First thing in the morning, all the adopted children had to go for a medical exam and TB test. Our guide suggested only one parent taking Magnus because the waiting area at the facility was quite small. So I stayed with the girls at the hotel and Dana took Magnus to the appointment.
Here is how Dana described the appointment:
All 6 of our agency's families went on a charter bus to the medical facility about 15 minutes away. It's a good thing Mike stayed with the girls because it was pure chaos. I snapped a quick pic below but that was when it was the least busiest in the hallway. Each child had to see a physician or nurse at 4 stations - height/weight/temperature, ENT (ears, nose & throat), general exam and TB shot. As you can imagine, there was a lot of screaming and crying from these already traumatized children. Some handled their pain silently while others wailed. Our Mags was in the latter category. :( I was able to be with him for 3 of the 4 stations. They don't allow parents to go in for the TB shot so they don't associate us with the pain. He screamed from the moment they took him away from me and for the entire time he was in that room. It seemed like every other child was in and out but my son's took forever. I'm sure time stopped for me but others did agree that it took way longer for him. I'm guessing because he was fighting them! Several male physicians raised their eyebrows in amusement and shock at how feisty our little warrior was. You know what, he has had to be. Go ahead and fight little man, just don't bite the nice doctor! After the shot, Mommy had a yummy sucker waiting for him which calmed him down immediately. His pain tolerance is incredible and yet again, it's had to be. :( We moved through the process faster than a couple of our group's families so we waited quite a bit afterward. We were able to share our toys and suckers with others while meeting multiple families who I've connected with on Facebook for the last year. It was SO great to finally meet some of them! Everyone else finished and we were on our way back to the Garden Hotel!
All 6 of our agency's families went on a charter bus to the medical facility about 15 minutes away. It's a good thing Mike stayed with the girls because it was pure chaos. I snapped a quick pic below but that was when it was the least busiest in the hallway. Each child had to see a physician or nurse at 4 stations - height/weight/temperature, ENT (ears, nose & throat), general exam and TB shot. As you can imagine, there was a lot of screaming and crying from these already traumatized children. Some handled their pain silently while others wailed. Our Mags was in the latter category. :( I was able to be with him for 3 of the 4 stations. They don't allow parents to go in for the TB shot so they don't associate us with the pain. He screamed from the moment they took him away from me and for the entire time he was in that room. It seemed like every other child was in and out but my son's took forever. I'm sure time stopped for me but others did agree that it took way longer for him. I'm guessing because he was fighting them! Several male physicians raised their eyebrows in amusement and shock at how feisty our little warrior was. You know what, he has had to be. Go ahead and fight little man, just don't bite the nice doctor! After the shot, Mommy had a yummy sucker waiting for him which calmed him down immediately. His pain tolerance is incredible and yet again, it's had to be. :( We moved through the process faster than a couple of our group's families so we waited quite a bit afterward. We were able to share our toys and suckers with others while meeting multiple families who I've connected with on Facebook for the last year. It was SO great to finally meet some of them! Everyone else finished and we were on our way back to the Garden Hotel!
We learned from some of the other parents that we met in Nanchang that there was a play room that we could take the kids. All the dads went to the play room with the non-adopted kids. The room was a bit small and had mostly baby toys, but the kids turned their imagination on and made due. The dads and I spent about 25 minutes pushing buttons on the expresso machine to try to get a cup of coffee. After many attempts, lots of steam, and a few wasted cups, we enjoyed a nice cup of coffee.
Around 12, Dana and Magnus arrived back from the appointment and Magnus was sound asleep in her arms. She was able to transfer him to his crib and he kept sleeping for another 2 hours.
I went with Juliette and picked up some McDonalds across the street. The ordering was at a digital kiosk with photos. That made it much smoother. As Magnus slept we had some down time in the room.
This is what 4 hours of sleep for multiple nights does to a Momma.
At 2:00 he was still sleeping so I took Anya and Eliza and met our guide for a walk to the "Trust Mart" which had wal-mart signs in it. Very different than a Walmart in America. After getting some supplies, we came back to the hotel and found Dana, Magnus and Juliette heading out for a walk. We went through the lobby and took a few pics. Here are a few of them:
Dana then had to go complete some paperwork and the kids and I hung out in the room.
We then went back for a bit of playtime in the toy room. It was about dinner time and we heard some people say that there was a pizza place nearby that was really good. We headed out, but couldn't find it. We ended up at Pizza Hut. It was really good and quite different than the Pizza Hut in the US. Here is a picture of our fruit salad-not what we were expecting, especially the cubes of jello!
After dinner we came back to the room and that is when the party started. A few days ago we saw Magnus dance a little bit, but Saturday night Magnus kicked off his shoes and danced up a storm. It was adorable. He's got some pretty good rhythm. We finished it all off with a sister bath in our fancy bathroom which actually has 3 rooms within it!
Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers. All is well from China.
Dance Party Fools Duff Family of Six
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