Earthquake

Well, as most of you have heard, there was indeed an earthquake in China. It happened in the central western part of the country, not near us. Some reports said that it was felt as far as Hong Kong (south of us), but we never felt it. Another family in our group was closer and did feel it. We are all fine, and our plans have not changed.

Yesterday we had a pretty lazy day again (whew!) Mike met with Elvin to go over our visa paperwork... 2 hours worth of writing! While he was gone, we did a little shopping and chilling out in the room. After paperwork, our family and Elvin went to KFC! It was a neat experience, though Chun-chun was less than thrilled. We bought her a kids' meal (nuggets, fries and an orange drink). She ate the fries and learned about ketchup (Heinz variety, thank-you-very-much) and loves it. We opened the BBQ sauce. I kept seeing her dip her fries in the BBQ sauce. LOL... she wasn't eating it. She was using the fry to paint BBQ sauce on the nuggets and box!!!

We then went to Lucy's again for dinner, after some shopping and bug-biting. :-( I got another 10 bites or more to match the other dozen or so from earlier in the week. The mosquitoes just love me. Dad and Mike and Grace are pretty much bite-free. Ugh. At Lucy's I got... spaghetti. Dad got the same spicy garlic spaghetti. Chun got the same fried rice. And Mike got pork. He was the only adventurous one. I had the "house white wine". Seemed good, but then I'm no wine connoisseur.

Today we did a little shopping in the late morning. Gracelynn handled the one shop okay, but decided it was time to go to the hotel again. She and I slept a little while before our afternoon appointment. It was the medical exam day. I was so afraid we'd have a meltdown. Okay... well she did... but it was when Mike pushed her in the stroller to the elevator. She's definitely preferring me when we're "out and about" or in the potty or shower. She'll play with Mike and eat with him just fine. But apparently the stroller thing pushed her over the top. Oh, you never know with Grace!! Fortunately the elevator opened at a floor where a little girl was waiting. The door opened and the little girl heard Grace screaming. She said, "UGH!" and jumped back. That was enough to distract Grace, and she was fine after that. LOL

We met up with the other three families in our group (and the Tellis family who has been with us in Guangzhou the whole time). Everyone's daughters are beautiful and sweet! I think we have the crankiest of the bunch. Good ol' Grace! She did well though. She loves the stroller as long as it's moving. She walked just fine to the photo place. I held her hand for photos and she didn't cry. She didn't smile, but at least she didn't cry. Then I carried her to the medical examination place. She was a little whiny, but in all did great! There were 3 stations: height/weight/temperature, ear/nose/throat, and medical exam (physical). She passed just fine... so the US will be okay with her medical issues. She weighed 15 kg (okay... what's that translation... 35 pounds... healthy girl!) She was 38 inches tall... watch out Tommy (who is 39, I think). She's a nice size girl for being a Chinese girl raised in an orphanage. The medical doctor had to talk to Elvin a minute. Apparently we wrote about her second surgery (intestinal blockage/appendectomy) and it wasn't on the original special needs list (hiatal/inguinal hernia). But they worked it out. Grace did very well. I distracted her by tickling her and blowing on her neck while the doctor looked at her. So, she was good.

A few bits o' information: The White Swan Hotel is a gorgeous hotel. It's a 4 star or 5 star, depending on what you read. Very classy. Lovely breakfast buffet. The BBQ dinner we had on Mother's Day was perfect. The Hotel sits along the Pearl River and is a popular spot for foreigners, businessmen, and adoptive families. The breakfast is always interesting with lots of adoptive families and little babies. They're well stocked with highchairs! They even gave us an adoptive family Barbie doll specially made for international adoptions at the White Swan (white mom, asian baby). However, we learned from our guide that it will be closing after the end of October. They'll be doing a lot of renovations, combining rooms together to make larger rooms/suites. It'll also become less accessible to adoptive families. That's a shame, since it's so perfect now. So... anyone traveling... do it soon!

The Olympic torch made it to the top of Mt. Everest. In China, though, they call it Mt. Qomolangma. That confused us for a bit, till we heard it's the top of the world. Then we realized it's just a different name here.

Grace is opening up more and more. For 95% of the time she's in the room with us, she is easy and fun. She giggles and goofs around a lot. She loves to be tickled and played with. She loves to eat... M&Ms, Smarties, chocolate, some smelly fishy crackers we found at 7-Eleven, Cheerios... anything. She still prefers me and will settle down a lot when I pick her up. That's good since she's stuck with me most every day! She loves to play with PapPap and will laugh with him a lot. Daddy is fun too, when we're in our room. Forget showering and potty though... it's Mama only.

I'm not sure I've mentioned her special need much (corrected hernias) or her scars. She has some nasty looking scars on her belly. One measured 14cm across her belly, and one measured 6cm near the appendix. They are not pretty, so it may be something we look into as she grows older... see if she wants a plastic surgeon to pretty it up. No two-piece bathing suits for awhile. Fortunately, she's not bothered by it.

Surprisingly she has a good bit of hair... we've been told that's not often the case. It's long enough to put a barrette in, but that's about it.

I've now been told by two women that she has beautiful eyes. One lady yesterday explained that her eyes are big and beautiful and she would be very popular among men when she gets older. We agree... she's a looker! Very beautiful with small pouty lips, too.

I'll try to blog more later... perhaps tomorrow if we have any more going on. I apologize if I'm not emailing more. We've been watching our Internet time since we are charged for each minute. I'll post photos for sure when we get home. Perhaps we'll figure it out here?

Till later....
Christy