tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25168883936468441022024-02-21T22:48:54.558-08:00BlessingsForMadiA personal blog documenting our journey to adopt our daughter from China.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-63277866903221227172014-12-26T21:38:00.000-08:002014-12-26T21:38:14.420-08:00A Frozen Merry Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: center;">This was Madeline's 3rd Christmas with us, she is now 3 1/2 years old & is in Love with anything from "Frozen". So for our Christmas Card this year we decided to dress in hints of blues. Photo was taken by Madi's Godfather <a href="http://ryanbeckphotography.com/" target="_blank">Ryan</a> on a white background, then daddy designed the "Frozen" themed graphics. Madi was overjoyed with "Elsa's" castle in the far back. When she first saw the card she said to us "wow, it's beautiful! May I put it in my room?" I had made her dress a few months ago to wear to a friend's wedding, and since we didn't have any clear photos of her in it, we thought it would be perfect for our card.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">A brief update on our daughter: Madeline continues to thrive at home. She's talking a lot more, and has a sweet, funny personality. She loves puzzles, legos, paint, and play dress up. She's been a busy little girl too. She attends a preschool-like parent & tot class for two hours every Friday, participates in our Parish's children's ministry where she dances Folklorico and participates on occasion in the children's choir. She completed her first year of Ballet/Tap dance class at Valverde School of Performing Arts, and in her 3rd month of beginning Piano also at <a href="http://www.vspa.net/" target="_blank">Valverde School of Performing Arts</a>. She was invited to perform in two live shows, the summer program being the largest, which showcased at the <a href="http://www.lewisfamilyplayhouse.com/" target="_blank">Lewis Family Playhouse</a>, where she was part of the opener/closer in addition to her ballet recital. We couldn't be more proud of our daughter, and we love how much joy & laughter she has brought to our family. We are lucky to be able to work from home as well, so that we can be with her daily and enjoy her blossom. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">I will try to update more often, as I realize this blog still gets visitors who have followed Madi's story. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Merry Christmas to all, and may 2015 bring you much happiness and joy!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-17073639774534275842013-11-25T17:48:00.001-08:002013-11-25T19:20:35.474-08:00Remembering Gotcha Day....1 year later. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XazmoEuexEEC5NBIT7VchBDd_ONKYe7RYBmGnsabVCjU12bM-6dF8NBMAqM0M-Q_McCHCZ5BeyoOmu5yALQRZVEupi_gn-56YxxGHBYCXkuF16WKgxeoM-Zbw8r9gNzfg_sh7cTdIYaG/s1600/MadiDay.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XazmoEuexEEC5NBIT7VchBDd_ONKYe7RYBmGnsabVCjU12bM-6dF8NBMAqM0M-Q_McCHCZ5BeyoOmu5yALQRZVEupi_gn-56YxxGHBYCXkuF16WKgxeoM-Zbw8r9gNzfg_sh7cTdIYaG/s640/MadiDay.png" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo was taken by the orphanage director's wife just minutes before we were handed our daughter<br />
at the Galactic Peace Hotel in Nanchang, China. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Exactly one year ago today, we met our daughter in China for the very first time. It was Sunday, November 25, 2012. We were told by our local guide Mary, that our daughter would be arriving at 4 pm that afternoon with the orphanage director and possibly her nanny. We were told that it was about a 6-7 hour drive from her orphanage in Ningdu County to our hotel in Nanchang. We were staying at the Galactic Peace, a beautiful 5 star hotel located in an incredibly busy intersection, where hundreds of cars, scooters, busses, and trucks seemed to navigate the streets in what seemed like orchestrated chaos. Looking back, I can't believe we had decided to venture out on our own around 1 pm that afternoon. Our local guide Mary had already taken us to the grocery market the day before so we figured we would be able to walk the 6 blocks or so on our own to pick up a few things before meeting our daughter. But as we walked these crazy busy chaotic streets, it started to drizzle on us, and I suddenly started to panic a little. We were only a few hours away from meeting our daughter, & the idea of getting drenched in the rain or somehow getting lost in the crowded streets or getting hit by a bus or even a scooter freaked me out a little. We both only had 1 semester of Chinese in our vocabulary, hardly enough to feel confident wandering the streets alone. Nanchang was not a city where you would easily find any people that spoke any English ( like in other cities in China ). Even our hotel staff was very limited. And so</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> halfway to the market, we turned ourselves around and headed back to our hotel. Around 2:30 or so, we decided to grab a bite to eat in our hotel dining room. There we met up with Andrea and her mom who were also going to be getting their little girl. We all ordered hamburgers and fries, a familiar taste from home. It was nice catching up with Andrea, a woman I had met through our FaceBook adoption support group. She had also been waiting over 6 years to be matched up, and she was traveling with her mom Joyce, a very sweet and excited grandma to be. As we savored our last bites and shared our excitement of meeting our girls in a matter of hours, "daddy to be" got up to take a peak through the glass window to check out the activity of the entrance to the hotel. I will never forget how we all quickly jumped out of our seats as he screamed "I think I see Madi downstairs!" She was wearing a yellow snowsuit which appeared to be over a few other layers of clothes & was holding the orphanage director's hand. Although she seemed a lot smaller in person than she appeared in the photos we had seen of her, we were certain it was her, with her cute little chubby cheeks. We quickly grabbed our video camera & started filming and then continued to the elevator to rush upstairs to our room. We had already been told that as soon as the babies would arrive, we would be getting a call in our room to let us know when they were heading up....or that was the initial plan. But as we waited anxiously in our rooms, and we no longer could contain ourselves, we received our call from our guide Mary and she asked us if we were ready for them to come up or if we wanted to come downstairs to meet her in the lobby. Without hesitation we both decided to just rush downstairs as we didn't think we could stand the anticipation. As soon as our elevators to the lobby downstairs opened, we were quickly greeted by our guide Mary, and then appears.... the most sweetest little girl with the chubby cheeks, dressed in bundles of clothes under a bright yellow soft snowsuit. She had a little scab on her nose and appeared to be quite frightened. Without any sort of gentle introduction, the orphanage director took her little hand and led her over to us and abruptly said "mama" "baba" "mama" baba". She cried and cried as her new daddy scooped her up into his arms and gently whispered into her ears that everything would be ok. But she continued to cry a deep sorrowful cry. We had just learned minutes after we received our daughter, that she had been living with a foster mother, her husband, and older married son, and not at the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">orphanage as we had initially been told.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> The cries were perhaps for her foster family & the only life she knew. But for as much as we felt her immense fear and </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">confusion, we knew in our hearts that she would one day grow to love us as her forever parents. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">A year later, today, Madeline is a confident, trusting, loving two and a half year old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">We are looking forward to a very special Thanksgiving Day this week, as we have so much to be thankful for. After dinner with close family, we are planning to watch our video footage of our Gotcha Day for the very first time, as well as our photos from our two week stay in China to relieve this miraculous event. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-2101638054278782252013-11-04T17:17:00.000-08:002013-11-04T17:17:51.821-08:00The Fabulous Two's!<div style="text-align: center;">
The last time I posted to this blog our Madeline had just turned 2 years old! </div>
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And since I never got around to posting any pics from her Bday party at the <a href="http://www.chinoyouthmuseum.com/" target="_blank">Chino Youth Museum</a>, here are a few </div>
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( although it is now 6 months later ). </div>
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Madeline continues to blossom! She is always learning new things, and continues to bring us so much joy! I'm hoping to update this blog a bit more since it's really the only way I have been documenting her life, and time seems to be flying by so fast. But I will try to do it in segments, like documenting our first summer together, her educational development, life with extended family & friends, and Halloween ( which was so much fun for her ). </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Happy Birthday = Happy Family!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Garden Theme </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kids sang Happy Birthday in English, Spanish, and Chinese</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Grandparents, Sister & hubby, & a long time family friend. </span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-50313987013884098982013-05-21T12:29:00.001-07:002013-05-21T12:29:51.927-07:00The First Time We Ever Saw Your Face....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444;">Exactly 1 year ago today, we received our long, long, awaited call! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;">But even though we had waited almost 6 years for this call, we were still caught off guard, scared, excited, and relieved. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;">At the time, China had only been referring just a few Log In Dates at a time, so given its pattern, we were not expecting our referral call until June. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;">Needless to say, when we did receive our call, first thing on a Monday morning, we were overwhelmed with emotion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;">And then a few minutes later, we received these 3 precious little photos via email, and our hearts instantly knew that this was our Daughter, the one we had hoped for, prayed for, and loved in our hearts, long before she was even born.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;">Ning Xing Yao was her given name, and we were told she was residing at an orphanage in Ningdu County, Jiangxi, China, and had just turned 1 year old at the time. Little did we know at the time that it would be yet another 6 more months before we could meet her in person & kiss her sweet face, but for the time being, we held on to these little photos very tightly & counted the days until we could finally be together as a family.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;">Adoption is a beautiful thing! Not only do we get to enjoy the gift of becoming a family, but we also get to adopt many new beautiful traditions, anniversaries, and celebrations, like today -</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">May 21</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">Happy Referral Anniversary to us!</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">( and to all those families throughout the world with babies from China </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">who also received their referral on this date )</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-53523256923638334652013-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:002013-05-04T19:38:50.615-07:00You are now officially 2 years old, my sweet Madeline!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Dear Madeline,<br />
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You turned 2 years old on May 1, 2013 my sweet girl, and your daddy & I were so happy you were finally with us to celebrate this wonderful milestone. Here are a few things we'd like for you to know about your little self after only being with us for 6 months.<br />
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At 2 years old you have continued to blossom in more beautiful ways that we can count. You have attached very strongly to mama & daddy and have even started to cry out for "daddy" whenever we have to run errands without him.<br />
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You also adore your Pake & Beppa, and get so excited every time they come to visit you or when we take you over to visit them. You also love your abuelita and abuelito but for some reason, you tend to be a little more naughty with your abuelita.....maybe because it's hard for her to tell you "no".<br />
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Speaking of "no"....it's your favorite little word lately, as you have discovered just how powerful that little word can be. But you are still a sweet little girl who is quickly learning to save that little word for when it's really needed. You do not like to disappoint, and have started to show giddiness or even embarrassment when you either hear nice compliments about you, or we ask you to sing a song.<br />
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You love to hold hands, with us, your grandparents, and sometimes your favorite little playmates.<br />
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You have a strong willed personality, confident in what you want, and very wise for your very young age. You are starting to put two words and sometimes 3 words together to communicate with us. Just the other day you tapped me on my lap and said "mama, Lila bone", to tell me you wanted to give our dog Dalila a doggie bone to much on.<br />
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You continue to show great appreciation for music and dance, as you love holding a fake microphone to your mouth to sing, or dance away when you see dancing on t.v.<br />
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You always show a great desire to learn new things everyday. Your latest thing is asking for a pencil and saying "Mamalin" indicating you want to write your name Madeline on a piece of paper. You are the cutest when you start to sound out all the letters as mama holds your pencil to the paper. And if others are around, you are not shy to point at them and ask to write down their names on the paper too and then you will start to point at the names and then at the people to indicate their match.<br />
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You recently had your ears pierced ( per your request, as you would say "mama" and then point to my earings and then to your earlobes. You did the same when you wanted your toe nails painted. You love showing off your little painted toes.<br />
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You also seem to love fashion at your little age, always wanting to carry a purse, change your shoes, go through your little rack in your closet, and love putting on your plastic jewelry and sunglasses.<br />
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You are still being pretty good about going potty in the toilet and not in your pull up ( although sometimes you get a little distracted when there are visitors and you forget to tell me. But it has been months since I've even changed poopie diaper, so for that, Mama is very happy!<br />
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Although you seem to get along quite well with kids who are over 4 years old, for some reason, I still have to watch you very closely if you are ever around little ones. Whenever there is a baby or a 1 or 2 year old, you tend to get a little aggressive and charge towards them to try to pinch them, smack them, or pull on their clothes. Of course, I will always try to get to you before you get to them, but sometimes you are much quicker and have made a few little ones cry. Then mama will usually have to apologize to other mommies and then try to tell you not to hit your little friends. I'm not sure about how you spent your first 18 months of life, but I am assuming you may have had to fend for yourself many times and had to learn a few little survival skills on your own, weather it was snatching the few little toys available, or perhaps even food.<br />
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Although we celebrated a little bit with you on your Birthday a few days ago, we are looking forward to your birthday party set for this Sunday. We can't wait to see your little face as you enjoy all the fun at the museum with your little friends, and watch your face light up when we all sing "Hap Bee Bee Day" as you like saying.<br />
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Happy 2nd Birthday, my sweet little doll! You are a blessing in our lives.<br />
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Love,<br />
Mama & Daddy<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-13812557623378091182013-04-16T11:21:00.000-07:002013-04-16T11:21:22.577-07:00Approaching 2.....<br />
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Our little girl is now 23 months old......and in just a few more weeks she will be turning 2! </div>
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The good 'ol "terrible twos" as many of our friends have warned us! </div>
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Oh, but if they are referring to the stage where toddlers will suddenly start to become more explorative, more independent, develop a pickiness for food, decide that their favorite word is "no", and try to prove that they can do it all by themselves.....I think our little sassy gal is already there!</div>
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March was clearly a month in which our little Madeline suddenly decided she felt loved and secure enough in our home to begin to express more of her independence. </div>
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But for Goodness Sake.....she is just so cute as a bug! </div>
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It all started in early March when we decided to move her crib closer to my side of the bed to somehow make it more appealing for her to want to sleep in it. Ever since we returned home from China in December, she had not wanted to sleep in there, screaming every time we tried to lay her in it. And so we had decided not to push her, and had let her sleep with us in our Cal King bed. And although we loved having her get cozy cozy with us, her cute little kicking feet were becoming not so cute anymore. And then one day as I was rocking her in my arms she suddenly pointed her toe toward the crib and then I laid her in it and off to sleep she went. But although she now takes all her naps in there & sleeps in there during the night, there are times when she starts to whine or even cry ( from nightmares possibly ) and we'll still let her come with us to sleep. And then a few hours later, she'll wake up again a bit fussy and point to her crib with her hand and I'll lay her back in there until she wakes up again around 8:30-9am.<br />
She is so bossy, funny girl!<br />
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Also in March, she started a "Learn with Play" class for 1.5 to 3 year olds and their parents. Madeline loves going to this 2 hour, Friday class where she's learning to play and share with other children ( or defend herself when she gets shoved or stepped on ), and she has also been learning some fun songs, numbers, shapes, colors, and we both make a weekly craft together ( or sometimes daddy attends too ). She's got an awesome teacher, with amazing patience! We have her signed up until May and then we're considering swimming classes for the summer, since she loves splashing around in the tub pretending she is swimming!<br />
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Madi has also been understanding a ton of language ( both in English & Spanish ), although she isn't speaking much other than two syllable words, sometimes three. And she will get frustrated sometimes when she can't communicate to us what she needs, its almost like the words are in there somewhere but when we don't understand her she'll just start to whine and gets very frustrated and does this cute little waiving of the hands. And every now and then she's even tried to smack our hands ( more so with me ), but I've been very diligent about holding her hands when she does this and remind her not to hit mama or hit other kids etc. "only hug and kisses please". And lately whenever I have to say this to her, she'll have that frustrated pouty lip look for a while until she finally puckers up to give me a kiss, it's so funny!<br />
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But overall, this stage ( although challenging at times ) is still a fun stage & very enjoyable to be able to watch her learn. We are looking forward to celebrating her 2nd birthday next month! She loves singing the "appy biday" song, so we can't wait to watch her as her little friends sing it to her! We will be having it at a nearby children's museum where there are miniature buildings for kids and a pretend stage etc. We took Madi there once & she just absolutely loved it ( I loved it too & wouldn't mind celebrating my own birthday there ).<br />
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Until next time.....here are a few pics of our little sassy gal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ringing their bells in class to help them learn when to make noise & when to be quiet, "shhhhhhh"!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuzSXmkbqi3XNRWfcngiyRnZXjkdSfFWJA8r01PXAtoIW34o44GqQK6V7BkKGRWkTBG5Qyv-FLSf1bj36PTBQXAlQD2qhDPSh6SWhj8BP4zZjQn04drCBWadptONgpgi-wsKwWKLnEHYoq/s1600/DSC_0089.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuzSXmkbqi3XNRWfcngiyRnZXjkdSfFWJA8r01PXAtoIW34o44GqQK6V7BkKGRWkTBG5Qyv-FLSf1bj36PTBQXAlQD2qhDPSh6SWhj8BP4zZjQn04drCBWadptONgpgi-wsKwWKLnEHYoq/s640/DSC_0089.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She is loving her Daddy more and more each day! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzg1GvZ5QJRvUURsyv5f2aO0qYfu6lI04lQAwvJLu5xao9LafV8XUCQo2hkcNw8Usd-4gJN3miStLR0NYzG77AZrUjEN5evdh7_lrCvjaAEFQF9GDl5MgV_KxnSzQ05Nf8f6GRexrLHOJ6/s1600/IMG_6480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzg1GvZ5QJRvUURsyv5f2aO0qYfu6lI04lQAwvJLu5xao9LafV8XUCQo2hkcNw8Usd-4gJN3miStLR0NYzG77AZrUjEN5evdh7_lrCvjaAEFQF9GDl5MgV_KxnSzQ05Nf8f6GRexrLHOJ6/s640/IMG_6480.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Have I mentioned she loves bugs?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Pake & Beppa's house on Easter, helping to water the garden. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shedding some cute little tears of frustration.........</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUSeCl8W9G0V3bwTttdk0pBRn1HI8u20tiTe7wzJrC2d86TjTzH-Yj1oxz-7JoWph1cGiwVteANzWyXenrbO6vgNNRbjGpcVazocknLFyMNDi2OhfQIPxlpz3PknKPFQlll08w7upQr5C/s1600/IMG_6669.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUSeCl8W9G0V3bwTttdk0pBRn1HI8u20tiTe7wzJrC2d86TjTzH-Yj1oxz-7JoWph1cGiwVteANzWyXenrbO6vgNNRbjGpcVazocknLFyMNDi2OhfQIPxlpz3PknKPFQlll08w7upQr5C/s640/IMG_6669.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is she sassy or what? She loves wearing her glasses & colorful jewelry & holding purses & changing her shoes throughout the day!<br /> ( She also recently got her ears pierced, oh my! )</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She got her first tricycle in March. Can't quite peddle it yet, but still enjoys it very much.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She loved her first visit to the beach while her twin cousins were visiting from up North!<br /> It was still a bit cold, but she still enjoyed playing in the sand.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sporting the new messenger bag I made for her. </td></tr>
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We think she's got the best smile!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-70482083690468388492013-02-25T16:33:00.001-08:002013-02-25T16:50:38.836-08:003 Months since Gotcha!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Madeline has continued to thrive with us! </div>
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In addition to bringing us our daily joy & laughter, her understanding of both English & Spanish have been outstanding! Abuelita Cari speaks to her mostly in Spanish ( as do I on occasion ) and she has really been responding well to certain requests. She's a very smart little girl who currently prefers books over toys. She also has been mimicking what she sees in photos or on television when it's on, although she's not all that interested in cartoons, she really does prefer for one of us to read her a book or enjoys playing with her little kitchen. This past week she also had a few playdates with her little friends, and she really enjoys that playtime. We will soon be attending a "parent & me class" on Fridays where she will enjoy music, books, and interaction with other children, so I am looking forward to that. </div>
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Speaking of mimicking....click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh1IPiAJfRA" target="_blank">here</a> to see her do her version of sit ups after seeing mama do it. </div>
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On the not so rosy side of things.......Madi was sick with the flu a few weeks ago & it was miserable for her & for all of us. It was not easy watching her suffer with a runny nose, fever, cough, no appetite, and super sensitive especially during the night. She would wake up on occasion just terrified, and crying, wanting only to be held by mama. It was very hard for daddy to try to sooth her, but after a few days of this, she was slowly getting back to her old self and was less clingy, poor little gal. What helped was also giving her a little panda to hold on tight as she would wake up crying, we would tell her, "hold your baby panda and tell him don't cry panda, mama is right here". She really took up on this & it seemed to really calm her a lot quicker. Madi herself is a good little care taker. </div>
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But after about a week and a half of this misery, Madi was soon up and running again, and we are so happy about it! She did end up giving us her sickness ( although not the flu part, just a yucky cold ), but it was all good...better us than her. </div>
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Here's a few more pics of our little sunshine. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq7oOPd1Kd0fHiAPvLU5N1Rlu4wuwVQDtc9NYSfErI-tmD_qS6vgpDYbzwqhJCa5gr01WuDbgKL2_Pk7rWgoMJNElh7OMadkNS7-YpjXkFNLGhVpx0yOQtz28h1COKGSbUuhdGFu8jR6ac/s1600/DSC_0119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq7oOPd1Kd0fHiAPvLU5N1Rlu4wuwVQDtc9NYSfErI-tmD_qS6vgpDYbzwqhJCa5gr01WuDbgKL2_Pk7rWgoMJNElh7OMadkNS7-YpjXkFNLGhVpx0yOQtz28h1COKGSbUuhdGFu8jR6ac/s640/DSC_0119.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmvyeKhFoy1BU3Bk1qCwQv_dIM7ourGJGrVfqN7qgoKtUbftjykf4Te3IF88WoIcvie-DoiFgrEEp24_2d8XnU7aejbdHsj9G11CiaYM1l2rsL8Rsm-DRn53V12J4zpCWDh0ONNMElgjP/s1600/DSC_0014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmvyeKhFoy1BU3Bk1qCwQv_dIM7ourGJGrVfqN7qgoKtUbftjykf4Te3IF88WoIcvie-DoiFgrEEp24_2d8XnU7aejbdHsj9G11CiaYM1l2rsL8Rsm-DRn53V12J4zpCWDh0ONNMElgjP/s640/DSC_0014.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here she is helping to wash some dishes again ( she loves to help )! & since she was so sick during all the Chinese New Year's festivities, we still decorated around the house for her. </td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-20962055331920596912013-02-04T13:33:00.000-08:002013-02-04T13:33:06.782-08:00Warmer weather, books, and Lunar Fest!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
It's just now starting to get warmer in California, so Madi has been excited to be wearing dresses with no tights, or coats, or boots, or hats! </div>
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Lately she's been into books, and more books. A nice friend gave us a box full of books, some hardly used, and some brand new! </div>
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She found this tiny little one called Danny the Duck, that she just loves!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhuAhxssLnWq9VCxbQt3vQ-Ixh6cfVHfE7_6Rs4r8dVX1wiw0kNwnyuegsZyqc6Gqy5nxbJmS-VVT4bM5Ado17bbTn5YE4pB0GLGpXZTp5t0DCvh5zntEIDDnwP0nJIYC16MW0ygmgld1X/s1600/dannyduck.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhuAhxssLnWq9VCxbQt3vQ-Ixh6cfVHfE7_6Rs4r8dVX1wiw0kNwnyuegsZyqc6Gqy5nxbJmS-VVT4bM5Ado17bbTn5YE4pB0GLGpXZTp5t0DCvh5zntEIDDnwP0nJIYC16MW0ygmgld1X/s640/dannyduck.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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And since Chinese New Year is already approaching us, we took Madeline to her first Lunar Festival at a nearby town a few weekends ago. There were lots of performances, food, music, and lots of activities for kiddos. She seemed to really enjoy the music and the free noodle samples!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-51375900045267222402013-01-25T13:24:00.002-08:002013-01-25T13:32:36.164-08:002 months since Gotcha!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Today we celebrate 2 months since Madeline came into our lives. We met her on November 25, 2012 in a hotel lobby in Nanchang, China. She was a very scared, confused, sad little girl. And who can blame her? She didn't know us, and she was leaving behind the only life she knew. But after 2 months of sharing our lives together, it really feels as if she has been with us her entire life. We have all been sharing lots of beautiful and sometimes very funny moments together. She is no longer showing nearly as much anxiety when she meets strangers. Since we've been home, she has had at least one new visitor almost everyday, getting to know each one of them slowly. </div>
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Thank you to all who have stopped by to visit. </div>
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She has also slowly learned to trust & love our dog Dalila just as much as we do. </div>
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Here she is feeding her "Lila". </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGdifwssqO_CUNRkWyQEIcopS7HDZtD-zYssc1e06hMeHSR35bdWdg9Xc916hwLRcnhvekK7G9rm0pAk2d-LePq2x5NA88azAi3HlgBUyfdOK6qNAvAkM0PRCb0dVsosORuGxdXIJzWvDP/s1600/madifeedinglila.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGdifwssqO_CUNRkWyQEIcopS7HDZtD-zYssc1e06hMeHSR35bdWdg9Xc916hwLRcnhvekK7G9rm0pAk2d-LePq2x5NA88azAi3HlgBUyfdOK6qNAvAkM0PRCb0dVsosORuGxdXIJzWvDP/s640/madifeedinglila.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's a few other things we are celebrating during our 2 months together:</div>
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She has learned a lot of new words, mostly 1 syllable, but sometimes even 2 or 3 like "butterfly" or "tortilla", or "apple pie".</div>
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She hasn't been too crazy about Mami's bland food, so I've been adding more spices which she seems to like better. & she also still loves using her chopsticks!</div>
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She can understand us when we tell her to go do stuff like "go get your red squeeky shoes from your drawer", or "go get your coat so we can go outside", or even greater: "go to daddy's office & bring me the paper from the printer"....she will actually walk through the hallway, go to daddy's office, tap on his knee to get the paper & return it to Mami. </div>
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She loves to help do chores around the house, whether it's helping Mami do dishes, or rake leaves outside, help feed the dog, sweep, or wipe the furniture. ( We are sure that the foster family she was living with in China engaged her with little things like this ).</div>
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She also Loves to peel onions! Yes, onions! She will go straight to our pantry, grab an onion & entertain herself for minutes peeling it, while we watch her intently and giggle at her cuteness. Lately when we go grocery shopping, we will just give her an onion and a little plastic bag & she's as content as can be. Until she's done, then she'll want to help put items in the cart, swipe our card through the paying machine, and want to help bag the groceries and help carry them too, thank you very much!</div>
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She loves all of her purses & shoes! She's gotten several passed down from either myself, her auntie, or grandma. She'll carry her favorite items in there like her bracelets, her glasses, a little phone, a plastic onion ( after Mami swapped it from the real one ), and sometimes a jar a Vicks. The girl loves to smell Vicks! Who knew?</div>
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We are Thankful Every Single Day for Madeline coming into our lives! </div>
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She is Exactly the little girl we had dreamed and prayed about during our 6 year wait for her referral. </div>
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Leaving you with a few images of our sweetie.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZv_bb71QGxEh_Fw6VxHhZxWpHWAo1Kf6NDWFNQ7U62Fq-8_7aTdWLmYYCCXEoj3B4YtQ37QcPFmWnm-8br00Q4NuM51cTf0_nQYh1zTM7eZ1jcYvEBNUh5krSOMhDOrpKbvXmTfDb9xA_/s1600/collage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZv_bb71QGxEh_Fw6VxHhZxWpHWAo1Kf6NDWFNQ7U62Fq-8_7aTdWLmYYCCXEoj3B4YtQ37QcPFmWnm-8br00Q4NuM51cTf0_nQYh1zTM7eZ1jcYvEBNUh5krSOMhDOrpKbvXmTfDb9xA_/s640/collage.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's another one of her enjoying her absolute FAVORITE book! A Mother for Choco! She will bring this book to us every single day for one of us to read it to her. </div>
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And if you want to see the youtube vid, go <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qknXk4frfe8" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBLeiSw2WRQz03qQ9LgPGa77730gHzLBWCNDA6InkBQ-L4fFORoL-iehhjp16HglJLcitOnnbvreJu8xUR7fIkOTjnyxBjdz381VYwYFZXv66w9L8bY5ngF2sixjitfoLtlE1VMXCW1st/s1600/IMG_5012+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBLeiSw2WRQz03qQ9LgPGa77730gHzLBWCNDA6InkBQ-L4fFORoL-iehhjp16HglJLcitOnnbvreJu8xUR7fIkOTjnyxBjdz381VYwYFZXv66w9L8bY5ngF2sixjitfoLtlE1VMXCW1st/s640/IMG_5012+2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Our little happy girl loves taking her baby out for walks, rain or shine!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vSEnGXaeUoaU3vZDY2Rw-x72JziNdP5HzJ4D47hJopPVFFXNpG1TDNWKmderOZ__sU1CWyQVD8JEvp2qgqoEdFmawrqSXclSaXBYssQ56Ofabe-vosZx_lm0rX8GJTp-aPfHIg_wSChI/s1600/IMG_5311.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vSEnGXaeUoaU3vZDY2Rw-x72JziNdP5HzJ4D47hJopPVFFXNpG1TDNWKmderOZ__sU1CWyQVD8JEvp2qgqoEdFmawrqSXclSaXBYssQ56Ofabe-vosZx_lm0rX8GJTp-aPfHIg_wSChI/s640/IMG_5311.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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She loves her sunglasses too!</div>
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And if you are into sewing, or crafting, you can always visit my other blog <a href="http://mklittle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">MKLittle</a> where I'm sure I'll be posting a few more pics of our little doll since I really enjoy making things for her.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-49406312070430002542013-01-06T12:26:00.000-08:002013-01-07T12:35:38.210-08:003 Kings Day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We Love having this little kitten around.....</div>
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She's been a lot of fun lately. </div>
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Got this cute little corduroy dress at Gymboree the other day & I couldn't pass it up for under $10 for three pieces. Too bad the sleeves are rolled up in this photo, but it's got cute little bows at the edges & ruching along the sides, and a peter pan collar. Very cute!</div>
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And today we took her to mass once again. It was El Dia de los 3 Reyes ( <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/epiphany" target="_blank">3 Kings Day</a> ) celebrated by Catholics or Christians in general. She did so-so, enjoying the music and watching people, but then she wanted down and walk on the side isle to look through the big side windows. She kept quiet for the most part, except when I made the mistake of taking out her favorite little animal book and wanted me to read it.....out loud! Here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkQ00E9v7iU" target="_blank">video clip</a> of her Abuelita "trying" to read her the same book on the way to mass...pretty funny!</div>
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"No Madi, I'd tell her, we need to be "sh sh". She would then mimmick me doing the "sh sh"with her little finger then pointed to the book and make a sort of grunting noise, like to tell me "read it". </div>
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She then spotted her little friends Sydney & Raegan, and wanted nothing to do with her mama anymore, just hold their hands and wonder off. Good think that Mass was over by this time. We were able to hold her off for a few minutes to snap these photos, after she blew kisses to baby Jesus. </div>
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She really wanted to get closer to the nativity display but Mama didn't think that was a good idea. Knowing Madi, she would most likely want to pick up baby Jesus to take him with her or try putting it in her backpack. </div>
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We then took the kids for some donuts and juice ( sugar.....oh, it's the happy drug for kids ). She had a blast learning how to "Ring around the Rosy", and playing in the little play kitchen in one of the rooms. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-31358982566256639892013-01-02T14:14:00.001-08:002013-01-02T14:14:57.175-08:002013...Our New Chapter as a Family!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It was a Beautiful and Glorious day on January 1, 2013, as we were finally able to begin a new year as a family of three. We will always remember 2012 as our 6th & final year of our wait to receive the referral of our precious daughter from China. In May of last year we received the call & email of our lifetime, which included details and three photos of our little Ning Xing Yao from Ningdu County, Jiangxi, China. With only a few details about her, they were enough for us to fall completely in Love with this little girl who had just turned 1 at the time. We just could not wait to meet her, and experience the miracle of becoming a family through adoption. Then about 6 months later we were able to take the trip of our lifetime, halfway around the world, to meet our daughter for the first time. What a miraculous day it was! We will forever cherish those days in China & look forward to posting more photos of our trip here on the blog since we were not able to do so as much while we were there. It was a very difficult transition for all of us at first, as our dear little one was grieving the life she was leaving behind. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Today, as we reflect on our journey, we are Thankful to all of our friends & family & sometimes even strangers, who were supportive of our very long wait & who celebrated right along with us, on this amazing experience! It has meant so much to us to have these special people express their genuine love and support always, especially during the times we felt like our wait would never end. There were many times where it was just so emotionally overwhelming for us....but there were always angels around us who would scoop us right up and recharge our spirits and give us the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">strength we needed to be patient.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Secondly, we will forever be Thankful to the foster family in China who raised Madeline, loved and kept her safe during her first year of her life. She is a very sweet, and loving little girl, whose very observant, intelligent, and fully capable of accomplishing great things in her life. We are so lucky to be able to experience her development in life right beside her, as her new forever parents. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">We are also Thankful to China for making our match and allowing us to bring our daughter home, and also Thankful to the US for granting her full Citizenship. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">But most importantly, we are Thankful to GOD for allowing all of this to happen! There is no doubt in our minds that our little Madeline was meant exclusively for us! All those years of waiting....especially during the holidays were so difficult for us. But somehow, we held on to the only two things we could ( despite all the challenges we faced, whether financially, or emotionally, or physically )...& those things were Hope & Faith! </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Happy New Year's to All & may you also and always hold on to Hope & Faith, to make all of your dreams possible!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">photo by <a href="http://ryanbeckphoto.com/" target="_blank">Ryan Beck</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-87697826105584533562012-12-27T15:36:00.000-08:002012-12-27T15:36:05.636-08:00Christmas Joy!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We spent our first Christmas morning as a family at home celebrating with a simple breakfast and watching Christmas Music performances on the television. Madeline was just as happy as can be, lounging with her daddy on his favorite chair, then dancing and babbling away. I just love to watch her develop trust and love towards her daddy.....what a difference a month has made. </div>
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She has brought us so much Joy! </div>
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Later in the day we drove over to Beppe and Pake's house ( grandparents in Dutch ). She was fully asleep when we arrived, so we just left her in her carseat & brought her inside. She must have slept for about 2.5 hours, which meant all the adults ate & cleaned up & then once she woke up she was a happy girl, ready to eat & open up her first Christmas presents from the grand folks. She received lots of new clothes, and her very first play kitchen. Then she kept us all entertained with her little plush elephant she received from our friends on Christmas Eve, which wiggles its ears & plays a song. She absolutely Loves this little elephant. We will post a video of it to our youtube account ( under the name of marsigirl ). </div>
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Here's a few other photos of her today. We had breakfast at one of our favorite little Mexican restaurants in the next town nearby. We had our usual Chile Verde Omelette with fresh tortillas & Madeline had some pancakes with strawberry jelly....her very favorite. It was so cute watching her eat as she wiggled her head from side to side to the beat of the Christmas Songs playing in Spanish. </div>
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Then we stopped at her Abuelita's ( grandmas ) house that's nearby to visit the neighborhood kids, where she played some ball with some of them. She loves chasing after kitties. When we came home we let Dalila our dog out in the front yard, which Madeline is also starting to get to know. She loves to call out for her "Lila", but she has to have her daddy help her to pet Lila and keep her secure. </div>
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It's been 1 month that we've had her. </div>
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And it's amazing how much she's bonded with us. </div>
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Our lives are richer and our our hearts just full of Love for her, that is for sure!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-30544625551627109242012-12-25T08:46:00.001-08:002012-12-25T08:46:58.987-08:00Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!<br />
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What a Special Christmas this will be indeed! We are so grateful for our new family. After so many years of sending our Christmas Cards with just our photo as a couple, we were thrilled to finally be able to send one out as a family! This year we mailed out 180 cards & we did our best to include family & friends who have been so supportive of our journey throughout the years. Many thanks to our dear friend <a href="http://ryanbeckphoto.com/" target="_blank">Ryan Beck</a>, for the captures! We did a few other shots with Madeline wearing her beautiful traditional Chinese dress & a few other outfits, but we'll have to share those later as soon as they are processed. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends from our Marriage Enrichment community who hosted their beautiful annual Christmas Eve Mass in their home, followed by singing carols & lots of food! Madeline had a blast! She is such a Joy! As long as Mami & Daddy are nearby, she is a confident and very happy little girl! Thank You Lord for this blessing!<br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;"><i>Merry Christmas to all!</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-54999743762648253582012-12-14T15:13:00.002-08:002012-12-14T18:59:57.752-08:00Dr.Visit...check, Car Seat....check...Stroller....check!Photos at the end of this post.<br />
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Madeline did great at her first Dr. Visit with <a href="http://cvmgdocs.com/CVMG/Doctor_Smart.html" target="_blank">Dr. Smart</a>, didn't cry one bit. He didn't prescribe any meds despite her little cough & cold because he thought it would be best for her to fight it off on her own, and so far she seems to be doing well. She'll be going back in about 2 months for some standard bloodwork etc. Her appetite is great, there is not really anything she doesn't like. Last night we drove to grandma's house ( my mom's ) for the first time & Madeline ate a few bites of cheese enchiladas ( with her own little fork ) and some mexican rice. She actually loved her house btw. I first took her in my arms to show her each room, then she wanted down and went to find her daddy, took him by the hand and took him on his own tour as she babbled. It was so darn cute! We love how she is developing confidence & enjoying her independence.<br />
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Speaking of rides, she's been doing so well on her car seat, now pointing to it as we enter the car. & she's content with a little toy or a baby bottle filled with water which she likes to pretend to be sucking it & then giggles.<br />
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This week we've learned just how much she enjoys music. She loves to move her head & put her hands up and do a wave sort of dance ( although she hid from us behind a door to do it the first time we caught her ). She also seems to be really engaged when I sing to her at night when its time to go to sleep, although I just make up little lullabies. She's been going to bed around midnight ( which is still better than 3 or 4 am ). & each day we are making her naps earlier during the day so that she gets tired earlier. Slowly but surely she is getting used to a routine around here. We are so proud of her for how well she seems to be doing.<br />
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Daddy's been getting work done, but I can't say I've been as successful since my day lately has been consumed with feeding her, changing her, playing with her, napping her, bathing her, playing with her, changing her, sleeping her. Very very consuming....but very enjoyable I will admit. I just love watching her blossom each day. Today during her nap time, I pulled out the stroller ( which she's yet to show any interest in whatsoever ) & started pushing it around & she pointed to it so I took advantage of this opportunity to put her in it & her daddy & I took her for a stroll around our neighborhood. She seemed to like it so when we came back she was already droopy eye so I brought the stroller near my desk and I rocked her with one foot as I tried to get some work done on the computer & she soon fell asleep. Hopefully I'll be able to try this again & just keep her around me office so I can get some work done while she sleeps.<br />
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One last thing, this week Madeline had her first Social Worker visit that lasted about 2.5 hours. She came while I was feeding her & she was in her jammies, then I changed her & sat her on our living room floor to play with her. Once she was comfortable she came out of her shell & started bringing toys to the Social Worker. She said she was impressed with how well she seems to be adjusting and got a kick at how good she was at feeding herself cereal with milk using her little chinese paddle without even spilling on her clothes. She'll be back in about 6 months, then once a year for the next 5 years.<br />
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Leaving you with a few pics.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madi loves Christmas trees & decorations! This one was at Panda Express, & she was putting fortune cookies in her pockets. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As you can see, she loved her first trip to the Hello Kitty store. She just kept putting stuff in her stroller. She was so cute! </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFDyS_dNkqPymxv_57nWardedJNHXJ1QKpwMymhhXdS_R7w7-28I4s3KloHxZU4sWMW2pp__vYFec2tLr-f3Y1jEgY0EoFmflDkByhzyNUqZiCEPoEpL91vWuz2jspLMEV-jkEE4cL1-3/s1600/IMG_4375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFDyS_dNkqPymxv_57nWardedJNHXJ1QKpwMymhhXdS_R7w7-28I4s3KloHxZU4sWMW2pp__vYFec2tLr-f3Y1jEgY0EoFmflDkByhzyNUqZiCEPoEpL91vWuz2jspLMEV-jkEE4cL1-3/s640/IMG_4375.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Is that Big Bird? </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I didn't buy her this little stroller, but maybe Santa can bring her one this Christmas!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Her first visit to Panda Express, which she loved! & she even brought her own little chopsticks! </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loves to hang out in Daddy's office.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh11OrzkcdjPaU_owjFUaqvEqJLNrVfZ_PDMPmS8XXnz8pT7U7V90eICHU1DK0CMjk9bMw6CJgcTevGenjMvE_P-1g5y-L-Qjbr5A2VXDNCiDo1R_ZH5IobQ38Z5DimkUj8_qyz2srZv8F/s1600/IMG_4379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh11OrzkcdjPaU_owjFUaqvEqJLNrVfZ_PDMPmS8XXnz8pT7U7V90eICHU1DK0CMjk9bMw6CJgcTevGenjMvE_P-1g5y-L-Qjbr5A2VXDNCiDo1R_ZH5IobQ38Z5DimkUj8_qyz2srZv8F/s640/IMG_4379.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this thing! It's called a <a href="http://www.mylearningtower.com/" target="_blank">Learning Tower</a>, got it from a friend. We are using it for chores around the house, cooking with Mami & looking outside windows. Really great & helps to give her some independence while staying close to Mami. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All bundled up for her first stroll around our neighborhood.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-47041082432918311842012-12-10T21:12:00.000-08:002012-12-10T21:12:42.147-08:00Almost a week home!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
It's been almost a week that we have been home now & Madeline is starting to slowly get acquainted with her new surroundings. Poor little kitten, she's already been living in two hotels & now her new home, so we are sure she's been a bit confused. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnAMKwgR5invYfO_VZtq2RqZaI3XNWDOx37R8hl7sxoOAdMdvuLllbfNOQi-ywkh5csd48uIsZ1I9NxNQL-NwAskJSwHk2JTSr_vIKTJPIutO_RHJ3pPZD1ILTPfyiq6BbcwVCkqNSFEe/s1600/madibear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnAMKwgR5invYfO_VZtq2RqZaI3XNWDOx37R8hl7sxoOAdMdvuLllbfNOQi-ywkh5csd48uIsZ1I9NxNQL-NwAskJSwHk2JTSr_vIKTJPIutO_RHJ3pPZD1ILTPfyiq6BbcwVCkqNSFEe/s640/madibear.jpg" width="555" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo was taken while in China.<br />We Love our daughter so much!</td></tr>
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On the second day home we took her outside for the first time & she actually reached out for daddy's arms, which was wonderful to see. </div>
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So far, she's learned how to say "Daddy", "doggie", "Lila". She's also learned to raise her chin when we say "chin up" to wipe her. & she responds to "give mami kiss, or give daddy kiss". & she's also learned to say "Aiyayai" which I had been saying just the other night when she was screaming & crying away after either I wasn't picking her up fast enough or she was cranky trying to sleep. She's still on China time, poor little gal. </div>
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The first couple of nights home she was still having night terrors after waking up in her pack n play in our bedroom, but last night she did amazing. She let me read her a book, and got cozy in our bed with her jammies & even let me turn off the lights while she snuggled on her pillow & went to sleep. It was so sweet & amazing to experience. I didn't bother taking her to her pack & play mostly because she's been crying so much the last couple of days & we've all been so exhausted getting over colds, sore throats & coughs that we just wanted to get some good rest. Right now, our main concern is helping her build more trust with us and help her learn that we are permanent & will not leave her. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJLH2qNtzcze9gKRg30Crkg_AbOrfFPfx3B6qs-jOJ4XeFg5mTyJ-ZaLrBqwSZwFwRJJVfv7j0LS8DPg4ZPHlsRaLey5apjY39r20GHx_9U4rAmIkKX2aHkWionIH0xI2Pb2youuXSipw/s1600/IMG_3562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJLH2qNtzcze9gKRg30Crkg_AbOrfFPfx3B6qs-jOJ4XeFg5mTyJ-ZaLrBqwSZwFwRJJVfv7j0LS8DPg4ZPHlsRaLey5apjY39r20GHx_9U4rAmIkKX2aHkWionIH0xI2Pb2youuXSipw/s640/IMG_3562.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's daddy holding his little girl. Check out those matching eyebrows & hairline! She's his little girl all right!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo was also taken in Guangzhou, during one of our last days there. She loves wearing glasses!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here she is again at home. She grabbed the kitty's little glasses & put them on herself to be like her Mami. <br />She is so funny! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGGdF5QsePZd09i7BEB0Cuvy9hlVelf-RwC6BFYBGjH4AcZVbiLu0jX6h-Zl0cEHa0cr9kRckmxWBPLQXt2KXV0LIvIwGBNQJ5T_MpmheX-TR3LyEyUBAWF5G_2aZNSv-no-q-boi6hVo/s1600/IMG_3557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGGdF5QsePZd09i7BEB0Cuvy9hlVelf-RwC6BFYBGjH4AcZVbiLu0jX6h-Zl0cEHa0cr9kRckmxWBPLQXt2KXV0LIvIwGBNQJ5T_MpmheX-TR3LyEyUBAWF5G_2aZNSv-no-q-boi6hVo/s640/IMG_3557.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This pic was in Guangzhou too, while strolling around in the streets. It was sprinkling, but she seemed to like it, so we picked out this umbrella from one of the little shops on the island we were staying at. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Her first ride on the car seat was not as peaceful as this photo looks. She screamed and screamed on our way to Rite Aid, stopped when we reached the store, screamed again as we drove through the McDonalds drive through for Fries & some Sundays. & right before we got home she stopped crying, reached out for some fries, then went to sleep...and we survived! But wow, can this girl scream!<br /><br /></td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-74507219020021248602012-12-06T01:59:00.000-08:002012-12-06T02:47:11.899-08:00Home Sweet Home!Photos below post.<br />
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Hello from the USA! We arrived Tuesday night to LAX, greeted by our families & our friends the Beck's who even brought Father Imo ( our community priest ) who gave Madeline her very first blessing in the USA! After a 12.5 hour flight directly from Guangzhou, Madeline did pretty darn good considering all the luggage hauling, security check ins, immigration process etc... She slept for about 3/4 of the flight and the rest she ate during our meal times, played some, cried when I changed her diaper & even threw a fit when I shared some of her cheerios with the little Chinese boy who was sitting behind us. & boy can this girl scream her lungs out! She sure let me know she was pissed off when she threw her own cheerio bowl on the airplane floor upon seeing that I took some from her bowl to give to this little boy ( who btw seemed to blabber during the whole flight "Nihao Nihao, XieXie Xie Xie, Mama Mama" over and over and over. He was about 2 years old ). This flight home seemed a lot more turbulant than our first flight over, but I still had no choice but to tough it out. I figured this was still a piece of cake in comparison to our overall travel experience which was pretty grueling. Kris & I were both fighting really bad sore throats, sore backs, sleep deprivation, stimulation overload, communication frustrations with the Chinese especially during security check ins & boardings, luggage overload, you name it.<br />
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However, after 32 hours of total flying, miles & miles of walking while in China, hotel living, potty squatting, and a rough start to our new family, we are very, very happy to report that it was all well worth it! Our Journey to our daughter Madeline has ended, as we now have her safely home. She is an entirely different child than the little scared kitten we had in our hands the first week we had her. She is a beautiful child, with a funny and wise personality. Despite the fact that she has only been with us for 10 days, she seems to know very well that I am her new mami, and thankfully she is finally starting to accept her new daddy ( he is no longer papi but daddy ever since she has started calling out to him with "daddy" during the last couple of days, I will have to post a video ).<br />
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Last night when we arrived to our home, after our family left, she stayed in my arms as we showed her around our house. Then after going to her room she wanted to be let down, babbled something in Chinese, giggled, and went straight to the bald baby that weighs about 5 pounds. She's been loving on this doll ever since, and has since learned to "bring the baby to mami, or daddy, or bring the shoes to put on the baby, or put the blanket on the baby". She also stretched her arms out to her daddy when she saw her pack n play in room & he lifted her up to put her inside & she giggled some more. Insert "Huge Smile on Daddy's face" here. She fell asleep about 3:30 am our time ( cuz she's still on China time ) and slept till about noon the next day, waking up only once ). Today, we had some family over & after reminding them to just ignore her and not try to engage her ( as she still acts a bit uncomfortable ), Madi was able to walk around them just fine, eat rice using her fork, drink juice from her lid-less cup and play with her toys, and even belted out a few giggles when we did something funny ). She really seems to be adapting exceptionally well. We are still in disbelief of this amazing transformation.<br />
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In recap, here's what we did during our stay in Guangzhou & what else we learned about our daughter Madeline:<br />
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We took Madeline to her Medical Examinations at an adoption designated clinic, where we met up with lots of other adoptive families. She did great btw, no crying. She still had somewhat of a runny nose, and a raspy cough, but overall good to go.<br />
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We went to the US Consulate about an hour away by private mini bus with the rest of the families from our agency -we were all sworn in as a group & given instructions pertaining to Madi's US Citizenship & Social Security card process.<br />
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We didn't go to the zoo as we wanted, as it was canceled due to rain.<br />
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We mostly hung around Shamian Island, which was more than great & had lots to do, is really calm and beautiful & we felt completely safe to walk alone for blocks with Madeline either strapped to me on the ergo or walking when she was comfortable, which was more often than we expected. There is a beautiful park there, lots of shops & restaurants, a bank, school, friendly people and pets walking the area, a boat cruising the island, a bridge that takes you out the busier city where there's lots of shops & weird food on sticks, which we were glad we opted out doing with the rest of the group feeling it would just be a bit too much for Madi who's still getting used to all this commotion. Her personality has sprouted so much more especially when it is peaceful around her.<br />
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We were stopped numerous times by strangers and lots of university students wanting to interview us regarding our experience while in China, or curious about our adoption, or take our picture.<br />
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Madeline made lots of new friends who wanted our email to stay in contact with her progress, lots of Europeans on "Holiday" and even Chinese locals. <br />
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She doesn't seem to mind eating out in restaurants as we did this quite a bit, except she will absolutely not sit on a high chair, she prefers my lap as daddy prepares her dishes ( so that she can feed herself either with a fork, spoon, or chopsticks, depending on the menu ). & cup with no lid please, and no straw is necessary either, thank you very much.<br />
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Madeline became quite the popular little gal while eating in public as people were fascinated with her chopstick ability.<br />
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She thinks its the funniest thing when I take her into the squatty potty with me and just start talking to her in English, while she's most likely just hearing noise but still likes to laugh at my poor squatting ability.<br />
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She has learned to retrieve things from another room when we ask her to "bring the toilet paper, bring the toothpaste, take these socks to daddy, take these glasses to mami.<br />
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She enjoys looking at her referral & update photos, smiling & pointing at her lips as if she knows very well it is her.<br />
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Have I mentioned that this girl can scream really loud? She must be feeling really comfortable with us as she has just started to test some boundaries. Sound like some fun times ahead of us. And she seems to know exactly which items to go for, like the buttons on the entertainment system, the hallway outlets, the bathroom cabinets. But overall she's not too grabby grabby, but curious indeed, which is normal & healthy for a year & a half old. And her little fits are very few and far between, lasting only a few seconds. ( daddy does not enjoy, but I think they are cute and funny considering all she's gone through).<br />
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On our first night home she actually was more than ok letting me take a shower in peace while she walked around with daddy checking up on me only twice & then shutting the glass door to the shower as she walked away.<br />
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She also closed the door on me while I walked through the hallway & she was in the bathroom with her daddy giggling. ( Ok little ms. "I've had enough of you mami, my daddy seems pretty cool now " ) <br />
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On our second day home she was already reaching out to daddy to pick her up & hold her while he was on his computer and actually giving him kisses as I asked her to "give a kiss to daddy". She loves that he's got a cool swivel chair that he spins her around in....and she loves the pens in his office.....and all the little lights around his computer gadgets.....and the picture frames....and the calculator.....and she likes to stand on his desk to look out his window. So of course I said to him "You said you couldn't wait for her to reach out to you.....so good look with this kid letting you work from home, haha! ". -But after a while, I closed his double doors which have glass on them, and told her "daddy has to work now", and let her see him through the glass doors, and she seemed content.....for now.<br />
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Leaving you with a few pics:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading to her Consulate Appointment. Newest US Citizen to be!<br />
We can't get enough of kissing those cheeks!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madeline going to daddy all on her own on our last day in Guangzhou.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning how to take things to daddy during our last days in Guangzhou.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By our second day home Madeline was reaching her hands out to daddy for him to actually pick up & hold her.<br />
Insert "A DAY DADDY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notice the car seat with baby doll to the right corner......Madeline HATES the car seat, so we are determined to play as much as we can using her favorite baby so we can go out for a drive with out her freaking out.<br />
She still thinks we're in China where babies are free to ride on your lap. </td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-83688239431064923382012-12-01T15:38:00.001-08:002012-12-01T15:38:20.059-08:00By the 7th day.... Nihao from Guangzhou China!<br/><br/>I was originally hoping to post for each of our days in Nangchang, but who knew that our new life with our scared little kitten would leave absolutely no time for blogging, let alone take a shower! <br/><br/>In general, our first week in Nangchang was exhausting to say the least. We most likely spent some of the most difficult & challenging moments of our entire life. And perhaps one day when we return home, I will create a post dedicated to this experience that perhaps can help other couples adopting internationally for the first time.<br/><br/> But for now I will say that our decision to opt out from most of the typical outings that adopting families do while in Province proved to be priceless bonding moments we got to experience with our new daughter. And those moments we will cherish more than any sightseeing we would have done in China. Our daughter came to us grieving badly an although she seemed to be clinging to me like velcro, she still didn't know me. I just got lucky that she chose me for security & protection. She seemed to want nothing to do with her Papi. And it was very hurtful and trying for her daddy. But by the 7th day, she has made huge progrshetland learning that this very tall white man who has been providing all of her meals, rolling a ball to her, and showing her how to stack her little cups, is not such a scary guy after all. It was one evening in particular while sharing a Hagan Daz ice cream, that her personality suddenly began to blossom.<br/><br/> Here's what we've learned about our daughter in our first 7 days together so far:<br/><br/>The kid knows how to use chopsticks! Yes, chopsticks! She creates quite a spectacle when we're dining in public. I will share video when we get home.<br/><br/>She uses a fork & spoon no problem too, but we think her chopstick ability is the cutest.<br/><br/>Our daughter is not deaf as we had thought, she was just shutting down emotionally, with the unbelievable ability to not even flinch with loud noises.<br/><br/>She prefers to drink straight from a regular cup, not a sippy, & forget the bottle with formula as we were initially told she was given when we were also told she was at an orphanage.<br/><br/>She likes spicy food.<br/><br/>She lit up brightly when she saw a Santa Claus at a restaurant nearby & led me straight to him while she touched his beard and mumbled in Chinese as if she's seen him before.<br/><br/>She also got very giddy when the Christmas tree was lit at our hotel lobby.<br/><br/>She really liked the little slide and the colorful ball playground in our hotel where she was belting out our favorite giggles.<br/><br/>She prefers to wear her hat that she pulls down over her eyes when shes around strangers but will pull it off as soon as she's feeling comfortable.<br/><br/>She has still yet to let her daddy hold her ( since Gotcha), however she did reach over to give him 5 pecks on the lips as I held her. This happened after he shared his ice cream with her.<br/><br/>She has learned to walk over and throw things in the trash when we ask her to.<br/><br/>She likes to nap twice per day ( but mostly happens on my carrier or while holding her )<br/><br/>She evidently wasn't phased by her first plane ride as she snoozed the minute it left her province toward Guanzhou.<br/><br/>She loves our new hotel suite in Guangzhou as she seemed ecstatic to start off fresh in this new place. No more reminders from that last hotel where she was often freaking out at certain areas. We even had our first jump on the bed which she thought was so funny!<br/><br/>She has a goofy side in addition to her serious appearance she wears in public.<br/><br/>She knew what a toothbrush was & pointed toward paste & began brushing away.<br/><br/>She loves playing tickle monster with her Papi.<br/><br/>She loves to look at the family album we made her & stops at Tia Soni's & Tio Jovan's photo & smiles as she taps on it for some reason...really funny.<br/><br/>She actually learned to say the word "Daddy" today after Kris repeated it over and over, it was so funny to hear.<br/><br/>She is still very much baby looking and walks wobbly, but her personality just seems so much wiser.<br/><br/>She loves to wave "bye bye" to people, seems to relax her since she knows they will go away & not take her.<br/><br/>She went straight to some plastic step stools in a little store in Guangzhou as if she's seen them before & started stacking them. <br/><br/>That's all for now. Tomorrow is Sunday & we I'll try to go to the Guangzhou Zoo with our group. Madi seems to respond really well to animals as she smiles & babbles in Chinese when she sees fishes in windows or pets on the street.<br/><br/>And here are some photos finally of Saturday. Internet connection has been tricky.<br/><br/> <br/><br/><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;clear: both; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8236380602/" target="_blank" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8209/8236380602_a46e464149.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739301.929" class="" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;clear: both; ">She's been comfortable to walk the hallway by herself & pretents she is going "bye bye", but quickly returns when she sees a stranger.</div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;clear: both; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8236381526/" target="_blank" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8337/8236381526_f8ab7acc92.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739296.139" class="" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She seemed to know exactly what this was for as she raised it to her ear & babbled, then took my cell phone to bring it to Papi. I tell ya, this kid is smart! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We are forever grateful to her foster family!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8235373663/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8203/8235373663_b46b36af48.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739366.4692" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She likes to lift up her shirt for some belly tickles. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Our kid smiles!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8236452030/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8346/8236452030_a8e6cddf57.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739380.2368" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She likes to pick her nose, so we are letting her have it it for now especially since she's now got some crusties from her cold. But at least she knows to put them on a tissue.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8236453418/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8236453418_5cde45029f.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739319.1877" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We can't resist this kid, she is so darn cute, and she is ours!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8235389547/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8066/8235389547_58f40e5efc.jpg" id="blogsy-1354403739377.2415" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">When "Yao Yao" fell asleep on my lap, I transferred her over to Papi's shoulder & he was so happy, even though we tricked her. She slept for about an hour & when she woke up our room she went to me but still played on the floor with him & giggled while we cleaned up our messy room.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-17503520462654206812012-11-28T01:27:00.001-08:002012-11-28T01:27:17.319-08:00Day 3 together<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here's a pic from Day 2 actually before heading out for our civil affairs stuff that ended up freaking Madi out. As you can see she was comfortable with Kris for breakfast then once we returned, it was no more eye contact, but hollering & screaming you name it each time he was nearby.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8225613015/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8349/8225613015_259c549d99.jpg" id="blogsy-1354091666241.951" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div> But on Tuesday China time & our 3rd day together, Madi started to show us a bit of her personality, although she still wouldn't let Kris hold her or slightly even touch her. The only interaction she wanted to have is for him to give her food, which she would point at items in our food counter or refrigerator. She loves to eat bananas, but likes to hold them slightly peeled. She also likes ritz, yogurts, eggs, congee, mandarin oranges, banana bread, noodles, Chinese stinky crackers, and sticky buns. <br/><br/>Unfortunately again, I do not have any photos to share as most are on the main camera & right now we are in the hotel lobby while Madi is napping on her stroller & we mostly have videos on our iPhone ( took this with our iPad). It's been hard for me to find time to update with a baby strapped on my body like a scared little kitty.<br/><br/><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8226726072/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8064/8226726072_87c1a0ab99.jpg" id="blogsy-1354091666238.522" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="374"></a></div>But on this day, Madi started to blossom a tiny bit. Here's some tidbits we have been finding out about her:<br/><br/>She has been with a foster mama & baba, elder couple with older children since the beginning who brought her to the orphanage once per month for updates. <br/><br/>She is a very cautious, observant little girl who gives the deepest stares, has no problem looking into our eyes. <br><br/><br/> She knows what a remote control is as she slowly pointed at it while I held her to give to her & pointed toward the tv.<br><br/><br/>She was obviously potty trained as she will raise her legs up while sitting on my lap to indicate she wants to sit on the ducky potty in our bathroom. <br/><br/>She was called "YaoYao"by her foster fam & that's what we've been calling out to her.<br/><br/>She is very cautious with strangers ( not shy, but cautious ). She will let them approach her but she will not respond facially or interact with them, just stares & studies them.<br/><br/>She also likes to study her "Papi" as I'm holding her to learn all about his routine. Btw, we are referring to ourselves as "Mami & Papi" because every time we say "Mama / Baba" she starts to stare out our room window in sort of a dazed transit and begins to whisper those names herself, with wheeled up eyes, most likely remembering her foster parents.So sad.<br/><br/>She had her first bath, although it was quick & she cried but not hollered.<br/><br/>She's had no interest in toys or anything we offer her, except when she started stacking empty yogurt containers on a side table while I held her & Papi was nearby to pick them up for her over and over as they fell over.....which btw made her give us her first & biggest belly giggle! I think we both cried when this happened.<br/><br/>She's got the cutest teeth!<br/><br/>She does this thing with a Cheerio which she holds between her lips and cracks a smile, so funny!<br/><br/>When we tell her to say "bye bye" to strangers as we see her getting nervous she waves her hand as she sort of rubs her fingers together, but she seems so relieved that "bye bye" makes them go away, very cute.<br/><br/>She doesn't like cameras or our video recorder.....hence why we haven't been able to take her pics hardly as she shuts down as soon as she sees either one of us reach for it.<br/><br/>She picked up a little fork we had by the table and started chowing down on her noodles.<br/><br/>She prefers to drink from a straw & does not like the bottle. Although she will let Papi hold the drink & straw while she sips away.<br/><br/>She let Papi brush her hair while I held her. <br/><br/>She's cried each time I put her down to walk ( so I've had to learn how to go potty with her over my shoulder)...very exhausting. Although later in the day I just put her down as I picked up our room as she clung tightly around my leg, but her cries slowly became whimpers.<br><br/><br/>That's all for this post. I'm starting a great "YaoYao" progress for our 4rth day together Wednesday as its <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0">5:30pm</a> right now. She's let out more of her personality even more, thankfully.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-10687753749872958712012-11-27T00:37:00.001-08:002012-11-27T00:37:08.301-08:00Day 2 Civil Affairs stuff On Monday China time after having breakfast at the hotel with two other adoptive families, we walked across the street to formally adopt our daughter, sign more documents, get interviewed by an official, & take a family photo for some legal documents. We then were taken by private van to the Police Station to for some notarization & then to another building for Mad's visa photo. The roads throughout the city of Nangchang are actually way more developed than I imagined, wish I could post pics & share more details of our civil affairs activities but the truth is, yesterday was very hard on Madi, and really hard on us emotionally. No time to take photos, or even bathe our girl.<br/><br/>It is <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0">5:30 am</a> ( when writing this ) & she's peacefully asleep over my shoulder. Last night was a bit rougher as she woke up several times crying. She was having night terrors & would scream each time I laid her down, so I had to wait until she was fully asleep. Earlier during the day though, after returning back to our hotel from being out and about, Madi took a step backwards. She was refusing to go with Kris & just screamed & hollered while he tried to comfort her. She is grieving for her foster parents, as she was hollering for "Mama" and it wasn't me. It was painful to witness and I just had to leave the room while Kris attempted to comfort her....for over an hour screaming. I ended up going to the hotel restaurant to order some room service then waited at the other family's room. The first time I tried to call our room Kris said not to come back until she was calm again as he said I would most likely make it worse by her seeing me. I was really sad for her. What if she never stopped her screaming? Thank God for the other family that comforted me by saying not to worry, she had to stop eventually. And after about an hour I called up to our room again & Kris finally said "come back now, she is asleep on my shoulder".<br/><br/>Upon returning we had half our food until she started on & off crying again, although not as bad. She is way more clingy to me for sure, but if Kris starts to ignore her bit she is slowly coming around. In fact, after walking her around the lobby she started playing with my necklace I gave her & she would pass it back and forth to him. Then back in our room she started pointing at food items as I held her & Kris would hand them to her. She had two whole bananas, Cheerios, some crackers ( & some noodles earlier, which btw she used her little fork to eat them with, pretty fast "Chinese style", which was funny to watch. We were already told before that if she clung to one of us more than the other than make sure to have the person she refuses to go to be the one to feed her so that she builds trust.<br/><br/>A few other things:<br/><br/>She has been cracking a smile each time she gets her hands dirty.<br/><br/>She picked up my glasses from a table and put them on my head like I was wearing them earlier. <br/><br/>This may not seem like like a lot, but it has been huge for us to witness from our little girl who's been so sad.<br/><br/> Here's a photo of what her face has been like on our first full day together. As you can imagine, she is frightened & confused. We wish we had known that she's been with foster parents all this time so that at least we would have expected this reaction. We have been told that it is always better if they are with foster parents as most likely she had more individualized attention than at the orphanage, but it is still very hard to witness. Please continue to pray that she can slowly begin to trust us so that we can see more of her personality.<br/><br/> <br/><br/><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8223678322/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8223678322_ce9fe2bfed.jpg" id="blogsy-1354005303677.7917" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="375" height="500"></a></div> <br/><br/>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-73225920681128216872012-11-25T13:18:00.001-08:002012-11-25T13:18:23.509-08:00Gotcha Day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8217336233/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8338/8217336233_774fdca5a6.jpg" id="blogsy-1353878262024.3782" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div> After 6 year's in this process, a very difficult journey indeed, and thousands of miles traveled, we are Thankful to God we have finally been united as a family! Our beautiful baby girl is now in our arms.<br/><br/>It is <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0">4am</a> China time & I wish I can share more pics from our Gotcha moment, but we will have to all get ready soon in a few hours to head out for some legal paperwork. We promise we will try to share more amazing photos as soon as we can download from our main camera, which by the way were taken by a wonderful grandma her with her daughter on their own adoption journey. They were Angels, and we will forever be great full!<br/><br/>Our Gotcha time started about <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://1" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1">3:30 pm Sunday</a> Nov.25, 2012 China time. We were just finishing some lunch in the second floor restaurant of the hotel with a single mom & her mom here on their own adoption journey. We had not realized there was a window to the side of us where one of us took a glimpse down & started watching the people walking in the lobby. Kris suddenly blurted out " I think that's Madi walking around holding the orphanage directors hand". We all quickly got up started video recording & yes indeed we were 100% sure it was her. She seemed a lot smaller than we thought from her updated photos despite her walking around still pretty wobbly with a yellow snowsuit-like outfit. We all immediately rushed to our hotel room to wait for our call & about <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://2" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2">4pm</a> sharp our guide calls & says "your baby is here, want to come down or want us to go up?" After some quick thoughts we decided to rush down, I'm not sure we would have stranded the anticipation.<br/><br/>The rest of the moments happened all so fast it was surreal. Both overwhelmed with emotion they walk over our daughter & say to her "This is mama & baba & the screaming began! One day we will share the footage as it was unbelievable....but photos will come soon.<br/><br/>Thank God for daddy, as I will never forget this moment. He scooped her off & immediately started to whisper to her that it would all be ok over and over again as she screamed her heart away & began her grieving. He walked her around for about 1/2 hour while I met with the director to get some answers on our daughters first year of life.<br/><br/> For now we will share that she was actually living with foster mother & father, older couple with older son & daughter n law & not at the orphanage as we thought. This will most definitely explain her screaming for "mama & baba" the only two caretakers she knew. But we are both very glad to know that she was not institutionalized & had most likely been given more individual attention and love.<br><br/><br/>once the Orphanage director & his wife left the hotel lobby & Madeline could no longer see them Kris returned to the lobby with her a little calmer and she also went to me but as I carried her she cried & screamed uncontrollably....it was heartbreaking. We had lots of stares by hotel people & more people snapping photos of us. But as we passed her back & forth to each other as she easily went to both of us her crying stopped every so often as her little lips continued to flutter.<br/><br/>We soon took her up the elevator along with our guide Mary & the miracle of our family began to evolve. Madi seemed to be mezmorized by her reflection inside the elevator mirror. As we entered the room she continued to cry, but it was a much softer cry. Mary helped me prepare a bottle with rice cereal mixed with formula but she wasn't interested in that or anything else we offered her. She had rosy chapped cheeks & lots and lots of layers of clothes, but she wouldn't let go of the little rubber ball her baba gave her earlier and held tightly to some cheerios in her hand with the strongest little grip.<br/><br/>Mary left soon after collecting some documents & giving us instructions for the next day, and agreeing to return with some bottled water and we were left alone with our little girl. Slowly but surely, even though she continued crying & stopping, she allowed us to peel away all her layers of clothes. She is a lot smaller than she appears in photos...still a baby our precious girl.<br/><br/>After changing her dry diaper & dressing her in some cozy jammies, she just continued to stare in each of our eyes with extreme curiosity. We can already tell she is an amazing child & I can not begin to tell you just how much she seemed to blossom in the 4 hours we shared with her before she fell asleep in mamas arms.<br/><br/>Here's a bit in short form:<br/><br/>She will easily go to each of us as she starts to cry, but I usually have to take her from daddy (although she doesn't resist), but she will actually reach out her hands to daddy when she's being held by me. It's the cutest thing.<br/><br/>She seems to be potty trained. As I was holding her she lifted her feet and I thought she wanted me to cradle her, but then I took her to the little potty ducky after pulling off her diaper & she easily went pipi. She is 18 months old.<br/><br/>She will start to scream and cry when we say "baba, mama". So we will take it easy. We are not her baba and mama to her right now, and that's ok.<br/><br/>She has a giving heart. We found this out after we played with Cheerios in a bowl & Kris & I tagged team by sharing Cheerios. Within minutes she was putting Cheerios in each our hands, in our mouths, then dumping the rest of her Cheerios from her bowl into my hand. It was amazing, and all captured on video.<br/><br/>She cracked some super quick smiles. But not on camera...not a chance.<br/><br/>She is easily content with one toy. <br/><br/>She is a deep sleeper. And by the way, she seems to be trained to sleep. We are not kidding! When we took her to the hotel restaurant, while daddy was holding her she pulled down her Hello Kitty hat to cover her eyes & went to sleep. She woke up after a few minutes, looked for me and reached out to me, fell asleep once again over my shoulder & stayed that way until I set her in her crib. She is still sleeping beauty <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4">at 5am</a>, despite daddy's snoring.<br/><br/>We love this kid! This is our miracle evolving. She is truly our gift from God!<br/><br/>Thank You for all of your messages on our FB, & TANGO! Your words bring us comfort miles away.<br/><br/>Love from China,<br/><br/>KM + m<br/><br/> <br/><br/> <br/><br/> <br/><br/> <br/><br/> <br/><br/> <br/><br/>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-38312589744543852132012-11-24T03:38:00.001-08:002012-11-24T03:38:50.813-08:00Day One of Travel!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">At about <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0">10 pm</a> Thanksgiving night we boarded a new airbus 380 on China Southern & headed towards Guangzhou! Much to our surprise the flight did not seem as eternal as we thought it would be. It helped that it was a night flight so we slept as much as we could. Earplugs & a night eye mask worked wonders! The service & food was great & the comfort wasn't bad especially after they gave us seats with more leg room, just behind first class. After snoozing some hours, & 2.5 meals later ( over a dozen water bottles & lots of trips to the bathroom for myself) we landed in Guangzhou safe & sound ( after 15.5 hrs )! In case you forgot that I've been a phobic flyer for years, I managed to do great on the flight if I say so myself. Honestly though, I've been prepping myself up for this trip for quite some time now telling myself that as a new mother to be I'll just have to suck it up in situations that cause me fear because I'll just be no good to my daughter if I act like a big baby. But in all honesty, the shorter 1hr flight we had to take to Nanchang was the one that I fidgeted the most as it was a pretty bumpy ride and way smaller of course.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">& speaking of our flight to Nanchang.....our experience at the Guangzhou airport was a bit of a nightmare. First we walked like what seemed miles just to get to our boarding gate, then when we get there they make us go through security twice & made us dump out most of our items in our carryons & no one seemed to speak any English so we felt like we were just going in circles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">After arriving in Nangchang our local guide "Mary" met us & immediately had a driver pull up in a nice VW sedan & drove us to our Hotel the Galactice Peace, which is really nice!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> The drive through Nangchang from the airport was also really nice, lots of greenery & clean streets. Mary called this the suburb area & kept saying "wait till we get to the city where your hotel is .....it's going to be very different than what you're used to". & boy was she not kidding! It was quite an adventure just trying to weave through traffic. All we can say is that it is fascinating to witness how people manage to drive their cars, scooters, bikes, feet...whatever through the streets with absolutely no traffic direction whatsoever! & even now as I type this, the horns are continuously honking away! Fascinating I tell ya!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Once at the hotel & we ate some sort of "pick a dish from the window & have it cooked" deal ( which was pretty good btw ), Mary took us to a grocery store she said was really close by the hotel. Let's just say that her idea of close by & our idea of close by are not the same ( especially if it means walking through the busiest streets you have seen with a gazillion scooters, horns honking & the stinkiest tofu you have ever smelled, little kiddos doing their business on the streets, you name it). So much adventure for our first day for sure! & Finally we arrived at the "nearby grocery store", which was pretty ginormous with electric escalators with 2 or three levels. Here we got some essentials for our daughter tomorrow, like formula, rice cereal, snacks, etc.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">That's right! We are meeting our daughter tomorrow! It's all happening so quick now...don't have a clue what to expect, but there is no more time to think. It's barely <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://2" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2">7pm</a> in China as I write this, & we are so tired and might just make a peanut butter sandwich in our hotel room & call it a night. Hopefully well wake up more refreshed tomorrow so we can clean up a bit before they bring her <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3">at 4pm</a> ( China time, 12midnight Sunday USA time. ) So surreal! But please continue to pray that her transition with us will go as smooth as possible for her, poor little one. She will most likely be tired herself from the long drive from her orphanage to our hotel. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Leaving you with a few pics....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8212578993/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8338/8212578993_5f7001409f.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111442.353" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">By the time we knew it, we were landing in China!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8212674227/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8479/8212674227_c6af19fe98.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111497.905" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Our first glimpse of the streets nearby our hotel in Nanchang.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8487/8213763226_3aaf80bf28.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111495.0833" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="335"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At the supermarket with Mary our local guide, buying some formula & rice cereal for Madi.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8213772546/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8068/8213772546_52fbc32220.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111507.8103" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="335"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8213774398/" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8213774398_3352fbc3f2.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111515.5364" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="335"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/65080032@N02/8212689889/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8481/8212689889_f24ffdf8d4.jpg" id="blogsy-1353757111445.4514" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="374"></a></div> Look! There's a crib in our hotel room!<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-29545587921955220862012-11-19T16:19:00.001-08:002012-11-19T16:19:17.208-08:00Pre Travel updated photos!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
What a treasure it was to wake up this morning to 3 updated photos of our daughter! </div>
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Pardon if we are biased, but we think she is just beautiful!</div>
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Looks like she's growing some of her hair back, which will be nice for her in the winter. </div>
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And check out all those layers of clothes on her already! We've been told that her orphanage is already bundling the children up even though the weather is in the 70's sometimes 80's. </div>
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We love this little red jacket she's wearing & it would be wonderful if we can have it when we get her, but we're thinking it's not going to be likely. From the condition of her clothes & her scuffed up shoes, we can only imagine just how many other children in the orphanage have previously worn them. This little red jacket is probably something special they put on Madi to wear just for these photos. </div>
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We've been staring at these photos for a few hours now, & we are just treasuring all of the details we are noticing. On photo number one, she's standing really close by her main caretaker, we're assuming she's going to be the one going with the Director on Sunday when they bring her to us. And it's kinda funny that she's hiding in photo #2, where you can kind of get a glimpse of her smile. Wonder if that's a juice or milk box she's holding. And if you look closely on Madi's pants, you'll notice she's wearing traditional "split pants", to make it convenient for her caretakers to change her diaper ( if she's still wearing one ) or to allow her to squat to do potty. You can read a little more about this <a href="http://www.chinese-traditions-and-culture.com/chinese-toilet-training.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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And photo number 3 really just breaks our heart. Not sure if you'll see it as close as we can in our photos, but she's got these big tears about to break in each of her eyes. So sad, but we just don't know what that's all about.....maybe she doesn't want to be outside, or look at whomever she's told to look towards to so they can snap her photo. It would have been nice to see her holding the album we sent her which has our photos, but that's ok.....we are still treasuring these. </div>
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Back to her clothes though.....she's got some kind of long number ( kinda looks like a phone number ) across one of her pant legs. Really curious what this is for. Someone mentioned it could be the orphanage number maybe in case she were to wander off? Don't have a clue, but we would be interested to learn about it once we're in China. And after looking closely, we can see that she's actually wearing two sweaters underneath that red jacket, the yellow one & a red one underneath that one & who knows if she's got others shirts underneath those too. We've been told the Chinese are very concerned about keeping the children very warm ( just check out those red cheeks ). </div>
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As far as measurements...she's grown about half an inch & has gained about a pound since September. </div>
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These will be our last pics of her before we travel to get her. Can't wait to see this baby crack a smile!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-60302539651843598072012-11-17T11:39:00.002-08:002012-11-17T11:39:47.593-08:005 more days until travel!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Are you ready for a busy toddler to rock your life daddy?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRo3SLwmxuEeiUCOgQ7pPHFn0aRHCSBj7X8QlXyjDM6pgiTE6v6o5oOe7wu004heYgSDd5Uh0Thybgx3ImT1Dbn-LxtwbqgK44-NtWF3L-34vM3aCk1HO0j2dqdgK0J12qnHNmzmblzVYZ/s1600/kpicblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRo3SLwmxuEeiUCOgQ7pPHFn0aRHCSBj7X8QlXyjDM6pgiTE6v6o5oOe7wu004heYgSDd5Uh0Thybgx3ImT1Dbn-LxtwbqgK44-NtWF3L-34vM3aCk1HO0j2dqdgK0J12qnHNmzmblzVYZ/s640/kpicblog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Yes! This guy has been ready to be a dad for many many years now & there is no doubt in my mind he will be a great one! </div>
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He did however cause us all a little health scare a few weeks ago, but all seems to be well again thank God! He's got one last check up on Monday and hopefully we'll be all set to go by Thanksgiving night. </div>
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Speaking of Thanksgiving....we had an early Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws since they will be heading up to northern California while we're up in China. It was nice and tranquil, lots of comforting and delicious food, and some good laughs. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje51RAzY98UeURAEbSMASbAj_0AwePpYqyjHbgdfp2wQuG233tDSPfCE0D4lHsstupnzT1JNohSJSejtLBQgUWP6RFdI8wtnuH9YC8QmKTKeFW6uSqlGXFEjJY-fdBimd8og07DBA7AqAg/s1600/thdinner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje51RAzY98UeURAEbSMASbAj_0AwePpYqyjHbgdfp2wQuG233tDSPfCE0D4lHsstupnzT1JNohSJSejtLBQgUWP6RFdI8wtnuH9YC8QmKTKeFW6uSqlGXFEjJY-fdBimd8og07DBA7AqAg/s640/thdinner.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Since we'll be leaving on a night flight, my side of the family will be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner earlier during the day & hopefully we'll be able to make some turkey sandwiches to take on our flight since we're not sure about the food they'll serve. As far as we know the airline provides one meal & we're thinking we can buy another one if we get hungry (which will be most likely since it's a 15.5 hr. flight). BTW.....I will post our itinerary as a top button on this blog. </div>
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Can't believe we only have 5 more days left until we travel! Still seems unreal.</div>
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All of a sudden I'm starting to feel like we've got so much to do, like clean out cupboards and cabinets, shop for last minute travel stuff, re-arrange furniture....but I'm sure this is mostly nervous energy. Once I calm myself down I remind myself that we'll be as ready as we'll ever be. Nothing is as important as going on this trip to pick up our daughter. </div>
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Lot's of stuff going through my mind about her right now. We have yet to receive any developmental update on her since her referral ( which was 6 months ago ) and the few photos & measurements we got in September. I did get to speak to our Agency's Chinese facilitator yesterday & I urged him to please confirm that our daughter has been told about us and has at least seen our photos. I also asked for an updated status on just about anything....it still breaks my heart that we know very little about her and we can only hope to ease her transition as best as we can. </div>
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-Which reminds me....I still have to make a new photo album for her with photos of her new surroundings including pics of our extended family pics that she can start to see while we're in China. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-19837137860742004122012-11-09T13:27:00.001-08:002012-11-09T13:27:40.245-08:00Visas have arrived!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_rjJKsnH8TUIhN0BOT8m8udNaVdkzY1UMuHscQYtMAcg1eUd5ysaTFkwX4PDf-VKLXTkP-10UpADSCH6pN7O8d1356B6X6DrvZsVCb0hZthtXQ24qhF1SgapNb5WqIQN7IuedlhQEb-C/s1600/blogchvisas+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_rjJKsnH8TUIhN0BOT8m8udNaVdkzY1UMuHscQYtMAcg1eUd5ysaTFkwX4PDf-VKLXTkP-10UpADSCH6pN7O8d1356B6X6DrvZsVCb0hZthtXQ24qhF1SgapNb5WqIQN7IuedlhQEb-C/s640/blogchvisas+copy.jpg" width="511" /></a></div>
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Our Chinese Visas just arrived today! We went through <a href="http://metropolitan-express.com/contact_us.html" target="_blank">Metropolitan Express</a> in Chicago & they took about a week and a half to process with no issues. The cost was $140 per person plus $30 each to process. </div>
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Guess this means we are all set to go.......just counting down the days until we can board the plane! In the meantime, it's time to get packing. But actually, we have been packed for a few weeks now with the exception of those last minute items. We're both taking a rolling duffle & a carryon each, just need to weigh the rolling duffle to make sure it doesn't exceed the 44-55 pounds allowed. As for Madi's things....we really hope she'll fit into the 18-24 mth clothes we're taking her, although we are packing mostly play clothes, tunics, leggings etc., in addition to a few shoes & small toys. And as far as the diapers go...we hope we won't regret not taking a bunch of them as we've been told by other been there done that travelers to only take a few as we can always get more in China & don't need to use up our suitcase space. </div>
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Only 13 days till take off.....seems unbelievable!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2516888393646844102.post-31864449109302106052012-11-07T19:37:00.002-08:002012-11-07T19:37:52.147-08:00Tickets have arrived!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It beginning to look a lot like travel...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uJH6VwhtQIh1jMet8LeoEaV-1ulp82WDnXHTq1l48fWWn4CJolRFfdYYMNv4ldH3hYar_0L_4-YKJT-7uYVm7DSIQ1waoQYgTQRxCBM75OjBkyLUmtDVh2bvNH3orQzQyzw58eI5OOl1/s1600/xingyaoticket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="637" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uJH6VwhtQIh1jMet8LeoEaV-1ulp82WDnXHTq1l48fWWn4CJolRFfdYYMNv4ldH3hYar_0L_4-YKJT-7uYVm7DSIQ1waoQYgTQRxCBM75OjBkyLUmtDVh2bvNH3orQzQyzw58eI5OOl1/s640/xingyaoticket.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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We got our ticket receipts in the mail this week. The best part was seeing our daughter's Chinese name on the stub. She will be America's newest citizen when she lands on US soil. Only 15 more days until we leave for China!<br />
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