Bonding is growing both ways

We are just half way through our first full day in Guangzhou and its been eventful.  We are in a new hotel that is huge and crawling with families with new adopted children.  We saw the couple that we sat next to on the plane from Chicago to Beijing and their little girl adopted from another section of China.  I'll throw in a couple pictures of the hotel high-rise, we are on Shamian Island, pronounced sha-man. The breakfast buffet sits right against a bank of windows looking out at the Pearl River.  Again this is a big city, over 13 million and unfortunately construction surrounds us.  They are preparing for the Asian Games here this summer and everything is getting spruced up. Its a very pretty area, even now with construction scaffolding on almost every building and no flowers blooming.  But there are plants and green space here, haven't seen much of that!  Our view from the hotel show high-rises all around us.  The weather is much better, just 48 today, but we love it, not really even a coat for us and only supposed to get warmer.  Oh, almost forgot, we received our Barbie doll today from the hotel. I guess this is only place you can get one!  Its a barbie mom doll holding an adopted Chinese girl!

 

The order of business today was the dreaded physical exam.  Not sure why they need this! Its not like we can change our minds and give the children back at this point! I guess they want to make sure the children are not bringing TB and other diseases into the U.S.  I thought we would do the physical at the U.S. consulate, but no its just a walk in clinic a few minutes walk from the hotel.  Everything around here is catered to the adopting families.  The little street level stores all sell baby clothing, rent strollers for FREE for the week just for walking in, do cheap laundry, and offer all kinds of souvenirs to take home.  They have people at each store front encouraging you to come in, very inviting here. We all met at 10am and walked over to a photo shop next to the clinic. They need a picture for the medical record. The we file in and wait at the clinic.  They have a special hallway with exam rooms for adopted children.  We noticed several families who were on our flight from Chicago.  The exam wasn't too costly, just 70 bucks.  And for that you saw an ENT doc who played notes on a small toy keyboard to test your hearing!  Lainey didn't move, so he had to resort to the squeaky toy next to each year to see if she reacted, she did, so yes hearing works! Then a quick look in the ears with a scope that had the same ear piece for every kid so if they didn't have an ear infection coming they probably do now! Then a quick look down the throat and we passed that stage.  On to weight, height, temperature, and passed those.  She is 14.11 pounds with clothes on! Then we had to go for the inoculations.  Sad times here.  Lainey needed 8 to be allowed in the U.S.  She only had 4 in the orphanage.  This is where it got pricey, 1900 yuan or 300 bucks!  But more dreadful was they had one nurse to give the shot and one to hold a cotton swab on the spot after to stop any bleeding. So that meant 8 separate shots.  We could do 4 today and come back for 4 more on Monday but if she reacted at all and got a fever we couldn't get the shots and that may stop the whole process for a few days at the consulate so we chose to do all 8 now.  This was so hard I can't explain. Those that have done it understand, the purposeful hurting of your precious child. Christina was crying before they did the first one.  I was trying to stay calm and rub Christina's back while holding Lainey's hand.  She got two in each leg and two in each arm.  Christina held her tight and Lainey grabbed right back.  As soon as it was over Lainey was the strong one and stopped crying, just holding Christina's shirt tight while we tried to stop crying and compose ourselves! The final stop was the physical exam.  Not sure what the doc really did here.  We had to fill out a form explaining her special needs. We wrote cerebral anoxia. The doctor asked what is this, I answered "Cerebral Anoxia."  She looked at me blankly and said what is her special need?  So I had to further explain to the doctor oxygen was cut off to her brain at birth! Hmm who is the doctor here???

She answered get guide.  So our guide explains she had brain damage at birth.  First we seen any documentation put that way, and don't really believe it at this point.  She is delay developmentally, but that is just from the lack of attention and opportunities in the orphanage.  The doctor was concerned she wasn't standing yet.  We are too, but she's been in pillows and just found her legs five days ago!  Already she is kicking and noticing hey these things move and are strong! The doctor pulled off her diaper and rolled up her shirt.  She listened to her heart but Lainey cried quickly so we doubt she heard anything. When she put the stethoscope on her back Christina says it was on her finger so she knows she didn't hear much! The doctor filled out 3 pages of stuff and we were done.  Who knows really what all this was for, but now we have a more complete shot record to bring home with us.  One of the guys in our group is a pharmacist and they gave us the vial boxes, and he said they are the real deal, no watered down junk, so we hopefully won't have to repeat these! 

 

I played with Lainey this afternoon for a bit.  Had her leaning on a pillow and playing with keys and see was kicking and throwing, had a good grip and even supporting herself with one arm and balancing herself when reaching for the toys.  She also tried tasting the toys which is a good step!  She is still eating everything. She tried scrambled eggs this morning, like those.  Really liked an oatmeal porage.  She is sleeping now and Christina just returned from the local version of walmart.  She was so nice and brought me some milk!  Well let me load in some pictures.  We have a group dinner at a Thai restaurant in a little bit.  I have pics from the new hotel and the the area, plus a park on the way to the clinic where people were playing badminton in front of the elementary school and 3 couple were taking wedding photos! Tomorrow is a tour day and relax! Need it after today!