Packing, Potties, and Bottles

A few months ago, I posted on Facebook a suggested packing list for China.  It was FIVE pages long, listing anything and everything you might need while in the country.
Since our boys aren't infants, there are some items on the list we can disregard, but most items will be needed or at least seriously considered.
From studying various packing lists, we get one big idea:

Less clothes. More medicine.

There will be a nearby Wal-Mart in at least three of the four cities we will visit, so we can purchase some items there such as an umbrella stroller, clothes for the boys, diapers and some foods.  Evidently, they don't have American-type over-the-counter medications, so we have been advised to take a LOT!
For us: stomach medicines, sleep aids, decongestants, cough suppressants and pain relievers.  For the boys, we pack the same type pediatric medications, skin creams, lotions, first-aid supplies and doctor-prescribed antibiotics. By the look of my packing list, we're going to need one suitcase to serve solely as a medicine cabinet.

Another helpful tip we read was to take one package of American diapers.  For whatever reason, the ones in China aren't quite as absorbant, which just means we will change them more often.  The recommended American package of diapers is for the plane rides, when we may not have the opportunity to change the boys before an overflow.

That leads me to a question we get asked often:  Will the boys be potty-trained?  They very well could be.  From their pictures, we see that they don't currently wear diapers, but the customary split pants.  In China, most babies potty train at one year of age.  Little ones wear pants that are split on bottom, similar to our babies' "snap" pants, but worn with the snaps unfastened.  When the parents want the child to potty, they are held over a toilet, squatty, trash can, or whatever.  Even through our boys may be trained at this point, kids will often digress and begin having potty issues upon adoption.

That leads to yet another question my mom asked me the other day: Will the boys drink from bottles?  The answer is yes.  Even if we just bottle-feed them at nap time and bed time, we will be using bottles.  "Nursing" from a bottle held by either Ken or me will help the boys bond to us and begin to identify us as someone special, not like any other adult they come across in life.  We can't wait to get that process started!

While we wait, we'll be doing more reading, packing, shopping, waiting and praying.