Saturday,
February 11, 2012
DAY
EIGHT ~ MEDICAL EXAM DAY
"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name
welcomes me." Mark 9:37
"A life changed is worth it, even if only one. God's
love made known is worth it, even if only to one. I will
not save them all. But I will keep trying. I will say
"Yes." I will stop for one." (Kisses From Katie pg. 205)
We woke Ellie this morning about 8 in order to have time
to get breakfast before we needed to head to the island
for Ellie's medical exam. Have I mentioned that Ellie is a
great sleeper? And that she's SUCH a good baby? Oh, yes, I
guess I have. But she is. She REALLY is!
We met the 4 other families from our Madison travel group
in the Victory lobby. What fun to see the families with
their children. All the children are doing REALLY well.
It's amazing, really. It's the 5th time to go through this
process, and I still am in AWE of the beauty of this whole
thing called adoption. There were 2 families with older
girls and 2 with older boys. Some had already had their
medical exams and just needed TB readings and others like
us needed exams. I'm telling you, our guide was SO
efficient. I have never gone through the exam process as
quickly as we did today. It was really nice! We took all
the obligatory photos, of course. I must admit to being
just a little bit sad knowing that this was our last time
to go through the process. I think I am really going to
miss that crazy clinic! Ellie did really well. A few
tears, but that's to be expected, and she is so easy to
console. The squeaky toy hearing test showed that our girl
hears just fine! She weighed in at solid 22 pounds~ so
exactly as our updated information stated. She's fitting
in 18-24 month clothes perfectly, and her shoe size is a 5
1/2. Everything I brought for her to wear has been just
right.
After the medical exam we headed back to the Victory for
our paperwork. As most of you know, through all 5 of our
adoptions, Bill has been the one to do ALL the paperwork,
so he was the one doing today's, too. I have only done ONE
thing, and today we found out I had done it incorrectly.
Really, the ONE piece of paper I filled out (the vaccine
waiver form) was not done correctly. I had listed Ellie's
American name instead of her Chinese name. Sheesh. "Not to
worry. It's all good. No problems," assured Richard, our
guide. So, after tracking down a pen as close to the
original ink color as we could find, we added Ellie's name
in Chinese. Yes, there is good reason that Bill has done
all the paperwork.
Once everyone's paperwork was completed, our guide took
Bill to a pharmacy to get an antibiotic. Bill walked out
with amoxicillin, so hopefully that will kick whatever he
has. I'm hoping it's strong enough. My good friend Leslie
came with antibiotics and her husband hadn't used his, and
she graciously offered them to Bill, but hopefully, Bill's
will work.
We then went to lunch with another family to
Lucy's, and though we were too big of a group to be seated
together, we still had fun. There are MANY adoptive
families here. Definitely more than when we were here in
2008 and 2010. Maybe it's about the same as in 2006.
Anyway, what FUN it is seeing everyone with their precious
children. Really, it is such a beautiful picture of God,
setting the lonely in families. We ran into some friends
from Charlotte, which was fun, and also a mom and her
sister traveling from GA. It felt like home to hear their
southern voices! Also, ran into a family from SC. She told
me that she could tell by Ellie's bow that we were from
the South!
Anyway, it's so great to be on this last leg of
our journey. It feels homey here in GZ, and it's like a
big reunion. I just love it! For me, this trip has been
the best of the four. My sweet friend at Madison wished me
"the very best trip yet" before we left. And yes, Diana,
it really has been.
I'm sitting here right now, in the
living room of our suite, with a darling baby napping
peacefully in the bedroom, Bill by my side, with a cold
coke on ICE right next to me, and I am feeling really,
really blessed! |
Medical Exam Day!
Getting Checked Out
Happy to be Finished
Off to Lucy's for Lunch
Silly at Lucy's |
