December 10th

December 10th was another big day for us as it would mark the day for Tianna's medical exam. ALL children must go through a medical exam before leaving China. Also for children over 2 years of age all must have a TB test. The TB test part made me very nervous. There have been cases where a child turns up positive for TB and must go back to the orphanage until they are cleared up. I could not begin to imagine how that would be if this happened for Tianna.

The morning we met Veronika and her new daughter in the lobby. Veronika was with is in Beijing and we left there the same day. We also met up with a 5th family that began there trip in Hong Kong. Dawn and Thomas and there three kids and new daughter. The three families were headed for about a 15 min walk to the medical building for the test.

Getting through the maze of street vendors was interesting. As we walk through there I really thought just how lucky we were to live in the USA. There are people trying to make a living selling dog food on the side of a street.

Tianna was not to happy with the exam, she cried and cried. It only got worse when we did the TB test. They had to stick her with a needle. It was at this time when Laura and I both felt we had become parents as we FELT Tianna's pain. She hurt we hurt.

The rest of the day was to ourselves and we ate lunch at a western style outdoor restaurant "Lucys" right near the White Swan. It was here that we are Bacon Cheeseburgers and fries. It was also here where I almost lost it with the China locals. Tianna woke up early from a nap to have lunch, she was not happy and cried and cried. Its bad enough that I now have a screaming child with me in public but now I have to have a table of three Chinese people just staring at us. It is customary to admire the adopted child when they are seen with there new parents in public. But this almost put me over the edge. Laura was surprise that I kept my cool. But I kept telling myself "we are leaving soon".