Guangzhou...Medical Exams and more site seeing

Feb. 18th we all woke up early and headed to the medical center so our kids could have their last medical exams, required before we can have our consulate appointments as their medical reports have to be included in your visa paperwork. It's a pretty sterile, straightforward waiting room, all adoptive families are sent to the back so we have doctors looking at all of our kids and we don't have to wait for the locals that are visiting the clinic on Saturday morning. They basically move us down a line including weight/height, then an ENT, then a general medical exam (Theo hates being stripped down outside of the home or hotel so it was like wrestling a screaming lion to get him through this part), then they had to do a blood workup and TB test (mom and dad aren't allowed in this room, I was sweating by the time he came out because a line had formed of families waiting for this step and he was taking double if not triple the time it was taking everyone else...lots of tears on probably both his and the nurses part).  He checked out for a while only letting me hold him and luckily by the time we got to our ONE Walmart run of the trip he was in better spirits, we bought lunch and then back to the hotel for naps and playtime.

Feb. 19 we got to visit the Chen Family Temple, this is basically a big art museum filled with gardens, walkways, and exhibits that all flow together. This is where we really got to see Theo's personality start to come out again on this part of the trip. He finally let us put him down and he just lead us through the whole place of course turning around to make sure we were still following. We got to walk into a shop that had lots of scrolls (or silks) and prints...we even got to watch one of the artists at work painting a print by hand. I could have bought the whole shop!!

We then went to a wholesale market where we stopped at a pearl shop...I bought my girls pearl earrings for the day that they can appreciate and wear them. After we picked up our lunch and got back to the hotel, I unpacked my backpack and prepared for a shopping outing with Ann. She is the lady who helped us get our care package to Theo while we were waiting to travel for him. She is this crazy little Asian Tornado of a woman...she whips in and out of the subway's and stores, all the store owners know her and she was a lot of fun to hang out with for a couple hours. My friend Kim and I had a nice mom's shopping trip with her and am so glad that we decided to do it! We got to experience more local shopping and transportation at better prices!