Medical, Paperwork and some shopping of course!

Tia is attaching to us really well! Matt took her to the park today and put her on his shoulders - the kids said she was giggling and giggling. They arrived home from the park and he was tickling her and she was giggling with such delight. She was really happy to see me when she got home . . . and she definitely did not like those Chinese ladies at the shop who tried to talk to her. She snuggled right into mommy and hid her face. We are so thankful Tia is bonding so well! Now I just have to make sure and not let her spend too much time with her daddy or she may decide she likes him best!

Today was a great day. We started the day out by meeting two other families from our agency and Connie our facilitator for the medicals for our kids. We really enjoyed talking to Marcy,Christine & Mark and meeting their adorable children. It was really nice to chat with others in our same situation. The medical went okay. Tia's hearing seems fine, she passed everything except Tia does still have a heart murmur so the surgery was not 100% successful. Did I even post that Tia did have surgery in June? When we met Tia on Monday the SWI mentioned the surgery did not go as well as they thought and so we have to go to a cardiologist and find out if there is something else wrong with Tia's heart or if it is not a big deal.

PLEASE PRAY THAT TIA'S HEART WILL BE HEALED! I am praying Tia will not have to go through another surgery, she needs some time to enjoy being in our family without that trauma. God is able to heal Tia and I believe he will if we ask him to. Please join us in this petition. He has been so faithful to answer our prayers so far. We are so thankful!!!

After the medical appointment Matt met with the other families and Connie at the White Swan for the Consulate paperwork. We tagged along to the White Swan to check it out and get a few photos and then my mom and the kids and I went shopping! We had a lot of fun pricing some of the items available here on the island. Tia and Elijah had fun riding in the stroller together.

For lunch we went to Lucy's which is a favorite with American families visiting. The food was great and we had fun . Elijah made a little friend from somewhere - speaking what we think was Spanish. I love that about little kids, they had a blast playing gameboy and had their arms around each other and were chatting, each in their own language. China is an amazing country and we have been really enjoying our trip, what incredible experiences we are having. Here on Shamian Island it is pretty easy. There are more people who speak English here, it is nice to have some Western food and it's wonderful talking with other adoptive families. This feels like a vacation! The time is going very quickly and in just a week we will be on our flight back to Australia.

Cheers from Shamian Island, home of a bit of America in China.