Another Week in Colorado

Thanks to Team Racing for Veterans, we were able to afford another trip to Snowmass, Colorado, for the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. This year, they had a record number of veterans (about 350) from across the country for the event with disabilities ranging from PTSD, to missing limbs, to Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs), to blindness. Plus they had me--a partially paralyzed guy with a feeding tube. I'm still the only tubie there. Once again, we had an amazing experience! And once again, you will be subjected to several pictures of me eating.

The day we arrived, we ate at the same place we went to last year, The Stew Pot. There's nothing like a warm bowl of Belgian beef stew after hitting the slopes in Colorado. The staff, as always, was very understanding about me needing my food blended and had no problem taking the Vitamix into the kitchen. Unfortunately, the stew was hot and blending it on high for a couple minutes made it hotter still. It was absolutely scalding to my tender tummy. We normally stir ice into the blend when it comes out of kitchens on the hot side. In this case, it needed a lot of ice. By the time I got it down to a tolerable temperature, Grace was done with her stew (she said it was delicious) and ready to leave. I really like this place, but I think next time I'll just get mine to go and blend it back in the hotel room after it's cooled down.

"Das ist heiß!!!" (See, Frau Mitchell? I still remember some German!)

The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, The Snowmass Kitchen, and ran into Jeff Haugh. Jeff has Multiple Sclerosis, a TBI, and is one of the founders of Team R4V--also he played for the Academy football team when they were ranked #10 in the country. He is just one of the many inspiring veterans at this event.

I'm wearing my Team R4V shirt. What color would you say that is? Yellow?

Since the first year we came to this event, the Snowmass kitchen has been very accommodating to my feeding tube. This time was no different. I went to the breakfast buffet, put the food I wanted into the pitcher, then gave the blender to the staff. The entire community of Snowmass is extremely supportive of all the vets throughout the week.

The other main meal that first day was called "A Taste of Snowmass." Several restaurants from the village set up tables outside for the veterans to come and taste their dishes. We got out there early and I lined right up for the best dish: filet mignon kebobs, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a flourless chocolate tort for desert. Then I brought the whole thing up to our room so I could blend it up.

Duke/Gonzaga game. Why am I always so bad at filling out brackets?

I blended up the meal really good, brought it over to the chair in our room, started to push in the first syringe-full and...uh-oh.

I got it on the walls too, but couldn't fit the entire blend splatter in the picture

I didn't have any oil or butter to lubricate my plunger so I ended up pushing down on it really hard and as a result I got some chocolate-steak-broccoli on my pants. The Snowmass Kitchen came to my rescue though! They gave me a small cup of olive oil that I used whenever I ate in the room the rest of the week.

And now I'm using a blue towel

On Monday morning, I was scheduled to go snow shoeing. So we ate at the breakfast buffet that our hotel (the Westin) provided for the veterans all week.

She looks absolutely thrilled, doesn't she?

The staff at the Westin has gotten to know me over the last three years. I just take my pitcher through the buffet line, then blend up the meal at any wall outlet along the side of the large conference room where we eat our meals. When I'm done eating, I give the pitcher to someone on the waitstaff and they wash it out for me while I wash out my syringe and plunger in the bathroom.

Traveling and eating on the road has gotten pretty routine--at least in this country. I'd imagine if/when I try eating out in another country it'll be a bit more stressful.

Anyway, snow shoeing was excellent. A really good workout on a beautiful day.

How I miss the aspen trees in Colorado

There was a fast group snow shoeing up the ski slope and a slow group. I chose the slow group because I wasn't sure about my limits and I didn't want to slow down the fast group. As it turns out, I'm in better shape than I thought so I think I'll try going at a quicker pace when I do it in the future. I really liked snow shoeing. I was much more unsteady and prone to falling when I cross country skied last year, but show shoeing is something I can really do independently. If I lived near anyplace that had a steady amount of snow, I think I'd go more often.

It got so hot that day I could've done it in shorts

After our exercise, we were served lunch on the mountain by the local Elk's Lodge. Since there wasn't an outlet to plug up the Vitamix, I had to get my meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, and a Cesar salad) to go and eat it back in our room.

Betsy was kind enough to clean out my dishes in the bathroom

For dinner on Monday, all the veterans were given meal vouchers for the local restaurants. We chose to eat at another of our favorite places, Slice Italian Bistro. All their pizzas are available gluten free. Plus, they offer a selection of gluten free beer!

At this altitude, I only needed to smell it before I got a headache

We had dinner with our friends Mike and Courtney. Mike is a blind veteran who lives in Arizona. He always brings his (now 13 year-old) daughter, Courtney, to Snowmass for the Winter Sports Clinic and Grace absolutely can't wait to see her every year. Seriously, that's all she talked about on the flight to Denver.

For my pizza, I got the 'Greek Peak,' which has sundried tomatoes, olives, chicken, artichokes, and spinach.

Thanks, Courtney, for being so patient with Grace!!!

Tuesday was snowboarding day! Our breakfast buffet included an omelet bar, so I got an omelet with everything on it for the Vitamix.

Caught the omelet bar dude mid-flip

Once again, we set up the Vitamix on the periphery of the conference center where all the veterans ate.

The spinach in my omelet gave a the blend a slight greenish shade

When I started this blog, pictures of tubies eating in public were pretty rare, but now I've taken so many, I feel like I should start hiding secret messages in them just to make them interesting so you're not just staring at my ugly mug every time. Not on this trip though. Just more pictures of me tubefeeding in public.

Selfies of me tubefeeding are now called 'Telfies.' This is not a telfie because Betsy took it. Just FYI.

Snowboarding was fantastic--even better than last year. For the first time, I got to go with Betsy and Grace all morning! I'll talk more about it in a separate post. The lunch the clinic provides to the veterans is usually pretty sparse, at least for gluten-free eaters. So, I brought plenty of Real Food Blends to supplement what they gave me. For Tuesday's lunch, I added a Real Food Blend to mashed potatoes, baked beans, and coleslaw. I also threw in a Lara Bar that I brought from Tennessee.

Kinda looks like she's in pain here

The veterans were split up into teams at the beginning of the week (Go Team Headwall!!!) and we had team leaders who helped make sure we all got where we needed to be and looked after us for the rest of the week. Our team leaders were an amazing group of volunteers coming from all over the country, but mostly from Colorado. One of them, Jake, has a 3-year rivalry with Grace in which they both try to scare each other all week. On Friday, she caught him unawares with a snowball and he repaid her by holding her upside-down in a snowbank.

Another team leader, Jessica, is a recent college graduate from Grand Junction, Colorado. She has always been so helpful to us, especially at mealtimes--making sure Grace gets her food while Betsy and I get my blender ready

Thanks for all your help, Jessica!!!!

For Tuesday's dinner, I had pork loin, roasted potatoes, a vegetable medley, and a spinach salad in the blender. They feed us pretty good there!

Maybe next time they could give us wine at meals. *Hint Hint*

Wednesday, I was scheduled to visit Glenwood hot springs all day. Before I left, I had breakfast with a fellow veteran from Tennessee, Mark Brogan. I've talked about Mark before on here. He is an Army veteran who has a Traumatic Brain Injury because of a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. Mark was the one who initially got me into the horseback riding I do every Friday, and he encouraged me to sign up for the Winter Sports Clinic three years ago. Mark and his wife, Sunny, are a very inspiring couple and I am extremely honored to know them.

Once again, I had the breakfast buffet in my blender: scrambled eggs, bacon, mixed fruit, and potatoes.

Grace photobomb!

So we went to some hot springs. On the way there, we stopped at the Elk's Lodge in Glenwood, where they served us an absolutely delicious meal for lunch. I blended up elk (apparently calling it an 'Elk's Lodge' is a trick to lure in unsuspecting elk), antelope, pheasant, trout, mashed potatoes, and green beans in the Vitamix!

Some animals were harmed in the making of this photo

The hot springs were a disappointment to me. I was picturing secluded pools of steaming water, surrounded by towering Rocky Mountain cliffs, with the only sound coming from the wind and the gentle clacking of frolicking mountain goats. Instead, I got a huge swimming pool:

Some dreams were shattered in the making of this picture

The bottom of the pool looked dirty. I'm sure the water was clean; probably cleaner than what I would get in a swimming pool. But it didn't look clean and add to that a whole lot of little kids running around doing who-knows-what in the pools and I didn't feel very comfortable getting in there with my feeding tube. I did it anyway, though (didn't get any infections-yea!). It felt nice, but I could've gotten the same thing from the hotel's hot tube, minus the screaming kids. Add to this that I had to ride on a bus for an hour to get there and Betsy and Grace couldn't come because Betsy wasn't feeling well and they didn't want to be liable in case anything happened to Grace on the bus. So, this was definitely my least favorite activity over the past three years.

Wednesday's dinner was back at the Westin hotel. I had a cobb salad, meatballs, and a vegetable medley in the Vitamix. Thursday was another snowboarding day AND another omelet bar in the morning!!!

The only thing better than an omelet bar is a regular bar

Betsy and Grace skied with me while I snowboarded again! Before we left, they got outfitted in their Team R4V shirts. Thanks again, Team R4V!!!!

There's no danger of losing them in those shirts

I signed up to snowboard all day on Thursday. The morning was rough because it was pretty icy, I fell down a few times and I got discouraged. I decided to try again in the afternoon on a part of the mountain that, hopefully, would be a bit more soft and wide for my gentle snowboard turns. Before that though, I had a fast lunch consisting of a taco salad and a luna bar:

Refueling before re-hitting the slopes

Thursday afternoon went much better for me and I got my confidence back up in both my balance, and using the outrigger while snowboarding! I'll share some photos and a video in another post.

Dinner on Thursday was meatloaf, a spinach salad, and mashed potatoes:

Refueling before we hit the dance floor for the 6 Million Dollar Band

On most evenings, they have a dance for the veterans with a live band providing the entertainment. Wednesday night's act was the 101st Airborne Division band. Thursday, we were treated to a group called the 6 Million Dollar Band. They are an 80s cover band based out of Denver and they played pretty much every hit from the decade. Grace said they played "6 million songs." She couldn't get enough of it, and was out on the dance floor until way past her bedtime (10 PM!).

So, it was a weary group that went to breakfast on the last full day of the Clinic. I did the usual breakfast bar and added a Carnation Instant Breakfast to the blend for some extra calories:

Ready for Race Day!

Friday was race day, when every veteran gets timed going through a slalom course. I didn't think much of their slalom course. The flags were more geared toward skiers and I ended up falling a couple times and it took me forever to finish. But my trainer, Michelle, was kind enough to take me back up the mountain for one last run on a course I'd done really well on Thursday. So, I ended my week of snowboarding on a high note!

After that, we were treated to another Taste of Snowmass in the Village. I got beef stew and added in a Real Food Blend and another Lara Bar back in our room.

No tube explosions this time

It was the end of another great week in Snowmass. I'm always sorry to see it end, knowing that I'll have to wait another year for the next one--if we even go to the next one. We can't count on Team R4V to cover our costs every year and flying the three of us to Colorado for this event is outside our price range. So, I'll be on the hunt for sponsors to get me to the next Sports Clinic!

Friday evening before bed, we shared wine and desserts with Mike and Courtney while promising that we would stay in touch and hopefully see each other between now and next spring.

I drink my wine out of plastic cups because I'm classy

And now it's time for a little break from traveling (but not blogging) before possible trips to Minnesota, Germany, and Washington over the summer!

We got interviewed!

Jeff Haugh, one of the founders of Team R4V, the organization that sponsored our trip to Snowmass this year, was interviewed on a new podcast called "Beer 30" (sounds like my kind of podcast) earlier this year. Here's a link: http://beer30.podomatic.com/entry/2015-01-16T14_38_37-08_00. If you have 37 minutes to spare, you should check it out; Jeff's story is really interesting/inspiring. Pay no attention to the picture depicting someone with Muscular Dystrophy. Jeff has Multiple Sclerosis, so I think they confused the two. Despite this faux pas, it's a great interview!

While we were at the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass, CO, last week, we reconnected with Jeff and he introduced me to Joel Hunt, one of the guys who does "Beer 30." Joel is a paralympian alpine skier and purple heart recipient. I'm sure he has a fascinating story himself, but I selfishly only talked about my own story with Joel because he decided to put Betsy and I on his podcast too!

I've been interviewed for newspaper articles and for radio segments, but this was my first podcast. Feel free to have a listen if you like: http://beer30.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-01T18_31_28-07_00. I must admit that I cringed listening to it. For one thing, it's a little hard to understand me. For another, my voice sounds pretty weak. You know how when you listen to a recording of yourself and think, "THAT'S how I sound??? I never imagined my voice sounded like that!!"? Well, hearing myself on that podcast is that times 1,000. I'm higher pitched and have trouble enunciating my words with occasional drool thrown in. So while inwardly, I believe I sound suave and sophisticated when I speak, the reality is that my voice resembles Beaker's.

"Meep, Meep, tubie, Meep, Meep!"

Or sort of like the Office Space stapler guy?

"Excuse me. I believe you have my stapler."

But anyway, feel free to listen to the interview if you have 30 minutes to spare after you've listened to Jeff's interview. I think Betsy's voice makes up for my 'meeping.' We threw in some good plugs for Team R4V, but I regret that I wasn't able to segue the conversation into talking about Real Food Blends!!

Things I Want Right Now: Popcorn Edition

I haven't done this in a while. Eric O'Gorman used to do a thing on his EntropyandLight blog called "Things I want right now" where he would wax nostalgic about a food he missed tasting, like a peanut butter sandwich. Using my creative genius, I unashamedly stole the name of his post so I could reminisce on the days of stuffing my face. Specifically, I would really like to be eating this particular food at the moment:

Preferred methods of dying: lightning bolt, bear mauling, randomly crushed by falling anvil, drowning in popcorn

I LOVE popcorn. Love it. Love it. Love it. The best part about going to the movies is the previews at the beginning and the popcorn.

Cats like popcorn too, apparently

I heartily enjoy buying a large popcorn and munching on it until I'm sick to my stomach (usually happens by the third preview). Just writing this post and looking up popcorn images online is making me crazy!

I don't know if he's a slob or a genius...

Don't give me that kettle corn crap. Popcorn does not need sugar people! What sort of lunatic took the perfection of popcorn and decided to add sugar????? It's like saying, "Ooooh, peanut butter and chocolate make a delicious combination, but how about if I add a can of tuna fish?" Yes, it's EXACTLY like that!!!

All I need on my popcorn is salt, butter, and--if we're making it at home--parmesan cheese. What's that? You've never put parmesan cheese on your popcorn? Since I can't stop thinking about eating popcorn, let me give you a detailed description.

First, you need an air popcorn popper.

Ours looks like this. Orville Redenbacher is my soulmate.

In a small saucepan, add the desired amount of butter and melt over a burner on a low setting.

Liquid gold

While the butter is melting, dump a cup of popcorn kernels into your machine and plug that sucker in! Be sure to place a bowl under the popcorn chute. Or, if you want to live dangerously, see what happens if you aim it over your kitchen floor. 

I chose to be a sissy and use a bowl (Betsy made me do it)

HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!! Once the butter is melted, add about 1/4 of a cup of parmesan cheese and stir until dissolved. YES, PARMESAN CHEESE!! PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I DON'T USE 'ALL CAPS' LIGHTLY!!!

Liquid gold with flecks of sunshine? The 'Liquid gold' metaphor isn't holding up.

If you've never tried popcorn this way, go make some right now! The parmesan/butter combination makes it irresistible. Pour your insanely delicious butter mixture over your popcorn, then add salt and mix it up to ensure that every kernel is fully coated with delicious cow fat. 

Butter will also settle on the bottom so you can scrape it up with the last kernels (I heard this is healthy!)

Now, it's all ready for you to enjoy. Please eat it right in front of me, or make a video of you devouring it and send it to me, so I can grind my teeth while imagining those crunchy bits of cheesy, buttery flavor dissolving in my mouth.

Just rub it in my face, you adorable little monster

Syringe Holder

I've been complimented a few times on my syringe holder. I could not live without it. Seriously. It is, without a doubt, the most important tool I use for tube feeding. Why? Because tube feeding is a two-handed operation. One hand needs to hold the tube steady while the other pours in the blend and pushes it in with the plunger. My left hand isn't up to the task so I need the holder to act in its stead. It wasn't my idea though.

Back in 2009, I was part of a yahoo group for tube feeding using blended diets. One of the tubie moms in that group (Maria Cho, if you're out there, I'm talking about you) posted a picture of a syringe holder and said it came in handy for feeding their son. She asked if anyone was interested in it because her husband was willing to make more.

At the time, I'd been unable to swallow for about 8 months and unable to move my left arm a couple years so I was still getting used to my new limitations. I was either trying to precariously balance my tube against the edge of tables while gravity feeding or relying on Betsy for bolus feeding. It was extremely frustrating for Betsy and I. Honestly, I don't know how moms are able to feed squirming kids blended meals. We made enough messes with me holding perfectly still while following Betsy's commands. It was very difficult for Betsy and I to adjust to me being dependent for such basic activities.

I just finished the book Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw. Shane has been in a wheelchair since the age of 3 and has been dependent on others for just about every aspect of his life (you should read it if you get the chance; he has a great sense of humor; order it off his website). So I know I'm whining when I describe how depressed I was to need Betsy whenever I wanted to eat. I have a hard time asking for help, and I was reluctant to tell Betsy when I got hungry or when I needed to take my medicine. I was actually losing weight because formula made me nauseous and I hated sitting at the table waiting for Betsy to feed me.  The thought that I could use a syringe holder and not need to rely on Betsy--whose hands were already full taking care of our two-year old--was a revelation. I immediately responded to Maria's post and said I was very interested in getting a syringe holder.

Within a few weeks, her husband shipped one to me from their home in Seattle. That syringe holder, no kidding, changed my life. For the first time in months, I could sit at a table and feed myself. Not only did Maria's family send me that holder at no cost, they also sent me replacements regularly for the next couple years because the plastic clamp only lasts about a year and I was too dumb to figure out how to make my own syringe holder.

But now I know and it couldn't be easier.

Let me walk you through it.

You start with a cheap clip lamp. You can buy them at most hardware stores. I got the one pictured at Lowes:

I used to get plastic clip lamps, but I'm hoping this one lasts longer

Next, you cut off the cord because what sort of syringe holder needs a cord?

Fun project: use the cut cord as a noose for your daughter's Monster High dolls!

After this, you'll need to remove the head of the lamp. This is actually pretty easy. There is a nut holding the head on that you can remove with a pair of pliers:

I have a whole graphics team to label these photos

Now comes the tricky part. Well...it's not tricky for me, but you might have a hard time finding these pieces. Maria's husband used the bolt that held the lamp head in place to attach a metal plate and hook. It's pretty simple really; I just use that same metal plate and hook every time I need a new syringe holder. The tricky part is, I couldn't find those parts at Lowes or Home Depot, so if the plate and/or hook ever break down I'll have to figure something else out. Also, if you want to recreate this engineering masterpiece, you may need to find something else to bolt on there.

Behold: the aforementioned "metal plate and hook"

Admittedly, I didn't look very hard at the hardware store for those parts. They're not too complex so it seems like something Lowes would carry. If you're able to track them down please let me know in the comments.

A little grimy after 5+ years, but still works!

Yes, I did try to get in touch with Maria Cho and her husband to ask them for details about their syringe holder. I haven't heard back. I lost touch with them a few years ago. I remember their child was weaning off the feeding tube in 2010, so I'm sure they aren't even part of the blended diet community anymore. But, on the off chance you know them please extend my gratitude for sending me this tool!

If you don't want to get your hands dirty, there are syringe holders you can purchase online. They're called Jofas clamps:

Behold: The Jofas Clamp

You can order one at their website: www.jofas.net. I have one of these also. The thing I like is that the clamp can handle thicker tables than my homemade syringe holder. I've started to be extremely conscious of table thickness wherever I go. Like The Rainforest Cafe at the Mall of America has tables so thick, even my Jofas Clamp couldn't fit on it, so I had to clamp Jofas to the back of my chair and snake the arm around in front of me. That's another nice thing about the Jofas Clamp. As you can see in the picture, it has a long, flexible arm. This allows me to better adapt to situations where I need to clamp in at more of a distance from my feeding tube.

The downside to the Jofas Clamp is that the flexible arm is not as strong as my homemade syringe holder's arm. When I pour thick blends into my tube, it descends with the weight of the blend. I bought the clamp 5 years ago and I've been assured by the company that they've made improvements and the arm is stronger now. If that's the case then you can't go wrong getting a Jofas Clamp.

I kinda like having both clamps because my homemade one is easier to attach to the table (you screw the Jofas until it's firmly clamped on) and I'm normally not in a situation where I need a long arm on my syringe holder. At the same time, for situations where I need a long arm or for thicker tables, it's nice to have a Jofas Clamp. Hopefully, this post was informative--unlike my other posts, which are pointless drivel. If you have another idea for syringe holders or if you're Maria Cho or her husband, please let me know in the comments!

UPDATE!!! A tubie mom on Facebook recommends "Bendy Armz." Check it out on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bendy-Armz-Attachment-Stroller-Bottle/dp/B00P6WZ7QY/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1426177178&sr=1-1&keywords=bendy+arms. The mom says that they are "the perfect size for 60 ml syringes."

Behold: the Bendy Arm

They look great to me! I'm not sure if it would work for me personally because it seems like it would take two hands to clip the syringe onto the arm. With my holder or the Jofas Clamp, I only have to drop the syringe in place. But this looks like a very handy device for tubie parents!!

UPDATE NUMBER 2!!!!!! Jesse Jones recommended the Jackson PEG Stand, so I ended up getting one and wrote a short review here: http://travelingtubie.blogspot.com/2015/12/syringe-holder-update.html. 

Grace's Favorite Meal

It's amazing how much longer it takes me to do simple tasks since I lost the use of my left arm. Typing, getting dressed, taking showers, but nowhere is it more evident to me than when I'm cooking. I think I've mentioned before that I do most of the cooking when it comes to dinner. I've learned that meal preparation takes me twice as long as it should normally. Simple tasks that I wouldn't think twice about now suck up a lot of my prep time (skinning carrots and potatoes!!). Also, there are many cooking tools out there that are meant to be operated with two hands. Can openers, pepper grinders, cheese graters, egg beaters with a hand crank, just try doing all your cooking one-handed tonight and you'll see what I mean. Unless you're eating a microwave meal, you lazy, unhealthy piece of crap.

So, I cooked Grace's favorite meal the other night, which also happens to be the most labor intensive for me. Like any kid, Grace has her list of favorites. Favorite color, favorite food, favorite toy, favorite place, favorite sport, favorite game, favorite parent (me, obviously), the list goes on. So, it should come as no surprise that Grace has favorite dinners: spaghetti and Chinese omelet parcels. Those omelet things come from a kids' cookbook she got a few years ago. You can see what the end product is supposed to look like in the picture below:

Grace is supposed to be able to do this herself, yet she always gets out of it

The most difficult part is food prep on all the produce. I have to start fairly early in the day so I can work on it at my own pace. The first ingredient is bok choy:

This is bok choy.

I don't recall ever eating bok choy as a kid--thank you for contributing to my bok choy ignorance, mom. So, I honestly had to be directed to it at the grocery store and look up how to cut it online (thanks youtube 'How To' videos!). After a considerable amount of time--or maybe it just seemed like it--here is the prepped bok choy:

The leaves are edible too

Next, I needed a zucchini. This is a veggie I'm familiar with:

They look like this, right?

It needed to be cut into narrow, 1-2 inch strips like so:

Wait, what's that empty bowl at the top of the picture for??

After this, the recipe called for scallions, which I've learned (after making a fool out of myself at the store) is another name for green onions:

The blue band is NOT edible

After some quality time chopping those up, I've got a respectable amount:

Oh, that's what the bowl is for.

The recipe also calls for black bean sauce. I have an easy way to make this. Empty a can of black beans in the Vitamix, run the blender, and voilà - black bean sauce:

At least I think that's black bean sauce

Now, the cooking begins! Fry up the aforementioned vegetables (only use a few tablespoons of the black bean sauce) in peanut oil with garlic, cilantro, and bean sprouts:

What did you have for dinner, you fat slob??

Then, in a smaller omelet pan, fry up individual eggs to wrap the vegetables in:

Nine out of ten of these have huge holes or got too browned when I cooked them

Finally, it's time to wrap the vegetable medley in your egg. I tell myself this would look a whole lot better if I could do it with two hands

Look back up at the first picture and try to tell me I didn't nail it!

My most important audience doesn't give a crap whether my Chinese omelet parcels match the photo and requests it constantly, especially on days I really don't feel like cooking, so I call it a success!

Put enough soy sauce on it and it doesn't matter what it looks like!

You need to know about Team R4V!!!!!!!

Short version of this blog post:

Please go to this link (here) and help my brother-in-law' and sister's box ('gym' to the layperson) at Reebok Crossfit Nuernberg support Team Racing for Veterans (Team R4V). The money raised will be used for their Warrior Crossfit program, which helps disabled veterans at gyms like Crossfit Walter Reed. That's the box at Walter Reed military hospital where veterans who've lost limbs or suffered other injuries in combat learn that, not only can they overcome their disability, but they can improve their mental state and get in even better shape than they were before being wounded. Check out this youtube video:

CrossFit Walter Reed

So, please donate and help my brother, Drake, reach his fundraising goal for Lactic Acid Love Affair before February 14!!

Long Version of the blog post:

I've written a few times about the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic I go to in Snowmass, Colorado. It's normally at the end of March, toward the end of the season there. This is actually a perfect time to go--not too crowded, conditions are usually still good. We have an amazing time and meet so many inspiring wounded warriors. I really hope we can go every year.

However, it's pretty expensive. The clinic does give me free meals, and I get free equipment rentals and free lift tickets. But, we have to pay for flights for the three of us, we have to pay for the hotel room, Grace' and Betsy's meals, and their lift tickets. It's a costly week, but I couldn't imagine going by myself. Betsy is my spokesman; she's my advocate; she helps me travel, eat, and get where I need to be. Grace is our ambassador; plus I know it's an incredible learning opportunity for her, not just to be able to ski, but to meet all these different veterans and understand their disabilities. Just seeing Grace puts a smile on everyone's face--I think if I stopped going, they'd miss her more than they'd miss me.

Can we afford it every year though? It's a big chunk out of our budget, so we were thinking about maybe skipping a year. Then I applied for a grant from Team Racing for Veterans (Team R4V). If you read my blog closely (....wait....does anyone read my blog closely?!? Am I just blogging to myself? Do I even read this blog???) you'll know that I met the chairman of Team R4V, Jeff Haugh, at the last Winter Sports Clinic. He asked if I wanted to join him on a 60-miles-in-24-hours hike last May. So I raised money and managed to slow the whole team up while only hiking 16 miles. Despite my hiking ineptitude, Jeff recommended that I apply to Team R4V for a grant to pay for our family to go to Snowmass for the next clinic. So, I sent in an application. I thought the best they could do was maybe help pay for my plane ticket but I went ahead and asked for everything: plane tickets for three, hotel room for a week, and meal tickets. Worst that could happen is they say no, right?

A few weeks later, I got an e-mail saying that Team R4V would cover everything; not just my travel to the clinic but everything we needed for Betsy and Grace too!!! How awesome is that?!? What did they ask from me in return? All they wanted was for us to tattoo "Team R4V" over every inch of Grace's body and legally change her name to "Team R4V Liebenow." We were planning on doing that anyway so it's like free money!!!!

No, actually, all they requested was for me to write about my trip in a couple blog posts because I have trillions of followers and it's good publicity (pay no attention to that whole "does anyone read my blog closely?!? Am I just blogging to myself? Do I even read this blog???" thing above; world leaders read my blog closely; so does Oprah).

How amazing is this charity??? They understand that fitness has tremendous power for disabled people. It is so easy when you've lost a limb, or suffer from paralysis, brain damage, blindness, loss of swallowing, or any other debilitating injury to give up, sit on the couch, and lament the abilities you used to have. But this will only lead to a depressing downward spiral that will ostracize you from your friends and family and ultimately increase your health problems. Team R4V encourages veterans to set athletic goals and then helps them achieve them. They support veterans in any type of athletic endeavor, including Crossfit, several different marathons and triathlons (there was a big team at the last Marine Corps Marathon), and even events like the Winter Sports Clinic.

Speaking of Crossfit, my sister and brother-in-law are doing this thing called Lactic Acid Love Affair. It's on Valentine's Day, because people who do Crossfit are in love with exercise. Don't worry; none of the proceeds will go to support my trip to Colorado. All of the money raised will go toward helping wounded veterans vastly improve their morale while rediscovering their limits at Crossfit gyms. Again, here's the link: https://www.crowdrise.com/RCFNLacticLoveAffaire/fundraiser/drakesladky/1/return/success/success.

They wanted to use a picture of me bench pressing for their ad campaign, but it was too intimidating

If you don't like my brother-in-law because he took you surfing for your first time off Hawaii's North Shore in December and you had to be rescued after getting pummeled by monster waves, then donate to my sister's fundraising page here (link)!!! That seems like an oddly specific reason...

Again, please donate before February 14!

DNA Evidence

For the first year of her life, my daughter was an orphan. She does not know--nor will she likely ever know--who conceived her or why she was left in front of a photo shop the day after her birth. She will never know what her 'birth parents' looked like or if she has siblings or cousins still in China--or potentially adopted by another family.

Orphanage picture; they add extra clothes so the child looks healthier

These are difficult things for me to wrap my head around. I know my wife has trouble just reading those first three sentences. It's hard for us to think about Grace's life before we adopted her or her 'other' family. Neither of us were adopted. Everyone close to us growing up knew who their birth parents were. My best understanding of being an orphan came from Annie and Oliver Twist. How could I possibly empathize with how my daughter feels?

Now, my heart aches whenever Grace talks about family tree school projects or asks about her birth mother. On her Gotcha Day, we make it a point to think about Grace's birth mother and thank her for the courage to recognize that she wasn't able to care for her baby and give her up. Right now, Grace is content with her life and her family. As she grows older, will this change? Will she increasingly yearn for her birth mother and Yingtan City, the place of her birth? In a fit of anger for some future grounding, will she yell, "you're not my real daddy!!!!" That would break my heart, yet as difficult as it is for me to hear Grace talk about her birth mother, it must be a hundred times harder for my little girl to think that she may have been 'unwanted.' 

Recently, we came across a Facebook post that mentioned 23andMe DNA testing. Betsy and I looked it up and we were excited about the possibilities. Grace could discover other siblings or distant cousins. Could it give her a better sense of herself when she's older? We decided to buy a DNA kit and encouraged the other girls from her orphanage to do the same. Who knows, maybe the 'Yingtan Sisters' (the name we gave the girls from her orphanage) really are sisters!

The package arrived in the mail. It could not have been easier. Grace had to spit into a test tube multiple times up to a 'fill' line.

"I spit in a tube just like daddy!!!"

Then, we dropped it in the mail and sent it back to the company.

Inside this box is a tube of spit

In a matter of weeks, we got her DNA results!

Unfortunately, we did not find that Grace has any siblings, first, or second cousins. We were also disappointed that the other families from Grace's orphanage haven't shown a desire to get the DNA test done. The results were that Grace is 96.7% Chinese, 2.28% Korean, 0.6% Japanese, and 0.4% 'broadly East Asian.' We also discovered that Grace is distantly related to Yo-Yo Ma on her mother's side. Grace was extremely excited to do the test and ecstatic to learn she's related to Yo-Yo Ma. However, in the future, I fear that she'll be dissatisfied with the generalities of 23andMe's results.

But here's a video of Yo-Yo Ma with Sting

There are other places to get DNA tests. NationalGeographic.com (link to buy their test) and ancesty.com (Ancestry's link) are two other popular DNA testing centers. We really want to do them all (at least the reputable ones anyway) so hopefully Grace can discover something more about herself. I can see how other families might be reluctant to do these tests. Some parents feel like they could just get their child's hopes up. Other families might be of the opinion that "this is the only family that matters now; why confuse the child with knowledge about other relatives?" or "my child is already confident in herself; if she wants to do a DNA test later in life, we will certainly support her."

I think a lot of this depends on the child. Grace was enthusiastic about the DNA test and is eager to try others. From my standpoint, more information about Grace's heritage will help her feel more grounded. Any relatives of Grace's we find will be my relatives too, so I look forward to hearing more about Grace's ancestry and family connections!!