I was exhausted by the time we landed and just wanted to get to the hotel and sleep. Our guide here, Jack, is great. He got us settled at the hotel (which is just amazing). The hotel takes special care of their families who are adopting. This is the crib and goodies they had waiting for us in the room.
We are across the hall from one of the other families, along with 2 more who will be with us this week. Paul gave Logan a bath and then we all got some sleep.
Saturday morning after the breakfast buffet, we met the other 3 families and then took a van to the Medical Center for the exams. There are 3 boys in the group and 1 girl. All have cleft pallets and repaired cleft lips. The girl is Logan's age but is very shy and completely attached to the mom. The other 2 boys are both 2 years old but look like they are at least a year difference. One is small and looks to be about a year and the other is quite tall (almost as tall as Logan).
The clinic was crazy and packed with lots of families. Apparently it is where all adoption exams occur plus the public clinic for the locals. There were 3 steps and then a TB test. The first step they looked at his eyes, ears, and mouth. Then we got his height and weight (93 cm and just under 30 pounds). They also took his temperature with an ear thermometer and said he had a slight fever. We had to go to a different desk for a re-check. The re-check was with an old-
fashioned mercury thermometer under his arm. He didn't show a fever with the re-
check, of course, he was wiggling so I'm sure it wasn't accurate. The last step was in a curtained-off exam room where they listened to his heart and lungs and did
cursory check of his skin...all his skin. Poor guy gets his pants yanked done, quick feel of his privates, and done! We were able to ask about medicine for the
pin worms I observed just before we got on out flight. Jack took Paul to drug store after we got done at the clinic. After the exams, all the children have to get a TB test. He did fine with that, no tears. All in all, Logan did great. He did have one tantrum because we wouldn't let him run around in the curtained exam rooms. Not bad for a 4 year old!
After the clinic, we had a couple of hours to eat lunch and do some shopping. The clinic is on this island so there were several shops that would cater to the American families coming to adopt. We found some t-shirts for us that had the Chinese name for mother, father, brother and sister on them, I got some bracelets for the girls in the family, and swords the the boys. We ate at Lucy's for lunch and I was able to have some American food (grilled cheese and baked potato). There was a playground nearby that Paul took him too while we waited for the van to take us back to the hotel.
We were on our own for the rest of the day. Logan took a nap and we ate at an Irish pub one of the families recommended. Paul had a burger, Logan got pizza, and I had spaghetti and meatballs. Logan didn't eat the pizza but loved my meatballs.
The weather here has been great, not cold like it was up north. We found Paul a jacket at one of the shops on our way back to the hotel. Back in the room we had a bath and played before going to bed. Logan decided on his own when he was ready for bed. He went to the crib and
pointed to get in. I took a sleeping pill hoping to sleep longer than 3am. It worked but my mom
texted at about 6am wanting to
skype. She was with Paul's parents so we got up and were able to see George and
Noi.
After breakfast, we met everyone for a trip to the zoo. It was great. I wish we could have stayed longer but we got to see monkeys, bears, tigers, elephants, and of course...PANDAS!Logan loved it. I had decided for this outing we would borrow a stroller from the hotel. Paul thought Logan would be too big/old for a stroller, but I figured at the very least we could use to carry all our stuff (purse, water bottles, snacks, coats). Logan loved being able to ride and he did great staying in it and waiting until we stopped to jump out and look at the animals. The zoo definitely wasn't built for strollers, lots of steps and uneven ground.
After the zoo, Jack met with each family individually to go over some
VISA paperwork. Then we went across the street to have lunch at
McDonalds. They had chicken wings so we tried those for Logan. He loved them. He went down for a nap (after playing in the crib for a bit). After nap, we met up with the other families to go to a park Jack told us about. We found it but it wasn't what we expected. We were hoping for a playground where the boys could run and play, but it was more of a mini- amusement park with rides.The grounds were very nice (reminding me of the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens) so we just walked around. We stopped and listened to some musicians that were playing and watched some
paddleboats go by in the river.
For dinner we went with one of the other families to a Chinese place they had been to. I had pineapple fried rice and Paul and Logan shared ginger chicken. Everything was really good, including the mango coconut milk drink I had. The rest of the evening went as normal. Logan did wake up during the night and cried when we tried to put him back in the crib so we let him sleep with us.
On Monday, we went back to the medical center to get our TB results, then we spent a few hours on the island shopping, playing on the playground and eating at Lucy's. Logan loved the slides. He just kept going up the ladder and sliding down. We found the "big boys" the bad mitton/hackey sack things that everyone was playing. We also got Sophie and Logan these custom made name prints and some shirts for Logan (he's running out of clothes). We watched the artist create the name prints, using the Chinese animal for their birth year in each one. We had met one of the shop owners the first day we were here and he was so nice that we just had to find something from his store. We got an adoption Barbie for Sophie. He also did a name translation for Logan. After lunch, we all took a nap, then had dinner at the chinese restaurant again. We found Logan another pair of jeans for trip home.
Paul woke up Tuesday feeling pretty bad. He helped me with breakfast then I let him go back to the room and sleep while Logan and I went for a walk. Our first stop was the hotel's pond of
koi fish. For our walk, we basically just did the block around the hotel. We did have to backtrack since I didn't want to carry the stroller up a flight of stairs to go around the front of the hotel. There is a
starbucks across the street from the hotel and I went there to get a
frappucino. We have our consulate appointment in the afternoon so I put Logan down for an early nap. We met Jack at 2pm to go to the consulate. After getting through security, we had some waiting to do. Paul and Logan found some toys and kept busy until they started the proceedings. The woman in charge started out explaining some statistics and recognizing some of the children and families, including Logan who was the only child out of the 35 present with a December birthday. Then we all stood and took an oath of citizenship on behalf of our child. After that each family was called to a window to sign some papers. It was Chinese employees doing the paperwork and it was so hard to understand what some of them were saying. I was afraid we wouldn't even recognize our name when it was called. As the woman explained, we are now officially parents of a Chinese citizen (at least until we get to the US).
We all met for dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant that had singing and dancing waiters. One of our moms, reluctantly joined them for one of the dances. After dinner, I was able to
skype with Kelly before we went to bed. After breakfast on Wednesday, Jack took us to a
Buddhist temple. Jack was very
knowledgeable about the temple and the monks. He even arranged for our sons to have a special blessings from the monks. We were sprinkled with water during the blessing which Logan thought was funny. Although there are only about 7% of Chinese people who are
Buddhist, I imagine that it is possible that Logan's biological family might have brought him to a temple for this same blessing.
After the temple, we went to the pearl market. Jack knows a little about pearls and helped Paul pick out something for me and Sophie. It's a wholesale jewelry market and Mom would have gone nuts. I got her some strands of
turquoise she can use to make her own jewelry. After lunch, we came back to hotel to nap and read. We met up with the other families for our last dinner together. Paul and Logan fell asleep fast, but I was too excited about going home. I did some packing before I finally crashed.
On Thursday, I tried to skype with Sophie but skype's website was down. I was so bummed. I've gotten to see her everyday and even though we will see her in just over a day, it was still really hard. We mostly just stayed in the room except to go eat. We had dinner with the singing waiters again but had to leave in order for one of the families to catch their flight. Jack brought us our paperwork from the consulate. It is the last step in this process. I was finally able to get on skype and see Sophie just a few hours before we left for Hong Kong. Because Hong Kong is a separate entity from the rest of China, there was a checkpoint to get there, plus the security check in the airport. Because there was several adoption families on the flight, they let us board early.
Texas, here we come!
