Day 6 ~ Halfway home

Today we had an appointment for Wu Yi to have her medical exam.  We were told to dress her so that she can be "easily examined".  For those of you keeping up with the blog, you already know that Wu Yi will not let us remove her clothes!  She is very agreeable to most things we ask ~ brushing her teeth, going to bed, going potty, eating, holding our hands and following us where ever we lead her.  With the exception of swapping her sweater (which had gotten dirty) for a new sweatshirt, she had not changed her clothes.  She did take a bath with Wendy's help, but demanded to put back on her original layers.  She is dressed for 20 degree weather and it is in the 70's here!  Poor little thing sweated all day yesterday and she sweats all night.  So, this morning, I decided I needed to be firm with her (for the first time).  I knew how to tell her that we were going to the Dr and that we needed to change her clothes.  She shook her head at me and backed up.  I playfully tried to tug her sleeve ~ she shook her head and backed up.  I said "please", I said "you do it", I offered her choices, I offered her candy, I left the room for privacy ~ when I returned she shook her head and backed up.  I made a serious attempt to just pull her shirt off and she hugged her arms tight and started to cry.  It became apparent to me that the only way to make her change her clothes was by force, and I did the brave thing and decided to let the Drs and nurses do it :).
We met our guide in the lobby, along with our friends the McCains, and our new friends (also from Seattle and WACAP) the Chens and their new baby boy.  We all piled into a van together and headed for the adoption medical office.  The office was small and crowded with dozens of other families from all over the world and their newly adopted kids.  We checked Wu Yi's height and weight, blood pressure, pulse, and temp, head and chest measurement, ears, mouth, and eyes (she had another "scowling" day and refused to cooperate with the vision tests), did a TB test (she cried a bit when she saw the needle, but held her arm still for it), and finally on to the full body inspection.  We had a 2nd pair of clothes at the ready (the loosest, most comfy things I brought) and I asked our guide to explain to the Dr that we needed to get her clothes off.  The Dr was a really sweet guy, and when he saw that Wu Yi didn't want to have her clothes off, he decided to just work around them!  I begged and plead to the guide to make him understand that she was starting to smell bad from sweat and needed new clothes, and together, the 3 of us (me, Dr, and guide Elsie) stripped her down and redressed her.  I'm not a totally horrible mom though~  I let her keep her snowboots on top of clean socks!  One of the other families there saw the trouble we were having and told us that their 4 year old son had done the same thing at first, but that once he had "let go" of the Chinese clothes it wasn't an issue again.  Keep your fingers crossed ~ she will need a bath again in the next day or two.
The rest of the day went smoothly as we explored the area around the hotel with the McCains.  Shelly broke her leg last month and is on crutches ~ what a trooper she is to be on this trip!  The hotel rented her a wheelchair but you have to use pedestrian bridges to cross every street around her!  Don did some wheelchair pushing while I held Wu Yi's hand and Brad carried their new daughter in a snugly.
By late afternoon when we returned to the hotel, Wu Yi was ready to make some phone calls.  She cried a bit on the phone, but less than in days past.  I'm glad no one hung up on her today, but Don did eventually have to secretly unplug the phone when it was getting to be time for bed.  She ignored his "last call" instructions. 
All in all, today was a better day.  She held my hand pretty tightly when we were out and her scowl is starting to turn into an expression of acceptance.  Don and I find her completely adorable!!  We can't wait to get her home.