September 19, 2006 I had a dream last night: a banshee was tearing around the room, fighting for its life against an unseen foe. I awoke to realize that I wasn't really dreaming, and that there really was a banshee loose in my room. Then I realized that it wasn't a banshee, it was my daughter--she just sounded like a banshee. To put it mildly, last night was not an easy night. Something I mentioned in yesterday's post was mourning. This is something that adopted children often experience. I suppose the real surprise is that we are just now going through it. Thankfully, the worst seems to have been last night, and we are able to continue bonding together as a family. I (Chet) was able to rock her to sleep tonight, so we seem to be in pretty good shape. Anyway, this morning we experienced our first breakfast buffet in the White Swan. I had heard that it was good, but I really had no idea. The first thing that hit me when I walked into the dining room was how different it was from Nanchang. For one thing, it was much larger and much more crowded. The main difference was that this place was crawling with western couples adopting Chinese children. If you are an American, no matter what province your child is born in, you have to go through Guangzhou to complete the process. That means that while you see a few other westerners when you get your child, when you come here, you are one family out of hundreds. If China ever stops adopting to Americans, this hotel is going to be in serious trouble, because it looks like 90% of its business comes from adoptive families. Needless to say, we didn't feel out of place any more. After breakfast (Caryn, the French Toast was as good as you said it was), we went to get visa pictures made. This was over and done with in just a few minutes. Then we walked to the clinic to have the medical exam. This is usually more of a formality than anything else, but one family in our group did hit a snag of sorts because of a small birth defect. This afternoon, we did our paperwork that our facilitator will take to the consulate tomorrow morning. It took about an hour and a half. Note to all families preparing for your China trip: do NOT fill any of these papers out in advance. They are not always asking for what you think they are asking for. We went through line by line, which made it easy, if a little tedious. We also were able to move to a room on the same floor as the rest of our group this afternoon. It is nice to not feel so isolated from the people we have gotten to know over the past week. We got a chance to do some shopping afterwards. There is this whole cottage industry right around the White Swan catering to adoptive families. We did get a few things today, gifts for our niece and nephew, and a few other things, including Mary Joyce's first squeaky shoes. (Squeaky shoes make squeaking noises as children walk. Starting walkers enjoy hearing the noise they make, and once the children are walking, they work well for helping parents locate their children in the house or on the playground.) We're waiting on most of our shopping for tomorrow and the next day. Well, Mary Joyce has finally decided to drop off, so that means that Dusty and I have to get ready for another day. We appreciate the remarks in the guestbook, and we wish we had time to respond to them all. We'll post again in 24 hours.   What's going on over there?     Medical Exam   Fun with Statues     What a pretty girl!     Mmmmm...Mashed Potatoes!   Little Cheerleader     Having Mary Joyce's Name Written in Chinese Calligraphy     Doing a Little Shopping             This page hosted by