Day 12: Taking care of business

Today was a good day but certainly not our most exciting one here in China.  No sightseeing, really, just wrapping up paperwork and a few appointments.  Even though our adoption was legalized in Nanchang, Jiangxi province the same day we got Anna Kathryn, we are dealing with the US end of things here in GZ.  

Today we had a paperwork party to fill out all the remaining forms to apply for Anna Kathryn's immigration into the USA, pulled together a packet of documents we had to bring with us (about 15 items in all), and paid the final fees for this process (whew!). The paperwork party consisted of about 10 parents all trying to follow our guide's directions in a conference room here at the hotel.  I think I wrote my name, Mark's name, Anna Kathryn Bo Di's name, and our address about 467 times.   A couple of times, the mom next to and I messed up something on our forms.  We both kept muttering, "oh, crap" and waving over the guide to bring the correction tape.  I think my brain has turned to mush over the past few weeks, because it's not like I have filled out about 100 other forms in the past 2 and 1/2 years!  At least we had really good tea to drink.

I got back to our room to find that Anna Kathryn had had a play date with another little girl in our group, Mikayla, and was having her lunchtime bottle and rapidly sliding into a nap.  Mark and I decided we needed one, too.  

After that, our whole group headed out for the required medical exam and visa photo session over on Shamian Island (more on the Island tomorrow, since we are taking a shopping trip there in the morning.  Whee!)  The exam was fairly basic and cursory, and required for her travel visa to the USA.  She was weighed and measured, had a quick hearing and vision test, and another doctor listened to her heart and lungs, and looked her over in general.  Strangely, I was a little nervous but she passed the test!  So did all of the children.  We did find out that she now weighs 16.2 pounds!  We are doing our best to fatten her up a bit, and apparently succeeding.  She is also 27 inches long.  Here are a few fun moments from this outing:

Oh boy!  I get to visit the doctor today!

Waiting with the other families for our turn with the doctors.

She wasn't really a fan of the ENT exam.

Then we went grocery shopping at the Carrefour, which I've heard described as the Chinese Wal-Mart.  It's nicer than the actual Wal-mart we went to in Nanchang, and it certainly does seem to sell absoultely everything.  It's huge. We got more bottled water and some snacks including cucumber flavored Lay's chips.  We'll see how those taste.  We also got real Doritos and some Oreo wafer cookies.  I'll let you know if those are good or not.  I bet they are!  It's a little embarrassing how excited we got over American junk food.

Riding down the moving walkway to the bottom floor is fun!  The walkway is magnetized so that your cart won't roll away.  It's so cool. 

Mark and Anna Kathryn are examining some kind of meat-- possibly sausages. Who knows?? 

One thing I continue to find hilarious in Chinese grocery stores is the rotisserie duck display.  It's like our rotisserie chicken display, but with whole ducks, cooked and hanging by their necks.  Mark wanted to buy a duck head (beak and all) from the hot prepared foods counter but I managed to talk him out of it.  I should've taken a picture, but I think the people in the store think we are weird Americans already so I have tried to limit the picture-taking.

We also got some soy-based formula for Anna Kathryn.  We just can't wean her off formula yet and all of the unfolding news about the tainted milk and formula have us very worried.  Soy seems to be a safer option, and it may help her spit up a bit less.  We have been giving her brands that, so far, seem to be safe.  I can't wait to get her home to the States and get some formula for her that I know is not tainted.  We will be stopping at a 24-hour Harris Teeter on the way home from the airport!  It makes me absolutely panicked if I think too much about the situation, and each day the news coverage is worse.  She seems to be very healthy, thankfully, with no scary symptoms.

Anyway, we headed out of Carrefour and then we went to Mecca, I mean Starbucks.  It smelled SO GOOD as we walked in.  Like home, and happy things, and... well, y'all know I love my coffee!

I had one of the best mochas ever.  Anna Kathryn helped me eat the whipped cream.  

After a loooong ride home in bad traffic, with many tired and crying babies, we got back to the hotel.  All we had energy to do was go eat some dinner at Pizza Hut and then back to the room to put Baby to bed.  BTW, the Pizza Hut here is so nice.  They do table service.  And the creamy corn chowder is really good, as was the stuffed crust pizza.  We went for the "stufffed with cheese" option as opposed to the "stuffed with squid" option.  Also, the dessert options were plentiful.  I had tiramisu, and it was sort of my appetizer, since it arrived at table first-- even before our drinks.  

Shopping and sight-seeing tomorrow.  Apparently there is heavy rain from a typhoon headed our way, so this should be interesting!   Thankfully, the rain-- which rolled in today-- has cooled things off considerably.  I am SO tired of sweating, so this is fine by me.  We won't melt! 

 Good night from China!