April 11th

We had to be up early this morning for the babies’ immigration medicals. Our departure at 8am from the hotel was delayed as a taxi driver purposely banged into our bus and claimed it was the driver’s fault. He had a loose mirror but no other damage (we suspect that the mirror was loose before and the taxi driver only wanted money -- which he got). The bus driver and the cab driver ended up in a heated discussion outside of the bus which resulted in the cab driver punching our guide Lily in the face. The Chinese cops showed up shortly afterwords and we headed on our way about 30 minutes late.

We arrived at the Vista Medical Clinic and began the final leg of paperwork. Our daughters were each weighed and measured. Just as we suspected, all the babies are very underweight with Lilah being the smallest at 6.1kg fully clothed (smaller than her referral weight in December). She’s not even on the growth chart for weight, but we’ll take care of that at home soon enough. She is 70 cm tall, so in the 50th percentile for height. Most of the babies are still recovering from a cold they came to us with. Several now have ear infections and are battling bronchitis as are their new parents, and as such were prescribed antibiotics.

Many of the gals are really starting to display their personalities. Lianna strikes me the most as having come out of her shell. Yesterday on the bus she was playing PeekABoo with me and giggling up a storm. Today she’s learned that old game of dropping stuff. This from a kid who was pretty much expressionless for several days last week.

We returned from the medicals, packed a bag, had some lunch and then headed back out for the Hongxiao Market (or Pearl Market), then Wangfujian pedestrian mall. I came back with only 10 Yuan – poor Joel nearly choked, until he saw the deals I got.

This evening Naomi, my dad and I took in a Chinese Acrobat show. I got the biggest kick out of hearing Naomi repeatedly holler out, “I just can’t believe it” for the whole theater to hear. She’s really changed so much during this trip and become a big girl.

Tonight I started the daunting task of packing. One more time and we’re home – I can’t wait. Actually, I need to figure out how much room I have left so that I can figure out how much more stuff I can buy.

Tomorrow most of our group is touring the Forbidden City in the morning. We plan to skip the tour in favour of having a relaxing breakfast for change. We’ll do lunch on the Hutong tour that we’re going on in the afternoon. Tomorrow evening is our last night as a group since four of our families are returning home early to accommodate Air Canada’s baby numbers. Hence we’ll be doing the Peking Duck Dinner then. I cannot believe we head home in two short days. I really enjoy Beijing and feel like we could stay here longer, but I'm also looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, if two kids ever really allow you to sleep!

Before I forget, here is our confirmed flight information. We are travelling Air Canada on Thursday April 14th.

Flight AC 30 departs Beijing at 4:30pm and arrives in Vancouver at 12:05pm on the same day at the Main Terminal. Anyone planning to meet us in Vancouver should know that we'll have a very short window to visit as we have to clear customs, then immigration and get to our next gate in three hours. You can meet us after the customs/immigration checkpoints, as we exit the glassed in area for international arrivals.

Flight AC100 departs Vancouver International Airport at 3pm arriving in Toronto at 10:29pm at Terminal One. As you exit the parking garage to enter the terminal, go right and head to the arrivals level.

The Quesnelle/Littlejohn family and the Vanderhorst family will be a day earlier. The Ireland Family will be staying in Vancouver and also doing the trip a day early.

Can't wait for you to meet sweet little Lilah. She's such a wonderful addition to our family.