6 shots. Youch!

Today was medical exam day for many of us families. This included waiting at the Chinese Examination Office for a couple of hours while 20+ families waited to see the Dr. The adopted children have a brief physical exam and then they have shots. When we adopted Malea we had the option to choose to wait to return to the US and do her shots that she may have been behind on in a slower fashion but now under the new Hague Convention Adoption Rules, all children must be fully immunized before they leave their native country. So for Elani and many of the other kids that meant 7 shots today. Not too fun of a day for them, and we weren't crazy about her having all those shots in one day either but didn't have a choice. After the Doctor performed her "physical exam" she informed me that Elani has a cleft lip and palate. Oh, thanks for letting me know that, I might have missed out on that otherwise. Above Elani and Malea are passing the time in the clinic playing with some other siblings of adopted babies. Lots of cute little Chinese kids running around!
Things are so different then 3 years ago when we adopted Malea as far as the health of the children that are being adopted from here. When Malea joined our family, all 13 of the babies in our travel group were considered healthy and non-special needs. Today basically all of the children that we saw and met in the clinic had some type of a special need ranging from cleft lip to albinsim, to missing limbs. It is so awesome to know that these kids will be getting good medical care and love from the families that are taking them home.

This is the doctor who informed us that she has cleft lip and palate.:)

Marc remembered this doctor who performed Malea's exam 3 years ago and so we had to get her picture with him. What a change from 2007! She was a crying, scared little girl last time she saw him.

Getting all her shots.

Relaxing after a busy morning.