It was a very busy day. Tina and I took him to the doctor for his first examination here in The States. We have talked about wether or not we should be using a pediatrician or try to seek out someone who specializes in foreign adoption, but have decided we are very happy with our family physician, Harry Herdman. We are confident in his skills and approach to medicine, and today just confirmed our impression of him again.
Harry was very gentle with Kai, and I think Kai could sense our level of comfort with Harry. Kai is usually very timid and withdrawn around strangers, but today he relaxed pretty quickly and let Harry give him a pretty thorough exam. He let him look through the scope into his ears and nose, but didn't allow him to see inside his mouth. Harry was so cool about it too. We had told him about Kai's issues around his mouth: the not eating any hard foods, and not letting us brush his teeth. And Harry moved back the instant Kai showed distress. Because he's eating okay and doesn't seem to be in general discomfort or show obvious signs of mouth injury or infection, we figure he has enough going on right now that this isn't an immediate concern. It was really nice to see our doctor be so in sync with Kai's feelings and to really follow his lead as opposed to just forcing his way through an exam.
We had to have two "sticks". One for a TB test in the doctor's office, and again across the street at the hospital lab for a blood sample.
The hospital lab was another amazing visit. the
phlebotomist who saw us was a young guy whose namebadge said "Elton". When we first went in he asked us if Kai spoke Mandarin. We explained that he didn't really "speak" a whole lot yet, but we are sure he understands more Mandarin than English. He then began speaking to Hui-Hui in Mandarin. His mother was from Taiwan, he explained. He shared some of his family history, including a great story about his grandparents during the Chinese civil war and how they fled to Taiwan in 1949. He seemed quite sympathetic to Kai, and took extra time to make sure he knew exactly how much blood he needed to take before beginning. He was very skillful and hit a good vein neatly on the first try, all the time saying reassuring words to Kai in Mandarin. Kai cried a little but quickly regained his composure when the procedure was over, and happily waved "zaijan" to Elton as we left the lab.
When we got home and had our lunch the mailman rang our doorbell. He had a pair of big boxes for us which came from the Wickstroms in California. The Wickstroms are the family of Hui-Hui's friend "Liam" at the S.W.I. in Bao Ding. They sent us a whole bunch of goodies, including 14 pounds(!) of cheese from their dairy farm, as a thank you for the pictures we sent them of Liam.
When we got home and had our lunch the mailman rang our doorbell. He had a pair of big boxes for us which came from the Wickstroms in California. The Wickstroms are the family of Hui-Hui's friend "Liam" at the S.W.I. in Bao Ding. They sent us a whole bunch of goodies, including 14 pounds(!) of cheese from their dairy farm, as a thank you for the pictures we sent them of Liam.
Liam seemed like such a sweet boy the day we met him. We are hoping that the Wickstroms will travel soon to bring him home, and that he and Hui-Hui will be able to stay in touch with each other as they grow up. Here are a couple of the pictures we took of Liam back on Hui-Hui's "Gotcha Day":
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