Guangzhou--Medical Check & VISA

This morning we had breakfast at the breakfast buffet in our hotel.  Afterwards, we met our guide downstairs in the lobby.  We were going as a group (15 families total) to get our daughter's picture taken for her VISA, and have her medical check so that she can get a VISA.  We got there and there were people everywhere.  Lots of families.  Of course, Piper fell asleep on the way to the medical check.  The first thing we had to do was get her picture taken for her VISA.  I had to wake her up.  I was able to and we got the picture taken.  After that, we had to take Piper to three stations to have her medical check done. She had to have a general medical check where they take a look at her body, push on her belly etc.  They usually take off the kids clothes but Piper had a dress on and she just lifted up the dress.  She really didn't seem to mind it.  Then we went to the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat Dr) where she evaluated her ears.  We had asked our guide to come in and ask the DR if there was any fluid in Piper's ears because a lot of times with Cleft Lip and Palate they can have fluid in their ears which can affect their hearing.  She seemed to be doing really well with hearing but I wanted to check anyway.  She asked the DR and she said that she didn't see any fluid in her ears.  We were so happy to hear that!!!!  We then had to go to the third station where she had her height and weight done.  She laid down on the scale and she was 18.9 pounds with her clothes, shoes and diaper on.  She really is a peanut.  MUCH smaller than my 3 girls ever were at this age.  She is wearing 12 month clothes and they seem to fit her well.  While we were waiting for her medical check, there was a woman next to me from here.  She spoke English well.  She asked me if we adopted her.  I told her yes.  She asked me if I had any other children.  I told her three others at home.  Her eyes got big.  Wow you are a good mom.  Busy.  She asked why we adopted.  I told her we were so blessed and we really wanted to be able to give a child a family and a home.  She gave me a thumbs up.  She said that Piper is so lucky.  I told her we were also lucky to have her.  She said that I was really brave.  This is the kind of responses we get when we see people here sometimes.  Some will talk to you and ask you questions and all of them say how lucky Piper is.  They know that she will have a good life.  Some people tell us that they are only allowed to have one child.  They all seem to say that they would have liked to have more.  It makes me sad that they have to have those restrictions.  Some people will come up and talk to us or look at her and smile but other times you feel really famous getting stared at all of the time wherever you go.  People here definately do A LOT of staring.  Also when I tell them that we have 3 other daughters they look at me with big eyes and they immediately think that we are rich.  That is not the case but according to them we are. 

 

 

 

 

 

When we were finished we came back to the hotel and Piper took a nap.  I went downstairs to do some paperwork with our guide to get all of the paperwork ready and in order for Piper's VISA.  It was a lot to get together.  Of course I had to hand over Piper's passport and her original documents that we received in Nanchang that were original forms that said the adoption was finalized.  We will get all of that back when we get her VISA but giving it up was hard.  You just do not want to lose any of those precious documents.  That took about an hour and a half.  When I was done, I came upstairs to the hotel and Jon and Piper were playing.  They looked like they were having a really great time.  She is starting to reveal her true self to us.  She is extremely busy!!!  Walks all over the place.  Loves to be thrown in the air---she giggles so much!!!  She truly is a joy!!!  We ended our night by going out to dinner with our friends Ron and Melinda.  We went to food Street which is in the hotel.  It is one big resturant and you order your food.  It is all cooked in different areas in front of you.  We had delicious food and it was really cheap.  Piper started coughing tonight.  Praying she doesn't get too sick and she starts to feel better soon!!!!