Saturday

Yay for the other Bethany families getting here!  It was so great seeing them at breakfast this morning and meeting their kiddos!  And what a precious bunch of kiddos!!

 

Today was Alina's medical appointment.  Here's what you hope for with these appointments...no news is good news.  Meaning that you are hoping that the doctor's/nurses don't find anything that is different than what your referral states or there could be challenges.  If it gives you any indication as to what kind of day its going to be, there was a vending machine w/wine in it in the lobby of this building.   I think a lot of offices would do well to consider adding this to their offices.  The DMV for example. 

 

Ok..back to the medical appointment... ;)  It seems that Saturday is their busiest day.  But that could be because many of the adoptive families go on Saturday (not just Bethany families).  You have to visit 3 stations:  Nurses station, ENT, and Medical Screening.  And if your child is over 2, they have to get blood drawn.  Noooooo!  She did not like the medical exams but who likes a stranger touching them and talking to them while they are being poked and prodded?  STRANGER DANGER!

 

We went to a grocery store after the medical exam.  This is the same one that our guide took Randy to the other day when we were out in the van singing a song about poop.  It was a several story building and food was at the bottom.  Good thing that Randy knew where he was going & has such a good sense of direction anyway.  I would've been lost several times over already throughout this trip.  Our new guide, Shiyan told us we had to check out the different flavors of chips that they have here in China.  Mmmmm...seaweed Pringles!

 

We got to the check out and of course one of our items wouldn't scan.  The cashier was trying to tell me what was happening but I couldn't understand.  I got to use one of the phrases that I learned in Mandarin class "Wo ting bu dong." Which means, "I don't understand."  Thanks Michelle!  That one came in handy!  We just left that item behind.  OK...it was my Coke.  Stop it.  Stop judging me.  :p

 

We got back to the hotel and one of us had to go to a meeting at 3:00 to finish some paperwork.  For you that are in the paperwork stage right now...um...no...it doesn't ever end.  Did I mention how much I love paperwork?  The good news is that our guide Shiyan has done this before & so she took the paper line by line & told us what document we needed.  The hard part is when you bring along every. single. paper that you have just in case.  It's a lot to look through.  Most of what we needed though for our visa appointment had been given to us while in our province so it didn't take as long as I thought.  Plus its much easier to work when you have 10 other families there doing it together.  We are still missing our passport for Alina though.  And we need that for our consulate appointment on Tuesday.  I was told that we would have it by Monday.  Living on the edge.  Yup..it's what we do. 

 

Randy got the fun job of taking the girls to the swimming pool.  Caylee went swimming while Daddy and Alina watched.  Randy said that he was able to get Alina to say all of our names!!

 

Alina started feeding herself at dinner tonight.  I think there are so many things that she is capable of doing that we are unaware of just yet.  She keeps surprising us.  She has laughed a lot today.  She has definitely warmed to me and has even started copying some of my facial expressions.  :D  Everything was funny and we were enjoying trying to make her laugh. She has been smiling more freely.  I can't wait for everyone to see this smile in person!

 

Night time is still quite challenging.  It can take us 1 1/2 hours to get her to sleep.  But we will get there.

 

I was thinking today as I was watching the Bethany families with their kids just how special these kids with special needs are.  And about the way that God has stretched and opened our hearts in ways we weren't expecting.  A family adopts a child who is deaf and the entire family learns sign language together.  I am amazed.  And I think about our own Alina and the special needs that she has and how we didn't know anything about it before we started this journey.  I wonder where God is going to take us with her?  My friend reminded me of the scripture and said, "she was knit together in her mother's womb."  And I feel like she was created this way for her own unique self and for her own unique purpose.  And we are honored to be her parents!