Hong Kong Food Poisoning, A Different Kind of 16th Birthday, a Rejected Visa Request and a Pneumothorax!

After I reached my 1 month mark and thought I was starting to gain some control of a new "normal" life here, I was reminded that control is not really what I need to seek! What I need to always remember is to just be IN THE MOMENT and if I am not in charge of what happens I am still in charge of how I handle what happens. 

We got through a typhoon.  Kinda exciting and figured I am really having some new experiences here!  Cut to next new experience...HK Food Poisoning!  Joe and I spent a wonderful afternoon in Stanley drinking Sangria and eating lunch on the water, watching locals perform for National Day (the China version of 4th of July), and wandering through the Stanley market.

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STANLEY MARKET...GREAT SHOPPING FOR USELESS STUFF AND SOUVENIRS.  CAN EVEN NEGOTIATE PRICES.

After this lovely afternoon, we headed home on the city bus.  It's about a 40 minute ride, narrow curvy streets and bumpy roads.  I thought I was getting motion sickness.  Wanted to get home and get off that bus real BAD!  I made it home but the next 30 hours made me regret my lunch selection! (I had tuna) No pictures to post for this lovely event.  Glad I got that out of the way and boy was I grateful and happy when I got to feel good again. 

Now it was time to think about Alex's 16th Birthday!  We were struggling with how to celebrate it because this is a big one!  I couldn't help but feel the distance and just how far away we were. Though we are building relationships and he is meeting a lot of new friends at school, we are still very new, and sharing this day without our close family and friends-who-are-like-family was going to be tough. PLUS, this is my son who came out of the womb talking about cars and trucks.  He said "loader" and "backhoe" before he said "mommy" and "daddy" and I know one of his biggest sacrifices in moving here was being able to drive at 16.  People say, "So let him drive in Hong Kong!" but 1st:  We don't have a car! 2nd: You can't drive until you are 18 here. 

I think we did okay.  The Sunday before his birthday we had a nice family day with the 3 of us.  We had foot and shoulder massages and pampered our boy (sorry, but he is always going to be my baby boy though I know 16 puts him in the young man category). On his Birth Day...we started with special birthday breakfast and ended with dinner out at Bombay Dreams for Indian food.  Weird, but my picky eater likes it!  He felt comfortable enough with a new friend to bring him along and it was a really good day.  Joe and I managed to find birthday wrap and a card but no candles or ribbon.  I put a tealight on his ice cream cake (made by mom).

B'DAY PAMPERING WITH THE AMAZING HK FOOT MASSAGE AND REFLEXOLOGY, HOT TEA AND SHOULDER MASSAGE.  90 MINUTES OF HEAVEN FOR ABOUT $40USD

ALEX'S 16TH BIRTHDAY DINNER WITH THEO AND MOM AND DAD.

So the birthday was bittersweet.  He got a lot of great messages through email and technology so he knew he was thought of but it also made us miss everyone.  Mail is so slow to arrive here that even the cards sent from Grandparents didn't arrive in time.  One was sent on the 28th and didn't get here until the 12th!  That Slow boat to China is  REALLY SLOW! Through it all Alex continues to amaze me with how much he is embracing this opportunity and experience.  He ended up finding out that he was going to be put on the traveling X Country team and he would have opportunites to travel to Mainland China and Guam for races.  Thus began visa applications and paperwork.  Living internationally is nothing if not paperwork intensive.  A lot of fun rules and regulations!  We scrambled to get him a multi entry visa to participate only to find out he was rejected because his passport expries in March.  Scramble again...going to consulate for passport issues.  Joe also made him a doctor appointment for vaccines to make sure all of that was in order.  Phew...this is a lot to think about all the time!  LOL! 

While all this is going on Alex has mentioned to us a few times that it hurts to breathe sometimes.  Well, there is constant smog here and we thought, much like when Joe and I were in college in LA, he was probably feeling the effects of that smog when he took deep breaths.  He runs for Cross Country, is still biking, and goes to the gym almost every single day so he didn't seem like he was sick.  Even his coach said running on a bad smog day is like smoking a pack of cigarettes so we were concerned but didn't think there was anything to do.  WRONG...PARENTS OF THE YEAR AWARD EARNED HERE!  Joe was taking Alex to the doctor for the shots so I said to the boys, "Make sure you mention that it hurts to breath."  Didn't really think anything of it, though. 

Next thing I know, Joe is texting that they are on their way to hospital for a possible pneumothorax, he needs an immediate x-ray, and they are putting an operating room on hold for him just in case.  WHAT?  HUH?  WHAT?  It's probably a good thing Joe was on duty for this one.  To make a long story a little bit shorter, he did have a pocket of air in his lung or lung sac...but it was small enough that they felt monitoring through x-ray was enough. It wasn't caused for any specific reason and tends to occur in tall, thin men. It would hopefully heal itself, the air would be reabsorbed and the lung would re-expand to normal. I guess now we don't have to worry about the visa being rejected! He's not going to be racing any time soon. We have bigger fish to fry!

We just went back for another x-ray on Sunday and it seems to be healing itself.  Another week of rest, no physical acitivity (which is torture for Alex), no PE or Cross Country, etc.  He is going to school but otherwise taking it easy.  I think he is going to be fine, especially since he already asked if he could go wakeboarding this weekend!  Note:  headshake and eye roll by me takes place here! 

So how's that for the first part of October in HK?  Not really any exciting stories of adventures and explorations in China, just stories of REAL LIFE.  I have proof that life happens no matter where you are or if you are ready to shake it up!  I wanted time to settle in, ease in to this new country...silly Tammy!  What if I just decided NOT to struggle? There will never come a time in life when you can say "I am done now." Each of us is a work in progress. What if I just allowed myself to BE okay with it all? Including being okay with the sad days when I'm homesick or the chaos I felt when they diagnosed Alex.  I tend to want to strangle life into submission.  But strangling doesn't allow for letting go.  Struggle allows me to feel but also let go, learn and embrace what life has to offer more gently...Yes? No? I'm working on it!

"We don't see things the way they are...we see things the way WE are."  Talmud