The Hospital Chart

Ok first,
let me say thank you for all of your wisdom about our "custody papers" issue yesterday.
Gracious.
Ya'll are all fired up right alongside me and you had such a great point that we have already "proved" he is our son by the fact that he is enrolled in our insurance.
The office had been sent a referral for him, from our insurance.
This knowledge that we had already submitted 800 papers to prove his adoption when we registered him with our insurance months ago eluded me in that moment.
That is exactly where the burden of proof has been met.
I appreciate your advice and I will let you know what happens on Friday!

In other news,
I've been obsessively planning the details surrounding John's trip to China.
He should be leaving next week!
Hold on.
That sounded really good.
I just have to say that again.
He should be leaving next week!!

I've been going over and over and over the details of everything involved with them coming home
with Joshua being in the hospital
the oxygen delivery
the Ronald McDonald house reservation
where the nearest coffee stand in the hospital is
You know.
The important stuff.

And one thing that I have been hung up on is that it is going to be quite challenging trying to communicate with JJ when he is in the hospital.
It's hard enough when these kids first come home.
But coming off of a 15 hour flight,
being handed to a stranger(uhhhh, that'd be me)
and going straight into the hospital is going to ratchet up the difficulty level a notch or 12.

Are you hurting?
Hungry?
Thirsty?
Uncomfortable?
Cold?
Hot?
Need to go to the bathroom?
You want to watch that crazy yellow sponge named Bob show?

These are the things I will need to know.

And if we learned anything with Jacob and Joey's adoption it is that those translators,
though good in theory
are slighty impractical.
They are too slow.
They are too tempting for little boys to touch while it's thinking about the translation.
Additionally we found that it would often make an error.
"Do you want to take a bubble bath?!"
Could easily become
"Do you want to put the duck head in the dishwasher?!"
I dunno.
They have their place.
It just didn't work for us.

So I decided to kick it old school and make him a little picture chart.
8X10.
Laminated.
With a picture, kinda like this

of a drink.
With the Mandarin character for "thirsty" under it.


And this:

With the character for "hungry".

And so on.
I'm going to keep it small.
One page.
And he will be able to just point at whatever he needs.
Which, when you are recovering from a heart cath and {hopefully} major surgery,
not having to play charades and pantomine everything with your new mother in order to get your needs met
has got to be a relief.

So I need your help!
What am I leaving out?
Hungry.
Thirsty.
Sleepy.
Get away from me you crazy American woman.
Hurt/Pain.
Bathroom.

What else should I put on there?
Bring it.

In other news,
Day 872 waiting on TA
Ha.
Just kidding.
It's been 3 days.
It just feels like 872.