July 10, 2010 When Ruthie awoke this morning, after her meltdown last night, she immediately heard my voice and jumped up out of her bed with a huge smile on her face and flung herself in my arms. I am now convinced that she was terrified last night that we had changed places and were now going to leave her here with someone else. I nearly cried when I saw how happy she was knowing that I was still here! She is having a great day today and has really enjoyed watching all the other children in our group. Speaking of our group…there are two families from Alabama and one from Mississippi. Please know that we had a serious, “Hey Y’all, nice to meet ya!” meeting this morning! It was so good to hear some sweet southern drawl! I have noticed in the last couple of days that I am speaking English like a Chinese person. I have also started nodding at everyone I see; next I will be bowing. This morning started out with our new breakfast bar. It was wonderful. Jon Milledge is in heaven because they had donuts!! We couldn’t find rice anywhere on the buffet…I know, it’s sad that we were even looking, but old habits die hard. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns that looked and tasted like the ones at McDonald's. There was also more fruit than watermelon. We found out that Ruthie loves bananas after she ate hers and half of mine. Next we met our group in the hotel lobby to head to Shamian Island for the children’s visa photos and medical exam. All of the families in our group are very nice, and the children beautiful. There is one family who was matched with a six year old boy and started the process to adopt him. Not long after they had started, they were informed by the boys orphanage that he had a best friend that he had been with since before they were two. The other boy had found out that his friend was going to be adopted, and he went into shut down mode and wouldn’t eat. The adoptive parents found out about this and decided to adopt both boys. Oh…makes me cry every time I think about it. They are first time parents and start off with two six year old boys! Priceless! There is a family from Alabama who has three boys at home ages 13, 10 and 5. They adopted a little girl, who is close to Ruthie’s age, named Mia. She is beautiful, and she and Ruthie have become friends. I also love Mia’s mother, we are a lot alike…all about bows, squeaky shoes, and shopping!!! Once on the island, we did the photos and then went to the medical building. I now know what cattle being herded feel like. There were probably over 50 children and their families in this tiny building being shuffled to 3 different stations. The first station that we went to was labeled “Medicine and Surgery;” not sure why it was called that because we didn’t get medicine there or have surgery…thank God! This doctor just looked at Ruthie and listened to her heart. He said that he could still hear her murmur, but that it wasn’t causing her any problems, but encouraged me to have a heart specialist see her in the US….already arranged! Next we went to the “ENT” station…what a joke! The lady checked her ears and throat with a Walmart flashlight and checked her hearing by squeaking a toy beside each ear to see if she would turn her head in that direction; she did, so I guess she passed. Lastly we went to the “Height, Weight, Temperature” room. Ruthie had no temperature, she weighs 24.3lbs, and is 31.5 inches long. She didn’t like any of it, but didn’t really cry either. She is such a big girl! Next we got to spend a couple of hours walking around Shamian Island and doing a little shopping. A lot of the businesses on the island cater to adoptive families, and all of the shop owners stand outside and basically beg you to come in, telling you that they have the best prices. We bought a few things, like a traditional Chinese dress for Ruthie to wear tomorrow in our group photo. It is adorable! We then ate lunch at the famous Lucy’s where we had none other than cheese quesadillas! Yummy! Once back at the hotel and Ruthie down for a nap, I had to go upstairs to a conference room to do paperwork for our consulate appointment. It took me over 2 hours…ughhh! I was beside myself missing my baby girl, but thankfully she had just woken up when I got back to the room. Tonight we went to a Pizza Hut that is near our hotel and had personal pan pizzas that tasted just like home. Ruthie was loving her some pizza but of course, she loves pretty much everything. When we got back to the hotel we walked all over it; it is huge! We have a beautiful pool, exercise room, spa, salon, tons of gardens, and restaurants. We feel so fortunate to be here. Just so you know….all the other families had bad weeks in their provinces, too, so it wasn’t just us! That made me feel like maybe I hadn’t been too negative. Tomorrow we have our group picture in the lobby and then our guides have a shopping trip planned to a local plaza and the jade/pearl factory. Can’t wait! Goodnight from Guangzhou! Angie P.S. My internet connection is not the best here, so I am going to try to send pictures everyday but it may or may not happen. Sorry!     Pretty girl!     See my dimples??   Ok...maybe she did cry a little.     No fever!     This was the military police that came in to collect money from the clinic with a machine gun...nice!     A bride having her wedding portraits made     Cheese!         This page hosted by