9/22/07 Careful what you wish for
Our first day in Guangzhou is Lian’s medical, paperwork and housekeeping. Everyone except me sleeps late. We have to bathe the girls as they are coated in a glue composed of everything they ate the previous day of travel. Downstairs, breakfast at the Victory is not the sensory overload of the Sofitel, but there is still plenty to select from. We rush back upstairs and assemble the paperwork and money we will need for the medical. This is not for Lian’s benefit – it is a modern day Ellis Island, to exclude the sick. We are a special needs group, so all our children have some major issue, though many are repaired. It isn’t Lian’s cleft we’re worried about, since we’re already approved for that, it’s her snotty nose and rattley chest. Our guide when we adopted Lela had drilled us that no matter if your child is dripping green slime, you say they are healthy.
As usual we are the last ones downstairs to join the group. There are 10 CHI families in town, half at the White Swan, half at the Victory – the cheapskates and second timers, we are both. Our guide, Connie, is wearing a charcoal chiffon baby doll dress with jeweled neckline today. I am wearing my last clean T-shirt and baggy shorts. We walk the block toward the medical clinic. But first we turn into a building to get the children’s US visa pictures. The photographer seems to be set up in an apartment hall way, as at one point a man with a bike loaded with leeks and other produce works his way through the crowd. We can’t get Lian to crack a smile.
Then on to the clinic. We crowd ourselves, strollers, crabby children and siblings in to an L shaped waiting closet. After an interminable 20 minutes or so, it is our turn. We know that drill. There are three stations. The medical is pretty cursory. First a physical exam, where the doctor looks into Lian’s mouth, eyes, nose. This is not received well, though she submits, and crying makes seeing her mouth easier. Taking off the shorts and diaper is accompanied by much wailing, but her backside full of Mongolian spots
http://www.fwcc.org/mongolianspot.htm (Lian’s backside looks like this only more so) doesn’t phase a Chinese Dr. Then the weight and height, and on to the hearing test, which consists of seeing if she will turn to look at a squeaky toy.
Meanwhile, Lela is sitting quietly in the central area diligently working on her fairy sticker book and trying to pretend there are no doctors around. Connie sits and chats with her and a little girl about her age watches fascinated with the book. Between appointments, Lian decides to be the life of the party and commandeers a box of toys meant to occupy waiting children. She selects a Minnie Mouse doll that she uses to flirt with Jamie. She knows she’s being cute, as she will pause and look with a big grin to see if he is watching her.
On the way back to the hotel, I try and poke my nose into a shop but Lela has had it, and even the promise of princessy dresses fails to allure. She slumps whinely in the stroller. Lian is full of beans though, quickly spots a pile of rattles and attempts to drag them through the back of a shelf. We do a quick turn around in the hotel. We pile the mound of dirty laundry on the bed, do triage – we’ve only got 6 more days, then head out with about 40 pounds of laundry. First we hit the Beatrice friendship store, think 7-11 attached to a gift shop, for diapers, since we are down to the good US ones I am hoarding for the return flight. I had bought Huggies in Xi’an, my usual brand at home, but we had several leaks so back to the blue Pampers which I know from previous experience are fine. We stop at the first laundry we come to, Helen’s. They promise us a 35% discount, pick up at 1:30 tomorrow. We now have 30 minutes for lunch before meeting Connie for more paperwork, so we head to the deli at the White Swan. It faces onto the street and has a small cafe table seating areas outside. The menu is rapidly changing, about every 15 minutes brings a new selection, and we had imagined on our last trip that is was the leftover food coming out of the hotel restaurants. I get a German cold cut sandwich, which is a bun with a cold cuts wrapped around a pickle, cheese sandwich, apple pastry, and noodles with spinach. Lela has spotted the ice cream freezer right off the bat. Outside it is breezy and we battle to keep the flimsy paper plates from flying, but manage to eat. Lela gets her ice cream, strawberry. I try mango and Jamie has ginger. There is also a purplish taro flavor and champagne grape. Lian doesn't get one this time as she tends to wear her food, and we can still fool her, just make yucky faces when she points to the cups.
In the White Swan we take the elevator up to Connie’s room to do our last paperwork marathon. There is a strong sense of deja vu, not surprising, because we have done this before, but then we were the ones with a tiny baby in a stroller of sling. Last time Jamie did the paper work, but now he is the favored parent so I am stuck with it. He has to sign one paper then he and the girls are free to go. (Jamie reports that they went down to the WS playroom, which has very few toys in it now, where Lela found a compatriot and Lian rampaged. Then they strolled around a bit, paused briefly at the small playground – but no swings, Lela’s preference, so she only went down the slide a few times, back to the room and up to the roof top pool.) I am sitting on a bed with 9 other parents crammed into the room, about a 50/50 mix of boys and girls. We go through the remaining forms for the Consulate line by line. We get very punchy. Connie tells us we owe her a drink. It is almost 5 when we finish, but I have brought everything I needed and my forms and new bills get the Connie nod of approval. Even the US Consulate requires crisp new bills, I guess they don’t trust us. I wander back to the room through the familiar streets and muggy air. The room is empty. Where could they still be? Finally I realize that I am looking at their clothes and undies on the bed, and it’s unlikely they went out nude, AH HA the pool. I change and take the elevator to 9. The pool is on the roof top with a staggering view of the city. It’s breezy enough to feel cool. Jamie has Lela in a life preserver and is wearing Lian who is enjoying her first pool time, splashing and laughing (and I have not brought up the camera.) We have the roof to ourselves. After I have a few minutes in the pool, Lela announces she is freezing and clambers out. She wants to “esersize” and tugs at a door up a low platform.
Inside is a room full of exercise equipment that looks like it was picked up at garage sales. They even have a vibrating belt, which brings to mind rows of women in black leotards with cellulite and buttocks jiggling wildly. Lela and Lian are intrigued by the rowing machine, the one thing they can manage. The sun is setting into the haze, a glowing peach as we return to our room - which has quickly deteriorated. Lian has already stopped trying to tidy up, and is leaving her toys strewn about like the rest of the slobs she is now joined with. We stuff the girls into clothes, not a two minute process since they tend to sprint away after each article is applied, and go looking for food. Many of the restaurants we remember are closed and have become gift shops. We end up getting take out at the WS deli again. Back at the hotel we create a dining room with the two club chairs, desk chair and an end table. It’s messy meal but filling. Once you give Lian some food, it may not be removed or she wails, so we have learned to be careful with portion control.
Remember that we were concerned about her not talking? Well be careful what you wish for. She is chatting away, at top volume. We have no idea what she is saying, though it frequently features a loud “MA” which Jamie (who did take a Mandarin class) says can mean horse, mama or scolding depending on the tone. The tone sounds like scolding to me, and it’s blah, blah, blah all the time. The development report described her as a quiet gentle girl. HAH. Clearly the real Lian has just been waiting to come out. She is also trying out hitting and throwing things too, which we are trying to squelch. Jamie says “Boo How” (that’s phonetic spelling, not pinyan) meaning not good, and Lela quickly takes up the refrain, “Tell her boo how!”
