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Published: February 23rd 2012
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Hand in hand
Two big sisters taking their little sister for a walk. We went to Shamian Island today for the girls visa physicals. The place was a zoo when we went for Jasmine, hasn't changed much in 8 years except the number of foreigners adopting had dropped considerably. This clinical only does the physicals required by the US Consulate for visa applicants coming to the US so there always is a large number of locals in there from what I understand.
The girls seemed to handle it well, up until the TB test/shot. They didn't care for that part, can't say I blame them.
We did learn that one of the first things Rose is going to have on her schedule when she gets home is a visit to the Optometrist. She did not do well with the eye exam at all. This really doesn't come as a big surprise after watching her watch TV. She'll get close to the screen, if she's not close she'll be squinting really hard to try and focus it. Lilly appears to have 20/20 vision so that was good news. We'll have to go back Saturday to have the TB test checked. Hopefully that goes well and quickly, both girls have already had chest x rays to check for that, well at least they tell us the did and we got billed for it some where along the way.
Both Jenny and I would have loved to stayed at the White Swan hotel that's on Shamian Island but it's closed for renovations right now. This hotel is nice but being on that island is like taking a walk back into days long ago. There's still a ton of people every where but it's a much slower pace then over here where we're staying this time. Oh well, we might take some time Saturday to explore since we'll be the only couple left from our original group by then so we could just take a taxi back and let the fellow that's been running us all over town take off.
Coming back we came by the Pearl market and had the chance to get out and spend some time there. They have wholesale prices on quality pearls and other jewelry stones and such but we'll just have to take everyones word for it since we decided not to stop. The girls had just about all the “this is so boring” they wanted so don't figure we would have had a lot of quality shopping time there. Besides we need to get both of them more clothes then jewels. Jenny was having to take up a couple of the pants she brought for Lilly, she has to be the smallest little girl I've ever seen. I don't think my sister was even that small when she was a kid and she was little. Lilly is 7 and weighs 16 KG, (about 35 lbs) but she've very active and seems to be healthy.
We came back to the hotel and decided to try the Chinese restaurant here in the hotel. Imagine that, a Chinese restaurant in a Chinese hotel. :-) They have a large selection of stuff, things I've never heard of. The prices are a bit higher then you would find with some of the places out on the street but we know the food is prepared with clean water and such so we don't have to worry about our spoiled stomachs. I'm all for that! It's always fun to see the dish when they bring it and then try to figure out which one of the things you order it was. If you order from the big menu there aren't any pictures so … let's just say it can be interesting. Jasmine got to try her first fish, cooked with the head and it's eyes staring up at you. Once I cut her off a piece and got her to try it she found out it wasn't that bad to have a fish with it's head. Rose declined it also, guess she didn't care for the thing looking at her either but once we cut her a piece off she decided it wasn't bad either.
After that we spent a couple hours out in the garden play area here. The girls were blowing bubbles and trying to get them to go up into the wind. This is no easy task since we've ran out of the bubble soap and are trying to thin down the baby bath/shampoo they hotel gave us for our new “baby”. (They also had a crib in our room when we got here, had to upgrade that puppy for a roll away bed). It's a good place to let the girls burn off a little bit of energy and you get to meet some of the other couples here for the same reason. There's one couple, from northern VA, that's here for their second daughter. Their first daughter was 12 when they adopted her, she's 14 now and they said she's doing fine. Their new daughter is older also, they told me how old but don't remember for sure but I think she's about 10. The father was telling us today that they took a trip to the orphanage their first daughter came from so she could see all the people she lived with. Turned out great, the staff there were really surprised how nice she had turned out to be in such a short time. Seems she was an independent sort whew she lived there. He said he told them that's why she fit into their family so well. They took all the staff out for lunch, good time was had by all, 16 people total.
Tomorrow is a free day, meaning we don't have any paperwork to go do but our rep will be bring some of the completed paperwork over around 5 or 6 Friday evening so I guess it's not truly a no paperwork day. We're planning to venture into underground tunnel and see if we can figure out how to get over to the park across the street. If we get brave enough we might try to find this restaurant down the street about a mile from here that the couple from VA told us about. Foods good, cheap and didn't seem to bother any of them.
Also there are 11 new couples coming in Friday night from different provinces so we might get to meet some of them. We'll just take is as if comes, one things for sure, we don't have to be rushing out since the breakfast buffet runs until 10:30 so the girls can sleep in if they want. Not theres a snowball in July's chance that's going to happen.
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Janet Walker
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Love the updates
Mark & Jasmine: Just want you to know that I am enjoying the daily updates on what is happening. It has been so exciting to see the pictures of everyone each day. Makes me almost think I am there with you. We are all excited for everyone to get back home and meet our new nieces. BTW - I do not remember how much I weighed when I was 7 but I only weighed 50 lbs when I was in the 5th grade and 10 years old. That was a big gain from when I was in the 3rd and weighed somewhere around 35 lbs. Who could guess I was that small when you see me now. LOL Miss you and can't wait to see you. Your little Sis