DongDong

Our case was very similar to this with my wife’s daughter. Only the father had full custody of ‘our’ daughter, but my wife managed to get him to sign a notarized document saying it was all right for her to travel to the US. The issue was never brought up at the interview and I am not sure anyone really looked at it. However, we were glad we had/have this document just in case. We have been back and forth to China without any problems and her biological father has seen (and can see) her then.

My wife says maybe this and/or perhaps the body has too much heat So, sometimes we eat a lot of cold food

Excellent news.. congratulations!

My wife (K-1 at the time) didn't need a visa in 2008. She flew from Guangzhou to Narita and then on to Minneapolis. Good Luck!

It may be just another crap shoot¡­ Mama and Baba got a visa on their first try. There is nothing extraordinary about their life, income or family for that matter that would keep them in China. My wife is an only child, Mama has some family, but Baba doesn¡¯t. This made us think it was on our shore that made the difference. Mama and Baba got asked three questions. Why are you going? (Visit our daughter and two grandchildren) What does your son-in-law do? (Works at the University) How long are you staying? (Three months¡­ but really they want to stay six months) After the questions, the VO did a cursory check of the paperwork we sent to Mama and Baba for the interview, with pictures, etc., but Mama and Baba both felt all of this was decided long before they got to the window for the visa, just like the K-1 was for my wife. In fact on this day, Mama and Baba said everyone got a visa while they were there. (It was a Tuesday and we set it up about a month and a half out for Mama and Baba, if this helps) We were all prepared to be rejected (we really expected it) and then reapply ASAP, but for an unknown reason we were lucky. Mama and Baba know a couple who have a daughter and grandchild in the US and have been rejected three times. They told us that this couple was wealthy and had no need for any kind of support on this bank and that they also have a son in China with grandchildren. I think you have to be persistent and be a little lucky. I wish you the best and I hope you get yours soon!

¡°Raining cats and dogs¡± ¡­ got a funny look on this one, but the girls sort of figured it out

My wife and daughter like the Sleep Number bed that we bought for Mama and Baba. They are coming to visit us next spring. I am not sure a Sleep Number is anything more than an expensive glorified air mattress. However, Mama and Baba have different preferences and one likes soft beds and the other likes "upholstered rocks", as Carl put it. Mama can crank her side of the bed up to 100 and get the stone effect, while Baba will be next to her enjoying something around 55. I still sleep on a very firm Sealy. Something soft kills my back¡­even though I found some beds to be rather firm in China, I would take those instead.

Thanks, Dan. I wanted to get these, but you never know what they are really like until you get it home to watch.

It is good to hear you are making progress again, Griz. Best of luck on that recovery. I imagine it is also good Lao Po is collecting your neighbors eggs instead of their children to sell. Lao Po threatens to sell me on the internet about twice a year. I don't know if this qualifies as business or not, but I might be able to fetch enough for a purse, LB or donkey purse, or whatever they call these in China.

She did say, please¡­ Not sure why it is, but I never expected my wife to have the sense of humor she has. I get a ration of crap all the time, but I love it¡­ I like how you never missed a beat, got to remember that line, Tsap!

The ¡°Flying Tiger¡± insignia was created by the Walt Disney Company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers I wonder if Mickey approved?

Yeah, ditto on that Griz. I hope to read about you dancing the night away, somewhere down the road, after you walk there.

Best of luck with the goats, sheepies and cats, uncle Don. I know your tai tai and proctologist will keep you in line Thank you for helping all of us out.

Once you pick a school you are comfortable with, I¡¯m sure you will be calling the admissions director about a few things. I would expect they will tell you all the things you will need ahead of time. For instance, up to date shot records are a big thing this year for us. Even though we have health insurance and the doctors say we have what our daughter needs, the school is requiring more. Here are a couple of posts from before that may or may not help. http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/32174-does-your-step-daughterson-adapt-well/page__p__419589__hl__%2Bkids+%2Badjusting__fromsearch__1#entry419589 http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/43098-need-advice-on-chinese-daughter-of-my-fiancee/page__p__571399__hl__school__fromsearch__1#entry571399 Other than that, I spend a lot of time getting to know the teachers and making sure they understand my daughter¡¯s needs¡­ which I am pretty sure you will do anyway, TSAP I hope he makes the adjustment easily/quickly and finds good friends. Best of luck, Dad!

I can't imagine Get well soon, Griz!

My wife went back with our daughter for three months for this very reason. She would have liked to stay longer, but we had to get our other daughter back into school in the fall. The grandparents and as chilton says,"getting her money's worth" can exert a lot of pressure on your wife. The next 'visit' will be her parents coming here(hopefully), but for six months I know this time for you isn't much fun...good luck!

Our daughter came here when she was 8 years old. She spoke some English, but her comprehension of American was lacking. She took a test to see which grade she should start in and from the assessment it was determined she was about a second grader?! I told them ¡°no way¡± and said ¡°she will catch up¡±. We managed to get her into third grade and she excelled after one year learning American (English). Then she jumped ahead two grades and now is in advanced placement classes in sixth. From our experience, I would suggest giving your daughter a chance in the first year of school to see where she can succeed and gain a little confidence. Then see where she needs the most help. We found that our daughter could readily switch languages after about a year. Comprehension, nuances of American and just adding the sheer volume of new vocabulary words was hard for her at first. Our daughter has been in three schools. The one she is in right now doesn¡¯t pose much of a challenge to her, but she is happy/comfortable and has made a lot of (very bright and older) friends. Good Luck!

Yemmie, My wife is from Chongqing and her parents live in Shenzhen. We flew into Hong Kong, took the bus from the airport to Shenzhen for a short stay. Then we flew from Shenzhen to Chongqing and back after a few weeks and eventually went back though Hong Kong to the states. My wife had her Chinese passport (with her name changed to match her green card) and green card, my stepdaughter had her Chinese passport with her green card and our daughter and I had US passports with 90 day visas. There were no issues going any direction. We had specifically listed the cities and addresses we planned to visit (when we knew them) in the visa application process for our daughter and me. One very helpful thing my wife lined up for us when we traveled out of Shenzhen back to Hong Kong was a bus service that allows you to ¡®ride¡¯ your way through customs. This is much faster and you are not dragging bags on and off buses and walking then standing/ waiting in line. You simply board a six to eight passenger bus in Shenzhen and they take you to HKG, sort of like a truck load of vegetables. One side note: My step daughter does not have the same last name as I do, because her father will not let her. I am fortunate that I get her here in the US with her mother, so I don¡¯t bitch too much. However, when we came back to the US and went through customs at ORD it was my stepdaughter that got grilled. She was asked in rapid fire after the grueling trip there: Is this your mother? How old are you? Where do you live? What grade are you in? When does school start? I gotta love my step daughter though (and for many other reasons). She nailed all of these questions! She told the customs official, ¡°I am not in school, I have completed 5th grade and I will be going into 6th grade¡±. She even knew when school started (I didn¡¯t, am I bad ) and all the correspondence for the upcoming school year was at home waiting for us in the mail.

Ying would take powdered milk to China too! And baby food. It's just a mess over there. Will it get better. Sure. But I think it's going to take more than 1 generation to fix it. Greed is the operative word. No offense to the Chinese people, it's the way it is. With so many people you have to hustle or you're quickly left behind. I don't see Chinese as any more greedy than the West. Here we know we'll get caught doing some of these dangerous acts such as milk contamination. There, they hope it all gets lost in the crowd (my guess). But just look at the financial shenagans of the past 10 years...nope we're actually greedier than they are (IMHO). YMMV Exactly... Infant/Children's Tylenol (McNeil Recall) didn't exactly make me all that happy about our products here either. Doesn't it seem now, in this day and age, that we have to be even more vigilant, even more careful, about so many products out there for all family members?! You have to add me to the list of those that goat sheep (maybe) mule through airports with unwieldy cans of infant formula too...

Yemmie, I just got back a few weeks ago after spending basically the month of June there. I think you will find it is a pretty straight forward process just like it was in 2007. On the visa application, I only listed the cities I would visit and her parents address/phone number. Yes, you can get her passport changed and have your named added in DC¡­ we worked with one of the visa services recommended to my wife on her website. At any rate, the visa service will tell you what you need to do and we had four passports to add visas to, in addition to, the name change on my wife¡¯s passport. I want to say it took less than three weeks for the whole process. It was also great to get back and see the family again. For us, it had been almost two years. Have fun! David

OORAH! (even though I was in the Army, HOOAH , I'm proud of him too, so carry on... bust away!) http://www20.brinkster.com/gunnyg/oohrah.html Over time, "AARUGHA" EVENTUALLY CHANGED TO "OORAH". The official Marine Corps Training Reference Manual on the history of Marine Recon is titled "AARUGHA", giving credence on the orgination of the 'POSITIVE RESPONSE' accenting anything that is meant to be good and uniquely Marine Corps.

I know the price of chicken ...at many different stores... at any given time She has taught me not to take myself too seriously and that love is doing

Milk...cow variety and mostly warm or hot. However, she will steal the rest of my cold milk when I am not looking

Bird's Nest [b¨§ij¨©ng Gu¨®ji¨¡ T¨«y¨´ch¨£ng, the 2008 Olympics... awesome]