It's good to be in Guangzhou!! Only five more days until we board a plane to the U.S. I'm blogging this while sitting in Starbucks (oh yeah!) in the middle of the city. Guangzhou is very different from Nanchang…like daylight and darkness actually. Nanchang was not a very clean city…lots of street vendors, trash on the side of the roads, and it had a very "distinctive" smell. In Guangzhou, everything is MUCH cleaner. They also seem to have some traffic rules that get obeyed, too, which is nice!! It's not the "free for all" we experienced in Nanchang.
When we arrived in Guangzhou, we met up with 3 other adopting couples. Oddly enough, two of the couples are from cities that I fly to often…Tucson and Spokane. The other couple is from Dallas. The family from Tucson is adopting their 3rd child from China. They brought one of their other children with them…a 6-year old girl named Jaden. Blake has enjoyed playing with her. As much as we enjoyed last week being just the 4 of us, it's a lot of fun having other families to hang out with this week.
This morning we all loaded into a bus and made the 15-minute drive to the medical examination office. All the kids have to have medical examinations before they're allowed to leave China. Sophie weighed in at 17 pounds…she's a little thing!! Thankfully, she didn't have to have any shots today. All the kids over 2 years old had to have TB skin tests…since Sophie is only 18 months, she didn't have to have that either, which was good. She didn't really like being passed off to people she didn't know, but she was pretty good through the whole ordeal.
We spent most of the afternoon today hanging out at the hotel so Sophie could get a nap. We're planning on heading out this evening to check out the Chinese version of Subway for dinner!! We did give Chinese food another shot the first night in Guangzhou…it wasn't very good. The Chinese meal in Nanchang was much better. Actually, American Chinese food is the best!!
The hotel here is really nice…one of the nicest hotels I've stayed in. They have a great fitness center that I was able to check out this afternoon. I met a worker in the fitness center named Gary. He's actually friends with some friends of ours in Nashville that recently went through the China adoption process. He was a great guy to talk to…looking forward to visiting with him more this week.
Sophie still seems to be doing great adapting to everything so far. We've had so many answered prayers with regard to her bonding with us. Beth and I are amazed at how well she's doing. We can't wait to get her home to meet the rest of her new family. I know Hallie has plenty of things she wants to teach her. Each day she asks us if Sophie can talk yet!!
I've attached some more pics…
The first is of Blake and Jaden, the six-year old girl with the family from Tucson.
The fourth is of us outside the medical exam office.
The last is of our entire group here in Guangzhou.
I think its a God thing that you all have met Gary ( just like the Schierlings) while you all are on this journey, its amazing what God is doing in your life and also in Gary and Helens life. Continue to shine with Gods love and presents!!
ReplyDeleteLove, Elizabeth