First day in Guangzhou - Visa Photo and Medical Exam

Saturday, December 11th

It seems that all my good intentions of keeping this blog updated while we were in China went down the drain - we have been home for over 4 months now and I think I will finally get it all caught up.  Sadly, the main problem with waiting this long to finish, is that the rest of our travel days won't have as many details as the first part of the trip - but I'll do my best.

Our first day in Guangzhou was busy with learning our way around and with getting Lyric's medicals done.  We were staying at The Victory Hotel.  From there, it is just a short walk down the street to where all children who are adopted by Americans get their Visa picture taken.  Then, just a bit further down the street is the medical exam office - and boy is that place busy!

Hallway at the Medical Exam Office

Sweet Lyric fell asleep in Kevin's arms while we were walking to the medical office.  That place was filled with moms and dads and their children who were all in various stages of exams.  While waiting in a little, crowded hallway in a row of chairs for Lyric's first exam we met a guy from Grand Rapids, Michigan!  He was there with his sister, who was adopting a little girl.  And, amazingly enough, he even went to Grand Valley State University where Kevin and I both graduated from.  That was pretty neat meeting him there.  It's a "small world" after all!  :)

The time passed quickly while we made conversation and soon it was Lyric's turn.  Poor girl.  She had a bit of a rude awakening when the doctor wanted to look in her throat.  She was a trooper though and didn't have any tears.  I think she was really curious about what was going on and just stared around at everyone with her big eyes.

Sweet Lyric asleep - just before the doctor examined her

All done with the ears, nose and throat station, we moved on to do the body exam.  The doctor examined Lyric behind a curtain.  He was concerned with her big belly and felt around a lot to see if there were any issues.  After he didn't discover anything I asked if he had any idea on why her belly was so big.  He didn't know and just asked me if we were going to see a doctor once we got back to the states.  I said that we were, and we were cleared to move on to the next station.

It's getting a bit hazy now on what station was next, but it seems like they checked her temperature.  Maybe her blood pressure too.  I'm not sure.  I do know that the last station was for the TB test.  We found that easily by the poor little ones that were crying.  When Lyric got poked she looked surprised, but no tears for her!  She wanted to touch the little bubble that formed.

After that we were free to go on our way.  We pretty much hung out a lot in our hotel room for the rest of the day.  Since the children weren't feeling well they needed some more rest.

Karen