Monday, Oct 14th (also Tru Bug's bday!)

Today, after breakfast, we met with our group and another travel group for a total of 15 families that all loaded up to get medical exams for the babies.  We were excited to see the other group because we got to meet Tommy and Christen Barron.  (Tommy, Tanya, and I had communicated quite a bit in preparation for this trip).

We all were in the clinic at the same time and each family had to go to 3 stations to get the medical report complete: general nursing station for height/weight, general check up area for listening to lungs, palpating belly, etc, and then to ENT for a look in their ears and mouths and for a crude hearing test of just squeaking a toy and seeing if the baby turns their head.  Ellie Kay did not like the process (none of the babies did).  But this really proved how much she is attached to Daddy.  She was upset so when she was done the nurse handed her to me and she wouldn't calm down.  I gave her to Matt and she pretty much instantly stopped crying.  She goes to any of us almost any point, but if she's sleepy or upset, she wants Daddy.  It's very sweet and Matt is a great Mr. Mom.  :)

We went to lunch with Jason and Tanya for what else than Chinese (a place called Food Street).  It wasn't hard to find normal stuff at this place and we ordered together family style some beef, chicken, and pork dishes. A very funny thing happened here.  I was busy feeding Ellie Kay Cheerios to keep her happy until the food came.  As all moms do, I was tending to her, talking to our friends, and keeping a eye on J&A to make sure they were minding their manners - just typical Mommy multitasking. Then, all of a sudden, Matt asked me, "Did you just stick a Cheerio in my mouth?"    We all burst out laughing because I had fed Matt a Cheerio instead of EK.  I think the the smog in Beijing and gone to my brain. ;). Ellie Kay ate great as she has been and she loved the pork dumplings.

We headed back for a nap for Ellie Kay.  After nap, both travel groups met in the lobby to walk a couple of blocks to Macau restaurant which is a Portuguese/Chinese food.  Not a combo you eat every day.  It was yummy and they had huge tanks of fish you could pick for dinner out front.

We're enjoying Gaunghzou.  It has so much more of a western influence than Beijing or Nanchang.  I wouldn't have wanted to miss the experiences of the people and culture of the other cities, but this is a nice way to end up.  The mattresses are soft (Beijing's mattresses were about like sleeping on the floor), and there are several people who know at least a little English which is nice.  I've met people from Russia, Zambia, and Egypt.  It's a very international city, and much,  much cleaner.

We swam after dinner in their nice outdoor pool (the weather is still hot enough for swimming here), and Ellie Kay was super cute in a little swimsuit.  She splashed her feet and enjoyed it since she was with us.

We thank God for the blessing of this little girl in our lives. We can already tell her personality is so well suited for our family.  She was so perfectly created for us!