China Day 8 – Medical Exams

Look at those eye lashes!!

When we went to breakfast this morning, we noticed that the other Holt families from our travel group had made it in to Guangzhou.  We had a chance to meet a few of them and share stories.  It is amazing how you connect with strangers when you share a common interest.  After breakfast came the dreaded Medical Exams.  On the bus ride to the clinic Catherine gave us the rundown of what to expect.  She told us what we had to accomplish and how to do it quickly and efficiently, but she also told us that there could be around 200 or so people there for the same reason.  When we arrived at the medical clinic, we were quickly escorted around the waiting room for normal patients and taken to the adoption checkup section.  We had 4 stations we had to maneuver through: visa photo, height & weight, ENT, and medical exam.  To say the scene was chaotic would be an understatement.  There were so many adoptive families there for the same purpose from Bethany and Great Wall adoption agencies as well as our Holt group.  Primrose did not like any of the stations at all.  Even when Daddy could hold her, she was not happy with the doctors and nurses.  But, we made it through each section without a complication and should be good to go.  Here is the wonderful visa picture they took of Primrose today, I asked them if I could just hold her so she wouldn’t get upset but they didn’t listen to me.

After the medical exams and enduring the traffic back to the hotel, we ate at our favorite little British themed coffee house.  The food is really good and reasonably priced so we will be back a couple more times before we depart Guangzhou.

This is NOT rush hour traffic, this is normal.

Today was also visa paperwork check day.  This is where the story gets interesting.   

After lunch we got back to the room and it was time to lay Primrose down for a nap.  She was not a happy baby about this.  For 45 minutes she screamed and cried fighting that nap.  I told April to go ahead and go do the paperwork; I should note here that she has not done any of the paperwork thus far because I took care of all of it.  She said, “No, either Prim will go to sleep or let me get her out of the crib.”  So I told her to text me if she needed me to come back to the room.  The paperwork was tedious, but I am used to it.  If you have not done an adoption I just want to let you know the paperwork is overwhelming and detailed. 

About an hour into the paperwork meeting, I texted April for a status update.  She informed me the Prim took a little nap, and when she woke up she allowed mommy to get her out of the crib.  She said that they were sitting in the floor playing and laughing.  Can I get an AMEN!  What an answer to prayer!!  Daddy came back to the room excited to see mommy and Primrose having a good bonding time.

Tonight we decided to be real adventurous with our new friends Mary Beth (mom), Karen (aunt), Lilly (14 year old Vietnamese girl adopted at 17 months), & Callie (13 year old new adoptee).  We decided to go check our Tekila Mexican Restaurant.  We were going to take 2 cabs, but Raymond said it would be easy to take the Metro (subway).  So we decided to do the Metro.  They say that between 5 and 7 it is the busiest time on the Metro, we left the hotel around 6:15.  It was crowded!  I have only seen as many people moving in so many different directions at Disneyworld.  It was crazy.  But, it was definitely a cultural experience that was worth doing.   

We took the Metro to our destination, and then had to walk a few blocks past some street vendors to get to Tekila.  Once in the restaurant it was interesting, I only saw white Americans at first.  There was a big group of adoptive families eating there as well.  It figures that I go to China to eat Mexican food and only see Americans in there.  The food was authentic Mexican, a Mexican actually owned the place and he was really nice.  The food was really good, but the highlight of it was the black salsa.  He said that it is fresh salsa that he makes from burning the tomatoes a little.  It was so good!

 Random shots of downtown Guangzhou at night.

We got back in our room, after another fun run on the Metro, and Primrose was wound up.  She played with her mommy and me for quite a while.  She even let mommy change her diaper and put her PJs on.  It has been a great day for those two.  Primrose still is apprehensive about mommy holding her while daddy is around, but that seems to be slowly ending.

 Primrose is just a little bit ticklish

This was a game she created, banging her head on the 

cabinet and then saying, "Ooh." She makes the funniest

faces at us too.

I made a YouTube channel so that I could prevent the issues some of you had when trying to watch the video I posted the other day.  I hope this works better for you all.  More videos to come.
 
Tomorrow should be really neat; we are going to a bilingual Christian church service.  There are actually a few of the Holt families who are going so it should be another good cultural experience, not a bad one like the squatty potties.  Stay Tuned!