The Medical Exam

Today we went out to Shamian Island for the babies' medical exam.

It wasn't as horrible as we expected it to be, but I wouldn't want to do it again either. We have 35 families in our group, and all the babies had to be checked, plus there were families there who were not in our group. There were three parts: Surgical/Medical (they checked her belly and just generally looked her over); ENT (she hated that the most because the lady held her head); and her blood pressure, temp, and measurements (she weighed 7.9 kg, and was 72.5 cm long). We were one of the first families to get finished. We went back to the bus where Grace cried for an hour because she was so sleepy she couldn't stand herself, but she refused to go to sleep. We left the Island about 11:30, and stopped at the Guangzhou Friendship Store. There we could shop for the babies. We bought a bowl. We could also buy food and water (never drink water from the tap in China. The Chinese don't even drink it without boiling it first.), and formula and wipes and whatever else we needed. I got some rice cereal. I'm going to try giving it to Grace before she goes to bed at night. Hopefully she'll sleep through the night without needing a bottle. I don't know what it is with her. She sleeps for three hours then wakes up and takes a bottle. Then she sleeps the rest of the night.

After we got back to the hotel we rented a stroller. Even with the carrier she's heavy!! Yes, Hollie, she is a chunky monkey! We walked next door to McDonalds (how conveinent is that?!) to have lunch. We all ate for less than $10 US. And that included ice cream!

Speaking of eating, the breakfast buffet here is fabulous!! It's our favorite so far. They have fresh fruit, pancakes, french toast, bacon, eggs prepared any way you want, and I don't even know what all. We ran short on time, so I didn't get to see everything.

We were running late because of Grace. It was in a good way, though. She took a 3 1/2 hour nap yesterday afternoon. Then, by 9:00, she was asleep again. Up at 11:30 for a bottle then back to sleep. At 8:00 this morning we were ready to go, and Grace was still asleep. Mike had to wake her up to get her ready for the day!! We were so excited!! And now she's asleep again!

Mike is at a paperwork party in Lineker's room. It's supposed to last for two hours. It's stuff we need for Grace's American visa. He was kind've afraid to leave us girls here by ourselves, considering what he came back to on Thursday. I think it was just our bad day.

By the way, thanks so much for all your prayers and words of encouragement. You'll never know how much they mean to us. Sometimes we forget we're not in this alone. I know all of you are with us in spirit. I just wish you were here in the flesh!

And Eric, the only American made thing I've seen so far was an American Standard toilet.