Trip to China
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Monday, December 14, 2009 Today we had to hike it back to the medical exam building to have Ava’s TB test evaluated. We met at 10am to walk over to the building. All 4 of the girls had no issues with their readings so all the girls are medically cleared for their VISAS! Afterwards we made a quick trip to the park and then went out to lunch at 12:30pm. We came back to the room to hang out for awhile and then met the group at 2:30pm to drive to the pedestrian street market. This was my 4th time visiting this area so I am very familiar with it all. This trip I do not have a shopping list at all. I think we have purchased 1 of everything in the last 3 trips. It is so stress-free not having to worry about gifts and souvenirs. All I have had to purchase is 2 dresses for the red couch photos! Shamian Island has changed so much since 2005. We adopted Kiah at the height of China NSN adoption right before the slowdown occurred. This area was a wonderful place to be. There were tons of adoptive families, twice the number of stores, etc. It was a different atmosphere. It seems like each year we spend time here that the atmosphere drifts farther from those times. I have had the chance to visit with each of our previous Guangzhou guides: Kiah’s guide Kathy from CCAI, Luke’s guide Rebecca from Lifeline and Logan’s guide Bob from Heritage! We saw Kathy and Rebecca at the medical exam building on Monday. I asked Rebecca about Bob and she said that since Heritage had closed their China adoption program that he had decided to go back to school to study Spanish. Yesterday evening while we were in the check-out line at the Carrefor, I looked up and Bob was standing there! Evidently Bob is a friend of our guide Elvin. Bob saw Elvin and walked over. I looked up and I was stunned! We were both surprised to see each other! He walked over to see WHO I was adopting “this time”. Ha! Bob and Kiah had great fun last year. Bob has a great personality that the kids connect with. OK… he kinda ACTS like a kid sometimes! Kiah and Bob picked up right where they left off! Bob picked Kiah up, whispered to her and they hugged! Bob decided to ride back with us on the bus to the White Swan. We got to visit for a bit. It was great to see each guide that was helpful in bringing our children home. This evening we decided to order pizza. We are all about SICK of Lucy’s at this point. We may eat at the Italian restaurant tomorrow night for a change. Tomorrow is our Consualte appt so Elvin will be taking our paperwork to the Consulate. We must stay in our room tomorrow morning while he does this. Tomorrow afternoon we will be visiting the Botanical Gardens. 3 more days until we come home!!!

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