Catching Up

Usually, this happens to me much earlier in the trip and I thought perhaps I might be spared this time.  But no, the nasty stomach illness got me and knocked me out of commission for a couple of days.  I'm sad to say that my children back home are experiencing similar symptoms.  Poor babies and poor, poor Tara who has been doing sick duty.  She has had Luke, Teegan, and now Tabitha defile her car and her house.  She may never speak to me again when we get home.

Meanwhile, I'm back to life now and ready to catch you up on current events here in the Far East.  We had the physical, which was excruciating for all.  I'm sure that Timothy does not trust the white coat bunch after having 3 surgeries in his short little life. The new clinic was quite nice, however.

 

 

The crying started long before the examination.



 

Now instead of the skin test for TB, the children must have a blood draw and parents are not allowed to accompany the children in the room.  That was hard but at least I got to comfort him after rather than be part of the bad guys.

 

He chose BaBa to accompany him to the ENT station.

BaBa relishes his role as favorite parent.





 Here's the traffic that we experience each time we venture out.  Notice the white lines just like in the US?  Except here, they are only a suggestion of where to drive.  Pretty much anywhere is okay from what I have seen.  We did find out that it is illegal to honk in Guangzhou, which makes for a little quieter sleep time than we had in Taiyuan where honking was encouraged whole heartedly.

 

It also helps with bus naps after a hard time at the clinic.

This is Timothy's preferred way of bus sleeping.  If BaBa were holding him, he might lean back and get comfy. You gotta keep your guard up around those MaMa types.

 

We also did some group shopping at the Pearl Market.  Jocelyn took us to the same store that we always visit.  So either they have the best pearls at the best prices or the owner is related to someone.  In any case, it is always fun to visit the market.  George was accosted by beggars, which to his annoyance always happens to him in the US also.  He is a beggar magnet.  We did some shopping at the embroidery store and the owners brought us little stools to sit on while we waited for the others.  I thought it might be because we were big spenders but I think it is because the Chinese are very respectful to elders.  And crazy elders who adopt children are given a lot of respect.

 

We did some fun things also.  We played at the hotel's little park.  I have pictures of Tate playing here also.

 

We had a group dinner (before I was struck down by the illness, hmmm, right before as a matter of fact), we did laundry, we watched a 100 movies on HBO, in English!, and we had our consulate appointment.  The consulate is in a brand new building that contains working elevators and air conditioning and western style toilets (complete with very complicated instructions on how to use each part of the facilities).  No cameras, watches, phones, liquids, pets or basically anything other than people and paperwork allowed, so no pictures.  We were in and out in an hour though!

A big bag of dirty laundry was rendered into clean cubes.  Wish it was always this easy.

 



Today after the consulate appointment, I persuaded George into going to Shamian Island for old times sakes.  The island used to be the center of adoption happenings and was where the consulate and the medical facility was located.  The White Swan Hotel was the hotel of choice for adoptive families.  Now the White Swan has closed for renovations and the consulate and clinic are elsewhere.  The stores that lined the streets with cheap souvenirs have dwindled in number but I still enjoyed going, in spite of the harrowing taxi ride to and from.  We ate at the famous Lucy's, which boasts "American" food and I had my first real meal in a couple of days.  We took pictures of Timothy with the bronze statues.  This is now a family tradition for all the little Ts.  I guess we could try to drag the grown Ts over for pictures but probably only Tara would come.

Timothy loved watching the school children march and marched around the Island saying, "Yi, Er, Yi (one, two, one)!

We also did the group photo thing and tortured the children on a brown couch in the hotel lobby. Hopefully, someone got better pictures than I did.

 

And just for fun....

 



I'm free and faster than MaMa!

We are in front of a restaurant.  Not sure if the pictures represent before and after.

Grandpa exercises in the park.

Recycling cycle.

 



Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Hong Kong. We fly out of Hong Kong early in the morning (or evening depending on your hemisphere) and head to Atlanta.