Thursday, July 2 - Medical exam

We had Ezekiel's medical exam and visa photo this morning.  We went in the van with Sarah and the other Wacap family that we just met today.  Their new little girl is 19 months old and very, very sweet and quiet.  They also have another daughter with them who is 8 and also very sweet.  They seem like a really nice family, so we're looking forward to getting to have another family to spend some time with over the next several days.  Their consulate appointment is July 8, the day after ours.  When we got to the building where we did the exam, the first thing we did was take the visa photos of the children downstairs.  It was another bad experience for Ezekiel.  Getting photos taken is not his thing.  They didn't care as much if he was crying for this one, so unlike the passport photo, we were able to get an acceptable one after only 4 or 5 tries.  And sure enough, in the photo he's definitely crying.  When we get a copy of the photo I'll have to post it on the blog because it's kind of funny (and sad).  Then it was the medical exam.  I remember the last time we did it when we adopted TongJie, the medical exam was on a Saturday so the clinic was really crowded, and our group had a lot more families, so we had to wait longer for everyone to have their turn.  Plus, the older kids take longer because they have to get the TB test as well, which we didn't have to do today, thank goodness, because it's only for kids over 2 years old.  So it really wasn't bad today.  Ezekiel didn't appreciate being weighed, measured, and examined, but as soon as it was over, he cheered up right away.  There was a doctor there who was not one of the doctors examining Ezekiel, but he stopped Sarah in the hallway and asked her something.  Later, she told me that he recognized TongJie and was asking her if TongJie had been there a few years ago.  I think he must have been one of the doctors who examined TongJie that day.  I was amazed that he would remember him!  Sarah didn't seem to be as amazed as I was, she said "well, he does have a very memorable face."  We thought that was pretty neat that a doctor would recognize him from one examination three years ago!

The other day, we checked out the playroom that's here in our hotel.  It was a nice quiet room with lots of toys for the kids to play with.  TongJie was excited that there was a little play house castle in there and he was pretending it was his house.  Ezekiel liked to be able to crawl around and bat toys around on the floor, which seems to be his favorite thing.  There were no other kids there, so we turned the lights off and it was still plenty bright with natural light from the window.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Trust Mart again for formula and some other things, and we decided to buy an umbrella.  A lot of the people here use umbrellas for the sun, and we thought it would be easier to use for Ezekiel than trying to fight him with the hat every single time we go in the sun. So far it's working a lot better, but we've only used it once.  It was hard for Jeff to hold both the umbrella and Ezekiel, but it will work pretty good with him in the front pack I think.  Eventually he's going to have to get used to wearing a hat, but the poor kid is having to deal with so much that's strange and uncomfortable right now, we might as well wait till we start getting settled in at home if we can help it.