Update 1/14/08

Ni Hao (Hello),
Yesterday we took Derek outside to the park across the street. He took a few pictures. He watched the skaters on the skate rink. They also ride sleds with seats on them on the ice and push themselves with ski poles. We didn't stay out to long because of the cold and the fact that it is not very handicap accessable. The few sidewalks that there are are so bumpy that we couldn't keep Derek's feet on the wheelchair. Next time Nicole is going to use an Ace bandage to sucure his feet on the wheelchair. The transportation system around here is fun to watch. Even though they have multiple lanes on the roads, no one uses them. The roads are shared with pedestrians on foot, bicycles, donkey drawn carts, cars, taxis, buses, and three wheel vehicles. There are no rules of the road. They honk alot and it is everyman for himself. We watch out our window and laugh. Shenyang is an industrial city so the skyline is always covered in smog. Much worse today being Monday and the factories are up and running. We are getting our morning routine more regular. We now all shower in the morning between 7:30 and 8:30, since we cannot stay awake at night to shower. Saturday night we were asleep by 6:00 and last night we were asleep by 4:00. We still don't have the food situation quite under contral. We usually eat instant outmeal and maybe a banana for breakfast. We have been eating easy mac & cheese, peanut butter and crackers, power bars and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Nicole did bring me instant coffee. That has been a real treat for me. We are waiting to meet with the doctor this morning. Derek is scheduled for physical therapy twice today. He is also scheduled for his first stem cell injection at 4:00 today. Thank you for all the comments. We have not been able to get the comments here, so we had Shane copy them and email them to us today. So we can now read them each day. Love to all, Kathy, Nicole and Derek