Since the girls were so tired last night, after the flight from Nanchang, they slept really well last night. In fact, we had to wake them this morning so we could get going for our appointments. Of course, that meant Stacey and I getting up at 6:00 so we could be in the hotel lobby all set to roll at 9:00.
Since they were going for a medical appointment we wanted to have them bathed before we went, so we did that and then had a fairly leisurely breakfast at the buffet in the hotel. It was a nice morning and the pacing of everything seemed pretty good.
The hotel rents out strollers, so we decided to give them a try today. Our backs had really started to take a beating from carrying them all the time. On Wednesday Evelyn arranged for a masseuse to come to the hotel room to give me a massage. It was a great massage, especially for the price, despite the fact that Mei was crying the whole time right next to me. The few other times I have gotten a massage the spas have not provided yelling babies, but it might be something to consider since it worked out OK for me. After all that, I think the massage actually just masked the pain I had in my back since she was pretty aggressive. Stacey speculated that it must be hard for men to say that a massage is too hard, especially when the person doing it is a tiny woman. That may have been part of my problem. Anyway, I am likely in better condition now having had it done.
Back to the girls - Kathy arranged for a van to drive us to a clinic where a photographer took pictures of the girls for their visas. They also did three very brief medical examinations to ensure they are fit to enter the U.S. Thankfully, I did not need to endure the same scrutiny. All went well and through a few tears the girls did very well. We were also very lucky that Kathy brought us there early so that we did not have to wait at all. When we left there were a number of adopting families waiting to go through the process.
After that, Kathy took us to a mall where there are many vendors who sell pearls, jade and other gems. This is a typical place for adopting families to visit, but apparently other families have much more disposable income than we do. Neither Stacey or I know much about pearls and we did not have in mind that we should buy any, but it seems like it is part of the experience to visit the store. The people there were very nice and the pearls were beautiful. On the more mundane side, we also went to buy diapers and wipes - that is more in line with our spending patterns at this point.
Guangzhou is a much more diverse and developed city than Nanchang. It does not have the chaotic feel that we experienced all last week and it is much cleaner and more modern, from what we have seen. You can also tell there are lots of people from all over the world, so we are less of an oddity here. I was actually starting to get offended that more people were not stopping us to comment on how unique we are. I might have developed a taste for that fame. Maybe a reality show is in order.
The hotel has a number of other adopting families, but we have not connected with anyone beyond a brief conversation. I think our experience is much different than people who adopted from China in years past when there were many more families traveling here. Our understanding is that in the past groups have spent a lot of time together and have formed close bonds. We met a family in Nanchang that told us about how their family and all these other families still get together every year, and their adoption happened about 10 years ago (they were in China this time to adopt a little boy). So far we have not made those connections, so we feel a bit isolated. We will be getting together with some other families tomorrow night for dinner, so that may be an opportunity to get to know others.
I think we are also just getting a little fatigued. We still have a pretty good setup here, but as is natural during the trajectory of a trip, there is excitement followed by fatigue and crankiness and then some more energy as the experience is coming to a close. We are in a pretty good frame of mind and not at all unhappy, but I know we are in that central zone of thinking how nice it will be to get home.
Fen showing off her four front teeth at lunch today (Saturday).
Another highchair photo of Mei smiling. Nothing puts a smile on these faces like some food.
Warning: this may be really boring.
We have had hot pots in each of our hotel rooms, and they have been indispensable. The water here is not safe to drink unless boiled, and this will do the job in about a minute. It is great for making formula since the girls are accustomed to warm bottles. But with the way they attack a bottle, I would be surprised if they were to reject one that was lukewarm.
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