bnolsen

The quanteferon test doesn't give false positives with the vaccine. The doctor is running a hepatitis panel since her father died of liver cancer and her oldest sister and mother had hepatitis 'b', and she was sick with something that kept her out of school for one month when she was little. We'll wait for the results and decide what to do then.

We switched our daughter to a new doctor and recently did a 4 year checkup. Because we went to shanghai in fall 2009 for a month the doctor decided to test her for TB. She came out borderline (~10mm), good xray. Okay, so skin test the rest of us. My 1yr old son and myself came out negative. Wife came out positive. Her xray was good, but a further quantiferon test came out positive. She's been here 5.5 years, she's 39. My mother has had active TB when she was little but has always refused treatments. My wife is worried about treatment, her father died of liver cancer when she was young, etc. Any experiences with this?

Hmm...we must be fast tracking. AOS received April 10 Biometrics June 1 Interview scheduled July 25, 7:45am. All for Denver. So much for the work authorization form. Strange, at the biometrics office my wife was processed by the "girl in training" so we were stuck there for a while and got to see lots of people go through. Saw a few europeans, a lot of asians...not a single latin/hispanic. The biometrics office was in the lower income area, lots of mexican markets there too...

Weds we went to a doctor in Denver, hispanic. Most of the patients there at the office were hispanic. We went in with just the xray and her little exam booklet. They asked at least twice for her immunization records, which she didn't have (I asked her about that myself far more many times than that when she was still in china). Anyways, we had to have an appointment with the doctor. First thing the nurse practitioner gave her a tetanus shot in one arm and a rubella/mumphs/measels/whatever in the other. They pulled some blood for another HIV test and also for syphillus. Then the injected her with a TB test. The doctor came in and looked at her pretty quickly, eyes, ears, mouth, felt her stomach area. Cost of this appointment was $177 cash. He opened her x-ray to look at it but said that INS has gotten far stricter the past couple of years with what they're willing to accept and said that INS has been rejecting applications because these things weren't done in the US. We went in this morning (Friday) and she came up positive on the TB, I guess 9mm long reaction, they said it was probably because of a past TB immunization. Immediately they did a new x-ray on her and that was okay, $35. He gave us an envelope with both a 693 & 693A inside signed off. All we need now is to take the passport photos of her (the korean market wants $10 for a pair), go over all the documents 3 times to make sure we haven't missed anything, photo copy the whole shebang, sign the appropriate documents, and we're ready to send in.

Thx, found out it was one of the notification documents. I forget now the exact number but it's like a form 7997 or something like that (will fix this when I get home). Of course I didn't see the exact letters: "NOA" or even "NOA2" on it, just "Notification of Authorization".

Dumb question: What's an I-129F NOA2, who was supposed to receive it (me or her) and where can I get one? Sadly she didn't bring any of her documents here from China, including her birth certificate so I haven't seen any of the documents the US embassy sent her (I should have looked when I was in China). Otherwise I might have been stupid and tossed it if it was sent to me, although I have copies of any status notifications they sent me.

I'm confused about the vaccination records part. She handed me what the doctor in shanghai gave her, which was a huge sealed package that has xrays in it (maybe it contains something else)? and some little "record of medical examination" booklet. I see nothing which says anything about her vaccination record. Will the Civil Surgeon just "know" what shots are standard in china and only give her the ones missing or are we missing some document we're supposed to have? And is the US govt supposed to have sent some information about the AOS to my house already or am I expected to just *know* what to do about formalizing my wife's residency? I guess I should be thankful there are sites like these around to help through the confusion, otherwise I'd be totally sunk with no wife.

I did a search on google for "jiaozi". First link: http://dinnercoop.cs.cmu.edu/dinnercoop/Re...-duplicate.html

Looking for a shoe storage thing to put next to my front door for when she gets here. I just dont'; hve room for piles of shoes laying in front of the door like she has at her place now. Maybe some small wooden cabinet with some short shelves? Any links for stuff like this?

I'm bringing her back wiht me at the end of chinese new year. Anyways, we're talking about knives. She says she wants to buy a "cleaver" type knife for normal cutting. Well, over the years I have an array of both 4 star (and not 4 star) henckel knifes. Sadly none of them are a chef's knife. My mother just sent me a 4 star Santoku knife. What's the best suggestion? Should I order up a matching cleaver? Or we should buy a nice knife what she likes in China so she can see what she likes when she comes here? I always choose the smallest knife I can to chop things, vegetables go very fast with wrist action. I've watched her and her mother chop and it seems extremely inefficient to me with that big huge knife they use. I guess I'm asking what suggestion for that then ?

congrats! Have fun! I can't wait now until mine gets her "affairs" in order and exercises her visa too!

Two was enough. I was there october 2004 and again this past october 2005. Lack of vacation, having to use it to spend time with my daughter limited it. It didn't seem to keep us from the visa though (she passed her interview today!)

Interviewed this morning, with a Korean girl, she spoke chinese to her, I guess with an american accent. "she asked in chinese, but automatically i answered in english" and "at last in Chinese" Her interview was scheduled for 7:15am, it happened at 11:50am. I guess it's more like "show up at XXX for processing". Before the interview was a security check with shoe removal & finger printing. The interview itself was very short, only a couple of minutes. These are copy past points from our internet chat just now. - how did we meet each other - where do you live now? (to her) - what do you do for a living? (to her) - how did me get to know each other (online chat) - how many times have you been here, and when? - then she asked your tax return (handed it over) - she asked when you were here, if we went to some place (zhouzhuang, then handed her pictures) - then she asked about Ruth (daughter, almost 3 years old now) (handed her pictures of Ruth and me together) - she asked ruth lives with whom now - she asked why you didn't marry with the mother

I found a linkie on this a few months back (can't recall exactly where though). A microwave only works on killing beasties in a limited fashion. It has to boil them to death. Stuff microwaves work well on: - Wooden cutting boards, slightly wet: 10 mins - Sponge, nuke until dry Both of the above materials retain water very well. Wooden cutting boards are actually safe even without nuking, washing with soap is fine. Apparently they naturally have "capillary action" which sucks bacteria inside the microholes in the wood. I'm not sure what would cause the bacteria to come back out, though. For any dishes, glass, pyrex or plastic (especially cutting boards) she must use an automatic dishwasher to kill the bacteria. I think in the microwave the surface water evaporates too quickly to kill the beasties. Obviously here your dishwasher uses hot enough water to kill the beasties. From what I read plastic cutting boards are absolutely the worst for cleanliness, bacteria especially love the knife scarring. Based on what I read, what your wife does is pretty ineffective. She'd be better off boiling them in water before putting them on the table. Something's going to kill you at some point, and you have to do something to keep your immune system healthy.

Anyone have a suggestion on a history book about chinese civilization? I'm well versed on Western Civilization but pretty ignorant about eastern.

Hmmm....will have to ask her what she plans on wearing that day. The wedding will be very very small...I may consider asking her to wear one that day, it depends on how well she models her current ones to me.

Hmm...I asked my SO about the qipao. She said that if you have any flab whatsoever around the middle the qipao shows it off. I know she has some long ones but I haven't seen her in one yet. Next time I go over I may well strongly suggest she model them for me. But I think they're just not her style, I've never seen any of her friends wear makeup nor have i seen them wear anything but plain clothes. My little one looks really good in a qipao, except for the short-neck syndrome she got from me and her mother. I'm pretty sure she's going to be over 6' (my father's family has had some 6'6" and up). I wonder how hard it will be to find qipao's for girls that height?

My only comment about this is that any christian pastor worth his salt is able to study the original languages directly and teach from them. In the 1800's it was far more common in US society for many...not only pastors...to do just this. As to what influence Greek had on the new testament, well let's say that written Koine Greek is very likely the best written language ever, extremely precise and expressive, an excellent tool for written rhetoric. It's more appropriate to say that the new testament authors heavily used the excellent tools the greeks had at that time. As for all those biblical scholars mentioned, well, they aren't the authority, the original scriptures are. How did this thread end up here anyways?

This surprises me, that a country with a communist system doesn't have public schools. Are christian private schools allowed? For a country that is supposed to be communist in many ways they are actually more capitalistic and less into classic socialist redistribution of wealth than we in the US are. Small business is obviously far more developed than ours is also.

I just asked her and her mother did do that. Does that actually make hair come in thicker? She said:

My girl was raised christian in China. She's been since she was 8 years old. I'm very glad for that actually. I'm guessing religious wars on this forums is probably not a place we want to go. Having different views of religions beliefs within a marriage is a risk. I would advise any couple to seriously consider this issue before marriage.

All right, gas it is then... I've read that normal US gas burners don't have what it takes to pump up the heat properly? Any suggestions what to do? Should we have a FAQ or some thread with suggestions about how to properly set up a kitchen for her use?

Interesting... my other half is 33 (same age as me). She's lived in Shanghai for probably 15 years or so. Doesn't know how to put on makeup, no razor has been even remotely close to her ever. I like her this way and don't want her to change. I'll admit she's not the most beautiful girl walking around in China but I love her and wouldn't trade her for anyone else. And when she kisses me it's like fire. Another 4 months or so of waiting :sigh: Yes, there's the cultural fascination with pasty white youth, to look like a delicate, tiny porcelain doll.

My other's interview is the 29th at 7:15am. My vacation is all blown, I just split it between her and my daughter. Her passport application is being processed now, so we're a bit nervous about that hanging up and blowing her interview. Sounds like a whole slew of interviews going off in november!

When I was in shanghai last week I noticed that the department stores had these single element portable halogen units for flat bottomed woks. Anyways, I found this one online which I think works 110V/60Hz: http://www.everythinghome.com/de16habufahe.html With my background I would strongly prefer to have electric disc burners on my stove (also know as euro burners) which makes the stovetop totally sealed, but of course don't heat up fast enough for what she will want. Sadly they don't seem to make these types of stoves in the US anymore and I really really really don't want to toss out my 100+ yro cast iron cook stuff. Also at carrefour I saw a smokeless wok on display for pretty expensive... 270RMB. I don't remember the manufacturer, but it's non stock with a circle/hole pattern on the inside of the wok. I wonder if these are any good, as I really don't want to get a lot of oil splash and smoke everywhere in the house. Update: I see these new fangled "induction element" thingies which look safer than the halogen ones: http://www.atrendyhome.com/inco.html