We are in California! (By Greg)

Here we are in West Hollywood in the Golden State of Mexifornia.  If you could have only seen/heard/smelled LAX yesterday – I’m telling you that Emma Lazarus would have recanted out of sheer revulsion, though after 5 hours on a strangely warm, yucky (like gum under the armrest yucky), old  Spirit Air plane with the 3 little hoodlums (who barely slept) we weren’t exactly representing too well for the natives ourselves J.  We were so ragged I probably would have kicked us out. 

It took a while to get to the house / apartment we rented, and I was relieved that about 3 miles before we got here the Bud Light billboards suddenly turned to English.  That would have been good enough for me, but the ads for sudsy refreshing beverages were quickly replaced with weird fashion billboards everywhere.  They were apparently advertising clothes, but clothes seemed to be strangely absent in most cases. (I am glad the boys are 2-5 years old and not 12 to 15).   Samuel made the comment 'boy there sure are a lot of 'things' in California!', I am sure a reaction to all of the signs, billboards, colors, lights, and just 'stuff' everywhere.

We had to drive right through Beverly Hills to get here, and almost every place had a giant rainbow flag out front (even Wells Fargo for goodness sake).  Anyhow, it’s easy to make a list of restaurants to avoid at least.  I do believe that this place could make even a proud resident of metropolitan Sodom / Gomorrah blush.  The only indication that there are any straight men here were the giant neon signs flashing “Totally Nude Girls” outside one place.  When that is the most respectable business in town you really know you are somewhere special.
 
Today, on our way to the doctor’s office I saw what might be one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.  It was certainly the grossest (even worse than when I saw the Chinese lady in Guangzhou encourage her kid with buttless pants go poo-poo in the park-park – I believe I stated my revulsion in the old blog archives back in January ‘10).  We drove past a bar that had a large patio right out on the street, and there was a dude showing another dude his abs (seriously – you can’t make this stuff up).  Well, creepy dude #2 literally bent down and kissed creepy dude #1’s stomach.  It made me throw up in my mouth.  If the window would have been down I would have leaned out and made it official.  Also saw a store called the “the leather & fetish shop” and it had mannequins doing things which would shock Boy George.  I couldn’t believe it.  It made me long to go back to the neighborhood with Bud Light en Espanol. I don’t think those folks would have put up with this!  As soon as we leave, this place can break off and float on over to China!

Anyhow, enough about the culture of depravity and on to the happy, slightly nervous business at hand!  We are gearing up for Peter’s big day on Friday.  We had his pre-op appointment today and the doctor and her P.A. spent about 90 minutes with us going over the plan for Friday’s 8-hour surgery, and making some tactical decisions, like where to get the skin graft from, and how to minimize scarring, etc.  It’s quite amazing the kind of time they put in – and they seem like truly wonderful people. 

One thing is clear, they do good work, and they sure seem to enjoy what they do (from the looks of the office, with fancy hardwood floors, granite countertops, and jazzy art all over the place, they are well-compensated for it, too – and I don’t mind a bit, since it’s a bit of a niche skill but awfully handy if you happen to be born without ears).  We met a boy and his mother that were there to get ready for his second ear to be done as well.  The kind nurse translated since they only spoke Spanish, but this kid’s ear looked GREAT and they seemed very nice ~ I think he was about 3 months post-op. 

Looks like the plan is to use some skin from Peter’s head and his abdomen for the surgery.  Back-up plan should they need more skin is from the arm.  The stomach skin is usually avoided since it can grow hair when the kids get older, but they said the risk is minimal for Asian kids.  They like the stomach since it is a very similar skin tone to that of the ear, and it will be used to cover the back of his new ear.  The skin from his head will be sliced so thin and with such precision as to take a layer that contains no hair follicles.  Amazing!  This will be the skin on the front of his ear, again due to skin tone.

A funny moment occurred near the end of the appointment, when the doctor looked at Amy and I for a second and said that she normally uses one of the parents’ ears as her model for the child.  She paused and looked at me, clearly worried about my reaction, and said “…I think we are going to use mom’s for this”.  Amy and I burst out laughing.  I told her that if we came this far and went to this much trouble and expense for him to have ears like mine, we’d be a bit disappointed.  Talk about going from one extreme to the next!  From nothing to a 3-inch wide ear shooting out the side of his head might be too much change for any child to bear J  At least we know that Doc L has good taste in ears! J   

Tomorrow, we are taking the boys to Universal Studios ~ and it is Peter’s birthday so hopefully, he has a fun day before his surgery!  Please keep him in your prayers!

(by amy) ~   I will try and get some photos tomorrow to post of the boys at Universal Studios...