Our day started off just like most of our days in China - with a big buffet breakfast. Dean and Kristne even found pizza on the breakfast buffet - though they decided not to try it today. Kristine was too busy filling up on fried dumplings. There were other adoptive families all around us at breatkfast, but we didn't actually meet any until later. After breakfast, we trotted over to a little shop and had Katie's picture taken for her visa. This is when we finally got to meet some of the other families that are here with our agency. There are around 26 families in our group and most have special needs and/or older children. It was so nice to meet other people going through what we are and swap stories. Only about 6 families went for the photos - the rest had done that the night before. However, all of the families went to the clinic for the medical exams at the same time. Talk about chaos - twenty six families - at least 3 people per family- all waiting for the same 3-4 stations. Once we got through the first 3 stations (which was only for our families), we had to merge into the rest of the clinic already busy on a Saturday morning and wait forever to get the tb skin test done. We were one of the first families through the first part and the dead last to finish the tb test. Katie did pretty well, considering the circumstances. She really doesn't like other people talking to her, much less touching her, so she fussed when she got weighed and measured and wailed when she had to take off her pants and shoes. She watched the person ahead of us get the tb skin test so she was already crying when we took her into the room for that, but as soon as it was done, she was fine. She was a little concerned that she was bleeding, so I put a bandaid on it and then she forgot about it. She passed all the medical exams, by the way. We get the tb test results on Monday. Pray that there will not be a false positive (or a true positive for that matter, but I am not worried about that).
After that, we were all happy to head back to the hotel and chill out for a while. The hotel gives new adoptive families a gift when they stay here. I don't know what the boys get, but the girls get a white Barbie Doll holding a Chinese baby. They have a partnership with Matell, apparently. It may be a little odd, but Katie seems to like it. She calls it "Mama" and "Mei, Mei" and gets mad when Dean turns the baby upside down. However, when I took her for a walk around the hotel, she realized she was holding it as we left the room so she turned around, dropped it and kicked it back into the room. So much for maternal instincts.
She and Kristine had a great time playing in the play room downstairs. This is another part of the hotel's partnership with Matell. They designed the room and supplied the toys. The toys were pretty babyish and Katie didn't want anything to do with anyone else in the room, but she and Kris had a good time together.
At dinner, she had us laughing so hard. As I mentioned, she has a serious sweet tooth and her dinner came with a scoop of ice cream. She was so excited to see the ice cream. She took a tiny bite of the whip cream, rolled back her eyes in delight, set down the spoon and said, "Ah". The spoon was up again soon, though. Dean tried to distract her and sneak a bite and we thought that it had worked until she turned back and noticed it was gone. She gave Dean an evil look (Dean looked a little scared, actually) and she smacked him and yelled what we were pretty sure were Chinese obsenities at him. We all burst out laughing - even Katie- but she kept her eye on Dean for the rest of dinner. He asked her for a bite and she finally gave him a tiny bite. I got three bites and one was pretty big. I guess it pays to be patient and not try to steal from Katie. The people at the next table - an adoptive family from Wisconsin (Wausau), were laughing, too.
We also did some exploring in the area. Guangzhou is a huge city, but the hotel is on a small island on the Pearl River. The island has a lot of little shops that cater towards Westerners - especially adopting families. When we walk around, I feel like the locals see dollar signs rather than people, but they are very nice. The entire Island is literally under construction. You cannot see the faces of any of the buildings, half the streets are closed even to pedestrian traffic and there are fewer shops than those who have been here before remember seeing. Dean is disappointed that there is not a McDonald's on the island. It is also pretty cold. It was maybe in the 40s today, but it is usually in the 70s at least this time of year. There are 2 pools - but both outside and totally not useable. Maybe it will warm up by the end of the week - or will that just make it harder to come home to Illinois in January/February?
Karen
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