Tired Mama: Guangzhou

Our last day in Nanjing we got up and had breakfast and just packed up and got ready to leave. The driver brought Willem’s paperwork for me to check the evening before. This paperwork was his adoption certificate, his birth certificate, and his certificate of abandonment. He must have 3 copies each of these 3 documents before I can bring him home. She had found an error on one of them so she had already brought that one back for correction. So when she came to pick us up to bring us to the airport on Friday she had remaining 3 of the 9 documents. She also had his passport! Yay! His picture on his passport is so cute and so funny. It is a very typical face of his. Should I laugh or scowl or cry? He has an adorable jeans jacket on when they took his picture. Someone really loved him and I think is missing him right now. You can tell they tried to dress him very cute and also when I got him he had such a cute outfit on.

We made one more trek into the mall for McDonalds and some ice cream while we were waiting for her to come. She drove us to the airport and got us all checked in pointed in the direction of our gate.

Our flight was good and it was our first flight that was on time. I am always worried that Willem will be sick as he has been sick twice in cars now. I had a bag all ready, but he did ok. He kept Meikiina and me well entertained by copying everything Meikiina did. I was laughing so hard at him. Everything she did he tried to copy and he did pretty good.

I’ll tell you, it’s a little harder getting off the plane and getting the luggage from baggage claim area with a 3 year old along. Meikiina is an awesome help. She can totally watch him while I am doing what I need to do. She is also great at getting luggage carts or a number of other things that I need done. I think this trip is hard on her, but I’m amazed at how well she is doing and I couldn’t have done it without her along.

Our guide Kathy was waiting for us at the airport and the driver got us to the hotel by about 9:00 pm I think. We got checked into our room and got a crib and a different blanket for me being as I can’t have down and that’s what they have in all the hotels and got settled down and into bed I’m not sure what time.

This morning I got a phone call from Stacy, one of the ladies who is adopting through CHI wondering if we made it ok. I’m glad she called because the clock said 6:20 but it was wrong and it was actually an hour later. So we got up and went to see what the breakfast selection was like here. It was similar, but I think maybe a bit bigger selection. While we were eating another lady adopting through CHI came down and she had her daughter and newly adopted son with her, so we got to meet them. She is adopting a 6 year old boy. Stacy also came down as we were eating. I knew her from 6 years ago as she and I adopted kids at the same time from the same orphanage. She has 2 girls and is adopting a 4 ½ year old boy. So I got to meet her again. She, Heather, and I have spent a lot of time on Facebook chatting back and forth as we were getting ready to leave so it was fun to meet them face to face.

After breakfast we were waiting in the lobby to go to the medical building, where all kids being adopted into the U.S. go for a medical exam and a TB test. While we were there I finally got to meet Stefani! She is who found Willem’s file and locked it for me. She is adopting 2 girls right now and had 2 of her other girls with her. So now I’ve met all the families in the group of people that were similar timeline as I was with CHI. We all met and left for Willem’s exam and Stacy and Heather brought their boys to have their TB test checked. They were both fine. But while we were there I found out that Willem’s PDA had not closed like they said it had. In his medical paperwork that I received with his referral it said that he was going for surgery for his PDA and they found that it had closed. Well these doctors said it had not closed. They had 3 doctors check him and they said it is not closed, that he still has a murmer. It is very slight but is still there, so I guess I do have 2 heart babies. I guess we will see what Dr. Benson, his pediatrician says and maybe we’ll be going to the pediatric cardiologist for him too.

After we got back, we walked to a grocery store and picked up a few staples (noodles, water, treats). The room we had first when we got here was really bad smelling. It was supposed to be a non-smoking room, but I started getting a headache right away and poor Meikiina couldn’t sleep her eyes were so bad. I gave her some Benadryl and they cleared up pretty good. I asked about switching rooms because it was so bad and they said, “Oh no, it is a no-smoking room.” When I said it is just really bad and we can’t sleep, she said, “Oh, well sometimes business men come and they smoke even though they are not supposed to.” So we got into a new room and this one is much better. I felt bad, but we are here for a whole week and I cannot be here a week with a horrible sinus headache and make Meikiina suffer with such horrible itchy eyes. As soon as we walked in she told me that this one is better, so it was worth the move.

Now the kids napped and we don’t have anything we need to do for the rest of the day and I have to figure out what we will eat tonight. (Meikiina is helping out here) We went to a place to eat and I didn’t know if it was expensive or not. After we were done eating, I went and paid, it was 316 Yuan. That’s a lot! After words, we went up to the room and wanted to “Skype” with Brynlee for a while. Our tour guide Kathy told me that there is free Internet in the lobby so I, Meikiina and Willem went down to the lobby to try it. It didn’t go so well but I could get on my e-mail. Meikiina and Willem went back to the room and stayed there for a while but soon later came back down because she said “I was feeling something was like “haunting” me” Then I went back with her to the hotel room. Meikiina told me that she tried to put Willem to sleep but he didn’t go. Tomorrow we are gonna go to “Safari Zoo” I hope it’s gonna be fun! I will do some more Journaling/typing tomorrow.