Monday, September 3, 2007
GOTCHA DAY!

The most important post and we are late! Our gotcha day started uneventfully with the famous White Swan breakfast buffet. We strolled the grounds, made sure Luke had a good nap then left the hotel at 2:00 p.m. for the Civil Affairs Office. No one was there. Nannies from Yang Xi Social Welfare Institute show up with our babies, but we could not hold them until the Civil Affairs officers arrive and orchestrate the handoff. Thank goodness about five minutes later someone showed up to unlock the door and turn on the lights to a very nice office. The babies and a large American group arrived shortly thereafter. The babies were whisked into another room. The Americans joined us.

The Yang Xi nannies told us the babies had slight colds. We could see runny noses from a distance. Cici went into the baby room and came out a few minutes later with a very serious look on her face. Lilia had a fever of 39.7 degrees Celsius. Terry, our trusty engineer, converted that to 105 degrees farenheight. Yikes. Cici said this was very serious and we would need to go straight to a hospital after we received the babies. She said a local hospital would be cheaper, but we opted for a western hospital with English speaking doctors. Cici told the other three families in our group not to ask questions of the orphanage staff so she could get our family straight to the hospital.

Lance went into another room to turn over the orphanage donation and gifts for the nannies. The orphanage official came running out shortly thereafter to tell Dolores and another relative to delete photos they had taken of the money exchange. Hmmm.

Dolores and Luke caught the bus back to the White Swan with the other families while Lance, LeeAnn and Lilia went with Cici to find a taxi. That took at least 15 minutes. What a sight. Lance carrying a very sick baby, LeeAnn schlepping a large backpack and video camera, Cici waving her arms in rush hour traffic with cars, buses and pedestrians going every which way. It also had to be at least 90 degrees with 90% humidity.

The English-speaking doctors operate on the fifth floor of a five star hotel. We got a very middle eastern doctor from Jordan. The consultation started off as a lecture about the Chinese adoption process, how we have no concrete medical history on this baby. He said they were treating too many sick babies from the international adoption program and mentioned a boy that died last month. He pointed to his watch and said his responsibility for her started at this exact time (4:00 p.m.) since none of us had any knowledge of Lilia’s prior conditions or medications administered. Note that he spoke English, but with a very heavy accent.

We were then taken to a treatment room where what seemed like half a dozen nurses (at least they were dressed like nurses) gave Lilia warm compresses and drew blood for a blood screening. They also gave her a suppository for her fever. After an hour or so, her fever began to go down. Dr. Friendly came back with the blood test results. He said Lilia was severely anemic and had tonsillitis and bronchilitis with a bacterial infection causing the high fever. We told him we had Zithromax with us. He said that was too strong for an orphanage child and gave us Amoxicillin instead along with instructions on Tylenol and Motrin. He was very dramatic in showing us that we should check her constantly while sleeping to make sure she did not go into a coma. All of that cost us 228USD. We go back to see Dr. Friendly on Thursday afternoon for a follow up.

Getting a taxi back to the hotel was simpler from the five star Garden Hotel. Lx3 got back to the White Swan around 6:00 p.m. to L+D. We ordered takeout from Danny’s Bagel and called it a day. We hope this day is not indicative of Empress Lilia’s new life with us.

We are back at the room.
Lilia is exploring her new surroundings


Back at the room at the White Swan, Lilia’s first feeding with us. Luke is being a good big brother and helping.