One Year Ago . . . January 17th

Standing in the sunlight in our apartment's living room

The breakfast buffet at the Garden Hotel was amazing. Lots of delicious choices, Chinese and American, and the dining room was full of adopting families. Over the week, we would come to know many of them by sight and even spend some time chatting with some.

After breakfast, our guide met us to take us to Kellin's medical appointment (in order to enter the U.S., he needed to be checked to ensure he didn't have tuberculosis or other diseases). There was another family in Guangzhou working with our same agency, so for appointments like these, our guide escorted us together. The other family was adopting a little girl who was four or five years old; she was friendly and talkative, and she loved Kellin.

Upon arriving at the medical center, Kellin had to have his photograph taken - sitting on a stool. Yeah, I told them there was no way he could sit on that stool by himself for a picture. They allowed me to support him from behind in a way that I wouldn't show in the picture. We headed upstairs to wait for his medical check. The waiting room was full of people and it was loud. Once we were called back to the examining area, it was kind of a zoo. It was full of adopting families and children of various ages. The area was set up with stations - height/weight, ENT, general doctor, and TB test.

In the waiting room

Kellin was getting pretty uncomfortable and fussy by this point, because of all the commotion. He had his height and weight checked, which was about what I expected (weight around 19 pounds). We met with the ENT doctor, who primarily held a squeaky toy next to Kellin's ear and squeaked it loudly. Kellin did not respond. The doctor tried this over and over, with both ears, and Kellin never reacted like he had heard it. Our guide translated that the doctor believed Kellin could not hear. This was scary to hear, but I didn't believe it. Yes, Kellin often ignored sounds around him, but he most definitely responded when I sang to him! In addition, Kellin was VERY stressed during this examination, because of all the touching and all the commotion.

The ENT

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Kellin often behaved as though he was deaf during those first days and weeks. My personal hypothesis about this behavior is that in the orphanage, Kellin was probably surrounded by meaningless noise. That is, he may have heard people talking and walking around, children crying/playing, toys, objects being moved around - but since he couldn't see it, and no one ever connected the sounds with an object or person for him, he learned to tune it all out as meaningless background noise. As time went on, it became very clear that Kellin was NOT deaf; in fact, when sounds became meaningful for him, he demonstrated very good hearing.

Next we saw the general doctor. She listened to Kellin's heart and had me undress him for a quick physical examination. I will not forget the look on her face when she saw him undressed. With a sad look on her face and a quiet voice, she expressed that Kellin showed a "lack of nutrition." Although our conversation was very brief, I could tell that she was deeply affected by seeing how underweight and neglected Kellin was.

Kellin trying to push her away - he was DONE by this point!

The last station was the TB test. This was in a small room with a closed door, and parents were not allowed. I'm not sure if this was because of some medical protocol, or if it was to prevent newly adopted children from associating their new parents with a painful procedure. Our guide took Kellin in and he was back out quickly, crying of course. We would get the results of the TB test the next day.

When we returned to the hotel, Dad took Kellin upstairs to the apartment while the other adoptive mother and I went with our guide to the hotel's business center, so we could use the computers to complete more paperwork. It took longer than I had expected, but finally it was complete and I headed up to check on my son.

Later that afternoon, I started singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with Kellin while pulling his arms back and forth in beat to the song. After I did this a few times, he started pulling on my arms when I stopped the song to indicate that he wanted to sing more. This was his first attempt at communication (other than crying) and the first time he had initiated anything on his own. That moment was so exciting, and I must have sung that song a dozen or more times.

Another quiet evening in the hotel. We had plans to go out and do some sight-seeing the next day, but we had been told the hotel had strollers available for use, so we planned to ask for one of those and hope that Kellin could tolerate an outing better if he didn't have to be held the whole time.