First Day In Guangzhou

Guess who woke up in our bed this morning?

At 3:30 Max woke up burning hot with a fever. The poor thing was not feeling well. He cuddled right up next to me in bed after he got some Motrin. As I laid there with my arm around him I kept thinking ... I wonder how many time he has been sick and didn't have some one to hold him? After a while he rolled over and cuddled with Eric. Eric put his arm around him and Eric said he held on to his hand for dear life like "daddy there is no way you are letting go of me." We have never had any of the other 3 that are at home in our bed with us so it was a new experience of a baby rolling back and forth, getting kicked in the legs, stomach and eventually his legs were in our faces. This little one likes to move.

After we were ready we headed down for breakfast. We got to eat breakfast with Tammy and her husband and their sweet little girl Sophie. Tammy and I met through our agency's forum and had been e-mailing through the last phases of our paperwork. We were supporting each other in our wait for our TA and hoping we would end up traveling together so we could actually meet in person. They ended up traveling the week before us so they were leaving today. I was so excited we could at least meet for breakfast this morning before they took off for home today!

Our first thing on the agenda today was Max's Visa Photo. We met the rest of our travel group at the hotel and walked to a little shop for Max's passport picture. It was so much fun to see everyone again and even more fun to meet their little ones. We had fun catching up and sharing stories about our Gotcha Day and the days that have followed.

After Max's Visa picture we continued to walk through town to the Medical Exam. Each of the children need to go through a medical exam as part of the adoption process. We were there early and moved through things pretty quickly. There were 3 stations that Max had to go through to see doctors and nurses. The first stop was the height, weight and temp chart. The second was ears, nose and throat. As you can see his wasn't a fan of the throat check. The last stop was the Medical Exam where they look at his referral paperwork and make sure he matches up with what special need he has.

Yes, Max is a little boy off the Special Needs list. I would love to advocate for all the sweet children on this list and also educate people at the same time. Often when we are asked how we got a boy and we say he is in the Special Needs program people are taken back. We have had various responses but the most common is just realizing that to many people "special needs" are scary words to them. It breaks my heart that so many of these children are considered special needs and given up because they are not considered "perfect!" A child on the special needs list can be as minor as a heart murmur to an extensive heart defect. There are many kids with correctable heart defects, club feet, cleft lip, extra fingers or toes, missing fingers or toes, birthmarks, warts ... the list goes on and on. We prayed and prayed about what to mark on the special needs list. We marked what we felt like we could handle but also felt like we have such a wonderful medical community to support us. We ended up with a list of about 30 needs we were willing to take. Many of the needs were minor or correctable with a couple surgeries. Our sweet Max had a blocked intestine when he was born and had surgery when he was 6 days old. It is a very common surgery in the US among infants. He is coming home a healthy little boy and yet he was considered a special needs little boy. We feel very blessed. There are so many sweet little ones waiting for a home on these lists. Every month a new list of kids is released waiting to be matched.

Max still has not been feeling well today. He has been running a fever, his nose is green, his eyes starting getting green. A lot of the little ones in our group are experiencing the same thing. We did start him on some meds we took from home today and we are hoping this helps in the next 24 - 48 hours. He is better when the Motrin kicks in but is pretty sad and mellow when his fever spikes. He just doesn't have the same sparkle in his eye right now.

We are hoping our Mr. Personality comes back soon!

We did get a few giggles yet today!

Eric spent some cuddle time with Max today while I headed to a paperwork meeting. Our agency, Holt, is amazing. When we started the process I knew the paperwork would be crazy but I never knew how much or how crazy. I was amazed today once again how much there is to be done and be done perfectly. It is amazing everything runs so smoothly. I will say kudos to our agency for everything they do to make this so easy for all of us.

Our agency has an office and people leave things behind for other families to use. This little green ball caught my attention and when I got back Max was all over it. He loves his little green ball.

Tonight we went out for dinner with to other families from our travel group. It has been so fun to get to know others on the journey with us. All the little ones cooperated and it was fun to catch up again. We ate at a Thai Restaurant called Cow and Bridge.

We got back to our room and took Max's clothes off. This boy loves to take his clothes off. He giggles like crazy when we do both. He loved crawling around in his diaper. I am pretty sure there was not a lot of hanging out in his diaper in the orphanage. They wear so many layers it is crazy. When ever he has his clothes off he always grabs at his skin like what in the world is this.

Pray we have an uneventful night tonight and that we have our spunky little Max back tomorrow.