Guangzhou so far...

We have been really busy here in Guangzhou since we arrived at the ungodly hour of 4:00 am on Saturday morning. On Saturday at 10:45 am, we walked as a group to the medical clinic here on the island for the kids to have their medical exams for their American visa. Talk about a joke...one station was ear nose and throat. They basically squeaked a toy in the child's ear to make sure that they could hear, checked their throat and looked in their ears. Of course Kendall took one look at the people in masks doing the tests and screamed her head off. She must have bad expereinces with doctors in the past because this was the routine at every station. Another station was height and weight (she weights 24.5 lbs but it certainly feels like 90 when you are lugging her around the place) and the last station was a boy check where they took off her clothes, gave her a quick look-over and listened to her heart (I have absouletly no idea how the doctor could hear anything over the siren-like wails coming from her). She then had to have a TB test, which is a new requirement for the US for her to be able to get a visa to enter the country. This just went into effect on July 1st. Great. Thanks a bunch US government. Another screaming station. After that we were done. We were one of the lucky ones. Since our paperwork had been in China forever, we were considered a non-Hauge family. The Hauge agreement went into effect last year and adoptive families need to go through lots more stuff for it, including shots for the kids if their shots are not up to date according to the US standards. Some of the kids got 5 or 6 shots. Inhumane if you ask me. At least we dodged that bullet. Kendall calmed down as soon as we left the clinic, but we asked our guide Grace to make us an appointment at the clinic here at the hotel because she had green guck coming out of her ear. So at 2:00 we went to the White Swan clinic. And yet again another screaming match. She had a severe ear infection, upper respitory infection and bad cough. We got 4 types of meds for her, plus ear drops that we have to do 3 times a day, and were told not to take her swimming or feed her eggs or beans. Huh? What do eggs and beans have to do with an ear infection is beyond me. Must be an ancient Chinese secret. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the kid LOVES to take medicine. Strange kid, especially when we were told to mix all of the meds together to give to her. Yuck doesn't cut it. But she drinks it right down with a smile. I had to go and do the visa paperwork at our guided room in the afternoon, while she slept with Rob, as we were still pretty wiped out after the extremely late night. We went to Lucy's, an "American" resturaunt here on the island for dinner. Pretty good food, if I must say so. Kendall had a MAJOR meltdown at bedtime. I'm not sure if it was the meds, being overly tired, or being in a new place, but she screamed for 45 minutes, which sucks since the walls are pretty darn thin here. She finally wnet down with both of us following suit quickly there after. On Sunday we went on a group tour to a Buddist temple, the Six Banyen Trees temple. Very neat, lots of Buddahs everywhere. We had the option to have our kids blessed, which we and another family decided to do. Hey, we figured it is her culture...why not do it. The monk chanted a chant, sprinkled some presumed holy water on us and that was it. The temple was peaceful...lots of people there praying to Buddah, lighting insence, bowing. Very neat. After that we went to the Chen Family House. The chen's are the largest family group here in Guangzhou and they built this house back in the late 1800's for their family members to come and study in the city. The government took over the house years ago and made it into a folk art museum. Neat stuff, especially the embroidery. Amazing is actually the correct word. But it was super humid, like sweat literally dripping off of you humid. We then went to a shopping area where the prices were pretty good and the quality was good. I bought a few things for some gifts. I got Evan and Kendall shirts that say big brother and little sister in Chinese. I can't wait to see them model those. In the afternoon little Miss Empress refused to take a nap, but we had to take her back to the clinic here at the hotel to get her ear washed out. Once again a screaming match. Actually more like a whining match. Man, can this kid whine. I keep asking her if she would like a little cheese with that whine. But she's cute, which is what saves her...Dinner last night was an optional group dinner at the Cow and Bridge Thai resturaunt. We wnet, but I wish we would not have. It was our first and probably last expereince with Thai food. I took one look at the menu and realized we made a mistake. I'm a picky eater, but who the hell in their right mind wants to eat Goose liver, pidgeon, boneless chicken feet...you get my drift. Rob ordered a seafood salad and we nearly died when it came out and had tenticles. I ordered the fried rice, but without the curry. I ordered Kendall steamed noodles, which were pure white and sticky and stretchy like elastic. Needless to say she would NOT touch them but I couldn't blame her. She ate some of my rice, but not much. Rob ate some of the salad, but avioded the tenticles. He said it was spicy hot too. We came back to our room pretty quickly since Rob's throat was hurting him. Monday was a trip to the Pearl Factory in town. Imagine this...a seven story pearl factory. Yep, it was a large mall with 7 stories of shop after shop of wholesale pearl and other jewelry stores. I did but Kendall a pair of pearl earrings and a pearl necklace that was handstrung right in front of us. She wanted to try them on, which I left her, but I told her to take a good look at them since she will not see them again until her bridal shower...This shop was overwhelming...they kept bringing out pearls on a string and you could pick the size and quality of what you wanted. They were on the cheap side. I think I paid maybe $85 US Dollars for a AA grade pearl necklace. I want to have it appraised in the states to see if I made a good buy, which I think I did. The afternoon was free time, so Rob and Kendall came back to the hotel room and played while I shopped at some of the stores here on the island. There are many little stores, catering to adoptive families. A lot of the stuff is junky, but I did get Kendall 2 pair of leather shoes for about $5.00 each, which she loves, so I think I will go back tomorrow and get more sizes for her to grow into tomorrow. We had to walk back to the clinic here on the island to have her TB test read. It was negative! Yeah! If it had been positive, we would have had to get her a chest x-ray. We then took her back to the clinic at the hotel to get her ear washed out again. Yep, more tears and whining. We walked to an Italian place here on the island and got pizza for supper. Good stuff. These Chinese know how to make a good pizza! The Empress then got a bath, and had another meltdown at bedtime, but fell to sleep within 5 minutes. Tomorrow is another busy day, with more shopping to do! Until then...