Gifts for Madison....

Over the past few weeks family and friends have been sharing in our joy and helping us pass the time until our beautiful daughter is with us. When someone is expecting a baby some offices will do a "Baby Bingo". The way this game works is each person buys a date that they think the baby will be born. My work did a similiar game with us. Each person purchased a date that they thought I would get Madison. Then the person who gets the correct date gets half of the money and the other half goes to the baby. My Manager Rebecca guessed May 8. She gave all of the money to Madison. So, I went shopping today and thanks to my co-workers purchased Madison a high chair. Yep sitting outside....Do you realize just how many pieces there are to one high chair!!! My Manager Rebecca, who won the "Baby Bingo" game, also got Madison a Teddy Blankie. She is great with arts and crafts and embroyderd Madisons name on the satin heart. Thank you Rebecca, the Teddy Blankie is wonderful and I am sure Madison will enjoy this for many years. My sister Wanda, who fortunately got my mother's sewing talents, made Madison a beautiful quilt. This is something that Madison will be able to pass down to her little girl one day.

We have a schedule!

5/4 Leave the U.S. for Hong Kong .

5/5 Arrive in Hong Kong. We will be staying at the Langham Hotel. Here we will begin to adjust to the time difference.

5/6 We will be touring Hong Kong and hopefully will begin to feel normal again.

5/7 Leave Hong Kong for Hangzhou. We will be staying at the Wanghu Hotel. Today I will be filling out adoption forms.

5/8 FOREVER FAMILY DAY!! Madison will leave the orphanage on Sunday and will travel during the night on a train. I will go to the Civil Affairs Office and will be joined with my beautiful daughter. The orphanange director will make the trip with the babies.

5/9 - 5/12 We will be touring and bonding with Madison. During this time we will be waiting for paperwork to be completed.

5/13 Leave Hangzhou for Guangzhou. We will be staying at the White Swan Hotel.

5/14-15 We have no paperwork or appointments during these two days. I am hoping we can find a park to take Madison to. We also plan to get some shopping in. We will also be spending time on the phone with Jake and Becca as Sunday is Mothers day. How wonderful it will be to have my baby on Mother's Day.

5/16 Madison has her visa physical and photo today.

5/17 Consulate appointment today.

5/18 Today I go to the U.S. Consulate to take the oath. As far as I know, this oath is a promise to love and accept Madison as if she were my own. How hard is that??

5/19 Time to come home. We leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong. We have about a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong then we are on our way home to Daddy.

These photos were sent to me this morning by Epin. Her parents took them a couple of days ago. She is showing us a little of her teeth as she nibble on her fingers. I dont think she looks as sad in these photos. She looks a little disinterested. It will not be long til we have her. Her Aunt Shannon and I will have her smiling and happy. Then when we get home, I am sure that her Daddy will make her very happy and give her lots to laugh and smile about.

What an exciting Day!

Sometimes when things happen....they happen fast. We received our Consulate appointment confirmation yesterday. We have an appointment on May 17. Yeah!!

JC Travel, preferred travel agency for CCAI, sent us a sample itinerary last night. I also had a scheduled call for 1 pm today. We changed around a few flights; I lit up my credit card and flights to and from China have been booked.

We leave for China on May 4th. We fly from Louisville to Chicago and then have a direct flight to Hong Kong. We will arrive in Hong Kong at 4:50 pm on Friday May 5th. That will be one long day, concidering we leave Louisville at 9:55 am on Thursday and dont arrive until the afternoon of the next day. We fly to Hangzhou on May 7th. We will finially have our precious baby on May 8th. We return from China on May 19.

We also received more wonderful news today. Epin's parents have arrived safely in China and visited with our daughter. Madison received our care package we sent and Epin's parents took more goodies from us. They also took photos of Madison. Epin says Madison allowed them to take pictures of her, but would not smile. My baby is so sad................. When Epin's parents have recovered from their flights they will send us the pictures and I will post them on here.

33 days until I hold my sweet Madison.

We received updated information from the orphanage today. Our little girl has grown. She looks so sad. Here is what the orphanage says about her:

Height: 77 cm Weight: 10 kg Chest Cir: 46 cm Head Cir: 47 cm

Foot Length: 12 cm HepB: negative Teeth: 8
Sitting?: Yes Standing?: Yes, if she is holding onto something

Walking: No Speaking: No
How long has the child lived in the orphanage? 12 months
Where is your child currently sleeping? She sleeps in a crib by herself.
Other information? Everything else is normal.

We did not get a confirmation on our Consulate appointment today. Hopefully we will get one tomorrow. Each day that passes brings us one day closer to our beautiful daughter.

Quite a few events have happened late last week. On Thursday we received our travel approval. When CCAI (our adoption agency) received this they requested our consulate appointment. They have requested the week of May 15. If we get an appointment on Mon, Tue or Wed of that week we will get Madison on May 8th. If we get an appointment on Thurs of that week we will get Madison on May 9th. We should be leaving around May 4th. We will have more concrete information early this coming week.

We also get updated photos and information about Madison on Monday or Tuesday. I am excited to see how my baby looks, but I will also be a little sad to see how much she has grown without us.

I spoke with Jack in the translation department regarding the finding document. Madison was found in an entrance of the Senior's Apartment House at Feipeng Lane, Wenzhou City on February 25, 2005. Madison was nearly 2 1/2 months old when she was found. The translated documents did not indicate that there was a note left. Jack contacted the orphanage and found out that there was indeed a note. It was a simple red piece of paper with black writing that said, "Noon December 11."

We will not get the original note. We will be able to take photos of the note when we get our precious baby. We are thankful for the love of her birth family for making sure everyone knew when this lovely child entered the world.