Another Milestone...

Anna woke up Saturday morning in a very good mood. She laid on the bed for a while playing and then let us know in her sweet, but demanding cry she was hungry. She ate her bottle and it was time to get ready for the medical examination visit.

I was dreading the visit because I knew that they would likely be poking and prodding and Anna would go nuts. She does not like to be sat down anywhere except the room and sometimes not even in here. I decided to try another outfit from home that looked small and it worked. She had on cute little denim capris, red and white polka dot cherry shirt, and her new brown shoes. She was just too cute. She let me put in a red barrette in her hair and didn't try to pull it out. She was a doll.

We met our guide in the lobby. She was hobbling in the door with her arm in a weird position. She had tripped over a chain trying to catch a cab to the hotel and scraped her elbow, leg and hand. She told us that she had laughed at her friends many times and now it happened to her. Connie is really a great person. Very funny and seems really genuine. I like her a lot.

She told us that because the background for the passport pictures that we had taken the other day was blue, we had to have another set made for the visa, because they have to be white! So before the clinic we had to go to another photo shop, within walking distance.

We only had to walk about 2 blocks to the photo shop. I figured Anna would throw a fit inside, but she did really good. She let me sit her on the stool, I sat right beside her and flash, it was done. Rodney and I were so pleased that she did so well. She is obviously much more comfortable in other places than she had been earlier in the week.

Right next to the photo shop was the medical clinic. We walked inside and it was busy. People everywhere. Thankfully it was cool. There was probably at least 25 adoptive parents/couples with their new babies. They were all so sweet. Many crying and upset to have just been examined. It was funny to see some of the parents sweating. I had to laugh when I seen one woman with her little girl who had obviously been crying. The mother's hair was wet with sweat. She had red blotches on her face and I think had been more upset that the little girl. It made me wonder if this was her first child. It was funny...I'm not being mean, but you could tell that she was totally stressed out.

We filled out our paperwork and then got in line. We had to go through 3 stations. The first was a room where the doctor did an overall physical check. She measured her head and then looked at her legs, feet, trunk and her bottom. Anna did really good. She fussed more over her head measurement than the exam. She was reaching for me while on the table, but the doctor was very quick and we were done. We then went to wait for the next station.

We then went to be weighed and have her temperature taken. She weighed 16.3 lbs and her temperature was 98.5. We were next for the last station. It was the ENT room...this was going to be good. The physician came in turned on music and Anna started bobbing up and down. He took squeaking toys to each side of her head and she turned to each side when he would make them squeak. Her hearing was good. He then looked at her ears - all good. Then he looked in her mouth. He confirmed the cleft palate and we were done. I had to hold her head a couple of time for the ears and throat exam, but she did really good. I was only a mean momma for a couple of seconds.

We were finished with our exam and everything went much much better than I had anticipated. We were free for the remainder of the day. Our guide was going to stay and help the doctors translate the examination. So we were off to find some food!

People play here all the time

Hmmmmmmm, where would we go...I know - Lucy's. It has become the obvious choice. We walked to the diner and again pigged out. We ordered a few things and shared. We got chicken quesadilla, grilled chicken wrap with fries, sweet and sour chicken with steamed rice and an extra order of fries. Unfortunately, we forgot to tell them no mayo on the wrap, so I was out on that one. I had 1/2 the quesadilla, which was so good, fries and sweet and sour chicken and rice. Rodney pretty much finished up everything else! We had just a little sweet and sour chicken and rice left and Rodney finished that up after we got back to the room.

I don't know why he has to look at the menu...we have only been there 5 times!

Lucy's fries make him mad

When we were leaving Lucy's it started raining, hard. We stood outside waiting for it to stop for what seemed like forever. It finally slacked up enough that we headed out. We got back to the room and had a major milestone with Anna. She and her daddy were in the floor and she started playing with toys. It was the first time that she actually played with anything other than a napkin, the headboard or Rodney's necklace. She would touch her baby doll, packed around the baby's bottle, touched the carebear, and loved the rattling ball. The only bad thing, she takes the plastic ball and hits her head. We have shown her that she can shake it to make the noise, but she prefers to bang her head with it. Rodney will tell her no and move her hand, but it comes right back up.

After we stayed in the room for a while, waiting for the rain to stop, we had to go get some more cereal for Anna. We decided that she was not going to nap and finally the rain stopped, and we got ready to leave. We got the backpack ready and Anna had fallen asleep on the bed! I put the carrier on and she went right in without complaining. We hadn't even left the bedroom before she was asleep again.

We went out and did a little shopping. Rodney is loving the whole bargaining thing. We were in one of the shops and gathered all the things we wanted. She gave us a price and Rodney counter offered. She started laughing and told him that he was funny, a silly man! I was laughing and she asked me what I would give. It is really funny to watch him and these little women shopkeepers bargaining. He is hard core and so are they. But, he came out of there with a satisfied price and saved 140 yuan...which about $17 usd...plus she was a lot cheaper than some of the other places we have been w/the exact same things. Her shop is out of the way, so her things are cheaper. We got Anna several traditional dresses in different sizes.

We then went to Beatrices market for some cereal and Sprite and headed back to the room. After waking up several mornings very early, I was just exhausted. I washed some of our clothes, hung them up to dry and told Rodney I was clocking out. Thankfully, he hesitantly agreed and I was out. I slept until 5 am this morning, which is a good night's sleep for me.

This is a really cool process. The artist has a dish of ink that he dips the side of his hand in. He then makes pictures using the sides of his hand and fingernails. We bought a set of these for Anna's room. They are really neat.

Today is a free day. We are planning on taking it very easy today and doing a lot of nothing.

Boys,

We are missing you all. We can hardly believe that it is almost over. It seems as though we have been here forever in one way, and yet it has passed very quickly too. We leave in only 5 days...and can't wait. We send you much love, hugs and kisses.

Watching Anna kiss her daddy and shower him with spit and sending love to my Parker, Jacob and Carter.