know his mannerisms drive some people (like Savannah) crazy, but if you can get past that he does offer a good explanation of how wonky our system is, whether you totally agree with absolutely everything he says:

The whole system is a mess. It has been a mess. It continues to be a mess.

But I have to have my health insurance. I refuse to go without. And that takes us to yesterday ...

I had one giant concern about the new healthcare law. A giant concern. I felt as if the insurance companies and their moneyed lobbyists wrote the thing to benefit themselves. That would not end up being a good thing. Not at all. I already have a giant load of distrust when it comes to health insurance companies, and I didn't think that altruism was the reason that those companies exist. They exist to make money. Lots of money. And now it seemed as if they were getting ready to cash out. I was worried.

Up to this year we noticed no real difference in our insurance. We kept the same insurance with the same benefits. The monthly cost went up every year by a lot, but that was happening before the law anyway. We started out paying about $600 a month for our insurance, and by last year it was closer to $900. Like I say, we don't use the insurance all that much, so it was like opening up our wallet and burning the cash in some ways, but we were covered, and that was important to me. But over the summer we got a notice saying that our insurance did not meet the new standards for the law, and we were being dropped. We needed to get a new plan. First of all, after looking at the available plans we were offered there is absolutely no difference at all in coverage for some of the plans. There didn't really seem to be anything that would have required the insurance company to drop the plan we had ... except the new plan with exactly the same benefits was now about $500 a month more expensive. Convenient, huh? And the REALLY cool thing that the insurance company gets to do now? They just tell me that they HAVE to do this because of the new healthcare law. It's not their fault, right? It's Obama's fault. See, that way they can deflect any criticism that might come their way and just tell us that we should just blame the government. They get to get their money, and instead of being angry at them, we'll be angry at the government. It's the perfect plan. Genius really. Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh. (You've seen the new Muppet Movie, right?)

So anyway, yesterday was the last day we could sign up for new health insurance coverage so that there wouldn't be a gap in our coverage. I looked at ehealhcare.com for some comparison plans, and then I headed over to the healthcare.gov website. It's the much maligned site that had the disastrous beginning last year, and hopefully was going to be a positive experience for me. I was hoping for the best, but wary.

First of all ... the positives:

• It was super easy to sign up for coverage. No more extensive heath histories with contact info for every single doctor who has ever wiped our nose. Even with our giant family I was able to fill out the form in about fifteen minutes. Easy and intuitive. It made sense what I needed to do.
• The phone help line was very helpful. The screen did lock up on me at two different times in the process, so there are still some kinks. But when I called up the toll free help line they were able to walk me through the process and get me to the next step fairly easily. You can tell that they are used to getting angry calls because both times the assistants were apologizing constantly for every single thing (over apologizing really) and when the call was over I was sure that they were going to name their firstborn girls after me since they were so effusive in their thanks for the patience I showed during the call. Those poor people and what they must deal with in healthcare.gov customer service. I'll bet it isn't pretty.
• The entire process really takes very little time. I took a lot of time because I really combed through the different plans and what they covered, but even with that it didn't take more than a few hours. When we got our private insurance a few years ago the process took more than a month with stacks and stacks of paperwork and interviews along with doctor statements.

Now, the negatives ...

• The new health plans available are seem to be awesome if you fall under the income levels where the costs are subsidized in some way. That probably is the majority of Americans. Those subsidized plans are good plans at great costs. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) our income was too high to qualify for those subsidies. We basically were having to just shop the regular market ... a market that seems to have way fewer good choices than before. Choosing to use a HSA as we do actually seemed to give us even fewer options. Ugh! What did we choose with our options? We chose a plan that actually is slightly less than our old plan, but it has a crazy high deductible with no coverage for office visits or routine care until that deductible is met. It really is an awful plan, but it should take care of us if something terrible happens ... hopefully. In addition, we are generally not big users of healthcare, so we're hoping that we don't ever get close to that deductible limit, and our Health Savings Account (which I LOVE) will cover the basics. I just hope we are paying a negotiated rate and not the crazy high rates. We'll see. 
• I guess the other big con is that I still feel as if we are totally removed from any real freedom when it comes to our healthcare choices. I feel like the insurance companies are still in charge, for the most part. I wish there were some way that everything was smaller, more local, more personal. I love my doctor. I trust her. And when things get more complicated, I trust the specialists we visit. They know me. I know them. We could work something out that rewards them for their education, expertise, and experience while keeping my family and me healthy and strong. I know we could. I hate having to deal with the nameless, faceless people out there who are making healthcare decisions based on balance sheets and data collection. I hate having healthcare discussed by television and radio talking heads who make LOTS of money by freaking us out about everything, talking in soundbites, and relaying political talking points from both sides without actually talking about the complicated real life situations that people in the real world are facing. 

But anyway ... this ended up being super long, didn't it? I sure didn't start out meaning to go on for so long about things. I generally try to avoid putting negative posts on my blog. They aren't uplifting, and if there is a choice, shouldn't we be uplifting if we can? Too many people use social media to just rant and complain about things, and nothing positive comes from it. Problems aren't solved that way. And I guess there aren't any problems that will be solved by this post either, will they? I don't know what the solution is. I don't have any answers. What I know is that things are more complicated than our modern media promotes. The new healthcare law is not the most amazing and wonderful thing ever to come out of Congress, but it is also not complete evil and disaster. It is complicated, and our soundbite government (all sides) hates to deal with complicated. 

So anyway, I'd prefer not to get angry rants in the comment section. Direct any angry letters directly to the office of your particular government representatives. They are the people (in theory) who are in a real position to affect policy directly. This is just my own personal experience and my own personal thoughts, not meant to be an indictment of any particular political feelings or leanings. 

So, to end on a good note ... we have our health insurance. We are healthy. We have a great doctor who knows us and loves us. Life is good! And when all else fails ... just dance. It makes everything just a little bit happier.

Another Last First

Another first day of school. Another last first day for one of the Blau children. This time I wasn't all emotional about it. Savannah begins her final year of school at Waynesville High School. She's not slacking off this year as she takes six AP classes. Six! It'll be a challenging year, but if anyone can do it, Savannah can. 

I'm not feeling very verbal today, so I guess this post will be mostly pictures with a few words this time around. Here's a taste of our first day of school 2014:

Savannah -- Senior

Some cool things about Savannah's senior year ... She begins her third year in a row as the captain of the Waynesville Scholar Bowl team. She is REALLY good at this. Really good. Her knowledge of random facts in all subjects is a little scary. She is also president of the Cinema Club, giving her the opportunity to share her odd taste in movies with fellow students. Her favorite movie ever? Captain Blood with Errol Flynn. Look it up. Odd. If her six AP classes don't kill her this year, she will be ranked #1 in her class. We'll see how this year goes. Fun thing she gets to do this semester ... tutor for the special needs kids that Nandy teaches first hour. That's a great opportunity.

Spencer -- Sophomore

Spencer worked REALLY hard this summer at soccer. Our poor front yard was covered in odd obstacles for him to dribble around. With all of his hard work he was rewarded by getting a great score during soccer tryouts. He is one of the top JV players this year, giving him an excellent chance of making the varsity team next year. He has improved a ton since his freshman year. It doesn't hurt that he grew about eight inches in the last year, giving him extra reach when going after balls. He is hoping to graduate early, and this year we'll see how much he really wants to do it.

Katie -- 7th Grade

This year Katie gets to begin life in junior high. It can be a madhouse at the middle school. So much drama. So many hormones. But Katie has got the strength to maneuver the craziness. She will be in Advanced Band playing her clarinet, and she's hoping to have the chance to take Musical Theater as her elective this year. She would really be great in that.

Hyrum -- 5th Grade

It will be Hyrum's last year at Freedom Elementary. He is already planning on trying to beat his record of words read last year. They have a new system of keeping records this year, so he may not be able to do this. Either way, I know he'll be loving his books all year.

JoJo -- 3rd Grade

JoJo moved up to the upper elementary this year, and since he has visited there with all five of his older siblings he is already a pro at traveling the convoluted halls. He held my hand as we headed into the building, but as soon as we headed through the doors he dropped my hand and said, "I think I'm going to walk ahead now, Mom." Ooooooooohhh. I think my heart died a little inside when I realized that my baby boy was growing up and moving on past the hand holding stage. 

Eliza -- Early Childhood Special Ed

This is Minsy's last year in Early Childhood Special Ed. It was so cute taking her to the Meet the Teacher night last night. She walked into the school, and immediately the principal yelled out "Eliza!" Then Minsy ran up and gave her a big hug. That began Minsy's walk of fame down the hallway. She was greeted by every single teacher and aide with a giant hug and cheer. Everyone knew her. The other little pre-schoolers just looked at her in awe, wondering who in the world this celebrity child was. It was super cute. Minsy really struggles with a lot of things in life, but social interaction is not one of those things. She is a pro at working the crowds. 

And now ... the rest of the story in pictures:

Our day began at 6 am with me teaching the high school students from our church at seminary. I am going to have a superstar class this year. I already love them to pieces. One cool thing about this year ... Herman gets to be my teaching buddy. He is teaching a group of young men in another class down the hall. Super cool to have a partner as I plan lessons.

Hard to see here since Savannah refuses to drive with her top down on the way to school, but this is Savannah and Spencer heading out to the high school.

We always drive our elementary kids to school on the first day, and this year it was super easy for the first time ever since we have both kids at the same school. Hooray! Hyrum and JoJo are only two doors away from each other, and Hyrum will be a great big brother to JoJo there at school.

JoJo with Mrs. McKinnon

Side note ... every one of our boys has had Mrs. McKinnon in third grade. I'm not sure why that is, but we love her, so we don't mind at all. She is a great teacher.

Hyrum with Mr. Sanford

Hyrum was super stoked to get a man as a teacher this year. We've never had Mr. Sanford before, but we've heard great things.

With the big kids all delivered to school, it was just Minsy and us for a few hours. Her classes are in the afternoon, so she doesn't have to meet the bus until 11:30. So what did we do?

We headed to Cracker Barrel for our annual Back to School breakfast. This will be our last one with Minsy. Next year we get to have Savannah and Laney (hooray!) with us since they will not start college until a few weeks later. 

After a busy morning deep cleaning a summer's worth of Blau clutter and mess, Herman and I headed to the corner to meet her bus to pre-school.

Minsy has had the same bus driver for three years, and she LOVES the bus. 

So thus ends another first day for the Blau family. I am so grateful to have kids who love school, and I'm grateful to live in a town with such a good school district. I imagine that the next several years will just get harder and harder for me as a parent as there will be fewer Blaus heading to school and even fewer needing me to chauffeur them around. Time keeps ticking much too fast. I think I just blinked, and my children are already growing up and moving on. I'm just trying to keep my eyes open and cherish the journey.

Our Canadian Border Adventure

I'm normally a super, super prepared traveler. I plan out our itineraries for every moment of every day (even if we don't ever actually follow them). I look for things that might complicate our trip and try to avoid them ahead of time. If there is money that is needed or tickets that need to be printed, or anything that should be done ahead of time I get it done. I love to plan things this way. Herman and I actually complement each other perfectly as we travel. He doesn't plan ANYTHING. He loves to have adventures and just see what happens. While my method tends to bind us and keep us from some fun and memorable experiences, Herman's method can create chaos and keep us from doing some things we want to do. The two of us together manage to work out a system that allows enough planning to keep things running smoothly while giving us tons of opportunities for adventures and memories.

I am especially diligent when it comes to planning foreign trips. We haven't gone on all that many foreign trips yet as a family, but I was a master of documentation when we did our grand month in China in 2011. I had every piece of documentation with backup copies and contingency plans if things went wrong. I was ready. That's the sort of planning I do. That's the sort of traveler I am.

That's what made our adventure yesterday and today so ridiculous. It shouldn't have happened. I should have known better. I just wasn't thinking at all, and I created a royal mess for our family as we planned a "quick" little one night trip into Canada to see the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and spend the night in the area.

We were on our way to drop Savannah and Spencer off for EFY in Palmyra, NY, and we had some time to spare. Spencer has this mini little obsession with all things Canadian, but he has never been there. The last time we were close to Canada we didn't have our passports yet, so all we could do was look across the border longingly, unable to go any further. This time we would be ready since all of us have passports.

Well ... most of us.

Minsy still has her Chinese passport. I never got around to getting her American passport. Mostly that was because we were still working on getting her age changed, and I didn't want to mess with having to change a passport age. I never actually looked to see how foreign passports work, but I knew that the kids' passports lasted five years. I figured Minsy's passport would last that long as well. All would be fine, right?

In the past several months I have felt prompted to get Minsy a new American passport, but I never sat down to actually do it. Big, big mistake.

As we headed north to cross the border we found ourselves on a super long bridge ... Peace Bridge. About halfway across the bridge we came to the international border between the United States and Canada. As I looked at the two country flags on either side of the UN flag I started to think about Minsy's passport ... and I panicked. I began to worry that Minsy's Chinese passport was going to be a problem, and I wondered how the border patrol would handle it. Of course, at this point there really was nothing that we could do. There was nowhere to turn around. We were just going to have to go through the line and see what happened.

A little side story that didn't involve passports ... We were stuck in traffic on the bridge. A lot of traffic. It was stop and go traffic that was going to take about a half hour to make the short trip. All would be fine, except (of course) that JoJo ended up having to go to the bathroom. Badly. Really badly. There was nothing to do really unless he were to jump out of the car, head to the side of the bridge, and pee over the side. That wasn't going to be a great solution, so we decided to go with our best option. We had a water bottle in the car, and after emptying it out it became the perfect receptacle for JoJo's excess bladder contents. JoJo is somewhat of an expert in this method of waste disposal since he was forced to do this when we were traveling from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in China. At a certain point in the trip the train closes the bathrooms, so he had no other choice. He did just fine then. He could do it again today. But, you see, the Chinese bottles had a bit wider top than our American water bottle. JoJo was going to have to maneuver things to get the pee into the right spot, and he was having a hard time figuring out how to make things work. Herman kept asking me to help him get the right angle, but there was no way I was getting involved. Finally, Hyrum sighed really loudly and said, "I'll do it." He assisted, and JoJo got the job done. Hooray! When we approached the border station a large sign explained that we needed to declare any weapons we had in the car. I jokingly said that we were going to have to declare JoJo's pee bottle. I didn't really think that anyone was listening to me. Turns out I should maybe think a bit before I blurt out things like that around young children. When we arrived at the gate the agent asked us if we had any weapons to declare. Herman said no, but then we heard this little voice in the back say rather loudly, "But we do have my pee bottle up in the front that might be a weapon." JoJo was just trying to be honest, I think. Our entire car burst out laughing. The border agent just looked at JoJo in all seriousness and said, "Well, I don't really need to see that." Too funny!

When we got to the inspection site where we needed to produce our passports the border agent was excellent. He was obviously French Canadian, and he spoke with a pronounced French accent. He wished us Bonjour, and welcomed us to Canada. It was super cool. I don't know why, but I never really thought about there actually being French Canadians in Canada who spoke with a big accent. That shouldn't be a surprise, I guess, but it was for me. I thought all Canadians, even the ones in Quebec, basically talked a lot like people in the US. But this guy had the coolest French accent. I could have listened to him for a long time.

We did get to talk to him a bit more than average because when he looked at our passports he noticed Minsy's Chinese passport and found it to be a problem. We explained who she is and why she had a Chinese passport, but it was complicated, so he couldn't send us through. We had to park at the station and go in to talk with the Canadian immigration workers. He assured us that it wouldn't be too much of a deal. We could figure things out pretty quickly ... hopefully.

When Herman and I got into the building there was a short line of about three people. While we were sitting in line we started to really think about what a mess we might have created for ourselves. If Minsy's passport could not get her into Canada then what about getting back into the US? We were pretty much standing in No Man's Land, not really in Canada, but not not really in the US either. When we got to the front desk we realized that things might be even more complicated than we thought. If Minsy was truly a Chinese citizen then she would need to have a visa to enter Canada or the US. Obviously, she is no longer a Chinese citizen. She is American. As an American she wouldn't need a visa, but we had no proof with us that she was actually an American. We didn't have an adoption certificate. We didn't have her naturalization papers. We didn't have her new birth certificate. We had nothing. Complicating things was the fact that Minsy is now officially two years younger than her Chinese passport states, her name is different, and she looked totally different as well. What a mess!

We weren't actually terribly concerned about getting into Canada. If we couldn't get in, then we couldn't get in. We'd just cancel our hotel reservations and check out the American side of Niagara Falls. But we got really worried wondering about how we were going to get her back into the United States with this passport. The Canadians seemed fairly laid back about everything, but we knew that the Americans were probably not going to be so lenient. That freaked us out a bit. We began to wonder if we were going to be in our very own episode of "The Terminal," stuck between borders with no way to escape. We talked to the Canadian border agent about this, and she kindly called over to the American side to see what they recommended. They said that there shouldn't be a problem. We would have to go talk to US immigration on the way back, just like we were talking to Canadian immigration on the way out. No big deal. The Canadian border agent promised us that she would not let us through if she thought there would really be any problem for us getting Minsy back in the states. She stamped our passports and gave us the opportunity to have our Canadian adventure that night. Hooray!

She originally wasn't going to stamp our passports, but the kids really, really wanted a Canadian passport stamp. Herman told her that it was Spencer's big dream to come to Canada. She was so impressed with the fact that there was this boy out there who desperately wanted to visit Canada that she asked if she could come out and say hello. So we all headed out of the building and came to our parking spot. I think Spencer and Minsy were a bit confused and maybe a tiny bit worried about why we opened the door and told them to come out of the car. But it was only for a picture, so all was well.



This was the super nice border agent who helped us get things figured out so that Minsy could get into Canada. Such a sweetheart!

When we got back into the car and started driving I looked on my camera and found a bunch of pictures that Savannah had taken while we were inside the building. A bunch. Savannah is not really much of a picture taker, so this was surprising. What was even more surprising was the subject of these pictures. They were all of one of the Canadian border agents. Pictures of him walking. Pictures of him talking. Pictures of him laughing. Lots and lots of pictures. Why? Well, Savannah explained that he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Savannah does not normally gush about guys, but she was gushing about this one. I think she has decided to move to Canada where they seem to have the most beautiful border patrol agents in the world. Here's the subject of her mini photo documentary:

Really, the pictures don't do him justice. He was a very nice looking border agent, and I think he has seriously gotten Savannah interested in looking into the qualifications needed to join the Canadian border patrol in the future. She cracks me up. Our informal observations definitely showed that Canada does have the most beautiful border agents, both men and women. So there's something to ponder, I guess.

We had a ton of fun in Canada. I really want to take some time to explore more of Canada in the future. An evening there was not enough. It is such a beautiful country and I love the French culture and language sprinkled all around. But I'm not going to talk about our experiences in Canada for this blog post. They'll get their own little space in another post coming soon. This post is just dedicated to our adventures at the border, so I'll just focus on our experiences there.

So now ... on to our experience trying to get Minsy back into the US. Sadly this part of the saga was not nearly so smooth and drama free.

When we woke up on Monday we knew that we needed to get Savannah and Spencer back to Palmyra, NY sometime between noon and 2 pm so that they could get checked in for EFY. We anticipated our wait at the border to be around an hour, so we planned accordingly. This time we chose a different entry bridge since apparently the Peace Bridge is the busiest and most stringent border crossing in the area. We hoped if we tried to re-enter by Niagara Falls we would have a bit better luck. We ended up getting to the bridge at around 9 am, and it was true ... this border crossing was much smoother with a lot fewer cars, but we still couldn't get easily back in the US. We needed to pull the car over and enter the immigration building. No big deal. That's what we had to do when we crossed into Canada. We knew the drill. We were prepared for it.

Except we weren't. The US procedures are totally different than the Canadians. It was a complete mess. A complete mess.

Herman totally broke the no cell phone rule to document our experience.

Instead of being able to just walk inside and walk right up to an immigration officer, they send everyone into what is basically a giant herding room. They confiscated all of our passports at the car checkpoint, so none of us were going to be able to get into the US until we got those back. We just trusted that they actually sent them to the immigration workers because once we arrived at the room there was no one to greet us, no one to explain what was going on, no way to see if anyone was actually working on your case. We were just expected to sit there and wait until they called our name. We weren't allowed to use cell phones. There was a TV set up, but there was no sound, so it wasn't all that helpful. The good news was that there were only four other groups ahead of us, so we figured we wouldn't have long to wait.

That's what we thought.

But then we sat there forever and watched as one group after another was called ahead of us. As we waited our holding cell went from having around ten people to being completely full with at least a hundred people or more. It was standing room only. One group ahead of us went into the secured area to talk to immigration, but after that it seemed as if the people being called in were those who arrived long after we had. There were at least forty Dutch citizens waiting, and even though they arrived at least an hour after us, it seemed like they were able to step into the holding cell, wait five minutes, and then have their names called. Hardly any wait at all. On the other hand, we heard nothing. Nothing.

The room is starting to fill. By the time we left it was completely full
with standing room only. Surely with all the money we spend on
immigration we could develop a smoother process ... especially since so
many of these people here come from ally countries and have already jumped through
the visa hoops they needed to jump in order to visit our country. These
aren't political refugees or dangerous criminals. They are mostly middle
class tourists. Sure, check them out and make sure they are safe, but
does it have to take so long? Ugh!

I started to panic and think that they had confiscated our passports but not given them to anyone in immigration. We could be there all day. There was no way to even ask anyone if they were working on our problem because there was no person working at the window. Whenever someone needed to enter the room they would call their name on a terribly inadequate speaker system and then unlock the door for them remotely. Even when people tried to ask someone who poked their head into the holding area, they were quickly told to just sit down and wait for their name to be called. But even as bad as I felt like our situation was, there were others who had it worse. We talked to a very nice young couple from Cuba who had arrived an hour before we did. They were still there as we left, and they were probably going to be there for a long time since the situation between the US and Cuba is so volatile. They were hoping to visit family members in Florida, but their chances seemed fairly slim. So sad.

They're thrilled. Really.

We had left the kids in the car since we expected this to only take a few minutes. After sitting there for half an hour we called Savannah and told her to bring the posse up to the holding area. I'm glad we did because we were sitting there for two hours. TWO HOURS!!!! I was really starting to freak out, but there was no one to freak out to since all the workers were tucked away in their safe little office area. We talked to all the hundreds of foreigners stuck in limbo with us, and all of them asked how come we were sitting there since we are all American citizens. Good question. We explained our predicament with Minsy's passport, and I felt more and more stupid each time we explained. We shouldn't be there at all, and it was only my stupidity that caused this. As irritated as I was with what seemed to be an inefficient and completely unorganized and random process, the reality is that we wouldn't have to even mess with it if I'd done my parental job right.

Just a side note ... there were so many nationalities sitting there with us. If I wasn't so frustrated by our situation I think I would have found it fun and fascinating to sit there and listen to everyone. Herman was his normal conversational self, and he talked to several people waiting. It helps that he is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and almost everyone could speak English well, so he was able to talk with lots of people. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think I was a bit caught up in the spirit of international languages. At one point Minsy was sitting on my lap and needed to stop doing whatever it was she was doing. I leaned down to tell her to stop. I have no idea what came out of my mouth, but it wasn't English. It wasn't exactly gibberish either. It was some sort of weird crossbreed of languages. Savannah was sitting next to me, and she just gave me a weird look and asked me what in the world I was saying. No clue. Just a byproduct of sitting in an international holding area for two straight hours I guess.

So anyway, after sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting forever I was finally in complete panic mode. If we didn't get this taken care of in the next few minutes there was no way that we could get Savannah and Spencer to Palmyra on time. I finally decided that I needed some divine assistance in this, so I did my best to say a good prayer in the middle of this immigration chaos. I said my prayer, and ten minutes later they called our name.

HALLELUJAH!!

We were the only family to actually cheer when they called our name. I'm not sure why more people don't do that after being stuck for so long, but we weren't ashamed. We were so glad to get out of that limbo.

Once we finally got into the magic immigration room the worker was so sweet to us. I appreciated that. Herman laughed at me because I had been fuming while we were in the holding area, but when this guy apologized for our long wait I just smiled and said, "Oh, it was no problem. We got to meet some nice people." He likes to call me Miss Bold-Behind-Their-Backs. I'll own that. I wasn't interested in any more drama. I just wanted out of there. But what really got me completely irritated with the whole process was when the immigration officer explained that Minsy didn't even really need to have any documentation because of her age. We could have just gotten to the border, handed over everyone else's passports, and she would have been able to ride right through with no problems. URG!! I wish we knew that earlier. I could have saved a ton of hassle. Why that took two hours of waiting in immigration for them to tell us that and let us through, I'll never know or understand.

But the good news is that we didn't have to stay in international limbo. We made it home to the good old USA. Lesson learned. First thing on the agenda when we get back home ... I'm getting Minsy her US passport.