Medical Exam and Jades! July 16th

Today we went to the medical clinic in Guangzhou and boy oh boy did Sophie FREAK OUT!!! She has this fear of doctors and we assume that because we started off with such a rough beginning, she is not too sure of the intention of doctors and their procedures. The medical exam was just a riot. Picture like a hundred American couples, with their babies and toddlers, many of them screaming and scarred out of their minds! Them picture three separate rooms to measure, weigh and check hearing for each child. The hearing exam consisted of squeaking a play toy and seeing if the baby looked in the same direction of the squeak. Sophie was by far the worst behaved child. She screamed and freaked out totally. I am so not looking forward to going to her medical exams when we get home. We also let her play in the White Swan play room and she was less than enthusiastic about sharing the toys with the other children. One dad asked me what her "special need" was - I laughed and said "behavior" - he laughed too. She really is a spit fire - and we love it. We believe that she got a lot of attention in foster care because of her constant desire to get her own way - she has a will - that is something that many children are missing from orphanage care. We just laugh and laugh at her. She brings us complete joy and completes our crazy Hopp family. We also went to the museum and listened to our guide tell us interesting facts about the Chinese government and way of life. We thought that the jade factory was really interesting as well. Adam ended up buying me a beautiful jade bangle, which I love, he picked out just a lovely one. The Chinese believe that these jades symbolize good luck and told me to wear it daily and never take it off. We will see! Our faith is much bigger than luck - but the cultural aspect of Chinese things are interesting and we plan to explain these concepts to Sophia once she gets older. We went on a cruise in the evening which was beautiful! For 128 RMB (like 15.00 dollars) we got dinner and a 2 hour cruise!!! It was so much fun! We got back to the hotel and Adam and Paul played in the arcade and Stacy and I did what we do best - hit the shops. We talked to them till 1am and then went to bed! Stacy and Paul leave tomorrow. We are so happy for them that they will be able to hold and kiss their sweet angels - but we will miss them very much!! They have become lifelong friends and we are so thankful to the Lord for bringing them into our lives - it is an amazing experience what we have been through with them!