Journey to Madison ~ Our China Doll

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Well, Madison had her first plane ride. We are leaving ChangSha and going to GuangZhou. ChangSha is where we did all the Chinese stuff for Madison. Now in GuangZhou, we do all the stuff for the U.S. Consulate, such as her visa and passport. She will also have her medical exam while here. The flight from ChangSha to GuangZhou was only about 45 minutes so it was not too bad. She did really well. She rarely cries. There were a couple of other babies who cried most of the flight. We are just preparing for our 13 hour flight home. That should  be interesting!

Friday, November 23, 2007

We went and toured some of ChangSha today, We went to the oldest Academy in YueLu. It is a very old academy with lots of history. We walked around for about 45 minutes. We listened to some beautiful Chinese music by some performers at the Academy. Next, we went to the silk factory. It was amazing what these ladies can do. The embroidery looked more like photographs. They were very beautiful. We stopped in one of the shops. The embroidery was expensive but we did buy Madison her first silk Chinese dress. A beautiful pink one for when she is older. We then came back to the hotel for awhile. Later in the evening, we went and had a Chinese dinner at this huge restaurant. They also had a traditional folk dance performance. It was very beautiful.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

It is Thanksgiving in China but you wouldn't really know it. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving too much.They do a little  bit for the Americans. We are still in Yue Yang where two of the babies orphanages are. We still have one orphanage to visit. There are two babies from this last orphanage that are in our group. Then we are doing some sightseeing. We stayed overnight at a Holiday Inn because the orphanages were so far away and we had four of them to visit. The last one we visited was pretty nice, as far as an orphanage is concerned. It was big and they usually have 180 babies and special needs children there at a time. We got to see a few of the kids who are in the preschool and then a few of the special needs babies. They loved it because we brought them candy and cookies. They sang us a few songs. It was a lot of fun. We then went sightseeing to the Yue Yang Pagoda. It was pretty neat. Lots of history. It was on the river. We had lunch and then went to the finding sight of another baby. I sure do crave a good ole' American hamburger! We are pretty tired of Chinese food. Oh well. When in China, one doesn't have much of a choice! We then drove about 2 hours back to our hotel in Chang Sa and had a hamburger for Thanksgiving dinner. Sure miss the turkey! I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for. Enjoy the pics!! Hello to Prairie Hill kiddos! I hope you are being good!

Squatty potty!                               It's official with her foot stamp!                                   

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Today we drove about an hour and a half to  Xiang Yin to visit one of four orphanages. Two of the eleven families babies' were from this first orphanage. For the most part, the orphanage was fairly nice. It is next to an old folks home so they older Chinese people come and help out with the babies. There were about 8 - 10 babies at this orphanage. Usually there are more. We stayed for about 20 minutes. We then went to the finding sites for both babies. This is where the babies were abandoned. One was in front of the police station and one just outside the gate. It is illegal to have more than one child in China, but it is also illegal to abandon the babies. It makes no sense.They will abandon the babies in the middle of the night and usually in a safe place where someone will find her within hours. Still it is very hard just thinking about that. We then drove another hour and a half to Madison's orphanage in LinXiang. There were 5 families whose babies came from this orphanage. We were the very first people ever allowed to visit her orphanage. We even had a television crew there filming us!  They said we may even be on the news that night! It was very hard to see where she lived her first 11 months of life. There was a brand new building, then some really run down buildings. The children were not in the new building but the run down building. Go figure! Who knows why. We went to see where she slept and lived for 11 months, three very small rooms. Two rooms had about 8 cribs in each. One room was where they sat in these wooden chairs most of the day. It was very sad to see and I cried just thinking about how they lived. There were probably 9 babies still there. One of the babies was three weeks old. It was hard seeing these babies just sitting in the chairs. There were no toys or nothing. They just sat there and once in awhile the nannies would pick them up. They didn't even get to go outside. I am sure the babies were well loved but not much stimulation at all for them. There were two other babies from our agency in the same room as Madison and then the other two babies were in a different room. We did get to keep her little card with her newborn picture on it. After about 30 minutes of talking with the director and the nannies, we went outside and took lots of pictures. We then drove to the babies finding sites. Madison  was found by a tree in front of a government building. That was very sad and hard to think about. I am glad we have Madison. She is just amazing that she has bonded so well with us. I can't wait for her to meet everyone!! She is excited about coming to Prairie Hills to meet everyone!

                                                  

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

   

Tuesday was a free day for us. We didn't have any paperwork to do. After breakfast, we went to a photography studio to have the babies pictures taken in traditional Chinese outfits. Madison did good the first round of pictures but then lost it when I changed her clothes. It was lunch time as well as nap time so we decided to stop and come back later in the afternoon. We went back to the hotel, ate lunch, and she went down for a nap. Three hours later, I had to wake her up. So needless to say, we never made it back for more pictures. Oh well. Mark and Brian went with the rest of the group to a grocery store to pick up a few things. Later in the evening, we had a nice group dinner down in the hotel. The food here is very spicy Chinese food. The Hunan Province is considered the spicy province, hence, that is why the girls are called spicy girls! Tomorrow, we go visit the girls orphanages. 

                                                         

   

Gotcha Day!!!!

Monday, November 19, 2007
  This is the day that changed my life forever. We were going to meet our babies finally. I am just going to show lots of pictures and journal later because I know that is what you all have been waiting for. Here is our beautiful daughter.....
 













These are a few of the pictures when we first saw her and held her. The director of the orphanage was holding her.She cried as soon as we held her. We gave her some apple juice and as soon as that was finished, she cried again. We then had to go and get her passport photo. She stopped long enough for a photo and started crying again. We went on the bus as soon as we had taken a few more pictures and everyone had gotten their babies. As soon as we got on the bus, she calmed down.

                                                       

She was a happy baby once we got into the hotel room. We put her on the bed and get smiles out of her right away. It was awesome!! We took her out of her Gotcha clothes. She had on a heavy winter coat and pants, two pairs of pants, and two shirts. I gave her a quick bath and put her in new clothes and a bow. I couldn't wait to dress her up. She looked so adorable!! She instantly became a happy baby! Smiles, giggles. After a couple of hours, we had to go back to the China Affairs office to officially adopt her. They asked her a few questions, we had to promise never to abandon her or harm her, and sign a few papers and she was officially ours! What an awesome feeling to know after 23 months, she was really ours. We couldn't of asked for a sweeter baby.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

We arrived in Guang Zhou around 7:00am. There were 8 families on the plane, as well as Morgan. He is from our adoption agency and goes with every China group the whole trip. He is from China so he speaks the language. We got our luggage and then had another short flight to Changsa where we would meet our babies. We checked into the Dolton Hotel, had dinner and crashed. We knew tomorrow would be an exciting day because it was GOTHCHA DAY!! We would be meeting our babies around 9:30am. Not much sleep just thinking about it.

Journey to Madison and Our Adventures in China

Friday, November 16, 2007

Well, I am a little late posting but I will try and start from the beginning when we left Denver. We left Denver Friday around 11:40. We had a good flight to LAX and landed on time, around 1:30pm. Now the long wait. We had to walk about 1/4 mile to the Tom Bradley airport for our international flight. We arrived there about 10 - 15 minutes later and went upstairs to sit and wait for our flight to China. We could not check in with China Southern until 7:30pm so we had a long wait ahead of us. We ate at McDonald's. They have no dollar menu at the McDonald's in the airport. Their value meals start at $8.00. When you are hungry and you know it might be your last hamburger for awhile, you will pay anything. So for $10, I had a quarter pounder meal.
    After we ate, we met up with 2 other couples from our agency. They both had gotten there way before we had so they were even waiting longer than us. We sat and talked until 5:30pm when we decided to go downstairs and wait in the China Southern line so we would be the first ones in line for a good seat. It was a 15hour flight so we wanted as good of seats as we could get. Again we waited for 2 hours in line. We had to get use to the waiting since we knew we may be doing that a lot!

    Finally, at 7:30pm, they opened up the ticket counter and we got our seats. We wanted the exit seats but because Brian wasn't 21, they wouldn't let all three of us sit there. So, Mark sat there and Brian and I sat behind him. We went through security which took about 30 minutes and then proceeded to our gate where we sat and waited again. We looked for something to eat but there was very little and a small sub sandwich cost $9.00. I said forget it and ate some junk food.

    Finally, around 10:30 and many hours of waiting, we got to board the plane. We were finally off to China to get our China doll! The plane took off pretty much on time. After we got into the air, they served us a meal. It was some kind of chicken. Not that great but hey, it was airplane food and when you are hungry, you will eat just about anything. After our meal, they pretty much turned down the lights and we all tried to sleep for the long ride ahead of us...

It was so hot in town yesterday, we decided to go to Estes Park again. We bought a year pass a few months ago so we decided we were going to get our money worth! We went on a 6 mile hike. Parts of it were a little tough but we made it! It was gorgeous, as usual. We hiked to Dream Lake and to Emerald Lake.








The best part was when we were headed down the mountain to go home, we saw three fairly nice size elk. We were able to get pretty darn close to them. They were near a stream which made it even better. They were absolutely gorgeous and I got some great shots! I plan on enlarging some of them and hanging them on the walls in the basement. We stayed for almost an hour. They were just grazing watching everyone watch them. We were just a few hundred yards away from them! Very cool!






I bought a new digital SLR camera (Nikon D40). I also borrowed a 200mm lens from a friend so I was able to get some closeups of the elk. They weren't that far away but having the lens was nice.






As you can see, I got some unbelievable shots of the elk! We were up close and personal with them! The game warden wouldn't let us get too close to them. It's close to mating season and the can be very temperamental! Remember to click on the pictures to see them enlarged!

  Well, as you can see, we are still waiting and waiting for Madison. It has been a long 20 months. We did talk to our coordinator last week and he just got back from China from a meeting. He talked to the director from the Adoption Center. He said it looks like Christmas for sure. They have slowed down because more Chinese people are adopting and there are not enough babies. I don't think I believe that. So...the wait continues. We will have her this year though he pretty much guaranteed us that. In the meantime...we wait and wait.