We are in Guangzhou!

We left Anna's provincial city of Zhengzhou yesterday evening and arrived in Guangzhou, where all American adoptive families are required to travel to complete the immigration process.  Our hotel in Guangzhou is a palace!  Seriously, we have never stayed anywhere this nice.  When I heard that this is where the agency put all the families, I was a little grumbly at the expense, but now that we are here....oh, what an oasis!  Lucy was asleep when we arrived, but she awakened long enough to exclaim, "oooh, a castle!"  Our rooms are beautiful and big with enough room for the children to play.  There is a huge swimming pool that is absolutely gorgeous.  They have a playroom here, and even a library with English reading materials.  The service here is impeccable.  I've never received such wonderful, efficient, easy service anywhere, ever.  This hotel has been a real treat for the Burch Family!

Anna had her immigration medical examination this morning.  The purpose of the exam is to make sure Anna's special needs match her referral information and also to make sure she is free of infectious disease.  The great news we learned today is that none of the doctors we saw (three total) believe that Anna has cerebral palsy.  We think she may have had a mild form at some point, but she is definitely able to walk, climb, run, jump, take the stairs, balance, etc.   The ENT doctor who examined Anna said her outer ears and inner ears both look normal based on a regular exam.  She urged us to take Anna to a specialist in the US who would be able to do more sophisticated testing to tell us more about Anna's hearing loss and its cause.  She repeated this several times, as if we were only weighing the possiblity of seeing a specialist.  We assured the doctor that we would do everything we can to help Anna.

Amelia, Lucy, and Anna had a great day together.  There was lots of progress on that front.  Actually, we saw progress on all fronts with Anna today.  She even sat and ate a whole meal (granted, she was in a high chair, but still -- for Anna and us, this is progress, and we will claim each victory!).  Anna is having to learn how to play.  It appears that she has never had toys, and playing 'pretend' seems new to her.  She is learning to play with pretend food and a baby doll.  We also bought inflatable swimming rings that were the hit of the day even though we can't swim for a couple of days because of Anna's TB test.  Speaking of that, we need you all to pray for a clear TB test.  If it comes back positive, someone has to stay in China with Anna until she is cleared for travel, which could take weeks.  We know one family that had to leave their new son for several weeks with a foster family and make a second trip back to pick him up.  PLEASE pray against this for Anna and for us.  We all want to be on that plane on Thursday.

Our travel group here in Guangzhou is full of wonderful people.  There is a family here who adopted a little girl two years ago, and they are here adopting another 3 year old, so they will have two 3 year olds.  Both girls are just precious!  There is one family who lives in Chengdu, China, where Amelia is from.  They are adopting a 2 year old that they have been fostering.  We had dinner with them tonight.  What a sweet family! The last family is a couple with two grown children who came to China on a mission trip and met a boy in the orphanage.  They are now adopting this 13 year old boy who is wheelchair-bound.  This young man has the MOST delightful personality and he even speaks beautiful English.  He will be a wonderful addition to their family.

We have met several other families with amazing stories: the lady in the hallway today who is here alone adopting a 12-year old girl and a 2-year old girl.  She has four other children at home, all adopted from China, all with significant special needs.  Her eyes filled with tears as she described how the Lord has called her to adopt.  There was another family we met today who have teenagers at home who came to China to adopt a 4-year girl who is blind.  We met another family with children at home who are here adopting a pair of 3-year old boys, each of whom is missing an arm. We have met families adopting older children and younger children, boys and girls, minor special needs and significant needs.  We have been so moved as each family shares their story.  Adoption is such a special thing, and the China adoption community is a community like no other.

It's very late here, and we are hoping to get to attend a church service tomorrow.  I will try to post some photos from the past couple of days.