Not what we planned

We had planned to spend our last two weeks enjoying China and then going back to America and living happily ever after in our little cabin on our little island and working in some high paying low stress positions, and so on. I had been brazen enough to begin a countdown of all the fun and interesting things I will miss about China. Well, one day you are eating cake and the next you are in the Chinese hospital. That's life. Poor Little Guy. After a month of trying to get glasses for him and being told no, we can't look at him he's deaf, there is no way to communicate with him and you are a foreigner anyway. We got that exam and it was a little more than we were bargaining for (actually we didn't have to bargain for the exam). So we went for a 2cd opinion and he ended up on the operating table. And the next day he ended up back on the operating table. And today we ended up back at the hospital to see if things went well. I guess so because we don't have to go back until next Monday.
So no chance to la-la-la and say how wonderful things are because that would be a big fat lie.
But actually I'm glad I'm in China during this Christmas season. On top of the medical stuff, I would hate to have the pressures of Christmas that are in America. There is no massive build up for the holiday, so there will be no massive let down when the perfect Christmas is not achieved. My kids have not seen a commercial for toys since last February. Their friends are not comparing lists. Christmas is so out of place here that anything we do will be seen as exciting by our kids and our Chinese friends.
In America, I can remember countless radio and tv stations doing big publicity for all the kids in the hospital, etc. I always thought- oh how sad to be sick at Christmas. Teenager happened to always get sick the day before or after Christmas when she was little and my experience at the doctors offices were- oh, how inconvenient that your kid is sick. In China, there is no pity and there is no inconvenience at the hospital because it is Christmas. It is a Chinese hospital and you can walk in anyday of the year and have your heart broken by what you see. And you can also walk out and be thankful for what they did do.
Which was to save my Little Guy's vision.

Not what we planned

Harbin, China