Three Years with MelodyJoy

Three years ago today, MelodyJoy was officially declared to be ours. Here's how I wrote it in this blog on March 28, 2006:

. . . we went back to the Civil Affairs office to be interviewed by a Civil Affairs staffer and a Notary. We simply had to answer some very basic questions . . . our names, our occupations, whether we promised never to abandon her and so on. (One of the other dads kidded that he had responded, “Well, what do you mean exactly by ‘abandon?’” Needless to say, none of us would ever try to joke with one of these officials that way!)

Actually, we did struggle with several questions. Nerves, I guess. In the first interview, with the Civil Affairs representative, she asked us to say Nan Cai Jing’s name and when I did, she said I did it correctly. The Notary however seemed to think we completely butchered the pronunciation. Jeannette had trouble when they asked for her age. In the first interview, she underreported her age by two years and then in the second, she overstated it by two years! Fortunately, their standards for determining parental competency must be rather low. It was interesting, too, that both interviewers were very surprised that we have been married for 22 years and seemed to think that was quite a long time.

At the end of the Civil Affairs interview, we signed the questionnaire and the woman immediately said, “Congratulations, the child is officially yours!” It was both surreal and exciting.

What a three years it has been! When we got MelodyJoy on March 27 from the orphanage staff, she was about eleven months old, with short hair and a somber face. She had never eaten solid food and seemed not to know how to crawl and, initially, didn't make a noise.

Now she is nothing if not expressive, with a beautiful smile and a myriad of other emotions that she shows without hesitation throughout each day. She asks for food non-stop. Non-stop, I say! Except for at meal times occasionally . . . it figures. Melody may not have been able to crawl when we first brought her into our hotel room in Guangzhou, but now it seems she might be the most athletic Muntz and is enjoying those gymnastics classes. And as for being quiet . . . see "non-stop." I think it's tempting to say, "Go talk to someone else" at times.

One thing hasn't changed: When she's sitting quietly watching TV or it's time for bed, she still sucks her thumb in just the same way:

Year of the Rat . . . The Gym Rat

As I was moving some photos around on the computer tonight, I stumbled across pictures that Jeannette took of MelodyJoy's first gymnastics class. For posterity's sake, here are photos of Melody's very first gymnastics experience. Remember this when she competes in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Bye Bye Birdie

Last night was the finale of the Blackhawk Christian High School production of Bye, Bye Birdie. We were stunned a few months ago when Jordan decided to try out for the cast. He's never had any interest in being on stage, especially in a singing role, but I guess he figured this was his senior year and it was his last chance to try it out. He ended being cast in several small parts, including a policeman and the stage manager for the Ed Sullivan show. He did a very nice job, as did the entire crew.

I have some photos that I took after the play last night, but I don't have anything from the stage yet. I'm hoping to be able to find some pictures I can "borrow" of the play and post here.

Here's a picture of Jordan with Dash Wieland, who stole every scene he was in, playing the part of Albert's mother . . .


This one is of Jordan with his good friend, Zach Figgins, and John David Paff, who did a great job as the father in the play. Jordan spends a lot of time with Zach, mostly on Star Wars nerdiness . . .

Here we have Phillip, Colin, Jordan and Andrew. Colin and Drewsky are probably Phillip's closest friends here . . .

He looks kinda pretty, doesn't he . . .

It's a little ironic that after all of his early experience and interest in drama (remember how he crawled off his deathbed to play the part of the Grinch?), Phillip hasn't really wanted to audition for plays here. Instead, he's worked on the tech crew. For this play, Phillip ran the spotlight and helped with other lighting tasks . . .

Google Alert

I found out tonight that every time someone mentions Huntington University online, my friend John gets a Google alert on his blackberry. Hi, John. May the vibration of your phone keep you awake as you drive home to Huntington now.

A Quick Review

I just thought it might be good to provide an update on life since I started my new job at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. I wrote already here about my housing on campus and funky little car, but what about the job itself? It's too early to draw any conclusions but I can provide these initial impressions . . .

The people here are very nice and welcoming. It feels like they're glad to have me here. I'm sure I'm getting a bit of a "honeymoon view" but I don't sense that there is a lot of campus politics or resistance to change.

There is a LOT to do here. This is both good and bad . . . good because there are many things that can be done to improve our enrollment efforts, bad because it may be hard to prioritize and easy to bite off more than I can chew.

I often cringe when people call their school or church or business "a best kept secret." However, Lincoln may fall into this category. I think there are a lot of good things going on here but LCC is flying under the radar. Fortunately, this is the type of problem that probably can be solved with money, which means it's not the worst kind of challenge.

I'm having fun and think this will continue to be fun. I feel like smiling a lot of the time while I'm here, even though it's a little overwhelming occasionally. I definitely feel blessed to be here.

Johnny Cab

I don't know why, but whenever I'm driving my Scion, which Jeannette says should be nicknamed Tommy Tinbox, I have a mental image of myself looking like the robotic driver of the Johnny Cab in Total Recall.

The New Wheels

Because of the 270 to 320 mile commute that I have each way weekly, Lincoln has very graciously provided me with a car to use. I drove Melody and Jameson to school in it this morning. Melody had been very concerned when she and Jeannette left me behind in Illinois that I wouldn't have a way to get home, so I thought this would reassure her.

The car is a little Toyota Scion but I kind of like it. I've already driven it to Springfield, Missouri, and home to Fort Wayne, so I think I have a pretty good read on how it'll work. It's a fun, funky vehicle but not uncomfortable. As I drove to Missouri with my staff on Tuesday, I floored it in order to pass a truck. Let's just say that the Scion didn't exactly roar to life. I told my passengers that flooring it must send a message to the engine, "Hey, when you're ready, I'd really appreciate it if you could go just a little faster. But no rush, take your time."

I think the car looks like it should be a character in Thomas and Friends and should have a little mouth and eyes on the front. I've decided to name it "Timmy Tincan."

The New Office

Here's a quick photo of my office at Lincoln Christian. I don't have much in the way of decor yet but the space is really nice. I'll bring some things for the walls when I return to campus next week but probably won't bring all my files and books.

The New Digs

Jeannette and MelodyJoy helped me move in yesterday--along with Brian Mills, my new boss, his son Rider and Alex, one of my new admission counselors. Titus Hall is an empty residence hall on campus and so they have given me the Head Resident's apartment and I have the entire building to myself. We pirated furnishings from around the facility and so the apartment is actually very comfortable and homey. We brought our "old" queen size bed and TV in the back of the boys' pick-up but all the other furnishings are from the dorm.

This little video will introduce you to my spacious and luxurious bachelor pad in metropolitan Lincoln, Illinois. I shot this video with my phone so the quality is really poor, but the really bad thing is that apparently when I upload it from there, I lose the sound, so all you have is the video and no audio.

The video starts by showing you the entry to my apartment, then the bathroom, which Jeannette says she'll be redecorating. Then you see the master bedroom, so to speak, followed by the living and dining areas and the kitchen. Finally, there's a look at the second bedroom, with the bunkbed for MelodyJoy and Jameson. If/when Jordan and Phillip come, we can bring another bunkbed in for them.

A Going Away Gift

This will probably be my last post for awhile as I will be leaving for Lincoln, Illinois, tomorrow. I'll try to write updates every once in awhile but I imagine life will be getting a little hectic as I adjust to a new job.

As my parting shot, I thought I'd just post this picture of MelodyJoy playing on the Wii with the going away gift I bought the family this week: A 32" flatscreen TV. I thought I'd buy something like this as soon as we moved here but finances never allowed it. So, this is our economic stimulus, courtesy of this year's tax refund.

Now, if I buy another laptop for the family in addition to this, I'm pretty confident that the kids will never even realize that I'm gone.

A Close Shave

Many mornings, MelodyJoy will come into the bathroom and watch me shave. It reminds me of similar moments with my dad and how he would take the razor blade out of his safety razor and let me use the empty razor to "shave" along with him. The razors nowadays with their three, four and more blades don't allow that imitative play, though, so I just told Melody that girls don't have to shave their faces and let her watch me.

Last night, I was on the phone and wandered into the bathroom where Melody was taking a bath. She had a sheepish sort of look on her face and it looked like she had chocolate on her chin, probably from some cookies she had just had. I was kind of distracted as she quietly said, "I hurt myself, Daddy." I figured she had bumped her knee or something.

Slowly, it dawned on me that she wasn't being herself and something was wrong. It was blood on her chin! Jeannette had left her razor by the tub--like she usually does . . . Melody has never even touched it before--and Melody had decided to try shaving. If you look closely at this photo from this morning, you can see a small red mark just below her lip. Fortunately, that was the extent of the damage and several pieces of torn toilet paper later, all was well. I think we can safely assume that she won't be trying Mom's razor again, and that Mom's razor won't be sitting by the tub anymore!