Getting into and out of the skiing routine

So, leave it to me to stack up a couple of additional "issues" to go along with our adoption.  The first one started out so innocently...

The Flagstaff winter of 09/10 was one of amazing snowfall.  During just one storm we received 55 inches of snow.  (The local ski resort picked up more than 80 inches from that storm.)  So, this seemed like a great season to get back into skiing.

I learned to ski when I was 14. (I am now 40.  Yowsers!)  It took one or two tough days and I was hooked.  Then, when I was 16, I was shown a snowboard and I never went back to skiing.  So, last year, at the encouragement of a number of skiing friends I decided to hang-up the snowboard and head back into skiing.  I figured that it would be just like riding a bike, right?  Wrong.  To compound this problem I am very cheap and did not purchase a pass to my local resort, Snowbowl, so all of my skiing would be before the resort opened in the morning and after they close in the evening.

Armed with enthusiasm and an ability to suffer I started hiking up the resort and skiing down at least once per week.  There was a long list (OK, like three people) that I would routinely recruit to hike with me.  To be honest, this was great as I got in a great workout on the way up and a fun ride back to the car on the way home.  The only problem is that you don't become a very good skier when you only get in one or two runs per week.  I realized this after a back country skiing adventure with friends in Ophir Colorado.

Ophir is one of those last unspoiled places in Colorado.  It is a tiny town of several hundred people that sits one valley south of Telluride.  Pretty much the entire population of Ophir skis or snowboards.  The cool thing is that in Ophir you can step off your front porch, clip into your skis, skin up several different mountains and then ski down.  It is a very cool place.

At the end of an ice climbing trip I convinced two friends Ryan Bradley and Constantine Severes to take me skiing outside of Ophir.  Ryan is a school teacher in Aspen and skis almost daily during the winter months.  It takes most people 20 days or so to summit Denali in Alaska.  Ryan did it in 7.  Constantine, or Con as most folks call him, has guided Heli skiing in Telluride for years.  Con also guides on Denali and has summitted Mt. Everest.  My climbing and skiing resumes don't look anything like Ryan or Con's.

So, we park the car in Ophir and start heading up a trail heading south out of town.  I almost immediately get housed and quickly lost contact with Ryan and Con.  In my own defense Ryan and Con were on skis with climbing "skins" on the bottom, and I was on snowshoes which are much slower than skis.  However, I don't think I could have kept up even if I had been on a snowmobile.

After hiking and climbing up a steep trail for about 40 minutes I catch up to a waiting Ryan and Con.  Ryan says that this is the part where it gets steep.  I manage a smile and say OK.  Again Con and Ryan are almost immediately out of sight.  After struggling, swearing, and fighting my way up the better part of this mountain I meet up with Ryan and Con near the top.  I am running out of time and need to head back to the cars as I had to drive home to Flagstaff that afternoon.  Ryan and Con want to continue to the mountain top, but I just don't have time to go that far.  They say that I can drop into the chute we are going to ski from this location and that they will give me a "spot" until I am in the clear.  I drop into this chute and promptly crash.  Con and Ryan laugh as I pick myself up.  I get up ski to the other side of this chute and crash again.  Con and Ryan are now howling with laughter.  I get up again and repeat the process of skiing across the chute and crashing.  This time I don't hear any laughter.  Instead Ryan and Con ski up next to me and say that they are coming down with me.

To spare everyone the details, I basically fell my way back to Ophir.  At one point I buried the tips of my skis so deep I did a front flip.  It was pretty humbling.  This led me to realize that hiking one or two laps per week at home was not going to get me the kind of skiing experience I was going to need to be able to ski with these guys.  So, I broke down and rode the lift at my local resort.

I met a good friend, Matt Shaw, at the Arizona Snowbowl and he agreed to give me some tips to help my skiing.  After just one or two runs with Matt's help I was skiing better than I ever have.  We met up with another good friend, Mike, and proceeded to have a great afternoon. 

On the last run of the day I was trying to pick up a fallen skiers ski when I caught an edge and felt a pop in my right knee.  An MRI two days later would confirm that I had torn my ACL, and it would need to be surgically reconstructed.  I was facing a painful surgery and 6 months to a year of rehab.  Not cool.

I had surgery on April 12th.  It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.  It took less than an hour for the doctor to clean up my knee, drill the channel for the new graph, and put the thing in.  My physical therapist had me pedalling a bike 10 days post op.  I was doing leg press after three weeks.  The rehab was almost fun.  I was allowed to run again after 16 weeks. 

At this point, eight months post op, my knee feels pretty darn good.  The PT said to plan on being 90% after one year and 100% after two.  That seems pretty good to me.  I won't be skiing this season, not because of my knee but because of my shoulder.  That however is for another post.

First Blog

I am starting this blog as a way for friends and family to keep up with us.  The last year has been an exciting and challenging one for me personally and for our family.  The highlight, without a doubt, has been finally bringing Mei Li home.

This journey started with a simple telephone call to an adoption agency in Atlanta nearly four years ago.  Kerry and I already had Kellen at that time.  Our efforts for another child had not worked out well and it was time to try something different.  The agency, One World, connected us with a wonderful case worker named Julia.  Her guidance over this entire process would prove to be amazing throughout the long and difficult process.

With the adoption process nearly over at this point (we only have a post placement study remaining) it is a wonder that any children ever get adopted.  This process crawls into every part of your private life.  Financial, social, and medical histories are all fair game.

After jumping through hoops, loops and other obstacle courses we finally left for China on June 21st 2010.  My Mother-In-Law, Louise, decided to travel with us.  In her words this was really her only chance to travel to China, a place that she had always wanted to go.  Louise would prove to be an amazing traveler and very helpful during the trip.

We decided to be tourists in Beijing for three days prior to "Gotcha" day when the Chinese Government would hand over Mei.  Beijing is quite simply amazing.  It is a city of nearly 18 million people.  An Australia man that we met said that the entire country of Australia only has about 20 million people.  We were pretty blown away.  While we were there we did get to see the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City.  We were also introduced to the Chinese method of capitalism.  This involves taking you to a silk or jade factory during your tour so that you can appreciate the goods and of course spend some money.  My favorite line was was, "We guarantee quality and price".  What this really means is that we are giving you the shaft on anything that you purchase and there isn't anything you can do about it.

Outside of the Forbidden City





Forbidden City

     From Beijing we flew south to another huge Chinese city, Huangzhou.  I had never even heard of Huangzhou prior to visiting China.  What I know now is that Huangzhou is actually quite nice and beautiful.  The city sits next to a lake and "national park" of sorts.  Lots of green rolling hills and water. 

On June 28th the Chinese government presented Mei to us.  At this point the trip became quite challenging.  We went into what I call escape from China mode.  This involved gaining a passport for Mei (a process that usually takes a month), a full medical exam, a trip to the US consulate in Guangzhou, and numerous other Chinese bureaucratic processes.  Add to this a 2 year old, who is trying to adjust to us, who does not speak any English and who likes to act 2 on a regular basis.  To say the least, we were stretched to our emotional limits during the rest of the trip.

Difficulties aside, she did have us charmed pretty quickly...

Through all of this, Kellen proved to be an amazing traveller.  He was quite popular in China and he really enjoyed the trip.

Once we arrived home the real bonding and adjusting was able to start and take place.  Mei has adapted to everything the USA has thrown at her so far.  We will be enjoying our first Christmas with her in a few days and our six month anniversary of Gotcha day.  She loves crafts, coloring, Dora the Explorer, her bike, and spending time with her brother and cousins.

We look forward to making the rounds in the next few years so that everyone can meet Mei and Kellen too.  She is going to get to meet her California cousins in just a few weeks and take her first trip to Disneyland.  We can hardly wait.