Jan 19th

Today, a new city (Guangzhou) and a new hotel.  Objective: endure the medical exam! 

the face we see most often...

Up until now this trip has been pretty solitary for our family, but today at breakfast in the hotel, there must have been about 40 families (mostly American) with Chinese kids of all ages!  And some of them were crying too!  Its nice to know we aren't the only ones :)

The day started well enough, minimal crying, since we figured out that if Daddy picks her up, she's fine.  Give her to Mommy if you want to hear some screaming!  At the medical center we met a bunch of other adoptive families, evidently every Saturday morning is special needs children day.  It was nice to learn about others journeys so far.  We talked to a mom on her fifth adoption, and she gave us some advice that was really helpful.  Don't use the stroller, don't let her sit or walk on her own, and she will start to prefer that.  We tried it, and after only a few hours (and quite a few tears) it worked.  So our arms are about to fall off (she is heavy), but even Stacey was having better luck with her today.

Sitting... Waiting...  Keeping her occupied

I'm happy when I have Dad's iPhone, plying music and deleting stuff

More waiting, I'm building some great arm muscle

Hello, who's there?

A side note; in all our preparations, we had read that we should expect Chloe to weigh less than the reports, especially with a cleft palette, boy were they wrong, she is super healthy (code for chunky), most of the clothes we brought didn't fit her!  (Stacey is VERY disappointed with the prospect of buying all new clothes for her, haha!)

So at the medical exam facility is was very noisy, and a bit chaotic, but after being in China for two weeks, this is totally normal for us!  Lots of crying...  be we lucked out as she is under two, so they don't draw blood or get a shot!  It would be bad enough just letting the doctors examine her.  Alot of waiting, and trying to keep her happy, but the exams (three stations; Ear/Nose/Throat, Height and Weight, then general exam) were pretty quick for her, especially since she started screaming the minute they touched her...

uh...  that doesn't tickle

She loved this part, Really!

Handed her a banana to hold...  didn't know...

...she could eat the WHOLE thing by herself!!

After some more paperwork checking we were headed back to the hotel, with a stop at the nicest supermarket we had been to so far, for some diapers, and other essentials, water, wine...  Another interesting thing, Chinese diapers (the ones we bought when we ran out of those we brought) don't have velcro, or anything to attach them with!  They must use some sort of tie or belt...

Then we walked to a local Cantonese restaurant for some local food...  Again we overate, WILL SOMEBODY GIVE US CRAPPY FOOD SO WE EAT LESS!!  ...well, I guess I'm not really serious about that...

Then we all (me and Chloe) took a good nap.  Stacey did paperwork with our agency helpers, and Estee watched movies on her iPad.

This afternoon, we actually had some good times and good smiles, we found a playground.  Estee had as much fun as Chloe did!  Chloe loves to run, well actually it is more of a lopsided gait, where she looks like she will fall over at any second, but she loves to do it!  We went up stairs, down slides, and pretty much had a great time.  Holding her all day seemed to really help.  She still cries when I hand her to Stacey so I can eat, but it is quieter, and it stops sooner.  So today we both were encouraged, PROGRESS!

I guess these people aren't so bad after all...

She is trying to take off!

Sister bonding...

We like this city by the way, it is clean, we see alot more families, and we even saw blue sky today (first time since we left the US!).  And the temps are very mild, kind of like home.  The trip was really starting to wear on us, but today's progress gave us all a lift!

Another cool thing about this city, a wine vending machine!??