Yesterday we divided up and David and the big kids, now including Andrew, flew to Beijing and Libby and I flew to Guangzhou. The US Consulate that processes the visa paperwork is located here so everyone who adopts from China has to finish their process in this city. Our guide today said that the downtown/city population here is 10 million.
This picture above is not so great since it is a self-picture I took in the reflection at the airport. If you look closely you can see me holding Libby as she naps and all of our "stuff" piled all around us. Our original flight to Guangzhou was cancelled so we were rescheduled on a 9:15 pm flight. It may have worked out best since she was exhausted and slept almost the full flight. Not the entire flight because, of course, I have to count those important minutes at the beginning where I had to move her from my lap and buckle her into her own seat belt. She actually seems to like and expect the buckling process in high chairs and the stroller, but not so much the airplane. Luckily I was seated in a row of lots of friendly young people who all made great efforts to distract her and calm her down. And the stroller that I abandoned at the airplane door happily was back at the door exit when we arrived - I took my chances with that because I simply could not maneuver all of it onto the plane and it wasn't going to be a huge loss either way. The guide and driver were easily found and we arrived at our hotel just after midnight.
This morning (Saturday) Libby and I and two other families met in the hotel lobby at 9 am to go to get the required medical exam. She had to see an ENT (who simply noted she has ear wax), a doctor for general poking/proding and review of her referral file, and a nurse for height/weight/temperature check. As I'm writing this I'm wondering what her height and weight were because I didn't even look or care at the time (and my metric conversion skills are lacking anyway). Then all the kids who are over 2 have to get a TB test. That didn't go over well for anyone in our group but they all got over it quickly. Libby didn't like it but mostly she wanted to keep showing everyone the band aid (which she did not like). Then we all returned to the hotel to finish paperwork to be ready for our consulate appointment which is on Tuesday morning. The rest of the day was free time and tomorrow (Sunday) is free as well. We ate lunch with another family from New York traveling with the mom, dad, 10 year old daughter previously adopted from China and family friend/god mother. Below are pictures of Libby waiting for her turn for medical exams.
Libby was not very good at lunch - I'm sure she was tired (Grace says this is the excuse we make for Andrew whenever he is acting bad). Eating out is a challenge. Our plastic plates unfortunately did not make the packing cut. Glass plates at restaurants create "issues". Libby is very protective of her plate and food - she wants to control it and thinks you are going to sneak something away. So she pulls the glass plate to her far side of her chair or area and then when you panic and try to pull it back to make sure it doesn't all fall to the floor she . . . reacts. Strongly. I don't know why that I had decided from all the pictures and videos that she was a quite, shy, reserved personality. She is not. She laughs and giggles but has a 3-stooges type sense of humor and likes if things drop or crash. Or if she can be mischievous and offer you something and then revoke. And can she ever cut her eyes. WAY to the side when she is being silly. And I think I've even seen her roll them. She also is good at sharing her food and will offer (and actually give) cereal from her snack cup or pieces of her hot dog. She likes french fries too - and was eating them pretty good until I showed her how to dip in the ketchup and like many kids I've seen she then decided she just liked licking the ketchup off the fries. We both had long naps this afternoon, took a walk on the shopping street outside our hotel, and ordered room service. Libby likes to spend a long time in the eating process and she was quite happy with this set up. Below is a picture of the shopping street and Libby with her dinner. Pictures are not as good now because I no longer have Grace to be in charge of photography.
Below are a few other pictures from our time in Nanjing.
This picture above is not so great since it is a self-picture I took in the reflection at the airport. If you look closely you can see me holding Libby as she naps and all of our "stuff" piled all around us. Our original flight to Guangzhou was cancelled so we were rescheduled on a 9:15 pm flight. It may have worked out best since she was exhausted and slept almost the full flight. Not the entire flight because, of course, I have to count those important minutes at the beginning where I had to move her from my lap and buckle her into her own seat belt. She actually seems to like and expect the buckling process in high chairs and the stroller, but not so much the airplane. Luckily I was seated in a row of lots of friendly young people who all made great efforts to distract her and calm her down. And the stroller that I abandoned at the airplane door happily was back at the door exit when we arrived - I took my chances with that because I simply could not maneuver all of it onto the plane and it wasn't going to be a huge loss either way. The guide and driver were easily found and we arrived at our hotel just after midnight.
This morning (Saturday) Libby and I and two other families met in the hotel lobby at 9 am to go to get the required medical exam. She had to see an ENT (who simply noted she has ear wax), a doctor for general poking/proding and review of her referral file, and a nurse for height/weight/temperature check. As I'm writing this I'm wondering what her height and weight were because I didn't even look or care at the time (and my metric conversion skills are lacking anyway). Then all the kids who are over 2 have to get a TB test. That didn't go over well for anyone in our group but they all got over it quickly. Libby didn't like it but mostly she wanted to keep showing everyone the band aid (which she did not like). Then we all returned to the hotel to finish paperwork to be ready for our consulate appointment which is on Tuesday morning. The rest of the day was free time and tomorrow (Sunday) is free as well. We ate lunch with another family from New York traveling with the mom, dad, 10 year old daughter previously adopted from China and family friend/god mother. Below are pictures of Libby waiting for her turn for medical exams.
Libby was not very good at lunch - I'm sure she was tired (Grace says this is the excuse we make for Andrew whenever he is acting bad). Eating out is a challenge. Our plastic plates unfortunately did not make the packing cut. Glass plates at restaurants create "issues". Libby is very protective of her plate and food - she wants to control it and thinks you are going to sneak something away. So she pulls the glass plate to her far side of her chair or area and then when you panic and try to pull it back to make sure it doesn't all fall to the floor she . . . reacts. Strongly. I don't know why that I had decided from all the pictures and videos that she was a quite, shy, reserved personality. She is not. She laughs and giggles but has a 3-stooges type sense of humor and likes if things drop or crash. Or if she can be mischievous and offer you something and then revoke. And can she ever cut her eyes. WAY to the side when she is being silly. And I think I've even seen her roll them. She also is good at sharing her food and will offer (and actually give) cereal from her snack cup or pieces of her hot dog. She likes french fries too - and was eating them pretty good until I showed her how to dip in the ketchup and like many kids I've seen she then decided she just liked licking the ketchup off the fries. We both had long naps this afternoon, took a walk on the shopping street outside our hotel, and ordered room service. Libby likes to spend a long time in the eating process and she was quite happy with this set up. Below is a picture of the shopping street and Libby with her dinner. Pictures are not as good now because I no longer have Grace to be in charge of photography.
Below are a few other pictures from our time in Nanjing.
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