Medical Clinic

This morning was our first breakfast in Guangzhou.  It was so wonderful to be with other adoptee parents, see so many children whose lives are being changed, share stories and just speak English while being understood.  As I was walking through the buffet line a gentleman from the US who was on a business trip.  He approached me asking why there are so many white families with Asian children.  I told him all these children are being adopted.  He was floored.  He truly had no idea of any orphan crisis and was amazed that people would come to China and take these children as there own.  You could tell he was soaking it all in.  I really enjoyed talking with him and sharing some of our story.

At 9:30 we headed with a small group and our guide to the US Medical Clinic for Mercy's visa exam.  We got there just before a huge group of adoptee families, so the timing was perfect.  We all took our turn getting our children weighed, measured, examined and there TB blood test drawn.  I was so thankful for this clinic appointment today because we were speculating Mercy may be getting sick and I was sure there is something wrong with her ear.  She has stuff oozing out of it and it has a very rancid odor.  Sure enough she has an ear infection, a fever and a very yucky nose.  We brought antibiotics with us, but I didn't want to start them without having her examined by a doctor first.  So we will start the amoxicillin and the clinic also gave us ear drops.  It makes me wonder if some of her behavior on the plane yesterday stemmed from this.  It's so hard when we barely know her and she doesn't talk.

I want to say that today was humbling.  We met some families who are adopting some very sick children and others whose children's special needs are pretty severe.  We met one family adopting a two year old little girl, the same age as Mercy, with a serious heart condition.  This little girl's dark Asian skin was so bluish it was very scary to me.  They are struggling because her condition is worse then they thought and they could really use some prayer.  If you think of it prayer for them, or just pray in general for families who are adopting these children with special medical needs.  It has given me a heart of thanksgiving for Mercy because while we will have many obstacles with her special need ahead of us in the future, she is otherwise a very healthy and thriving little girl.  Some of these other families are saints taking in these very sick children.  I admire everyone of them that we met today.  There are some pretty amazing people here.

Mercy did great in the exam.  She was pleasant and she didn't even cry with her TB blood test.  When everyone was finished we paid our fee and headed back to the hotel.  Mercy and I headed to our suite and Scott headed to a conference room with our guide and the other dads in the group to get paperwork organized for the next step.  We had a little scare because one date is wrong on our one document.  If everything doesn't match up you have to fly back to your child's province for new papers!  Our guide is pretty confident he can convince them to let this one date slide.  We are praying and hopeful it will all be fine on Wednesday.  Why does there always have to be a glitch?

Mercy is continuing to open up to both of us.  We did notice at the clinic today she has no stranger anxiety what so ever.  It's a good thing to be aware because that tells us she would be willing to make anyone who gives her attention be her mommy and daddy.  We will be conscious to work hard on this when we return home.  Mercy definitely finds security in food, another issue that will need attention.  She shows it too at a whopping 28lbs.  If she gets food in her hand she holds onto it for dear life.  It is impossible to take food from her.  It's sad because you wonder what happened in her orphanage to cause this.  Some of you noted she is wearing short sleeves in a few pictures.  Yes, after the photo fiasco we started working with her to adjust to the idea.  We spent time taking her jacket off and as she scratched we would caress her and assure her it's OK.  We also taught her how to take her own sweater off.  She is so strong willed, so she jumped at the opportunity to learn something independent.  We made it into a game taking her sweater off and putting it back on and before you knew it she forgot it was off.  It's good timing because it is so ridiculously hot here she would sweat to death in a sweater.  Tomorrow I'm thinking about attempting a tank top.  I don't want to push her to hard, but it is suppose to be super hot and we are going to Shamian Island.

We have a relaxing afternoon ahead of us and our guide is meeting us at 5:30 to take us out to a local Chinese restaurant.  It is so refreshing to not be out all day and to just sit and have some quiet time relaxing.

Here are some candid shots from today, enjoy.

We met this woman, Eileen and her husband Mike in our group.  There son is 11 months old.  They are from NY.
We hit if off well and are enjoying getting to know them. This is their second adoption.

Mercy waiting her turn with a piece of waffle in her hand from breakfast.
That waffle has been in her hand for two hours and while she's not eating it, she's not letting go of it either.

The outside of our exam room.

Our strong-willed daughter REFUSED to stand on the scale.  She cracks me up, but boy are we in trouble when we get home.  She is going to put our parenting skills to the test for sure.

Do whatever you want lady, just keep that bright light over there out of my eyes, OK?

This one says a lot.  My face is saying "I can't understand what you are saying."
And Mercy is saying "Get me the heck out of here!"  

A snack break with Daddy before she has to get blood drawn.
She is still holding tight to her piece of waffle in one hand while eating a cheerio in the other.

The waiting area.  

Our guide and translator Jack.  He is amazing!!!

No joke, this is waiting at the bottom of the elevator in the clinic lobby.  It's a wine vending machine.  We all joked that this is for those parents who need a drink after surviving the clinical exam.  Seriously, we got off easy because other than the scale Mercy was pretty cooperative.  But there were some parents who I bet needed this machine when they were done.  Oh my were their some screaming kiddos here today.