Day 8 - Guangzhou - medical appointment

Ni Hao!  It is Saturday evening here in China.  My peeps are asleep as I type this post.  Unfortunately, Philip has come down with either a bad cold or sinus infection, so I gave him some medicine and sent him to bed.  It was Girls' Night In for us, and by a miracle, Olivia didn't give me too much of a fit going to bed.

Let me say if I haven't already, that it is a whole new world for us in Guangzhou.  There is a huge trade show going on in the city right now, and the hotel is super-busy.  There are all sorts of people here from all over the world, so we don't stick out quite as much as we did in Changsha.  The hotel is beautiful with a flower garden (hence the name) in the back with a tall waterfall, koi pond, and landscaping.  Unfortunately, it rained again today, so I didn't get any pictures.  Despite the rain, the temperature is much warmer here, which is a good thing.  We did find the outdoor pool and kids play area.  (These hotels who have been hosting adoptive families for so many years set aside rooms and adorn them with toys and such.  It is so nice to get a break from our hotel rooms and go to the play rooms with toys and sometimes other children to play with.)

Philip is so happy.  He found a Starbucks right across the street!  There are also a lot of restaurants near here as well:  Mexican, Italian, etc.  The area is very nice where we are and would remind you of New York City, Boston, etc.  I believe the population is 16 million.  They also have some ordinances here that controls the traffic MUCH better.  For one, you have to stay in your lane.  Two, you cannot honk.  Three, no scooters allowed.  :)  SUCH a better scene from that perspective.

We started the day with breakfast, our tradition.  The breakfast buffet here is quite delicious as well, and the girls are eating like queens!  One interesting thing that they have here that Olivia loves is very liquidy yogurt.  They give you a tiny straw to poke in the top, and you drink it.

Peek-a-boo! 

Here is Olivia handing me some watermelon, but you can see the white yogurt container on the table with the straw poking out.

Big sister is doing a great job!

Before the rain

One thing that we did today that was exciting….we had laundry done!  You have no idea how happy we are to have clean clothes.  In fact, the girls didn't even get to match today because we ran out of matching outfits.  :(  We paid a fortune, but it was well worth it….trust me.  (Olivia is in a size 24 month dress here….pretty big on her.)

After breakfast, we met our agency group in the lobby with our guide.  He is wonderful and very experienced.  All of these families adopted older children….ages 6-8, and three of them are boys.  A couple of them have previously adopted from China, so it is nice to have some experienced folks in the group.  We soon headed over for the medical appointments.  It was an interesting process.  The building looked like an office building from the outside, but when you got to the 5th floor, it looked like the waiting room at a hospital.  There were people everywhere.  There was one side for adoptions and one side for local people.  The first thing that they did was to take the children's pictures for their Visas.  Olivia didn't want to sit still, but they somehow managed to get one.  After the picture, we waited in line for 4 different areas:  full body exam, ENT, height/weight, and because she is over two, the dreaded TB test (blood draw).  Let me just say that Girlfriend rocked the blood draw with no tears!  In fact, she was just about the only one who did not cry.  She eventually ripped her bandaid off, too.  Looks like we have a tough cookie on our hands.

Things we needed for our visit today:

Waiting in line...

Checking her ears:

Listening to her heart

Big Sis trying to distract

While we were waiting, we had the opportunity to meet many of the other families who were here with other agencies.  There were at least 10 other families that we met while waiting in line for the various doctors.  Most of the stories of the people we met are much more emotional than ours.  You see, they are all part of the "Waiting Child" program, or special needs program.  Every single child that I saw today, outside of Olivia, had some sort of special need.  Every.single.one.  They ranged from cleft lip/palate to hand deformities to spina bifida to blindness.

Even though we didn't have a lot "planned" today, I feel like it was a tiring day emotionally for us.  You should have heard some of these stories.  The people who are here adopting are just amazing and have such huge hearts, and these children are so special.  I won't bore you with all of them, but just a few.

There are two families here who are adopting 2 children each, and the children were not from the same province.  These families had to go to each province and spend at least one week there, so this is their 3rd week in China.  One family from Birmingham is adopting 2 deaf boys.  They were ages 2 and 7.  Interestingly enough, they have since then figured out that the 2 year old is not totally deaf after all.  Who knows what happened there, but he is responding to sound and even the doctor today said that he is hearing.

There was another mother there today who was adopting a 13 year old boy who is blind.  This is their 7th adoption, and they have 3 biological children.  So, yes, that makes 10.  Three of their adopted children are blind, one is severely autistic, and one has no arms but can eat with chopsticks using her feet.  I'm pretty sure that all of their adoptions are from China.  This little boy was amazing.  He has been going to a blind school here in China where they also teach music.  Evidently he is an amazing pianist.  When the family was reviewing his file, they saw a video of him playing the piano.  His music teacher was singing in the video, and he was playing a clip of "My Heart Must Go On" from the "Titanic" movie.  When they went to get him last week, the people told the family that he had prepared something for them.  He played it again and dedicated it to his new mother.  There was not a dry eye in the place while she was telling this story.  They have only had him about a week, and his English is already coming along. God bless that family.

There is another interesting story in our group.  I won't go into too many details but just tell you that God is at work here.  This little boy was abandoned when he was 5 years old….that's right…..5.  Most of these children are abandoned when they are days old, not years old.  He has spina bifida, so the thought is that the mother just didn't think she could give him the medical attention that he needed.  The family actually got to see where he has been living for the past few months and his finding spot.  Again, I can't tell you the rest of the details of this story online, but if you are curious, ask me in person some time.  Simply amazing.

After the medical appointment, we boarded our bus and headed back to the hotel.  I had to fill out some paperwork this afternoon while Philip watched the girls.  After naps, we walked over to McDonald's for ice cream!  Olivia loved it.

The orphanage workers told us that Olivia's favorite toy was the rocking horse.  I believe it - look at this smile!

This was in response to a "Wall-E" toy that had creepy blue eyes and talked when you pushed a button.  I'm pretty sure she hasn't seen anything like this before.

Tomorrow, we get to do some shopping, and then tomorrow afternoon, our sweet Chinese friend at the day care's friends are taking us around town.  They want to take us for a traditional Chinese meal.  (Yikes) They don't speak any English, so I have no idea how it's going to go, but they are sweet, so we'll give it a shot.

You see, our story is pretty boring compared to these other stories and people.  Granted, we waited a long time, but our little one is just perfect.  Thank goodness God put people on earth to care for these special orphans, especially the ones who are getting older and still in the system.  God is good.

Until next time,
Jill