Appointments - Wednesday November 27th

A little bit from last night: we went to a local noodle house for dinner. It was definitely a real Chinese experience! The wait staff didn't want to come to our table because they knew we only spoke English, so finally Brian got the attention of a waitress. I think rude might be considered too nice of a word to describe her, but she definitely was interesting! Thankfully the menu had pictures so Brian would point to a picture and hold up one finger. He ordered two things this way, and then for the third she said no. No? What do you mean no? We won't like that? It's dog? You don't have any? You don't want to put in the order for us? I have no idea why she said no, but she did that twice more before she finally let us have our third selection. Then they started bringing us soup, and these bowls of egg, and tea, none of which we had ordered but apparently all came with the meal. Matthew and Caroline were not huge fans of most of the food, but we did get them to try a few things. Lily of course loved everything! We again tracked someone down to get our check and were pleased to discover that we fed 6 people for $10! Awesome! Then we stopped by the 7-11 on the way back to the hotel for some ice cream.

Today was exhausting! We had two adoption related appointments today that took up almost the entire day. This morning was the required medical exam. We had to take Lily to three different rooms to see an ENT, a doctor to check her overall, and a nurse to weigh and measure her. She did as any 16-month-old would do and cried if she had to be separated from me. She settles down quickly though, pretty much as soon as she's back in my arms. This is something that I'm very thankful for, but also overwhelmed with. She definitely knows who I am and I am so glad that she is starting to attach to me. She smiles when she sees me, leans in for snuggles and hugs, and wants to be touching me at all times. The overwhelming part is that I am the only person she wants to be around. If Brian so much as looks at her she hides her head and sometimes starts crying. It makes taking a shower, eating, and going to the bathroom rather difficult. Brian reminded me that she hasn't had a mom for 16 months and is soaking up every second of it and making up for lost time. I was very thankful for this reminder and it gave me more strength and energy to love her even when I am physically exhausted. Please pray for my energy level and stamina to be in constant contact and the sole caregiver to this precious little one for the indefinite future until she decides her daddy isn't so bad after all :) Also please pray that she does start opening up to Brian. Since he has to return to work the day we get back I really want them to have this time to start bonding.

Ok so back to the medical exam. When we got an update on Lily about a month ago she weighed 10kg ( 22 pounds). Today she weighed 10.1 kg so they were right on in their measurements. That's pretty much all the info I got from today because the doctors and nurses didn't do much talking and wrote some stuff down in Chinese, so that was super helpful. Then of course we waited what seemed like an eternity for the older kids' TB tests (so thankful Lily is under 2 and didn't need one) and for the paperwork to be processed. Remember how I said that Lily wants to be touching me at all times? Well that pretty much means being held. I did have her in the ergo but had to take her out for all the exams and then she fell asleep so I was still holding her. And every time I stopped rocking or tried to sit down she would cry and wake up. I am going to be so buff at the end of this trip. We finally managed to get the ergo back on around her while she was sleeping when my back couldn't take it anymore and she slept the rest of the time until we got back to the hotel. Meanwhile, the Matthew and Caroline had a great time playing with Baba!

She loves food!

Chinese medical exam form

We were craving some American food so we decided to walk over to Burger King. It started to rain and was a bit chilly so thankfully it was a short walk. I never, ever eat fast food (except for Chick fil A), mainly because I usually end up with a stomach ache after. But those French fries were amazing! And Pepsi, also amazing! All I've been drinking lately is bottled water. Not so amazing! After lunch we needed to make another trip to the grocery store to get some donations for the orphanage visit on Friday. This time we visited Aeon, which is a grocery store on the first level and a department store on the other 5 or so floors. The Chinese really like their snack foods! There were at least 8 different aisles devoted to cookies, crackers, and packaged snacks. Now in the US I try to avoid going to the grocery store with both kids if I can. And if I do take them both, I put them in a cart to contain them. They don't have carts large enough for children in China, and now there were 3 of them! So to say this grocery store trip was chaotic was a bit of an understatement. Matthew was pushing the little cart around, Caroline was picking up and examining all kinds of Chinese foods, and Lily was getting tired of being in her carrier and starting to cry. Not to mention the fact that I had now been holding her for approximately 6 hours straight and was feeling a bit exhausted. We could not get out of there fast enough! And when the cashier told us that we had to go back and weigh the pears that we got before we could pay for them I thought I might start hurling them at her. Finally we made it out of there and walked through the rain back to the hotel. We had 30 minutes before our next meeting to play in the room, and I was so glad to lay on the floor for a minute! Then we realized that we had paid for 2 cans of formula at the store, and they never actually gave them to us! When we tried to take them off the shelf the worker kept saying no and gave us a ticket to turn in at the register. Guess they forgot to actually give them to us, and since I was so preoccupied with thoughts of hurling the unweighed pears at the cashier I didn't notice. Brian will have to go back later to try and straighten that out.

Back down to the lobby again to head to the police station and apply for Lily's Chinese passport. This visit involved some more waiting, but this time it was shorter and the building actually had air conditioning! I was super impressed with the passport official who sneakily took Lily's picture while she was sitting in my lap and she didn't even notice. Every other picture they want me to sit her by herself somewhere which she definitely does not appreciate! We got back on the bus and Simon told us that the China portion of the adoption paperwork was officially completed! Woohoo! No more appointments until our consulate appointment next Thursday! We are so excited to do some sightseeing tomorrow all together.

When we got back mom, Matthew and Caroline were all sleeping, so I laid on the floor with Lily while she played and Brian went back to Aeon. Finally at 5:30 we woke the kids up and we all got on the bed to play with Lily. From that point on I was pretty much useless. As long as Lily was touching me or leaning on me she was happy, so I attempted to stay awake while everyone played around me. At some point she I both dozed off, but woke up in time to eat. I was obviously spent so I went to bed and just let Lily sleep on me in our bed because I was too tired to stand and rock her to sleep. So thankful for a good night's sleep finally!