Day 9

Hi! Sorry for not posting for a while. We are now in Guangzhou which is right above Hong Kong. We will complete the last step to the adoption here with the US Consulate. Our paperwork gets reviewed on Monday and on Tuesday we take an oath and receive her visa. And then on Tuesday evening we will fly home... arriving Wednesday around noon... pretty hard to believe.
Lili is doing really, really well. She is full of smiles and laughs and she is babbling a lot. She is very busy and is starting to test her boundaries.
Before leaving Nanchang we had to order our favorite rice and fruit plate. I have included a photo that shows where, what and how we ate for the last week. Nanchang was great! The flight definitely tested me. First, the plane was 2 hours late and then we sat on the really hot plane for an hour while they de-iced it. Lili had had about enough about an hour BEFORE we got on the plane... :) Luckily the plane was full of lots of babies and new families - we were about the only family with a child near the terrible twos age... and that is kind of how she acted on the plane - but, it is over and we are still surviving - so we are ok.
It was wonderful to land in Guangzhou. We are here with lots of families from the US and there are some families with our agency here so this makes it nice. Our guides are wonderful here!!! Our local guide met us when we got off the bus and offered to get us dinner - I felt bad having her go get something for us but after our long, long day there was nothing anyone could have done that would have helped more - it was so nice!!!
This morning we went to get Lili's medical exam. She weighs 23 lbs (dressed) and is 30 inches long. Last time the exam was kind of a joke but this time around they were much, much more thorough (not sure if it was because all of the kids with us are special needs or not) It took quite a while but she was pretty good for us. We also had to get her picture taken for the visa and to do our paperwork for the US Consulate. So, we did lots and lots of adoption work today - it feels great to have it almost done.
We had down time here and there and spent most of it looking in the little shops all around the hotel. We ate at Lucy's (serves American food) for lunch and at the yummy, yummy Thai restaurant for dinner (Tracie L. I made everyone share your Hello Kitty dessert - it was yummy :) I was a bit worried when they brought it out - what a funny mold :) )
Lili is having a hard time sleeping. I wonder if this is when she grieves. She tosses and turns all night and will cry in between. She also has a really bad cough- I can't get it under control - the doctor said that her lungs sounded ok but I swear I can feel the rattles - so any suggestions would be great - I don't have cough medicine here (only a Chinese cough medicine that I don't know what it contains and I feel so bad each time I give it to her because it smells sooo disgusting)
We hope all is well there and are so grateful for everything being done to help us at home!!! Thanks so much!!! We will have the internet now until we leave on Tuesday - so keep e-mailing us.
I can't figure out how to add pictures so I'll see if I can send them to Scott and have him do it...
XOXO Melanie, Mckenzie, and Lili