July 14th, 2002 - 3pm

This is my relax-weekend. Nobody is sick and I have no plans! Yeah! We're just hanging out although Takumi is obviously sleeping at this very moment (as using the computer would work for about three minutes with him awake).

This is Takumi today. Saying hi (well actually grabbing for the camera). Drinking water, luckily he really likes water. He often won't drink juice which I'm only trying to get him to drink because the daycare has asked me twice to work on his straw use at home. In the last picture he is playing with the ladybug bath book. We had it in the bathtub for a while but it somehow made it's way to the living room where it is an even bigger hit. The way to play is to point at the animal on each page and say the animal's name and then close the book and say "ladybug" and push the head of the ladybug into his stomach. This is greeted with gales of laughter. This was a present from my secret pal (from the list of people whose documents also went to China in November 2001). You can see another present from my secret pal in the chair, an Asian doll dressed in the height of Asian pre-teen fashion. I have decided not to let Takumi play with her, but I bring her down every once in a while. I've been calling her Mei-mei which means little sister in Chinese as Takumi will soon have a little sister. The blue nerf ball from my secret pal was also very popular but it is no longer quite round as somebody has been biting it.

This morning, Amy drove us all out to the farmer's market where I bought fruit and vegetables. I made two types of soup this afternoon. One more type and Takumi'll have a nice variety for the week. The spinach turned out well, but the squash turned out to be strangely shaped cucumbers - but I decided to try cooking them and they do taste like squash cooked - so I'm hoping it's an acceptable soup. I still have the acorn squash soup left to make.

--8:15pm - Takumi's down for the night and I've remembered all that I'm supposed to do tomorrow and I'm not feeling quite so relaxed but today was a very good day and what I have to do tomorrow is very doable.

Going back in time, yesterday Michael came over and won over Takumi pretty much immediately. We played catch (I operated Takumi's hands) and there was a lot of tickling. Takumi was especially fond of being lifted up in the air and zoomed around the room - something that I'm only willing to do once but Michael seemed willing to do endlessly much to Takumi's delight.

Thanks to Michael, we've got some pictures of Takumi eating bananas and yoghurt. Takumi insists on eating his dessert first. Then we progress to the soup course which is drunk in one or two very long gulps with little skirmishes over control of the cup and how fast it should be poured down his throat. After that he'll eat his main dish which is almost rice with something on top of it (egg, curry, stew, etc.)

Thursday I went to the Family Court in Nagoya to file the adoption papers. Takayo Wada and Yumiko Takeda went with me to translate. We weren't very successful as it turned out that we were missing a number of papers. I had all the papers for Takumi's birth mother but it turns out that I need papers for Takumi himself and for Takumi's birth grandfather as the birth mother is not the actual guardian as she is too young. However, the rest of the application is okay and I can send it in rather than going into Nagoya again. The other good news is that when asked about what would happen after the papers were filed, I was given a scenario which didn't include the previously mentioned 6 months. They said that in the 1-2 months following my application, they will check on me and the birth family. Then we (the birth family and I) will be given a date to appear in Family Court in front of the judge to explain the situation. After that the birth family needs to request that the family registry be changed. Once that is done the adoption will be complete. This is very good news as it is a lot shorter than what I was previously told.

I also asked about getting a passport for Takumi so that we could go home in August and was told that the birth family had agreed but that the child welfare agency had not yet agreed. Then they told me that given the time frame from the Family Court, I might need to be here in August so that I can be "investigated." However, nothing has been decided for sure yet.

Thursday I also got back my blood test results which were much better but still not back to normal so I have to go back to the doctor's next week. The blood test results are the tail end of my mononucleosis. Takumi had mono (or glandular fever) as it is called here in the middle of May. Specifically Mother's Day - I think I can think of this as my first Mother's Day present. Anyway, looking back I think that I was sick for most of June. I was very tired, but assumed that was because Takumi gets up so early and everybody knowingly said how tired I must be now that I'm a mother. I also had a bit of sore throat which became unbearable about two weeks ago. I went to the only doctor around open on Sunday and was told that I had infected adnoids and given some medicine. I felt worse and worse (102 fever and afraid to lie down because I didn't think I'd be able to breath because my throat seemed too small) so Tuesday I went to Takumi's doctor, who actually speaks a little English. He said that I had the worst case of tonsilitis that he has ever seen. Anyway I got an IV which didn't make me feel better as promised and was told that the medicine was right. I finally started to feel better on Wednesday and was able to teach on Thursday. On Friday I ran out of medicine and so called the doctor to make sure it was okay to stop taking medicine so soon. He had me come back in because my blood tests showed very bad liver function and he thought that I might develop hepatitis.

That Monday morning I discovered that I cannot make origami with a fever. It was Tanabata (Star Festival - the seventh of July is supposedly the only day that two lovers who were turned into stars can see each other. Tree branches are decorated with paper and wishes. It is traditional for one of the wishes to be for a clear sky so that the two lovers will be able to see each other.) and I had to prepare the decorations for Takumi's tree branch for daycare. I really tried and I couldn't make a crane even with the directions and despite the fact that I've made a couple of hundred of them in the past. (Yet another story that caused Amy to say "Thank God for the Brazilians" - her daughter goes to a Brazilian daycare where they seem to understand that the reason your child is in daycare is because you don't have enough time - and they don't make you carry all the dirty diapers back home again.) I admitted defeat and took the one deformed crane and the ready-made decorations to school, but I didn't get off the hook as the stuff was all back in Takumi's drawer that evening. Anyway I did manage it the next night and below is the result of my effort.

Tomorrow is Monday and I need to go to City Hall to get Takumi's resident paper - which was apparantly changed to my house already. I also hope to take Takumi back to the Ryuyoen for a visit and go shopping with Amy in the afternoon.

Back to the Takumi Index