Aug. 11

Last night I dreamed that we all slept until 10:38 a.m. and missed our Aug. 12 tour! I remember that I was more concerned about having missed breakfast than the tour because the food here at the White Swan is incredible!

At 7:20 a.m., Peter provided me with a key piece of information: All four of us needed to be in the lobby at 8:30 a.m. to meet our guide and go for the girls' medical exams. I knew the exams were today, but I had no idea we were on such a tight schedule! I had been up for nearly three hours and could have taken my bath and done other things to prepare had I known this. He had forgotten that I didn't hear anything the guide said last night on our bus from the airport because I was in the back with the girls who had fallen asleep with their heads in my lap.

So we got the girls up and dressed. I grabbed the various sippy cups and spoons, and we all went down for breakfast. There was a tremendous variety of foods -- from typical scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pastries and juice to tater tots, pizza and chicken nuggets. There were Chinese foods, too, like noodles, broccoli and fish. I got some yogurt for Scarlett, some noodles, watermelon and orange juice for Sienna, some eggs and baked beans for Peter and some tater tots and baked beans for myself.

Sienna playfully picked the carrot shavings out of her noodles. She thought she was going to have a long time to enjoy her breakfast. But instead, she was literally pulled away from the table before she could eat much. I grabbed a couple of yogurts for them to eat at the examination office in case we would have a long wait.

We were told that it would be a very short walk from our hotel to the examination clinic. Peter said he didn't think it would be a short walk because the examiniation clinic appeared to be near the Victory Hotel. (We noticed the sign when we were on the bus the previous evening.) We were assured the clinic was much closer than that. It turned out that the examination clinic was in fact near the Victory Hotel and that while it is not far to walk for two healthy adults, it was very far for two healthy adults holding 25-lb. children and their gear and paperwork.

Our first stop was actually a place where the girls were photographed for their visas. Their pictures turned out very well. Scarlett's picture was perfect on the first shot, and Sienna took about three shots to get it just right. They were wearing their red (Scarlett) and brown (Sienna) tank tops which helped ensure that the photos would not be mixed up. (By the way, Sienna now has light brown nail polish on.)

There were swarms of parents and their newly adopted children at the clinic. There were lots of their brothers and sisters there, too. Eventually we made it back to an area where there were three exam rooms. We needed to visit each room, but in any order. One area was to check height and weight. Both Scarlett and Sienna tested in the "normal" range (based on Chinese standards which I suppose it appropriate since they are, in fact, Chinese). Next they had a visit with an ENT specialist. It appeared that all went well there, too. Then the girls were given full body "lookovers" by another physician. Everything seemed to have gone well.

It took only about two hours to do the exams. That included meeting in the lobby, walking to the clinic and waiting in line. Then we walked back to the White Swan to do more paperwork.

We sat on the floor at a low table in the lobby. I thought there would be just a simple form to do, but instead there were multiple complicated forms. Although we have officially adopted Scarlett and Sienna, we still need to get them visas so that they can come to the U.S. and become American citizens.

Some of you may be wondering what a visa is. No, it isn't a credit card. It is a stamp in one's passport that allows you to travel to a particular country at a particular time for a particular number of entries. As Americans, we can travel freely within our 50 states, the District of Columbia and our territories (like Puerto Rico and Guam). And it isn't hard to go to Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, etc. (although that is changing). A passport is required to go to places like Western Europe, Japan, Panama, Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, etc. And then some countries require a visa for U.S. citizens. Sometimes you can purchase a visa at the airport when you land (as you can in Tanzania and even some parts of Mexico require them). Others require a lot of legwork in advance. Peter and I had a difficult time getting visas for Brazil last January, but in the end we were successful by going to the Brazilian consulate in Panama City, Panama. I went to the Chinese consulate in Houston in July to get our visas for this trip. (And then later in the month Peter stood in line at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to get the visas for my brother and cousin who initially were only going to go to Hong Kong, but. upon my return from Houston, decided they wanted to fly to the mainland instead.) My point is that as Americans, we tend to take our freedoms for granted, and really we shouldn't.

Peter did most of the paperwork except for the I-600 which is best if completed by a American citizen by birth (rather than by naturalization). Peter is a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom (by birth) and the U.S. After nearly two hours of paperwork, the children became so restless that I had to take them to the room. Plus it was lunch time. A little yogurt wasn't enough for them. It was a challenge to complete the paperwork, too, because we had twice as many forms to do as the others (since each child requires a separate set of paperwork).

Scarlett was extremely hungry and she ate well. If I put Cheerios in her yogurt and let them soften, she would eat as many as three in one bite! Sienna mostly played with her food. She had some banana, nuts and crackers -- her usual. (We're trying to establish a routine and not introduce too many new things all at once.) I attempted to eat some leftover pizza, but Sienna took it off my plate! I had some cheese and crackers and a chocolate chip muffin.

Soon Peter was back from doing the paperwork. He fixed himself something to eat (cheese and crackers, tea and a chocolate chip muffin) and we played with the girls. I convinced the girls it was time for a nap. The two girls cuddled up with me and we slept for about three hours! I felt so refreshed when we woke up. Peter used the computer while we slept and went to the lobby to read his Jane Austen book, "Emma."

Then we got the girls ready to go out. We were assured that we could borrow strollers for free at one of the many laundries/gift shops. We went to the first one that was just outside our hotel. I had a bag of laundry with us, too, and everything will be ready for pick up at 11 a.m. on Aug. 12. The shopkeeper, Stella, got out a lot of toys for the girls to play with. She had a pre-schoolers DVD on, too, with familiar Chinese songs. Peter played with them as well while I shopped and shopped and shopped! I wanted to just get everything in one place and have it all over with. Also, we didn't have to go a long way back to the hotel with our purchases. The store wasn't very big, but since it was next to the White Swan, everything inside was meant to appeal to newly adoptive English-speaking parents. I felt they understood their target audience very well.

I selected a lot of clothing for the girls, some Chinese jackets for myself and a Ba Ba t-shirt for Peter. (He didn't want anything else.) I also got a lot of books and flashcards for helping all four of us learn Mandarin. (The books and flashcards include the Chinese characters, the pin-yin which is the romanization of the Chinese characters, and the English translations along with colorful pictures.) I saw a "Kit Chen Set" with plastic dinnerware inside and showed it to Sienna, our future chef. She told Stella in Chinese that she really wanted this toy and that she wanted it opened right away so she could play with it. Of course we obliged. Scarlett enjoyed it as well. I also selected a number of items that I would like to donate to the upcoming silent auction at the Chinese New Year celebration that we will have in Florida for our local chapter of Families with Children from China. (There will likely be 600 people in attendance including possibly 150 or more children -- mainly girls -- adopted from China.) In addition, I purchased charms for the girls that have the Chinese characters for "big sister, little sister" (since as twins they are both the big and little sister), a "ma ma" charm for myself and a "maternal grandmother" charm for my mother. And then I found a dragon marionnette which delighted not just the twins but a little boy who came in the store as well. Meanwhile, there were women who were doing etchings of photos onto stones. It seemed to take forever for them to make any progress. Their work was painstakingly beautiful! Nonetheless, Peter was nonplussed.

By the time all was said and done, we had a $500 order. Stella accepted U.S. dollars which saved us a 3% transaction fee on her end (if we had used a credit card) and another 2% to 3% transaction fee on our end (from the credit card company). The only things we need now are traditional Chinese squeaky shoes for the girls (as they didn't have matching pairs in their sizes), a Ma Ma shirt for me (which I saw at a neighboring shop) and our Tokyo Disneyland souvenirs.

We took the items back to our room and used the bathroom. We decided that we would go to nearby Lucy's restaurant to get some noodles. We knew this would please everyone but Scarlett. Thus we got our items to go so that Scarlett could eat her yogurt and Cheerios while we ate our noodles. I ordered two Chinese noodles dishes (for Peter and Sienna), basil and cheese noodles (for myself) and broccoli (for Peter and me). While we were waiting for the food, I noticed that they also had mashed potatoes on the list. I quickly went up to the server and asked to add that on as well. Soon all of our food was ready for pick up.

On the way back to our room, we stopped at 7-11 to get a big jug of water. I've been in two 7-11's here in Guangzhou, and while they are similar to the ones in America in terms of the concept (most needed items in convenient, small packages), the items they actually sell are quite different. Yes, you can buy snack chips, for example, but they aren't going to be Doritos. Instead they will be fish flavored crisps. But water is water, so there were no problems.

Back in the room, I gave Scarlett a taste of mashed potatoes and she loved them! Of course, Sienna insisted on having a bite and she loved them too! So to quell the power struggle, I had to divide the mashed potatoes into two servings. And, naturally, Sienna preferred my basil noodles to the traditional Chinese noodles. Fortunately we put a large bath towel under us on the bed so that the towel turned green from the basil rather than dirty the bedspread. We anticipate that we will be going to Lucy's at least once a day to get TWO servings of mashed potatoes!

By now it was 10 p.m. It seemed late for the girls, but that three-hour nap helped keep them wide awake. Peter bathed them and washed their hair as I cleaned up the dinner mess. We put them in their pajamas and they cuddled with me on the bed to fall asleep. I fell asleep, too, so Peter put them in their cribs. (They brought this really thick newspaper to the room that morning, and it was filled with all sorts of interesting information about the typhoon that hit Hong Kong and the recent global stock market fluctuations. And again, the more intesting the news, the faster it puts me to sleep.)

Through the day, I also tried to check my e-mail as many times as I could. My brother was about to board his flight from Pittsburgh to LA, and my cousin was about to board his flight from Las Vegas (where he attended a professional conference all week) to LA. They are going to spend Saturday afternoon in a hotel near the LA airport. They can rest, swim, use the computer and bathe before taking their 14-hour flight from LAX to Guangzhou on Saturday night. This is their first trip that requires a passport, so of course the questions were coming in rapid succession. Also, they have been tasked with bringing a variety of items with them (such as black tea for Peter, bibs for the girls, more clean underwear and old USA TODAYs for me). So we are anxious for Shu Shu (uncle) and Bao Ge (male cousin) to arrive.