Thursday in Guangzhou

Today started very early!  Ally /Kate Jing Xin and I had to meet our guide Helen at 7:30am in the hotel lobby to travel to the first of three clinic appointments.  We let Daddy and the other girls sleep. The purpose of the three visits is to test Jing Xin for tuberculosis.  The clinic opens at 8am so our guide wanted us to be there when they opened.  Jing Xin could not eat before going so I was fine with the early time. Our guide explained that traffic was very light in Guangzhou due to Chinese New Year as most traveled back to their home towns.  Another interesting tidbit - In the lobby of the building that houses the medical clinic you will find a vending machine in which you can buy bottles of wine!  We entered the clinic area and our guide got Jing Xin registered.  She was taken in to a room and the door was closed.  I was out in the hall and could see in through the glass.  They kept having her take multiple sips of water, gargle, then swallow.  After each time they asked her to cough.  They had a vial to collect the sputum.  She could not cough enough to produce the sputum.  The nurse then starting hitting Jing Xin on the back.  I use hitting because that is what she was doing.  It was not too hard but definitely not soft.  This act still did not help.  I wanted to rush in and rescue my baby girl from them!  After they realized this was not going to work they took her into another room.  They assembled what appeared to me to be a nebulizer machine.  They had her put a tube in her mouth for her to breathe water vapors.  After a short time she was able to cough up sputum.  This was repeated multiple times until she could get enough out to obtain the needed amount.  As if this was not enough she then had to have a huge tube of blood drawn.  All of the nurses and our guide remarked on how cooperative Jing Xin was and how well she did with the procedures.

We went back to the hotel and hurriedly had breakfast only to have to return back to the clinic for the rest of the exam.  A very quick physical exam was completed.  She weighed 44 pounds complete with her coat, hat, and layers on clothing on! She is so tiny to be almost 9 yo.  Her height which is accurate was 47 inches.  The poor baby could not read the eye chart. It had hands pointing in different directions and she had to turn her hand in the direction of the hands on the chart. An eye exam was done and the computer print out was -3.50 in both eyes.  We are planning to get her glasses here in China ASAP.  One thing I had forgotten and think is really cool is the way that patients are dressed at this clinic.  Each patient must remove their street clothing. They change into sweat suit type pants and tops - dark pink for females and blue for males.  Much better than the crazy back out American hospital gowns.

All six of us went to the second clinic visit along with another family from our agency.  While there we met another family from ALABAMA! They live in Madison outside of Huntsville.  It is a SMALL world!

I mentioned this on Facebook but it totally cracked me up.  Billy is the most frugal human in the world and so careful with money.  We had to pay 3000 rmbs for the medical exam.  The guide took our money to pay and came back with the change.  She handed the receipt and change to Billy.  Jing Xin took it from him and looked at the receipt.  She then counted the change to make sure it was correct.  Oh my does God have a sense of HUMOR!

Upon leaving the medical visit we went to the tomb of Western Han Nanyue King.  This is an incredible "field trip".  Back in the 1980s a hotel was being built on this site.  As the land was being excavated this tomb was discovered.  This emperor had died in 160s BC.  You can go into the actual tomb and then tour the museum which has all the artifacts found buried with him.  He was buried with his multiple wives, concubines, servants and material possessions to carry with him into the afterlife. They had to drink poison and as a result died shortly after him.  He was buried in a jade garment shown below.  It is estimated that he was in his 40s at the time of his death.  His teeth and part of his skull are on display. I love history and this was fascinating.

After the visit we returned to the hotel room so Maya Grace could take a nap.  We had instant noodles for lunch.  After being in for a bit we ventured back out.  It is unusually cold here so we only took a quick walk to the Trust Mart aka mini Wal-mart.  We had not brought any "toys" at all with us other than the iPad and Kindles.  We let the girls chose markers, colored pencils, stickers, sketch books and coloring books. Jing Xin loves shopping and starts grabbing everything.  She responds fine though when we say "no" and have her put an item back on the shelf. As we were checking out at the Trust Mart my little bit spotted the KFC! She made it known that she wanted to eat there.  Since it was dinner time we ventured inside.  The kid's meals were very interesting - the chicken patty contained carrots, corn, and green peas!

We returned to the hotel and got settled in for the night!  Jing Xin sat in my lap and we asked each other questions with google translate.  She is a bright little one.  She easily types in the pinyin and chooses the character to chose what she is saying. Did I say that I love this kid!   She asked me if she had to have an "injection" at her next clinic appointment.  I assured her that she did not.  She told me her favorite color was pink. I asked her if she would like to go to the park after her morning clinic appt.  She said "Yes, morning or afternoon?" Below my quadruple blessings. You can see how tiny Jing Xin is in this photo when compared to the other girls.