Remembering Gotcha Day....1 year later.

This photo was taken by the orphanage director's wife just minutes before we were handed our daughter
at the Galactic Peace Hotel in Nanchang, China. 

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 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 orphanage as we had initially been told.  The cries were perhaps for her foster family & the only life she knew. But for as much as we felt her immense fear and confusion, we knew in our hearts that she would one day grow to love us as her forever parents. 

A year later, today, Madeline is a confident, trusting, loving two and a half year old. 
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. 

3 Months since Gotcha!

Madeline has continued to thrive with us! 

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. 

Speaking of mimicking....click here to see her do her version of sit ups after seeing mama do it. 

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. 

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. 

Here's a few more pics of our little sunshine. 

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. 

Warmer weather, books, and Lunar Fest!

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! 

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! 

She found this tiny little one called Danny the Duck, that she just loves!

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!

2 months since Gotcha!

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. 

Thank you to all who have stopped by to visit. 

She has also slowly learned to trust & love our dog Dalila just as much as we do. 

Here she is feeding her "Lila". 

Here's a few other things we are celebrating during our 2 months together:

She has learned a lot of new words, mostly 1 syllable, but sometimes even 2 or 3 like "butterfly" or "tortilla", or "apple pie".

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!

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. 

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 ).

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!

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?

We are Thankful Every Single Day for Madeline coming into our lives! 

She is Exactly the little girl we had dreamed and prayed about during our 6 year wait for her referral. 

Leaving you with a few images of our sweetie.

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. 

And if you want to see the youtube vid, go here. 

Our little happy girl loves taking her baby out for walks, rain or shine!

She loves her sunglasses too!

And if you are into sewing, or crafting, you can always visit my other blog MKLittle where I'm sure I'll be posting a few more pics of our little doll since I really enjoy making things for her.

Christmas Joy!

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. 

She has brought us so much Joy! 

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 ). 

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. 

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. 

It's been 1 month that we've had her. 

And it's amazing how much she's bonded with us. 

Our lives are richer and our our hearts just full of Love for her, that is for sure!

Almost a week home!

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. 

This photo was taken while in China.
We Love our daughter so much!

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. 

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. 

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. 

Here's daddy holding his little girl. Check out those matching eyebrows & hairline! She's his little girl all right!

This photo was also taken in Guangzhou, during one of our last days there. She loves wearing glasses!

Here she is again at home. She grabbed the kitty's little glasses & put them on herself to be like her Mami.
She is so funny! 

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. 

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!

Thinking and wondering...

I stumbled upon this captivating photo by Karen Su/ Getty Images while reading an interesting article on the decline of male to female ratios during the Chinese Great Leap Forward famine. 

A close friend of ours who just the other day got to see a photo of Madeline for the first time, asked me if we would be getting any information on Madi's biological family. She apparently didn't quite understand the Chinese International adoption process.

No, I told her....unfortunately not a single thing, as child abandonment and relinquishment are both illegal in China. All children who end up in Chinese orphanages are mostly all abandoned, not necessarily true orphans. 

So tonight I find myself thinking about Madeline's biological family. I'm wondering who her birth parents are, where they live, what they do for a living....whether little Madi was their first child, or second. I'll never know, I'll just know that they had her for two months....most likely concealing her until they no longer could keep her ( hoping that it was because they loved her too much to want to let her go ). As far as we know, there are fines in China for those having more than one child, if they can afford to pay for it, they will keep the child, but if not, then parents are literally forced into desperate measures. For our daughter, that meant leaving her outside the gates of an orphanage. 

Thank God she survived, was found, and is now waiting for us to come get her, unbeknownst  to her. 

We may never know exactly what town or village she originally came from. But from what we've learned, the town of Ningdu is a very small town even by Chinese standards. There is both a town of Ningdu with about 100,000 people, and there is the County of Ningdu which has about 700,000 people, and apparently there are lots of small poor villages throughout the county. 

We're hoping that when it's time for us to travel, we will be able to visit her orphanage ( although we've been told it might be unlikely ) or at the very least we would like to be able to visit some of the surrounding villages outside Nanchang ( Capital of Jiangxi, which is the place that our daughter will be handed over to us ). Nanchang is about a 5-6 hour drive to Ningdu County, where our daughter's orphanage is. 

It's important for us to visit these surrounding areas primarily because we would want to capture as much as we can, for our daughter. One day when she is older, she may want to know more about her culture, about the people from the villages, about where she originally may have come from.  

Adoption Process Update:

We received our I800A approval this past Friday!

Next up is mailing off our I800 form first thing Monday, & then wait about 2 weeks for our Provisional Travel Approval.

We're moving along.....hoping that in a couple a weeks we can at least have a better idea of when we're traveling!