Day 7 � Shanghai
Last night was rough! Grace�s cold has worsened and I think the grieving process might have begun. None of us got much sleep. Today is our last official appointment. We need to get Grace�s medical exam signed. Yesterday Mrs. He asked us if we had a gift for the doctor who will sign the medical exam. We don�t have one, so she offered to get one for us (thank you Mrs. He!). We meet Mrs. He in the lobby and take yet another taxi to the Number 1 People�s Hospital. When we get there we are ushered into a cubby where the doctor peruses Grace�s medical exam, make a few notations and signs the medical exam form. All of Grace�s paperwork is now done! After presenting the doctor with his gift (we have NO idea what it was), Mrs. He takes us to see Dr. Hong who will take a look at Grace. Dr. Hong is very nice and speaks English very well. They take Grace�s temperature and listen to her chest. He pronounces that she has bronchitis and prescribes an American antibiotic (he makes sure that we understand that he is prescribing an American medicine), and also gives us Chinese cough medicine and nose drops for her as well. At one point during the examination the nurse who was assisting the doctor picked up Grace to walk her around while the doctor was talking to us. Grace started screaming, but stopped as soon as she was handed back to me. You could see the amazement in her eyes that Grace would prefer to be with one of us, and the gratification on Mrs. He�s face that Grace was already bonding to us. The appointment with the doctor and all the medicines came to $160 RMB (about $20 U.S.).
We head back to the hotel and attempt to give Grace her medicine. I think we managed to get most of the cough medicine (smells bad, imagine it tastes even worse!) and the antibiotic (strawberry flavored) into her. The nose drops are another matter entirely! Grace can�t feel too bad though, as her appetite is still there. After we feed her lunch we clear out of the room and kill some time walking around the hotel while they make up our room. We return to the room and Grace and Daddy settle down for the afternoon. I decide to take a walk and explore. We had managed to find a �tourist� map of Shanghai while they cleaned our room and it looks like there is a Hard Rock Caf� pretty close to our hotel. After walking about 10 minutes in a direction we hadn�t gone before I find a section of town that appears to be geared toward the English-speaking person. After only one wrong turn, not only do I find the Hard Rock Caf�, but also a Tony Roma�s and a small, well-stocked grocery store filled with American items. Yippee!! No more cab rides to get Grace more food and diapers.
After getting back we try again with Grace�s medicine and then put her into the stroller so that Mommy and Daddy can have a REAL dinner at the Hard Rock Caf�! It only takes about 15 minutes to get to the restaurant. Everyone at the Hard Rock was wonderful and adored Grace. They took a wonderful Polaroid of the three of us and gave Grace her first balloon and a stuffed teddy bear (which we later lost at some point). Jude and I both got pulled-pork sandwiches (yummy) and Tiger beer, a local beer from Shanghai. What a great dinner and a wonderful change after the last few nights! We hit the grocery store after dinner for more milk, diapers and baby food.
We passed through the park on the way home and it was quite magical. The fountains were turned on and they had music playing; people were dancing and everything was beautifully lit. On the walk back we ran into an older gentlemen who we had talked to in the park the other day; he was very interested in Grace and the adoption process. Once back at the hotel Grace and I take a bath, more medicine for Grace, a bottle and then to bed for everyone. |
