Two little fish eat hummus in China

The morning was spent doing the visa physical.

There is not much I want to say about it except, sadly, it was very nearly an exact repeat of our experience here with H. four years ago. If you are really dying to know more, I'll just send you to the post I wrote back then. Substitute R.'s initial for H.'s and you'll get the idea. That horrible sound you heard? That was me grinding my teeth in fury. Oh, and I came close to wanting to make use of this handy vending machine in the lobby of the clinic.

Can you see what this is? It is a liquor vending machine... full bottles of wine and Jack Daniels. It was so very odd.

But we got all the medical paperwork signed and made it back. We picked up P. from the room and found some lunch and then spent some time resting. (P. didn't want to come to the visa physical appointment. Can't imagine why not... ) Resting was desperately needed by everyone. Eventually we thought a visit to the pool might be in order. First we showed the girls the pool and both seemed very interested, so went to put on swimming suits. I have no idea if either of them had ever been in a pool before, but they both adored it and didn't want to leave. Look at the smiles in these pictures.

But don't worry, we were careful and didn't dive. I'm not sure where our juries are, but we certainly didn't want to be crippled in them.

The day ended with dinner at a nearby Middle Eastern restaurant. You know, because when you're in China, the very first thing you think of is, "Gee, I bet I'll get some really good hummus and baba ghanoush when I'm there," yet it was really very, very good. J., P., and I enjoyed it immensely, and P. was particularly thrilled to not be eating noodles. R. and Y. tried some and while there were a couple of things they ate, I wouldn't say they loved anything. Well, except the French fries. They loved the French fries.

The girls are both getting along much better these days. More than a few times we have noticed them giggling together. R. can still annoy Y., but Y. is much more patient about it than before. It is good to watch.

To continue to be truthful with my blogging, I also have to tell you that this post was written in bits and pieces in between comforting R. She had what seemed to be the beginnings of a seizure, which for her are really not great. Thankfully, she does have an aura that she can tell us about and we were able to get the rescue medicine into her before things progressed too far. (An aura is some sort of physical indication that people who experience seizures can have as an early warning that one is imminent. H. does not seem to have any auras as far as we can tell, but in comparison to R., her seizures are extremely mild.) We are also thankful once again for the excellent preparation we had from all of R.'s care givers in advance of adopting her. This would have been 1000 times worse without that. She is now resting, so I hope things will remain calm.

These girls are both such treasures and I am pretty darn in love with them. I cannot wait for them to meet everyone at home and for everyone at home to meet them. Friday is going to be a great day. Well, the part of Friday where we arrive at home, not the part of Friday that drags on and on while we sit on an airplane. Three more days until we head home!