Medical checks

It's nice to be here with so many other families we had met on Facebook before arriving.  We went to breakfast and I saw so many familiar faces.  Abigail's buddy Isabella is back with us again.  They had to go to a different province so we haven't seen her since Beijing.  

Abigail and Isabella... so happy to be together again!

Our travel group is 16 families so there are a lot of us from Holt all together.  We all met in the lobby at 9:30 and loaded two buses to the consulate for the medical checks.  This is an important step before we can get her visa to come home.  The kids have to go to four stations.  One for height, weight, and temperature, then to an ear, nose and throat, and then a general check, then finally for all children over two, they need to get their blood drawn for a TB test.  Sadly, Rachel turned two a few months ago so she had to get her blood taken.  They do no allow the parents in the room so that was awful for her and for us.  She came out screaming with her shirt soaked in tears.  I was standing with a lollipop prepared to cheer her up.  After that, we headed downstairs and waited for the other families to be done.  

After her medical check.  Lollipops do make all things better!

When Rachel reaches for daddy, she points up... she loves being thrown in the air!  Such a daddy's girl.

At 3pm today, I need to meet the Holt staff to review paperwork to prepare for our visa appointments.  Tomorrow and Monday are free days for us.  We plan to go to church tomorrow morning, then some shopping and hopefully the Safari Park on Monday.  Tuesday we have our visa appointments and then Wednesday we hope to receive our Visa and we'll be traveling to Hong Kong by train that night and staying at the hotel at the airport and then fly home Thursday morning.  That's what the rest of the trip looks like.  Happy Easter to everyone back home.  Sad not to be celebrating the risen King with everyone at Zarephath.