Medical Appointment & Guangzhou

Today was a busy day! After breakfast, we started off our morning with all of the kids' medical appointments. This is a required step for all adoptive families in preparation for the Visa appointment. Basically you go to various stations and nurses/doctors examine your child. There was a height, weight, and temperature station, an ENT station, and a doctor station (where they listen to the child's heart and do a quick exam). It was fairly painless but we were there for a couple of hours.

Breakfast fun with daddy!

Medical appointment

After lunch and the medical it was touring time. We crossed the bridge off the island and headed for the open markets. These were very similar to the markets we saw in Nanjing. The markets have everything you could possibly think of!.

From the markets we made our way down a couple of nice quiet street and onto THE busiest street I have ever seen or been on. The pictures really do not do it justice. There were people everywhere! I mean if ever the phrase 'wall to wall people' was in order it was for this street.

See? Nice little street. Not too crowded.

And then...

Crazy Town!

As a bonafide, card carrying introvert, I almost hyperventilated on this street!

The original plan had been to go to the pearl market/factory, but upon arrival we discovered that it was already closed for Chinese New Year so we visited a Buddhist temple instead.

Unlike Christianity, which is a monotheistic religion, Buddhism is a non-theistic religion (meaning its followers do not believe in a supreme creator being) that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha, meaning "the awakened one." According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. Over the millennia, the Chinese civilization has been influenced by various religious movements. China's San Jiao ("three doctrines" or "three religions") include Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and historically have had a significant impact in shaping Chinese culture.

After visiting the temple we headed to a nearby mall and had Pizza Hut for dinner.

Chilling in my stroller

Later that night we met a few of the other families on the patio roof of the hotel just to hang out and visit for a bit.

Kristen and Hailey
(Kristen and I met on a Facebook China adoption group and when we learned that we were with the same
agency we were fast friends. We went through the torturous wait at the end for TA together.) 

What a fun day!
You know the drill on the pictures - many by Jamie.