Greetings from GZ!

Hello from Guangzhou! These are some views  out of our hotel. We see the sun here -yay!- the smog is a lot less. We arrived last night-  after spending the entire day basically getting here.  There have been some renovations to the White Swan since our last trip. Our room is nice and light, but with two tiny twin+ beds.
 
It's great back to at the White Swan where we were with Catherine at this exact time in 2004.

Here we are at breakfast. Teagan thinks putting her foot up on the high chair is hilarious. And yes, she looks a little messy. It's hard with the palate during eating time for the little ones to not have food everywhere. The important thing is, she enjoys eating and likes all kinds of food. A true Duffy Shaw family member!  Last night, she tried French Fries and then wanted to feed me them as well. About half the time, after they had already been in her mouth. She also wanted to feed Catherine. Catherine did not seem very impressed by this.

Here

I asked Catherine how she was feeling this morning after very little sleep. This was her reply.

 

I’m starting to feel more than a little of that way myself. 

She did leave a very nice video message for her grandparents, which we will email to you (The Grandparents).

After breakfast we......drum roll please...... had more PAPERWORK! And, a medical check as well.  First stop was getting her visa photo taken. I am wondering why the photos cannot be taken at one time in one place? After that, it was off to the medical exam.

For the medical exam, you bring your medical reports with you, the ones you receive about your child, and then you go to 3 different stations – ENT, height and weight, and body scan.  The have videos for the older children to watch. This is Catherine and her friend, Bailey, watching Toy Story 3 while we waited for the exam. A great way to pass the time.

Teagan spent her waiting time banging her sippy cup on the seats.

I was interested to see what the ENT  would say as her medical record says she has hearing loss in the left ear that was classified as moderate-severe and minor loss in her right ear. With CLCP, this can be temporary and fixed with tubes basically. But, it can be permanent if the loss is not due to the structure per se but rather nerve damage (this is a very loose description, but is captures the essence). However, the clinic check turned out to be  not a very detailed check. They played music, and she turned her head. Her hearing was checked off as  "Normal."

This is the Dr. checking her ears at the exam (above). She does clearly hear and we are so excited about how much we think she hears. I was not sure how much she could hear after reading the reports we first got. The reports ranged in classification from "Deaf in one ear, mild loss in the other ear" to "mild hearing loss in one ear, other ear normal." The reports told us she could respond to the sound of peoples' voices from reading the reports and I took that to be a strong sign. After seeing her, it is obvious that she responds to our voices and to music, and to other sounds. She dances to music and claps to it.  She has been pulling on the left ear, a lot, but was fine on the plane (no fever, and she sleeps well at night). She sipped from her sippy cip when we took off an landed and that seemed to work  well. We will have to wait and see until we get home.

We learned she weighs 20 pounds!  Fully dressed and after eating an enormous breakfast. She weighed just about 20 pounds at her 10 month check up, according to our prior reports, so I had thought she would weigh more than 20 by now.  The same thing was true with Catherine however - she weighed less at 11 months than she had at 9 months.

She didn't care for  the exams and cried most of the time. She refused to even stand to get her height measured and crumpled into a ball and cried. It got worse after we were told she needed 7 shots  (vaccinations) while we in China.  I really try not to be bitter about the Hague process, I know there are problems in the world that Hague is trying to fix for children. But there is so much wrong with the Hague process for children. 

Today, is just one more example of this. The children who are under the Hague paperwork process get their vaccinations here and the non-Hague families get to wait to do it at their own Dr.'s office in the US. So, she had 4  vaccinations today - one in each limb. She will have 3  more on Monday. It was sad and unfortunate that she had to have 4 vaccinations in a hot, humid, and loud place after being with us for a very short time. And, many times, Drs. in the US will tell you you need to redo your vaccinations anyway once you get to the US, so I don't even feel like I can say "at least they are done."  At least she is under 2. If you are over 2, you have to have a TB test as well. Then possibly a chest XRAY. Then possibly, who knows what else.  Of course, the long Hague process from referral to travel makes it more likely your child will indeed be over 2 by the time you get him or her. Anyway, after screaming "MAMA MAMA" and shaking her head no, she put her arm over her eyes and instantly fell asleep.

 Let me end on a more up beat note! I think we have taught her to sign "more." Yes, yes, I used M&M's - but that is what operant conditioning is all about!  Each time she wanted another M&M, I said "more?" and then made the hand sign. Then I moved her hands in the more position. She signed "more" 2 times for M&Ms and once for another peace of banana on her own!

Jason and Catherine checked out the pool today (before he left to do more paperwork, I am not kidding).  The White Swan has a great pool - here is a web page photo. Jason is off with the camera.