18.7 Pounds

Monday, June 09, 2008

This morning was medical exam day. At 9:00 a.m., all 18 CHI families walked to the Physical Examination Building (really, that’s what the sign over the door said!). Once inside, all were packed into a small waiting area with three adjoining room: 1) Height and Weight; 2) ENT; 3) Medical and Surgical. Child specific medical forms were passed out and after a brief introduction all parents and children went to each of the three rooms for examination. Our first stop was the ENT; Ellie passed. Then we went to the Height and Weight room. Ellie is 28 ½” tall and we’re proud to report that she tipped the scale at 18.7 pounds! She’s the heaviest of her five orphanage “sisters.” The doctor in the medical/surgical room said Ellie has bronchitis. We began giving her antibiotics (amoxicillin from the Waukegan Target) on Friday as we suspected she’d come down with whatever it is Caroline caught. Other than that, she got a clean bill of health.

Finished with the medical exam, we walked off the island to the Peace Spice Market on the mainland part of Guangzhou. I’ll use the word spice market loosely; didn’t see too many spices, mostly dried seahorses, gutted, stretched and sun-dried frogs, something that looked liked shriveled bats and giant fungi. It was all very interesting…but a little dab will do ya!

After Ellie’s two hour nap, we went back downtown to the pedestrian shopping mall with our CHI group. We’d missed some of the stores when we were there yesterday, mostly the jade market. Apparently jade is all the rage in China because it’s everywhere, almost to the point of sensory overload.

We bought Ellie a traditional silk Chinese dress. It’s adorable! When we got back to the hotel, we attempted to have her try it on. All I can say is in the attempt, she was slipping and sliding all over and we were laughing so hard we couldn’t get it all the way on.

The day concluded with a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. Dinner consisted to Papa John’s Pizza that most of the families had delivered right to the river boat. The river boat did offer a buffet, but our guides said it was marginal. The cruise also offered free “box lunches.” This free lunch consisted of white rice and assorted boiled fish and animal parts. Nasty!

The best part of the river cruise was talking with many of the families who went to different provinces than Jiangxi. Everyone’s story is different and at a certain level each is the same; the arduous paperwork process, the excruciating wait, the surreal nature of hearing your name called and having someone hand you your baby, the overwhelming joy and endless love.

Tomorrow all our paper work goes to the American Consulate Generals office for approval.

Event and quote of the day: In the realm of “you can’t make this stuff up”…the three of us got on an elevator at 5:15 p.m. and were heading down to meet our group of the river cruise. In the elevator was another couple with two children, one of whom had just been adopted. The woman looked at Caroline and asked, “have we met before, you look so familiar to me.” Caroline shook her head saying, “No, I don’t think we’ve met before.” The other woman said, “are you sure…maybe in Chicago…I’m Ann and this is Kevin.” At this point Caroline, cries out, “Ann!” Ann and Kevin are members of the church we used to serve in Naperville. They were just becoming members as we preparing to accept the call to St. Paul’s. Once we all remembered one another and how we knew each other, Kevin cried out, “Pastor Brad and Pastor Caroline! I can’t believe it’s you…you look so different.” (Could it be the 19 pound baby attached to me!)