China Day 8: Medical Appointment & Heather's Birthday

Today (Saturday) was medical appointment day -- as well as Heather's birthday!  All adopting families must bring their children to one specific clinic here in Guangzhou that's certified by the US CDC for a final wellness checkup.  All kiddos get checked out thoroughly, and any over two years old must get a TB test via blood draw.  Lucille did a great job, and of course the poke for her TB test brought lots of tears.  Ella had a Dum-Dum waiting for her and that brought peace pretty quickly.

Upon returning to the hotel Steve and one parent from each other family in our travel group had to compile the final paperwork for our upcoming visit to the US Consulate.  We had a quick lunch in our hotel room, followed by some more pool time.  Lucille loved the water again!  We were having a fun conversation with another adopting family when the sky started getting dark.  It was obvious that a storm was brewing so we hurried out of the pool.  Before we got to the hotel entrance the wind was so strong that it almost blew us back into the water!  A big thunderstorm lasted for a few hours, but it brought some VERY welcome cooler weather the rest of the evening.

Three other adopting families joined us for Heather's birthday dinner at an Irish pub nearby.  The food was amazing.  We had potato skins, fish & chips, a monster cheeseburger, and chicken fajitas; a welcome break from traditional Chinese cuisine.  We then walked to get ice cream to keep celebrating Heather's birthday.  One of the other families from North Carolina came with us, and they have a four year old daughter that just loves Ella.  They get along so well!  We told Ella she needs to treat Myles and Helen like this when we get home.  :-)  We need to brag on Ella here.  She has been an incredible big sister and it's great to see her bless the other families that have arrived in our province over the past day.  Today's storm really made for a great evening and a nice walk back to the hotel (we finally added a picture of our hotel to this post).  The hotel staff brought a nice dessert to our room for Heather's birthday, so we're ending the day on a sweet note.  The entire box you see in the picture was edible, with a delicious cake inside!

The next two days here in China are free days so we'll do some sightseeing and shopping.There's not much official paperwork left!  Lucille's Chinese passport will be coming to us soon, and then we have to wait until Tuesday to visit the US Consulate, take our oath, and finalize the US visa application.    We'll get the passport & visa delivered to us on Wednesday afternoon, and then first thing Thursday we head back home!!!  The time here really has gone pretty quickly.  We have only five more sleeps until we fly back to the US!  We miss Myles and Helen terribly and can't wait to get all six members of our family under the same roof.