Our Adoption Trip to China - Page 5
October
19th - October 22nd
Guangzhou, China
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Guangzhou is where the U.S. Consulate's office is in China. It's where all American's must travel and stay for a few days in order to get your child's visa paperwork, medical exam, and take the very unofficial oath that is a requirement for all adoptions entering the U.S. We stayed at the Victory Hotel on Shaiman Island. It was a very beautiful part of the city and had lots of restaurants and shopping, so we could stay busy while we took care of more paperwork.
We were enjoying every day with Mia, and she was becoming more and more comfortable with us. She was smiling more, and we were actually able to get her to giggle quite a bit. We fell so in love with our daughter it was amazing. She is such a joy to be around and so happy. Even with her skin issues, teething (she was cutting her two front teeth while in China), wearing socks on her hands, and having two complete strangers (us) ogling at her, she was great. What a trooper and what a tough cookie. She's so active too! Given what we've read about children from orphanages, we expected her to be developmentally behind, a bit lethargic and somewhat weak. Boy were we wrong! She loves to do back bends when you least expect it and if she doesn't want to do something she won't do it. (Ha, wonder where that stubborn streak comes from!?).
The trip in Guangzhou went by too quickly. There was still so much we didn't see and didn't buy! We were so happy to have the constant organization on our adoption agency, our tour guides, driver and of course Dr. Susan. We never had to worry or think about anything except our daughter. The trip was perfect and so is Mia.
We feel so blessed and so fortunate for our new family. Mia is so much more than we hoped for. She's happy and healthy and just amazes us every day. Our trip to China, Mia's home country, is a wonderful set of memories that we will cherish and share with her as she grows older. We will be back there for sure and will tell her proudly of her beautiful country and wonderful people we saw during her adoption trip.