I'm back...and so are the dumplings!

Sorry for being MIA....I was really, REALLY sick.  Sick as in requiring a visit to the international health clinic for IV fluids and medication because I was unable to eat or drink anything, including water, for 3 days.  It was awful and scary to say the least.  

So here's the reader's digest version of our stay in Guangzhou.

Patrick put on his Superdad cape last Friday.  He packed us up in Taiyuan single-handedly and got us down to Guangzhou and checked into our hotel.  Then on Saturday morning, he headed off to the medical exam with all three kids in tow.  I made him take my camera so he could take photos.

Didn't he do a great job?  I set the camera to Aperture Priority for him, picked a few settings, and let him go.  So proud of my budding photographer hubby (and son.)

Saturday afternoon was when I managed to make it over to the health clinic for some treatment.  And on Sunday, I was finally able to eat.  It felt great.  We decided to keep it a low key day and spent a little time by the pool.

Havi seemed unsure at first, and I can't blame her.  Up to that point, we had only given her one real bath.  But she splashed around a bit while in my arms and seemed pleased.  Then she and I got out while her ge ge and jie jie swam with Baba, and she munched on snacks.

Then we just chilled some more in the room.

I find the photo above hilarious.  Caleb is trying to get Havi to look at the camera and not the cartoon playing on the TV.  However, that's exactly what he's looking at himself. lol. Saturday night we joined a few other adoptive families for dinner at the Banana Leaf, a restaurant right across the street from our hotel.  The food was good and the entertain was fun.  Madeline and I did some dancing with the wait staff.  We will share those videos here on the blog once we get home.  Havi was even clapping along.  It was a great night.

Then this morning, we headed over to the Consulate for Havi's immigration interview.  I tried to take a photo of Baba with his two girls.  One of them wasn't interested in looking at my camera.  So she needed a little help.

We came back to the hotel and then headed out for some lunch.  The grown ups and Havi ate at Pizza Hut, which is not like the Pizza Huts at home in the U.S.  They serve a variety of food here, not just pizza.  Then we grabbed Happy Meals for the two bigger dumplings to eat back in the room.  They couldn't wait to get a "Chinese" toy in their Happy Meals.  It was pretty cute.  It was a sticker dispenser that we still don't know quite how to work.

After lunch and a nap for Havi, we ventured down to the pool again...this time with some drizzle.  It has actually been raining all day here, but we decided to hit the pool anyway.  To say that Havi enjoyed it would be an understatement.  She couldn't wait to get back in.  She was splashing around and having fun.  Her face went under a few times, and she came up laughing.  So future lessons with Ms. Carmen are looking good and so are the rest of our summer days.

Well, tomorrow wraps up our very short stay in Guangzhou.  We're only here 4 nights and 3.5 days.  We will take a train from here to Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon after we pick up Havi's Chinese passport with her immigration visa inside.  We still haven't quite nailed down our itinerary in Hong Kong because, frankly, we thought we were going to have to cancel our stay there and come home early (yes, I was that sick.) 

Anyway, we'll be signing off from our very horrible internet connection and VPN in Guangzhou, and we'll be posting again from Hong Kong!  Oh, and I can't forget to  thank you all for hanging in there and all your prayers.  They are much appreciated.  See you then!