Joy, Fun, and Frustration

This blog post brings out a wide variety of emotion today. First the joy and fun part. We had a wonderful time at dinner last night with our travel group. Four of the five GW families met and went to the Cow and Bridge. My meal was just OK. Maybe I should have opted for the steamed pigeon, or the ostrich kidney! I think tonight we're going to try Italian---that should be interesting! We then went back to the hotel and spent some time in playroom. Initially we were the only family in there. Wen spent a great deal of time arranging all the toys. He's going to be a wonderful "cleaner upper". We were then joined by two of the other GW families. It was so wonderful to finally see Wen playing with other children. He had a GREAT time. For the most part everyone played very nicely. Toward the end of the night it was just us and the Cook family with their new son Levi in the playroom. Wen and Levi had a blast. They were running, rolling around, and having a great time! The pictures of the two of them speak a thousand words. Levi is quite a character. He is four years old and has some command of the Chinese language. He runs around talking, and laughing, and talking in Chinese. I can only imagine the stories he was telling us. He has quite a personality and I could have watched him all night!



Now for the part of the post that is part funny, part frustrating. We had our medical exam this morning which all adopted children must have before returning to the U.S. The best way to describe it is controlled chaos. There were very many people there and you are basically brought to different "stations" for different parts of the exam. First, we had our "hearing test". This is the funny part of the story. The doctor took a squeeky fish and put it next to Wen's ear to see if he would turn to look at it. Well, we hadn't taken his hearing aid out, so of course he heard it. Then I took his HA out and the doctor once again took the fish from in front of him, held it to the side of his head, and squeezed it. Well, he wanted the fish and had watched it in her hand, so of course he turned when she squeeked it--he had watched her put it by his ear. Well, from this "test" she decided that he can now hear and actually told us he didn't need his hearing aid anymore!!!! I was trying really hard to be respectful, but the ridiculousness of the situation got the best of me. I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face!! Brian was having a hard time controlling his laughter as well. The rest of the exam was pretty uneventful until our last stop. Apparently under the new Hague regulations all children who are returning to the U.S are required to have all vaccination required by the CDC----BEFORE they leave. I had no idea that this was the case and was a little unprepared for what they would tell me. The doctor looked at his vaccination record and determined that he needed FOUR shots for EIGHT different diseases!!!!!!! They said he needed MMR, DTaP, HIB, and Varicella!!! I argued, begged, and pleaded, to no avail, against this assault on his little immune system. Unfortunately, the consulate will not issue his Visa without meeting this requirement. I am so furious that I was forced to allow them to give him SO many on the same day. I really wish this could have been done at home, in a much safer manner. Please keep him in your prayers that he will suffer no side effects from the many vaccinations he recieved today. His poor little arms are SO sore :( I am just sick to my stomach thinking about it.

After Wen's nap we went on our scheduled tour to the pearl market. Once again, we made some purchases! I really liked the pearl market :) Funny because if it wasn't for the fact that I had to pick up something for Meaghan Grace I probably would have skipped going there. Wen was napping and after his ordeal this morning I really didn't want to wake him up. But, I had an order to fill and my girl's at home were liking that we'd be going to the pearl market today. I'm really glad we went, but once again the purchases are a surprise....sorry girls!

We ended up having a really nice afternoon and evening....more on that tomorrow! It's late, I'm tired and I'm not even gonna proof read this tonight...so just pretend there aren't any spelling/grammatical errors.....it's 9am in the U.S and I KNOW some of you have already been stalking my blog for a couple of hours!!

*B, J, and El--you all got some really cool stuff today!!! Three more days until "little brother" comes home!!!!!!!

The boys in the travel group (no girls in the group!)
Our group dinner

New friends

The local people excersising in the park

Beautiful Shamian Island

The medical exam place

Notice the tambourine...notice me TRYING to keep a straight face!

Crazy crowded!

Things are starting to not go so well....and we're not even up to the shots!

Can you stand the cuteness?????