Medical Exam

Monday April 15^th.

Today was our first full day in Guangzhou.  Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and is one of the locations that house a US Consulate.  It is the only Consulate in the country that handles immigration to the US so all US adopted children have to come here to get their visa to travel to the US.

Part of that process for adults, children etc. is to have a visa physical to insure that they are healthy enough to enter the US.  Today was Shaun and the rest of our groups turn for the physical.   Children under 2 are exempt from the TB blood screening.  Guess what he is now over 2 so we had to get the full screen.   He was a trooper and did extremely well through the process.

After the medical we came back to the hotel and then he cratered for the day.  We would not take a nap and was extremely disagreeable most of the afternoon.  Finally a trip to the play area calmed him down.   Daddy got to spend over an hour with others doing paperwork that is required for our Consulate appointment later this week.   The next big official step is the consulate appointment where our paperwork will be approved and we will get the visa for Shaun to travel home with us.

Today at the medical exam one family had a scare with their child, as something came up on the exam that was not in their approved paperwork.  We were so broken hearted for them as they had to deal with this.  In the end all should work out and they will hopefully be able to leave on schedule and bring their precious daughter home as planned.  There are so many twists and turns in adoption.  The government red tape seems endless and they often nitpick paperwork which complicates everything for the families.

This evening we ran into our friend Shiyan in the lobby of the hotel.  We look forward to spending more time with her later this week.  Our group went out for a great Cantonese dinner tonight, it was some very remarkable food.

On a good note this was the first full meal that Daddy was able to eat since Thursday.  So thankful that this issue seems to be passing finally.  On a bad note, we have two other dads in the group down with the same issue, pray for them too.

We continue to see Shaun’s personality come out more each day.

I hope you have enjoyed following along on this blog.  You know this was created mostly for our benefit.  Blogging requires us to take time during the adoption journey to document things that will some day let our children see a glimpse of what we went through to get them home as part of our family.  If you get something out of reading along then we are blessed, hopefully all the facts and details are not too boring for you but again it is mostly about telling the story of bringing Shaun home and that requires details.

Have a blessed day.  Tomorrow is the city tour and the Pearl River Dinner Cruise so we do look forward to that.