God leads and we follow...to China!: Day 10

Today Deanna, Maelee and Claire went to the medical clinic. Maelee had her medical exam for her visa. It consisted of four stations: vital signs, ENT, general exam, and TB blood draw. Maelee was not a fan of the strange doctors and nurses. She fussed at the stations and cried with the blood draw. They take your kid behind closed doors for the blood draw and then hand them back to you screaming. L Thankfully another mama was able to give Maelee a sucker since Deanna forgot her sucker stash. It is the worst! Deanna was so thankful that Maelee found comfort with her mama and her sucker.

One of the nice things about the medical exam is that it gives parents the opportunity to meet other adoptive families. It is so fun to meet families that we have connected with through this journey. We also met some new families. One couple was there to adopt their 22^nd child! This is their first adoption from China. It was wonderful to hear their testimony about God’s faithfulness as they continue to minister in their home to children needing homes. God is so good! He provides in so many ways! We serve an awesome God!

After the medical exam, Deanna and the girls headed to Wal-Mart for some groceries. The Chinese grocery store is always an interesting place with all the sights and smells! Upon returning to the hotel, Deanna completed some paperwork with our guide for Maelee’s consulate appointment. We discovered that we had the one incorrect paper that belonged to the other family in our travel group. Our guide reassured us that we should not worry. He called later in the day to confirm that the other family had our paper. Praise God!

While the girls were at the medical exam, Matt took Nathan, Micah and Hannah on an adventure to the park next to our hotel. When we say park, it is more like Central Park; not a local playground. Highlights included seeing more of the local culture like hackey sack with the weighted feather, dancing, singing, exercise on random exercise equipment. We also got to visit "Relic of a Square Fortress" and "Pleasure Park" amusement park. They topped the time off with another visit to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and ice cream.

Later in the afternoon we took the kids swimming at the pool; or as Micah calls it, “his pool.” We hear about “his pool” often. It is one of the few memories that he has from China. Unfortunately, his "friend" from two years ago was not at the pool to play with him. The weather was a little cool (what a surprise for Guangzhou!), so we didn't stay long. Our Midwest kids didn't care though and they jumped right in. This evening we ordered in from the hotel restaurant. Micah and Hannah wer especially happy to have some Chinese food. Hannah enjoyed having some "frice". "Mmmmm, Yummmm, Can I try that, too?" were Micah's favorite comments.