China Guy - Welcome Home! May your journey be uneventful. No plane crashes on semi-deserted tropical islands with polar bears. Hopefully China Bambina will get the help she needs to thrive. It hardly seems possible that the twins can be school-aged.
StG
I was thinking along the lines of, “How long do you suppose a sleeping pill for a young child would last?”
Seattle Dopefest?
Did you live in the Seattle area before?
The Chinese do build subways quickly though. I understand Shanghai finished an extensive multiline system in a very short time so as to be ready for a World’s Fair. Mayor Villaraigosa should go talk to their mayor.
China Guy, Seattle sounds like a great place to live. I’ve only been there once, stopping off for one night between trains, but it looks like a much wetter San Francisco. Interesting and compact. And it’s near Vancouver, though for practical purposes not so much, since crossing the border takes so long.
Good luck passing through Customs and Immigration, though since you’ve been back so often you must already know how much surlier and thorough the agents have gotten. On the trip I mentioned, we had been in Vancouver for a couple of days after taking a sea cruise from L.A. It was the first time I had re-entered the U.S. from another country in many years, and I was a bit put off by such questions as “Why did you go to Canada”?.
Somewhat daunting, isn’t it? I came back after 12 years overseas and can’t imagine doing reentry with a passle of kids in tow. The culture shock was bad enough without other distractions.
I will enjoy hearing of your adventures reacclimating to the culture here (or just acclimating in your kids’ and wife’s sake.) Plus, I find a relative outsider pointing out the stupidities in our culture to be awfully humorous.
May things go well for you and yours.
ETA: Any chance at a slight name change? Ex-China Guy? China Guy in America? Oh, and how difficult was it to be allowed to emigrate?
Mom always used Dramamine on us on long car trips - knocked us out like lights (she stuffed it into caramels). That must have been the only thing that would make annual 800-mile drives to the grandparents with 2 kids in the back of the car bearable. When we protested that we didn’t get motion sick anyway, so why did we have to take that nasty stuff? Mom’s response was “why do you think you don’t get motion sick?”
Hi China Guy, good luck with everything and everyone, and I especially wish the best for your special needs daughter.
I think that would be a great idea! We could even do it in the ID to make China Guy and family feel more at home.
As always, good luck with everything. Take care of that family.
Maybe Tokyo Player can sub? 
Best of luck, China Guy.
PS: I am a mother of two adults and one child, and have never been above using Benadryl to induce sleep, when absolutely needed!
Welcome back, China Guy :).
Yeah, this is a big deal for sure. I lived in China for just over two years and it was very hard moving back to the United States.
I’ve been back 4 1/2 years and I’m still not over how hard it has been to return, honestly.
Welcome home China Guy! If you ever get down to San Jose for work, haul the wife and kids along and we’ll have you over for a BBQ. You and my hubby can talk Shanghai (he misses it) and my crazy kids can run yours ragged.
Thanks for all your advice when it looked like I was going to have to move there, I really appreciated it.
Good luck Stateside. Hope everything works out well for you and your family.
Good luck with the move, China Guy. I’ve lived in China, Japan and Seattle. Loved Seattle.
Thanks for the well wishes. I’m at work this morning but expect the movers have finished everything. We’re into a service apartment for a few days.
Thanks for suggestions on the flight. This will be the 5th trip for the twins and I think the 10th for the eldest bambina. I think we all have enough miles for a business class upgrade if it’s available 
For those at home tempted to try it, make sure you pre-test benadryl or any other sleep aid for kids. Some kids like my youngest get hyper on something like benadryl or codiene cough syrup. Dimetapp works on her though and I have a 100cc bottle prepared in my backpack and I’ve already taken it though hand carry checks so we should be good on that. Although I wish there was kiddie ambien.
Quartz - you obviously don’t have kids. Getting off the plane, through an airport, to a hotel, checking in, getting settled, getting fed, etc is extremely time consuming and a giant hassle. It’s not like, cool, I can go to clubbing in Roppongi in Tokyo, hit the beach and some Five O action for a few days, etc on my way home.
I could be up for a dopefest once we’re settled. And now that I found out that special needs services are dependant on schools, and of course the schools will be shut for the summer, means we may not get really settled until October. Sigh.
even sven, sounds like you’re working on a love hate relationship with China. Welcome to the club.
I guess I need to change and start saying “younger twin.”
No, I’ve never lived in Seattle. I’ve visited maybe 10 times both as a kid and for work.
There is a huge Mainland Chinese community based at my company’s HQ. I’m already tied in and have found some Shanghaiese compatriots so my wife will have mah jong partners in her native tounge.
I may keep the name but just change the location.
Thanks for the well wishes!
One organization that you could contact is United Cerebal Palsy or Easter Seals. Although she doesn’t have CP per se, she sounds very much like a CP kid. You may also want to look into an Augmentive and Alternative Communication evalution. Significent speech delays are VERY VERY common in disabilites like CP or even just garden variety learning disabilties. Heck, even just hoh kids still may have language issues early on. I don’t know exactly what’s available in the Seattle area but I have a friend who is at Microsoft and has been through the system with his kid.
Good idea. First step is I’m going to get connected with the Seattle Children’s Hospital for a full range of physical diagnostics. I’m hoping the sleep issues can be addressed *right *away (Seattle Children’s has a sleep clinic). Serena likely does not have CP or autism but does share common characteristics and treatment may overlap a lot.
Unfortunately, I found out that the vast majority of services are done through public schools. Fed laws stipulate a 30 working day response – however summers don’t count. Arghhhhhh. We have to wait until late Aug/Sep to figure out the schools.
I’m frantically trying to finish up personal and work stuff these few days. It’s been a little tough walking through the neighborhood and saying goodbye to various people like the German bakery, the retired lady that makes the most awesome jianbing crepes in the world, the milkman, etc. I’ve pushed the twins within a 2-3 mile radius of my house since they were little. Neighbors have watched them grow up. I’d bet if any of my kids were lost within a 3 mile radius of my house, that they would probably be walked home within a hour by someone in the hood.
I miss this place already but ready to go.
I’ll jot down reverse culture shock thoughts and share at some point.