Today!

One Year Ago!

It is so hard to believe that it has been one year since we first got to see Madisons face. This is a day that we will never forget. The restless night before with little sleep. The pretending to work while watching the clock waiting for each minute to pass. Each minute feeling like an hour. The call with all of the details about our little girl and then finially the email with the photo that we had waited so long to see. It really does seem impossible that an entire year has passed since that day. This day began the longest two and a half months of our life as we waited to travel to China to finally hold the child with the sad eyes. We fell in love with the child in this photo.....but the child behind the photo was so much better.

Time Flys When You Are Having Fun!

Today we celebrated my grandson Aidan's First Birthday. It is hard to believe that a year has passed. I remember this time last year so clearly. February 24, 2006..we were just days away from seeing Madison's photo for the first time. Rory and I were walking around on pins and needles as we anxiously awaited that most cherished phone call from CCAI. And as we waited Aidan decided to come into the world 5 weeks early. What an amazing time! As you can tell from the photos, Aidan and Madison both had a wonderful time celebrating. Madison wanted nothing to do with her birthday cakes, but I guess after watching Aidan devour his..it must be OK. So she also dug in. Happy Birthday Aidan! We Love You.

Birthdays are FUN!!!

Aidan Enjoys His Cake!

Champion Birthday Cake Eater!!

Busy Month

We have had a busy month. Madison is back in daycare and after a few shaky weeks, she finally loves being there with all the kids to play with. The plus side of the daycare center where Madison goes is that her sister Elisha is a teacher there. This makes it nice, especially during the two week Madison screamed all day at daycare days. She was able to go and be with her sister while she adjusted back into daycare. With Madison in daycare I was able to throw myself full force into finding a job. Thankfully I found a job fairly quickly.

We are still struggling with Madisons communication issues. Days are often filled with screaming, grunting and throwing herself on the floor when she is unable to tell us what she wants or needs. We are getting a little relief from this now. Over the past two weeks Madison has been expanding her vocabulary. Her favorite words to say now are ByeBye, car and school. She puts these words together nicely to tell us each morning where she wants to go. This actually started on Saturday. Oh yes! Saturday! Daddy was preparing to leave for work Saturday morning when Madison ran across the room to him saying, ByeBye, car, school. Hmmmmmm, I wonder if she can get her brother Jake that excited about going to school. Daddy got the chore of explaining to Madison that she did not go to school on Saturday and when he left, I was left with a very upset little girl.

Madison also loves to say, shoes. Not only loves to say it, but to take them off. Not just at home, but in the car, in the store, in the restaurant, and just about anywhere she pleases.

And Yeah for milestones, well maybe not the most earth shattering, but Madison for the past three days has let me put her hair up in a hair tie and has left the tie in all day. Of course she laughed and giggled as I chased her around the house to try to get document proof each morning that she let me put one in her hair.

It is hard to believe that in seven days we celebrate the one year anniversary of the date we saw Madisons photo for the first time. Seems like yesterday.