Medical Exam

This morning we met in the lobby to go get visa pictures taken and medical exams. The picture of Cara on the chair was for her visa. She looks scared. She is scared. This is a lot of change for anyone in a week...new parents new scenery, airplane ride, new language, new food, etc. not to mention the fact that she's 3 years old.

After the visa picture we walked to the center for medical exams. There are 3 rooms plus vaccinations. In the first room the children get weighed and measured. Cara weights 14 kg (a little over 30 lbs) and is 90 cm (almost 36 in) tall. In the next room a nurse listened to her heart, then wanted to check her entire body. That scared Cara. She only likes clothes off for her bath. In the next room her vision and hearing were checked. The nurse said she has a lot of ear wax. We'll have to take care of that when we get home. Then it was on to vaccinations. The United States requires children to be fully vaccinated before they enter the country. This can require the children to have to get many shots all at one time. Cara was one of the lucky ones; she only had to get 3 shots plus her TB skin test. There were other babies, smaller babies, that had to get 6 shots! We all felt awful when she got her shots. She was so upset and crying her little heart out!

After that we went to find Starbucks. I know, I will not be winning Mother of the Year for letting my 3-year-old sip a Caramel Latte, but isn't she cute? Side note, her ladybug outfit belonged to A when she was 3! Right now she's napping, which she didn't want to do. She hasn't been napping well for the last few days because we've been on the go. We need to get her back on a schedule. While she slept the hotel staff brought her Barbie. Mattel gives adoptive families who stay at the White Swan a "Going Home" Barbie as a gift. I will post pics of her Barbie tomorrow.

Other news: Guangzhou is better than Shanghai, in my opinion. The air is clearer and there's more color. Shanghai is clean (people even scrub the subway floors on their hands and knees) but gray. And it's a wall of people everywhere. I had a headache most of the time because of all the pollution. No headache for me in Guangzhou! The White Swan Hotel is beautiful and the breakfast buffet is huge! Anything you could want to eat is there.

Cara news: It's funny, other people post that their child would say, "bu ya!" which means no or don't. Cara says, "Bu ya, bu ya, bu ya, bu ya, bu ya!" She also says, "Me la!" which means, "Mine!" Typical 3 year old. The orphanage says she is shy, quiet and obedient. She's only quiet when she's around a crowd of people. In the hotel room she's noisy and funny and likes to play.

Tomorrow we will take a tour of the city. It should be pretty fun.