There's no place like home!

I'm feeling just like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" this morning. We got the news that B.J.'s football team won their game so we will get to see him play the championship game next Saturday when we get back. Now, I'm really excited about getting home! If I could just close my eyes and click my heals together ..... "There's no place like home, there's no place like home ...." :)

Saturday was Zoe's medical exam day. Our group left at 9 AM by bus to arrive soon after the clinic opened and to beat the adoption crowds. The clinic that we went to does an "independent exam" for the U.S. government ... so they are not affliated with either the U.S or Chinese government. They look the babies over (very minor looking over, actually) just to make sure that there are no major undisclosed health issues with the children who will be coming into the U.S. as new American citizens. Zoe's weight was 22.2 pounds ... diaper and clothes included, though.

After the exam, we went back to the "nice" mall ... similar to an American mall where they sell all the high quality items. We now have the other half of our group with us ... they went to another area of China for the "gotcha day" and the initial China adoption processing (further north) and now have met our group. All the American-side of the adoption is done in Guangzhou where we are ... so all adoptive parents fly here for the last week of their trip regardless of what area in China they adopted their child. This part of our group hadn't been to the nice mall, so we went back for a little more shopping.

Bain & I picked out a little white china tea set for Zoe to keep as an adult ... hand painted and signed in Chinese by the painter. It should be a nice keepsake for her and a nice reminder of our trip. I've also picked out a couple of cheaper tea sets to bring home that she can play with as a little girl. I'm sure that the one she will want to play with as a little girl will be this nice set .... I'll probably have to hide it!! :)

We spent the afternoon in the room ... Our rooms are huge especially for Chinese standards. This is the reason that our agency picks this hotel for us instead of the White Swan hotel where almost all the other adoption groups stay. We have two bedrooms, two baths, a living room, kitchen and dining area. Our kitchen has a two eye stove, sink and frig. Our guide says that after two weeks in the White Swan's tiny rooms, we would be feeling so cramped ... We feel like we have plenty of room here.

We have a boiler pot in our kitchen ... standard for every Chinese kitchen. Everyone here in China has a boiler in their kitchen. It is like a coffee pot that boils water almost immediately. All the water has to be boiled before it is drinkable.

The beds are so hard ... We have a king size bed with big soft pillows and a big down comforter (no flat sheet ... they don't use them ... just the comforter). The "mattress" feels like a wooden board ... no kidding. I wake up feeling almost bruised because my bones literally push against such a hard surface all night that I end up really sore.

We watched "Ray" on HBO ... Zoe loves music and she would "dance" whenever they played "I've Got a Woman" or "The Mess Around". She really liked "Hit the Road, Jack", too! Guess she'll fit right in around our house! She would stand up with my help and do the twist to the music. If she was sitting, she'd start wiggling like crazy to the music!

At 4 PM, one person from each family met with our guides for a couple of hours to put together all the paperwork for our U.S. Consulate appointment this week. There is quite a bit of paperwork and it is checked, double checked and triple checked before the appointment this week. Bain went to the meeting and I stayed with Zoe, trying to get her to take a nap. She is in "environment overload" at this point and can't get enough of new sounds and sights ... napping is not on her agenda!

After much work .... rocking, rubbing her head, etc. ... she dozed for about an hour. Another family (and baby) came over about the time that she was waking up and so the two girls played together on the floor. They weren't so sure about sharing toys but still had fun playing with the Olympic "Friendlies" that we bought earlier in the week.

Bain came back from the meeting with just a few paperwork questions and needing my signature just a few more times ... we've signed a lot of paperwork! Then, we were off to a celebration dinner with several of the families at the Japanese steak restaurant.

I can't tell you how great the steak was ... just plain steak and they had a salt shaker on the table! It was Shogun style cooking but I just ate the plain steak. We also had sushi (California roll) and tempura ... both my favorites. I'm feeling much better this morning after having a decent dinner.

Bain just brought Zoe out of the crib (it's 7 AM here on Sunday morning) and decided to change her diaper for the first time ... lucky him - it was full of poopy!! His first girl diaper change and a messy one! We are giving her a bath first thing this morning. She has been itching so bad that we decided to treat her for skin parasites last night (very common problem with orphanage children)... basically just applying a cream on her from head to toe ... and so she's due to have that all washed off this morning.

Today, we're off for some sightseeing with our group ... more later!