The Moon Festival

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, during a full moon, certain Asian cultures (China, Vietnam, and Taiwan for the most part) celebrate the mid-Autumn, or Moon, Festival. It occurs in late September or early October. This year, the festival fell on September 19. Since we believe that it is important to celebrate Grace's Chinese heritage, we always get together with other families in the area who've adopted Asian children--mostly China, but there are some kids from Taiwan and Vietnam--to celebrate the moon festival. 

It is a great opportunity for Grace to get together with Asian kids her age who are in similar circumstances, and we've made a lot of good friends with other adoptive parents. 

Our group normally has a potluck dinner at the Moon Festival. In past years, I've eaten a small meal beforehand, watched everyone else eat at the festival, then eaten another meal when we finally get home after 9 PM. This year, I wanted to eat at the event. A few weeks ago, I bought a couple Blender Bottles from The Vitamin Shoppe near my house. They were $10 apiece but I didn't think I'd find them anywhere else so I went ahead and got them. Then, a few days later I saw a whole bin full of them at Bed Bath & Beyond for $6 each. Happens every time, right? Anyway, they are the perfect size for me to store a meal, they're simple to clean, and have a wide enough mouth for easy pouring. 

BPA Free!!!! Whatever that means.

So, I blended up some leftovers (tilapia, potato soup, blueberries, and a slice of gluten-free banana bread Betsy made for the festival) in the Blendtec and put them in a Blender Bottle before we left. 

I have to admit that it still takes me a lot of courage to eat in front of other people, especially strangers. I know what you're thinking, "If it's so hard for you, Brian, why do you have a blog about publicly tubefeeding??" Well, the truth is, no one actually reads this blog, so it's really more of a "diary"....HA HA HA! Just kidding, thousands of people read this blog every day. Tens of thousands. I get a million hits on this blog every week. My blog's been featured on Oprah. It's been translated into 27 different languages. It'll be the action-packed summer blockbuster of 2014.

Back to reality. If I'm with friends or family sitting around a more intimate table at a restaurant, I'm more comfortable. However, at the Moon Festival I was sitting at a picnic table, surrounded by families I hadn't met before. My feeding tube holder wouldn't fit on the edge of the table, so it was awkwardly clipped at a low angle. The bench I was sitting on was closer to the table than I like to be. I stubbornly didn't ask Betsy to help and push my food in for me, because I didn't want to make more of a scene than I already was. Grace was sitting next to me and Betsy was having a nice conversation with the friendly mother seated across from us. I don't know if my food wasn't blended up enough (I doubt it; I blended for a while), or the tube holder was keeping the tube so low that it caused a kink in my tube, but my blend was proving to be really hard to push in. I should have asked Betsy to push in the food or added some water to the blend and shaken it up to be a little thinner, but I just pushed harder on the plunger. Of course, Betsy was in the middle of talking to her new friend when I pushed too hard, the tube popped off, and blended food spurted everywhere around me. I was extremely embarrassed, Grace was loudly complaining that I got food on her new shirt, and I don't know who else got the blend on them (this was a blend that included leftover fish too). Just a couple minutes before this happened, another guy at the table dropped his water bottle and got a few drops on me. I remember thinking, "that's real considerate; spills water on me and he doesn't even apologize?" So I just sprayed a fish blend on these people...great. I tried to mop up what I could with my dish towel, grabbed my tube and plunger, mumbled something to Betsy about going to the bathroom, and got the hell out of there.

So yeah, it's still really hard for me to tubefeed in front of strangers, especially when disaster strikes. I guess incidents like this will just give me more courage in the future. I can say, "Sure, I got a bad clog in my tube, but at least I didn't spray fish juice on everyone within a 10 ft. radius!"

So, other than The Infamous Fish Explosion of 2013 (that's what the pundits are calling it now) we had a really pleasant evening. Grace and the other kids made their own lanterns. Then, they listened to a story about the moon festival. After that they took a parade walk around the park--stopping along the way for a group photo. Finally, the best part of the evening (right when the full moon was rising!) was when each family lit a paper lantern and let it fly up into the night sky. It was a beautiful sight to see. Grace didn't want to leave and is already talking excitedly about next year.

Grace and best friend on the lantern walk

Group photo. I remember when Grace was the smallest one and sat in the front. *sniff, sniff 

Lighting the lantern

"Yep, it's on fire!"

Up they go! 100% environmentally friendly (at least that's what the box says)

I think she's laying in duck poop