Our Adoption Journey

Pic's Fixed

2007-05-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Thanks Amy for the note about the pictures. The link now works..

Someone Loves the Beach...

2007-05-23T20:23:00.001-05:00

Hello Again Everyone.

Well, it is day 4 here on the beach in Destin, Florida, and well, Maddy truly loves the beach! She is once again a crazy women when it comes to playing outside.

At first she wasn't too sure about the ocean, but she quickly overcame that thought. She really hasn't been "In" the ocean, the waves have been a little to rough for her to dive in. But she has been sticking her toes in the water.

The sand down here is a huge hit with her. The condo we are staying at provided quite a few beach toys. So she has been making full use of those toys. It is really cute.

Oh, and she has decided that whenever daddy builds sand castles, that they must be torn down quickly.

Anyway, here are quite a few pictures.

Why are there bunny tracks in the snow?

2007-04-08T20:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, let me start out by saying how wrong it is to have snow on Easter. Wrong, wrong and wrong.

It has been a really busy, but great week. On Monday, we left work a little bit early and went to the zoo. Maddy liked the monkeys and bats. She thought the kangaroos were dogs, and the Otters were cats. Oh, and yes, it was 75 degrees, and last night wind chill was down to the single digits (yea, I know, I'm a little cranky about the weather).

Tuesday evening we went down to Rachel's house to visit with the "Girls" and our friends. Lots O' fun was had by all. The festivities started out with a Easter egg hunt. Maddy found two, and was pretty happy with that. The rest of the girls were really nice and helped Maddy find a couple more eggs. After the hunt was over, we spent some quality time on the swing set. It's official, Maddy needs a swing set. I can see a couple of "Summer Projects" lining up.

On Saturday, Maddy received a box from Uncle Simeon and Aunt Erica. Inside were some rubber duckies, a singing duck, and a couple of very cool books. They were all a big hit.

The rest of the week was pretty low-key. Sunday was a really busy day. Tina's Parents came up just before noon, and we went out to a late lunch. Maddy also got into her Easter baskets after lunch. Today wound up being a really busy day, and little missy just didn't want to take her nap. So, the video at the bottom of the post is exactly what happens when she doesn't take a nap.

Okay, it's getting close to bed time for me, so here are some pictures for the past few days.

Long Time, no posting..

2007-03-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

Howdy Folks. It has been a long, long time since we have posted anything. We have been crazy, crazy people since we got home.

Over the past couple of months, Maddy has really grown like crazy. She is looking so much like a little girl now! Since the weather has been turning nice, we have been having Maddy outside. She loves it. The more we can be outside, the more she likes it. We spent a good part of the day today motoring around up and down the sidewalk.

Keeping this a short post (Maddy doesn't notice me on the laptop, if she did, it would be all over). Hopefully we will get better at posting more often.

Here are some pictures!

Long Time, no posting..

2007-03-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to Me!

2007-01-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

Hi Foke's, It's Maddy!

Wow, did I have fun this weekend!! It was my birthday, and mom and dad had all kinds of friends over for my party! It was quite a party. Quite a few of my friends came over, and I meet some new friends at the party that I really liked.

After all of the big people ate some food, it was cake time! Ummmm, that was really good. This is the first cake that I have ever had, so Mommy and Daddy got me my own cake. At first, It was a little strange to me. It felt all sticky and gross. Then I got my fingers on it, and tasted it. I really LIKED it! So started to dig in. What was really good was when Uncle Eric grabbed some more cake and gave it to me. I think he was trying to give me a sugar buzz or something, what ever that is.

It's time for me to go to bed, so here are some pictures from my party for everyone to look at.

Slackers....

2006-12-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

Yea, yea, I know it, we are such slackers not posting lately. It's amazing how the time passes with the little one. Before you know it, it's the end of the day and we are ready to go to bed.

Anywho, it's been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks. Christmas was LOTS of fun with Maddy! While she really wasn't to much into opening the presents, she did love playing with the boxes and paper! Actually she did enjoy playing with her toy's. It was nice getting together with all of the family and friends during the holidays!

Here are some pictures for our past few weeks adventures. It's been a busy past couple of weeks!!! More pictures and details of the grand adventures soon!

Finally...Success!

2006-12-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

Ever since we have gotten back from China, we have been trying to get Maddy to drink out of something other than her bottle and formula. We have tried juice in a sippy cup, water, milk, heck, we even mixed up some formula and put it in the cup. No luck, nadda, nothing, nope, not going to happen. We were actually starting to get a little concerned about keeping enough fluids in her. She had plenty of pee-filled diapers (which is a good sign), but with Maddy getting more active, we know she is going to require more fluids. The only kind of luck we had been having has putting a little bit of water/juice/milk in a straw and giving it to her that way. Every time we tried to give her the stuff in a sippy, she would always fight it, or just play with the cup. It makes sense, she just held a sippy for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

So, while we were at Children's talking to the nutritionist, she said we should be giving Maddy whole milk. Milk is going to give her plenty of fluids, becides the fast that the whole milk will be good for her. She also mentioned that if whole milk didn't work, just go ahead and try chocolate milk. Just make sure that the the chocolate milk isn't 1%. While at Krogers today, I picked up some chocolate milk, and we tried that today.

Well, that worked! We started out by giving her a little bit of milk in a straw. The first reaction was the "Bitter Beer Face" mentioned before, and then a cute little smile. Two or three times later, she had a HUGE smile on her face. She liked it! So, we put some on her Dora sippy cup to give that a try. The first couple of attempts she really wasn't to happy, until she realized that yummy chocolate milk goodness was coming out of the cup. Wow, then she went to town like a crazy woman. She downed most of the cup. Actually, she was wearing about half of the cup, so she really didn't drink that much. It was a good thing that we double-bibbed her, and she still had her PJ's on. There was milk everywhere. Here are some short little videos of her drinking the milk like a crazy woman. Also, at the bottom of the post are some pictures.

Changing the topic slightly, yesterday we had our other appointment at Children's. Her TB test came back negative, which is very good. She had a red mark on her arm, but what is really important with TB test is if there is a knot/bump under the red spot. If there is a bump, then there is a good chance whe was exposed to/or had TB. Good for us, she is just fine.

After checking the TB test, and having a really good chit-chat with one of the RN's in the program (She adopted her daughter from China), we went down have Maddy's hearing testing. Everything tested out pretty good, but she did have a little bit of ear wax in one ear. Once we get rid of that ear wax, we are going to go back and have her hearing tested again. I know I mentioned this in an earlier post, but if you are adopting internationally, or know some one who is, I would HIGHLY recommending taking them to Childrens and sending them thru the clinic. They do an outstanding job!

Here are the pictures as promised. Not sure what the next couple of days will have in store, but I guess we will find out. There is a rumor that we might get some snow tomorrow. It will be cool to get her reaction to the snow!

Yes, we are still here!

2006-12-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

Hello Fokes:

Sorry for being such a huge slacker on keeping the blog updated. Over the past week or so, we have been pretty having fun with Maddy. Let's see if I can remember everything we did.

Needless to say, we have lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving at our house, which worked out really well. My Bother & Sister came up from down south, along with both of our parents. It was nice having everyone up at the house. Maddy did really well over Thanksgiving. We made sure she even had some Turkey and Gravy (ha!).

Speaking of food, She pretty much likes everything. The only thing we have found so far that due didn't like was baby Chicken and Noodles. Over the past couple of weeks we have been feeding her all kind of baby food, and she likes it all. After our appointment at Children's on Friday, we have even started giving her some mashed up table food. For breakfast the last two days she has been eating a scrambled egg and rice cereal. What is really funny is the look on her face when we give her some new food. Think "Biter Beer Face".

Let's see, what else have we done. We have spent a lot of time just "Hangin" with the little one. The weather was really nice last week in Ohio, so we spent most of the week doing a little bit of running around taking care of different things. We went down to the Social Security office to get her SSN number taken care of. That was an experience. To make a long story short, we have her number now, but we will to go back in a couple of months to update the records.

It was nice getting out of the house and doing some running around. At first Maddy really wasn't a big fan of the car seat, but taking her out on some short trips has been working really well. We have taken her out to eat probably 4 or 5 times since we have been home, and for the most part, it has went well.

The appointment on Friday at Children's Hospital was good. Maddy was a really good kid for the entire appointment. Children's has a really great International Adoption Clinic. Everyone at the clinic was great. They do a really good job checking all of kids over. At first we had your basic physical. Then we spent some quality time with a Physical Therapist who watched her play to size up her development. We even meet with a Nutritionist. The worst part of the experience was having her blood drawn for some test, but even that was good. The only thing Maddy didn't like during the trip was being held down for the blood work. Her theme song is "Don't fence me in" by Bing Crosby. On Monday we have to go back to get the results of her TB test, and see a couple other departments. I would highly recommend anyone who are adopting internationally to take your child to the clinic. They do an outstanding job. On a little side note, while we were at the clinic, in the room next to ours was a 4 month old from Vietnam! Wow, talk about young.

Anywho, here is the link to the pictures from this week. It's time for me to run to my toy store (Lowes/HomeDepot ) and take a look at some vent-free gas logs. I will also make sure we do a better job with the blog . I hear the Maddy has quite the following :)

Some More Video

2006-11-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

Here is some video from today:

The first one is of Maddy this morning playing with her truck:

This one is of her eating some puff's:

Baby Bomb

2006-11-22T14:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm sure everyone is thinking the poopy kind of baby bombs, but no, we are talking about what happens when you bring a kid into a house for the first time. Maddy has been having a ball in the house. She has been enjoying herself as she explores the house, and getting familar with her surroundings. Over the past couple of days, the pet's have even begun to like Maddy. The cat has been close to her a couple of times, and her and the dog are starting to have a little fun. I'm sure it is helping the dog adjustment since she (The dog) has figured out that kids drop all kind of food on the floor. Jane (the dog) personally really likes the Gerber Puff's. YUmmm.

Anyway, back to the baby bomb. Maddy's toys have started to take over parts of the house. We are both completly cool with the toy's, but it's just kind of funny seeing all of the toys around the house. Three week ago, we left a toy-less house, and now we have ton's of them. It was always kind of funny when we would tell our friends with kids that they were more than welcome to come over, but this is a BYOT (Bring your own toys) house. I guess that is not the case any more, well, unless your a boy. No boy toys in this house, unless you consider my workshop downstairs :-).

Speaking of Maddy, the clean, sleek Camry Hybrid has be transformed into a kid transport vechical (KTV). We took Maddy on her first car ride a few days ago, and she really, really didn't like the bright sun. So, I went out and purchased all kinds of sun shades and the like for the car. The second car ride went much, much better. I'm sure she will get use to the sun, but it will probably take a little while. Personally I like the blue, sunny skies. I didn't see a single day of blue skies in China because of the polution. It was basically always hazy, even on the nice days.

Anywho, Maddy has been doing really well with everything. We are all still adjusting a little bit to the time change from China. More importantly Maddy had decided that she really likes Baby food. That's huge! We have been expermenting with all kinds of baby food, and so far, she likes most everything. Today for lunch she even had Green Bean's, which was a big hit. We picked up some Turkey and Sweet Potatos for Thanksgiving tomorrow, which will be good. She had that earlier and really liked it.

Here are a couple of pictures over the last couple of days. We have been pretty busy, so the pictures are a little sparse. Yesterday we went into the office to fill out our paperwork for the adoption leave, and wound up spending 3 hours at the office. Maddy was a really big draw. It was really nice seeing everyone at the office. It sounds like Maddy has quite the following on the blog. That is very cool.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure there will be lots of pictures in a couple of days.

We are Home!!! Yea!

2006-11-19T21:31:00.000-05:00

Well, we have officially made it home. Well, technically, we were home yesterday, but we were just to stinking tired to even think about blogging.

The flight over was pretty decent. Maddy did really good on the China to LAX flight. The LAX to Columbus flight was a little bit rougher with the time change, but for the most part she did really good. She has been a real tropper over the past couple of days! The biggest problem with the LAX to Columbus flight was the small seats. Jumping down from Business to Economy takes some getting use to :-).

Once we showed up at he airport, we were meet by quite a few people. It was really cool! Maddy seemed really excited to see here new family and friends. Quite a people from the office were there, in addition to quite a few family members. We spent about a hour at the airport talking to everyone.

The ride home Maddy did pretty well. She wasn't a big fan on the car seat, so we are going to have to work on that over the next couple of days.

Maddy has really taken to the house. As soon as Tina put her down on the floor, she took off. It was very cool to see that she was already comfortable and felt safe at the house. It was as if she was saying "Hey, I'm home!". Megan came over to the house to help bring over some luggage that wouldn't fit on our car (We had to pick up two extra pieces in China to bring back all of the stuff). She stuck around for a while and performed Aunt Megan duties by helping to assemble some of Maddy's toys.

We are all trying to adjust to the time change. I actually think that Maddy is doing better with the time change than we are. She slept thru a good part of the night yesterday, and she was ready for bed at around 8:00pm tonight, which is really good to see. Hopefully she will sleep thru most of the night tonight.

Speaking of Bed, it's about time for me to go. I'm still pretty stinking tired from the flight. Here are some pictures from the last couple of days. Below is also a video from Maddy this evening exploring her sippy cup. She spent more time chewing the cup than actually drinking out of it, but that's okay.

And we are off...

2006-11-17T01:12:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon everyone...

We are for the most part all packed, and so ready to come home. The past two weeks have just been an amazing experience. We will be leaving China at around 9:00pm tonight, and will be back in Columbus on Saturday Morning.

Below are three different videos that we shot over the last couple of days. I tried to upload it earlier, but we were having some slow internet connection problems.

The first two are from Tina teaching Maddy to wave:

This one is from when Maddy and I were hanging out this morning.

We will see everyone once we get back.

Final Day of Paperwork

2006-11-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

Hi Again everyone. I had to tell Maddy it was time for bed. She is really wired from taking a late nap today. She is really getting the hang of this computer.

Anywho, we have had yet another really busy couple of days. Yesterday, after breakfast, we just hung out in our room while Elsie and Simon took all of our paperwork down to the Consulate. We waited in our room just to make sure there wasn't any problems with the paperwork. All is fine, don't worry fokes. After doing that, we spent some more quality time walking around the city. We even went down to Beijing Street again with most of our travel group. We didn't really buy anything, but it was pretty cool being down there. This time the street had probably a 1/4 of the people it did when we visited it on Sunday.

Yesterday evening we had one last dinner with the entire group. It was nice getting together with everyone for one last meal. We are really going to miss hanging out and spending time with our travel group. We have developed this very unique bond with each other that words really can not describe. Hopefully we can all get together with the girls in a few years!

Today was another pretty good day. After breakfast, we did our part to stimulate the local economy (Well, Tina said I did my part ). After the shopping, we had lunch with Eddie, Christy and her daughter Kate. It was nice just sitting around and talking.

After lunch, we all went to the Consulate for our interview and to take the oath. The US consulate moved the Adoption Processing unit over to the other side of the city, so it took us about 30 - 45 minutes to arrive. Traffic was a little crazy this afternoon. Anyway, the interview was really quick (They just wanted to make sure we were who we said we were), we took our oath. After the oath, we received Maddy's immigration paperwork, her Chinese Passport along with her Visa. It was really nice getting all of our paper work in our hands.

Tina spend most of the evening packing, and for the most part, we are in pretty good shape. We won't be leaving for the flight back until around 9:00pm, so we will have a free day tomorrow for the most part. I'm sure we will have to finish packing tomorrow, along with taking care of some other items that we forgot.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our travels the last couple of days.

Ni Hao

2006-11-16T08:05:00.000-05:00

Hello Daddy and Mommy's Friends & Family, it's Maddy here! Wow, what great couple of weeks I have had! 11 days ago, my morning started like every other morning. Next thing I know, I'm on the longest car ride of my life to see my new Mommy and Daddy. My Auntie was all excited about taking me to see Mom and Dad. Once we came to town, all of us went into this really official looking building. While there, we waited at the top of the stairs, and while waited, she was pointing Mom and Dad out to me. They seemed oh so excited to see me.

After a lot of commotion at the building, we took another little ride around town. Mommy was holding onto me so tight. I decided at that moment that both of these guys were keepers. I could really get use to this kind of attention. They both just wouldn't stop touching, kissing, and holding me. Of course, they could stop touching that nose of mine at any time :-). I have a little bit of a cold, so I'm not really liking the fact that they keep on touching it.

After getting back to where Daddy and Mommy are staying, we just spend some time hanging out in the room. Once we got settled, Daddy started to make my bottle, and that was pretty stinking funny. He got milk everywhere. I thought it was quite funny. Mom gave me my first bottle, and it went pretty well. It just took me a little bit to get use to these new kind of bottles. I slept like crazy the first night. I think Mommy and Daddy were watching me sleep the first couple of nights, but I could be wrong about that. For some reason they think it's cool how I sleep, and all of the little sounds I make. I'm not quite sure why it's cool, those are just the sounds that I make. They even were nice enough to take a blanket off the bed and put on the floor each day. It was really nice to be able to play with Daddy and Mommy on the floor. I really, really liked being able to craw all over the place.

One thing that I found really strange was how excited they got the first time I pooped in my diaper. For some reason they seemed really excited about that. Trust me, I have a lot more of those to come. I can promise that some of them will be quite productive.

The next couple of days were pretty much a whirl wind. We took quite a few bus rides around the city. The first day Mom and Dad were able to get some paperwork saying that they were to take care of me. They really seemed all excited about it. I'm not quite sure why, since I know that they are going to be taking care of me forever.

During the next couple of days I spent a lot of time making all kinds of sounds and exploring the room. By the second week, I was even crawling around the room having lots of fun getting into everything. We even went on a couple of playdates with my new friend Maddy. Her Mom and Dad are pretty cool also. They are from some place called Florida. On our playdates, we went to this really big room fool of toys. I have never seen so many toys in all of my life. During the second week here, we spent quite a bit of time in the playroom. It was loads of fun. I'll have to see if I can talk Mommy and Daddy into getting me some of those toys!

Oh, did I mention bath time? What fun. Mommy and Daddy let me just sit in the tub for a few minutes and play each day. I've gotten to the point where I really look forward to my baths, and even try to splash water on there faces. It is quite fun.

Over the next few days, we spent quite a bit of time running around China. Mommy has this sling-type thing that she sticks me in while we are walking around. I kind of like traveling that way. This way I'm all nice a close to Mommy while walking around. They even stuck me in this thing with wheels a couple of times. I'm not quite sure how I like that. I don't mind it so much when we are moving, but standing still, I'm not a big fan of that. While running around we say some really cool animals at the local zoo. I'm not quite sure what all they were, but they looked cool. I think the big cats look really cool. Maybe I can pet them next time I'm at the zoo. My parents promised to take me to the zoo when I get home.

I did go to see a doctor on one of the days. It really wasn't that much fun. One of the ladies made me take my clothes off. How embarsing is that? They spent some time checking me out, and it sounds like I'm in good shape. I could of told them that, if they would of just asked.

I'm feeling much better now after some quality time with Daddy and Mommy. I really think they are keepers. Sometimes I think I have them wrapped around my little fingers, but I realize that they just love me, and want to make sure I'm happy. They are always hugging, kissing, and talking to me.

Today I was on my first official US property. It was some "Consulate" thingy? Daddy told me that technically I was in the US while I was in the building. I'm not quite sure what that is, but they got a really nice envelope with all of my stuff. That way when I get home, they will be able to get me past immigration. I also received my Chinese passport. It's pretty cool looking. It has my name and everything on it. I'm going to see if Daddy and Mommy will keep that for me.

I'm really looking forward to traveling back to my new home and being with my forever family. I hear that the grandparents are pretty cool, along with Mommy and Daddy's friends. Mommy and Daddy keep on telling me how lucky they are to have me, and how much they really, really, really love me. I'm even getting to the point that I'm letting them touch my nose. Just don't push your luck fokes.

Busy Couple of days

2006-11-15T08:04:00.000-05:00

Good Evening (Or morning) everyone. The last couple of days have been really busy, so sorry for the limited postings. We should have some time tomorrow where I can post some additional goodies.

Today was "Picture" Day. There is a tradition where we get all of the girls together as a group on the red couch for a picture. It was actually pretty funny getting all of the girls together at once. It was really nice.

Anywho, more details tomorrow. Here are some of the pictures from today! I'll make sure we get a good posting tomorrow. I would post a lot more, but this keyboard is really loud when trping, and Maddy just went to bed.

As Promised

2006-11-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the toilets here in China. Oh, and yes, it's a bring you own paper kind of establishment.

Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My

2006-11-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

Today was a very busy day for the Wood family. We spent a good part of the day at the local zoo. It was actually a much better zoo than I expected. Maddy did really good again last night, but she did wake up a little bit earlier than normal this morning. That was a good thing, since we had to be out the door at 0900 this morning.

After a quick bite to eat, we took a short bus ride over to the zoo. We walked around the zoo for probably a good 3 hours. Maddy did really good. She actually sat in the stroller for most of the entire zoo visit. At the zoo we saw some pretty cool animals, including a baby giraffe, and a panda. The Panda was pretty old. She is actually the great grandmother of one of the famous panda's at the San Diego Zoo. We had quite a bit of fun at the zoo. Maddy really wasn't to much into the whole zoo trip, but she did do pretty good.

Right after the zoo trip, Simon and Elsie took us to a local restaurant that serves food from Northern China. The food were we are at is more like the food you would find in a typical Chinese restaurant back in the States. Up North, like in Beijing, the food is made with flower instead of rice. It was perhaps one of the best meals I have had in a long time. We had two different kinds of dumplings, some BacChoi, Sweet potatoes, Sweet & Sour Chicken, some beef dish, and banana pancakes for desert. Wow, talk about good. I think I could of eating there every day. It was just amazing.

After the lunch (Which took us about 90 minutes to eat), we came back to the hotel. Several of us then took a taxi ride to the local toy market to pick up some toys as a donation to the orphanage (more on that later). It was once again just plain crazy at the market. Talk about wall to wall people. Oh, and the traffic is just crazy. If there was officially 3 "Lanes" of traffic, there was probably at least 5 different lanes of cars, with bikes going in all directions. Some bikes where even going up against the stream of traffic. People think traffic is bad back in the States should spend some time in China. It's just crazy. The traffic is do bad that most of the major roads in China are actually elevated. So, if you want to get from one part of Guangzhou to another, you take the local roads to a ramp that goes up to the elevated road. Then you take that to the part of the city you want to go, and drive back down to the surface streets. It is actually a very efficient method of getting around. We should think about that in the States.

While we were at the Market, Tina and Maddy went down to the play room for some R&R. Down in the play room, Tina was talking to some people who were wearing an OSU hat. Come to find out, they live about 5 minutes from my Mom and Dad's house in St. Louisville. Talk about a small world. It's just amazing who you meet over here!

Anywho, Tomorrow is going to be a really, really long/busy day. Some of us are going to be going to the different orphanages to visit. It is going to be about a 10 - 12 hour bus/van ride, so don't be expecting any major postings tomorrow. Tina is actually going to stay back with Maddy and spend the day with Karen doing some shopping. I think it will be best if she doesn't go back there. She has made such huge progress over the past week that we don't want to get her confused by bringing her back.

Well, It's time for everyone to go to bed here in China. More pictures and video coming in the next day or so, I promise! Here are the pictures from today.

Nice Day

2006-11-12T07:21:00.000-05:00

Hello Again. This is going to be a pretty quick and simple posting today since Maddy is getting her evening bottle. Today we had an "Free" day, but it was actually fairly busy. This morning we took our time getting ready this morning, so we spent quite a bit of time on the floor playing in the room. After getting ready, we had breakfast downstairs, which is always fun. Maddy has really started to like the yoghurt, which makes us both very happy. Now if we could just get her to eat solid food we would be doing good.

After breakfast, we spent probably 90 minutes just walking around the island. The weather outside today was just outstanding. It was a little bit cooler, and much less pollution in the air. Yesterday was pretty breezy, so I think it blew some of the pollution/smog out of the air. It was really nice walking around just the three of us outside. We did have a big moment today. Today was the first day that Maddy really let us put her in the stroller. She was fine, just as long as we kept walking.

While we were out and about, we walked by the Polish Consulate, which was kind of strange to see. It's a pretty small building, but hey, it's technically Poland. There were even two Chinese Army Guards watching after the place. I might try talking them into letting me snap there picture some time over the next couple of days.

Out on our walk, we also stopped by a Christian Church that was holding service. We stopped by for a few minutes to listen to the service. It was actually pretty cool. I'm not quite sure what the requirements/standards are in China, but this sure isn't the China of Chairman Mao. Religion is pretty open are here now. Our travel coordinator even had a "Jesus is love" shirt on the other day, which was pretty cool. On the island there is at least two churches (One Christian, one Catholic).

After the nice long walk, we took a small break in the room, and meet a group of our travel mates at a really nice restaurant. It was pretty upscale, but some of the food options, was well, interesting. We ate very normal food (Fried Rice, Dumpling soup, etc), but we could of eaten:

Fish Lips
Water beetles
Sand Worms. They are about as big as your fingers
Baby Fish

It goes without saying that we stayed clear on those items on the menu. They had the food out front, still kicking, as you walked into the establishment. I'll have to see if I can get a picture to post.

After a very nice and long lunch, we came up stairs for a nice nap in the afternoon, and then went down to the playroom for a play date. Much fun was had by all. I'll try to get that video posted tomorrow afternoon if we have some time.

Following the playdate, Maddy took another short nap, and then we went out to dinner some other people we met on the flight over. They had just shown up at our hotel today, since there daughter was in another province. It was nice catching up with them and everyone telling the different stories of our trip.

Tomorrow is going to be a pretty busy morning. We leave for the local zoo at around 0900, so we will have to make sure we are up and out he door for breakfast pretty early in the morning.

Here is the slideshow from the previous 24 hours. Enjoy!

One Pink Sock

2006-11-11T02:03:00.000-05:00

Hello my fellow Americans. We have had another busy 24 hours, which is pretty typical for us. After the little one's nap, we played around on the floor for a little bit. We just stretch out the blanket on the floor, and we have great fun. Maddy has discovered the fun of stacking blocks. Next to her plastic keys, the stacking blocks are one of her favorite toys. She doesn't do any "Stacking" with the cups, but there is a lot of slapping them together to make noise. We keep a set in the diaper bag so that she can have fun with them while we are out and about.

Yesterday we once again had dinner at Lucy's, but this time we went with Karen and Paul from our travel group. They are both pretty cool people, and I don't know if I mentioned it, but her daughter is also a Maddy! How cool is that. At dinner Maddy chowed down on some more yogurt, which is always a good thing. The really nice thing about Lucy's is that you are eating outside, and the evenings here in Guangzhou are just amazing. We went to dinner a little late since we had to wait for the jeweler to drop off the Jade. All of the pieces turned out pretty nice.

After dinner, we hung out in the room for a few minutes, and then we pretty much all crashed. Another one of the "First" Maddy has done is given us her cold. When we got her she was pretty congested, but now she is much better. Now that she is better I guess it's our turn to be a little sick. It's one of those 24 hour kind of bugs for us. Tina got it first two days ago, and then I picked it up next. It actually isn't to bad, just a little cold. Speak of Maddy being sick, I never knew that so much snot could come out of such a little nose. It's just amazing how much she can produce, I'm just not sure where it's all coming from. She had a couple of big sneezes earlier yesterday, and wow, that was a lot of stuff coming out. It's a good thing that she is getting it out. We have been keeping her in the bathtub a little bit longer than normal, which has been helping.

Speaking of being sick, I'm sure the environment here in China isn't helping matters. The air is just "Thick" for all of the pollution. Our room has a view of the Pearl River. The river is just about as wide where was are at as the Ohio River in Cincinnati. Yesterday there was so much smog that I could barely see the buildings on the other side of the river. If you look at the slideshow link at the bottom, you will see a picture of one of the container ships sailing by the hotel. You can tell how much traffic this river gets just be looking out the window. I'm sure most of the containers on the ship are going to be going to the US.

Oh, forgot to tell you a funny thing that happened yesterday. We were changing her diaper in the last afternoon, and as Tina was opening the sucker up, someone turned on the spicket. Luckily the diaper was still for the most part on her. If not, Tina would of had a pretty wet spot on the bed . I always figured that only little boys did that, not girls. I guess live and learn.

Speaking of pee, when we were out with Liu Jing earlier this week, we saw an "Interesting" site. There was a little boy with his mom out walking around. The little guy was probably about 24 months old. He needed to pee, so mom just dropped the pants, and he just did it right on the sidewalk. We had always heard about that happening in China, but I guess you still never expect to see it when it happens.

Everyone is probably still trying to figure out the title of the posting. We had laundry done a couple of days ago, and while I was pulling the cloths out, I noticed that one of my sucks was nice a pink. Hmm, I guess I have learned my lesson on that one. Make sure that you pre-sort out the laundry BEFORE taking it out to be done. I'm really glad that I don't wear tighty whities. I consider my self pretty secure in my manhood, but wearing pink underwear would probably be crossing a line.

Anywho, where was I. On yes, this morning we did our typical bath routine, which is always lot of fun. Maddy really likes her bath time. She must of always been given baths standing up, since she really isn't to fond of sitting down. We have her a small bowl the other day, and she does seem to like to play with that in the bath tub. She has even started splashing around in the water. It's pretty cute.

Today along with tomorrow is for the most part a free day. We have some American Consulate paperwork to fill out this afternoon, but that's pretty much it. This morning we spent quite a bit of quality time on the floor playing, ate some breakfast, and took one heck of a power nappy. Maddy actually slept for most of her two hour nap, which is huge. After we woke up (Yep, I took a nappy also), we did some shopping around at the local stores. There are ton's of little shops all around the hotel. I think on Tuesday Karen and Tina are going to go out and do some power shopping while I'm going to see Maddy's orphanage. After doing a little bit of shopping, we went back to Lucy's (yea, yea, I know, we just ate there), and had some lunch. We might try to expand our lunch options later on this week.

After Maddy wakes up from her afternoon nap, we were going downstairs to the playroom and have some fun, but the paperwork took a lot longer than I thought. We skipped it yesterday since she was doing so well on the floor in the room. Yesterday she was just sitting there playing by her self. That is a very good sign. It's telling us that she is feeling safe and secure in her environment. This is a huge step for her. She continues to open up to us, and is starting to mimic more and more of what we do/say. Yesterday while we were playing on the floor, Tina said "AhhHaa" like she does, and about 5 seconds latter, Maddy started to say it. We just looked at each other. It was a very cool moment.

For this evening, it's going to be another evening with Karen and Paul at Lucy's. After finishing the paperwork, we really need a beer. It's amazing how many trees have to die to adopt a single kid.

Here is some additional pictures from the past 24 hours... Enjoy

Another day of First

2006-11-10T02:09:00.000-05:00

Good Morning Everyone back home. Today was yet another day of first for everyone involved. We went to the doctor this morning, which took about an entire 5 minutes to see Maddy. It was pretty painless and easy.

On the way to and from the clinic, we walked by a couple of local schools. While we were walking by all of the kids were outside playing or having Gym. It was pretty cool. A lot of them even said "Hi" to all of us as we walked by.

After coming back from the clinic, we took a short little nappy, and then decided to each some lunch. For the past couple of days we have been trying to get Maddy to eat something other than her bottle, and today we hit pay dirt. We picked up some vanilla yogurt at the local 7-11, and tried it out with Maddy. We figured it wouldn't go to well, since we tried it earlier this week. But, to our surprise, the smart little girl picked it right up. It's pretty funny watching her eat it, since she really isn't sure what she should be doing with her tongue. We were both pretty excited about her eating the yogurt. I think we won't push our luck with other types of food for a few days...

Oh, I had a first for me also. At Lucy's where we ate dinner, they don't have any restroom facilities, but instead they just have you use a pay restroom that is right next door. I'm a old country boy, so I've been known to water a bush or two in my life, but this was, well interesting. My two options was either a long tile "Ditch" with dripping water, or a squat toilet. The squat toilet is pretty much a hole in the tile floor. I'm glad I just had to do pee. I'll try to get some pictures for everyone at home. Words don't quite give you the right image .

We took another little nappy this afternoon, and we are probably going to spend some time in the play room this afternoon. Down on the first floor of the hotel is a room that Mattel sponsors. They have loaded the room full of toys for all of the little ones to play with. We tried it earlier this week, and it was a big hit.

For Dinner we will probably head back to Lucy's with some of our travel mates and try another round of yogurt. Not quite sure what the rest of the evening will have in store.

A New Sound...

2006-11-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

Well, Maddy found a new sound this evening while we were playing with her. In the evenings, we have been laying one of the blankets down on the floor, and playing around with her. This evening, while playing around with her, she started doing this. It is pretty stinking funny!!!

Enjoy!

We are still here!

2006-11-09T03:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting fokes, it's been a pretty busy 24 hours. Yesterday we had a really busy day. First event was going across the street to get Maddy's passport photo. She was in the middle of a pretty good nap, so needless to say, she wasn't very happy. Speaking of Napping, you could set a watch to this kid's schedule.

After the passport photo, we went back to the Adoption Center to pick up her final adoption paperwork. It was there that we got her official Chinese Adoption Certificate. It was very cool. Technically, it's our first "Official" family photo. Besides the whole she just woke up from her nap thing, it's a really good picture. On yes, you heard me right, she was woken up from two naps yesterday. Rule Number 1 with Maddy, I need my naps. Even without her naps, she still is a really good little girl.

After picking up the photo, we went to the Guangzhou Starbucks! Yumm, made me a very happy guy. It's kind of crazy how you miss things like that when you are away from home.

After everyone was caffeinated, we then went to the police station to apply for Madison's passport. It was a pretty quick stop at the police station, and her paper work was all taken care of. One really cool thing about the stop was that the police station was right across from a local Middle/High School. It was really neat seeing all of the kids leaving school.

The last stop for the day was the local "Super Grocery Store". Wow, talk about crazy. It seems like that every place that we shop are actually a bunch of little stores under one room. We stopped in the local Carrafor store just to look around, and I'm glad we did. We were able to pick up a Thermos so that we can fix Maddy's bottles. It's amazing how hot and thick she likes her bottles. Will all of the day time trips, the Thermos is a must have.

After all of the running around (We got back at around 6:00pm'sh), we went up to the room and ordered take out from Danny's. We both had a cheese steak sandwich, which was really good. While we were waiting on the food, we spent some quality time playing with Maddy, which is always fun. About the time the food showed up, Maddy crashed, and we were pretty close to follow.

It's around 5:00pm here right now, and today was another fun filled day. We left at 1000 to go to Yaexiu Park. I'm really glad we went to the park. It was very, very cool walking around. Simon gave us some of the history of the park, and walked us around.

At the first part of the park, we walked up 99 sets of stairs. The Chinese believe that 9 is a lucky number, so 99 is a very, very lucky number. At the stop of the steps was a huge statue of 5 goats. According to local legend, 5 celestial beings came down from Heaven on the backs of the 5 goats. The beings gave the people of Guangzhou the gift of Rice, so that they would never go hungry again. The statue shows the 5 goats coming down from Heaven with grains of rice in their mouth. Simon was saying that in 1999 (I think that was the date), that lightening struck the horn of the highest goat, and it came crashing down to the ground. Three local fortune tellers came to the park and said that in the coming weeks a great disaster would befall China. Soon after that, the SARS outbreak started. Come to find out, SARS actually was transmitted from Animals to Humans here in Guangzhou.

After spending some time at the Goats, we walked down some stair cases to another part of the park. Some of the people in the group even played Hockey Sack with some of the local residents in the park. Almost everyone at the park according to Simon are retired. It's amazing how spry they all are. In one section, about 20 people were doing Tai Che. Then there was another section of the park where a good number of people were just dancing. That is something that you just won't see in the States, and I really think it's a shame. We are always rushing around so quickly with our lives that we never actually take 5 minutes for our self.

During our Tour of the City today, Simon was saying how that in China, everyone takes three "Tea" breaks. One in the morning for breakfast, one at lunch, and one in the late afternoon. The lunch one is the really big one, it's like a city of 20 million people just shuts down. There are still people around and about, but for the most part, everyone goes home to fix lunch and to relax for about 90 minutes. That's my kind of lunch break!

After touring the park, we went over to the Chen Clan Temple. Technically, it isn't a temple by American standards, it's actually a huge art museum. It was another of the places that we went to that we really enjoyed. The Temple is actually pretty young by Chinese standards, it was built 150 years ago. It was constructed by the Chen family, which is the largest family to this day in China. Check out some of the pictures of the temple on the picture link at the bottom of today's entry.

The final stop of the day was at the local Pearl and Jade market. Again, like most Chinese malls, it was just a bunch of little stores. We took about an hour walking around. Simon set us up with a couple of vendors (one Jade, one Pearl) which worked out pretty well. We picked up some Jade and a pearl necklace for Maddy. We plan on giving both of them to her when she gets older. Like most everything in China, everything is really cheap. We got a really, really good deal on the Jade/Pearls.

Just to give everyone some idea of the prices over here, in the local English paper, there was an article on the front page about how high income earners will have to file their own income taxes staring next year. High income earners include anyone who makes more than 120,000 Yuan. That is approximately $15,000 USD.

Tomorrow should actually be a pretty slow day. We have a doctors appointment at 1000 for Maddy. Don't worry, Maddy is just fine. Part of the adoption procedure is that Maddy has to be checked out by a doctor. The worse part of the exam is that it's at 1000, prime nap time. It will be nice having a pretty open day tomorrow.

Speaking of the little Girly Girl, she is doing quite well. She has really taken to Tina, and thinks her Daddy is cool also. Over the past 24 hours she has started to reach for us when we talk to her, and crawls like a crazy women. She is eating very well. At first she would down a bottle in about 5 minutes, now she is able to stretch it out to about 15-20 minutes, which is great. Oh, and she has just the most amazing smile every. Every time she smiles, it just melts our hearts.

Anywho, here is the important link to the last couple days worth of pictures.

I'm a noise maker!

2006-11-07T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a quick post. We are going to go out shopping and grabbing a bite to eat before Maddy's passport appointment.

Anywho, Here is some video from this morning while she was playing with Tina. It's amazing how much of her personality has been coming out over the past 24 hours. We are SO falling for this little girl...

More to come after this afternoon!

Some Video

2006-11-07T04:23:00.000-05:00

Here is some misc. video from yesterday and today. The first part is at the adoption center where we (Well, Tina) first spotted Maddy. The middle part is where they presented her to us, and the last part is her after she woke up.

Opps...Forgot the Pictures

2006-11-07T01:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, I must be a little tired my self. I forgot to put out the link to the pictures.

Here you go!

Spencer

It's official!

2006-11-07T00:45:00.000-05:00

Good morning Sleepy heads. It's 1:30 in the afternoon here in China, and we have already had a fun filled day. Maddy is taking a nap, and thanks to Karen and Eric, Tina and I are sitting here eating some Easy Mac & Cheese... Yumm.

We survived the first night with no major drama. Actually, she was quite good. The auntie gave us her schedule, and said if you give her a blanket and turn off the light, that she will fall asleep. We tried that, and it worked like a charm!!! She slept most of the night (I think she woke up at around 4:30'sh for a diaper change). This morning, she woke up a VERY happy baby! We are so amazed at how she is doing. Oh, and I have to say I never thought I would say this, but I was excited to see that she pooped this morning. Trust me, that was a very good thing. This way we can give away the baby prunes to another family :-).

After she woke up a little bit, we gave her a bath. That went very well. She seemed really excited about bath time. Afterwards, she was a talking, cooing little girl! It seems that she has really taken to us quite quickly. Needless to say, we are pretty excited about that.

Oh, and did I mention, today she is "Officially" ours? This morning we went back to the Adoption Center to fill out some paperwork, and to approve our adoption. It was actually a really easy process. We meet with the some government officials (who were very nice BTW), and signed a little bit of paper work. That was it. We can to China three days ago with just us, and now we are a family. How cool is that!

Today's schedule looks like it will be open for the rest of the day. We will probably go out with our travel mates for dinner here in a few hours. It sounds like tomorrow we have some more stuff to do around 2:30, so that will be nice to have a slow morning.

Since Maddy is still sleeping (So is Tina now), I'm going to see if I can get some Video posted. I'm not sure how well this will work, but it's worth a shot. Hopefully you will see something soon!

Hello World!!!

2006-11-06T02:57:00.000-05:00

It's official, we are now Parents!!!!!!

We picked Maddy up today, and wow, what an experience. We went over to the Adoption Registry Center with the other families in our group. While we were waiting outside the office, Tina tugged on my shirt while saying "Look Maddy!!!!" Maddy and her Antie were at the top of the steps around the corner. They were trying to hide a little bit. Proof positive of love at first sight! We were able to get close to her, but we had to wait until the official presentation to hold her. We so wanted to hold her, but luckily for us, it was just a few minutes later and we did. That room was organized chaos with all of the families getting there daughters.

It was a pretty short little bus ride back to the Hotel, and on the way she fell asleep. As we are tying this, she is on the bed sawing logs. When we was awake earlier, she was looking around everywhere, and definetly taking to her mommy. She was tugging at Tina pretty earlier on, which was a very cool thing to see. We got her this raddle back in the States, and she already seems to like it. When you look at her, you can tell her mind is going a thousand miles a hour.

She is still sound a sleep right now. She looks very healthy, and pretty active. She might have a little bit of a cold, but that's easly fixed!!!!

Here is the pictures so far for today. Have Fun!

Crib Fairy has arrived

2006-11-05T21:59:00.000-05:00

We walked into our room last night, and whoa, there was a baby crib in our room! It's pretty cool knowing that we will have a little one for the crib in a few hours.

We just finished exchanging out USD for Chinese Currency. The money is actually pretty cool looking. If there are any request for currency, let us know!!

Well, we are off to shop for a stroller and a few other things like that!!

We have arrived

2006-11-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

We have arrived and survived our first day! Sorry for the late update, but the initial plan was to send an update when we arrived at LAX, but believe it or not, they do not have any WiFi access.

Anyway, the first day was pretty action packed. We arrived around 0730 local time here in China (We are 13hrs ahead of Columbus Time). The line at Customs was a little long, but it went pretty well.

Once we got settled in at our room (I never wanted to take a shower so bad in my life), we met our Friends Eric and Karen. They befriended a young lady on there last trip to China, Liu Jing. She took us out to a really, really good Tai restaurant. We had a Mushroom Soup kind of thing that was really tasty.

After eating dinner, Jing took us out and showed us some of the markets and sights of the city. Wow, I had no idea how many people were in Guangzhou. According to Jing, there is something like 20 million people here in the city. Trust me, after walking thru the market, I can believe that there are 20 million people here! It was a lot of fun walking around with Jing as she showed us the city. It was something that most American's will probably never see. Guangzhou is really a great city. It's just amazing the amount of construction in the city. It seems like everywhere something is being built.

It sounds like tomorrow we will be seeing Maddy for the first time in the early afternoon. It was pretty cool when we walked in our room this evening and there was a baby crib in the room. Tomorrow we will be able to get some video of the event, and assuming everything works okay from here, there should be pictures/video on the blog by tomorrow evening.

Anyway, we are pretty stinking tired, so it's bed time. Here are some more pictures from our field trip today. More updates tomorrow!

6 hours until launch

2006-11-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

It's official, the last minute crazyness has begun!!! We are in the process of finishing to pack the last few items. More to come today, hopefully.

The Dogs

2006-10-22T18:41:00.000-05:00

Mom was over today with her puppy (Moxie), and this was our second attempt introducing her and Jane together. Today went much better than the first meeting.

While the video is pretty cute, I also wanted to use this post as a way to test our Video posting possibilities. Assuming that we have good internet access in China (Rumor central says it's pretty decent), and we actually have 20 minutes to post some video, we plan on putting video of our trip every couple of days.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Less that two weeks until we launch!

2006-10-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

It's official, we are less than two weeks from leaving the States and seeing Maddy! The only thing left to do is the crazy last-minute packing. I'm sure we will continue to be crazed until the moment we leave.

For those of you wondering, here is our plans:

Flights:

DL=Delta CZ=China Southern airline

DL1491U 03NOV FR Columbus/Los angeles 620P 802P
CZ 328W 03NOV FR Los angeles/Guangzhou 1150P 650A + 2 days (arrival on 05 Nov)

CZ 327W 17NOV FR Guangzhou/Los angeles 900P 550P
DL1492K 17NOV FR Los angeles/Columbus 1100P 617A + 1 day (arrival on 18 Nov)

Once we are in China, it sounds like they are going to be keeping us pretty busy:

Sun, Nov 5	All families to arrive in Guangzhou today	White Swan Hotel
Mon, Nov 6	Meet your child in the afternoon
Tue, Nov 7	Do adoption procedure (registration & notary)
Wed, Nov 8	Receive registration certificate and apply for passport
Thurs, Nov 9	Free day
Fri, Nov10	Sightseeing: Yuexiu Park, Chen Clan Temple
Sat, Nov 11	Sightseeing: Guangzhou Zoo
Sun, Nov 12	Free day
Mon, Nov 13	Get all paperwork and passport back, Do paperwork for ACS
Tue, Nov 14	medical exam for child
Wed, Nov 15	ACS Appointment , Farewell dinner
Thurs, Nov 16	Take Oath ACS and get visa in the afternoon (around 6:00pm), can return home after 8:00pm OR Return to U.S. the next day, Fri, Nov 17. Please refer to your international flight schedule

Wahoo!!! We finally have a travel date!

2006-10-11T18:15:00.000-05:00

It's official, we are off! We finally received our travel date today!!! We will be leaving on November 3rd for Guangzhou and will be returning on November 17th! Needless to say, this is pretty stinking excitted! This evening we will be booking the flights before all of the seats are taken!!

TA's have arrived

2006-10-04T18:19:00.000-05:00

We received a really exciting e-mail today from CHI. They just received the package from CCAA that included out Travel Authorization! Basically this means that, with the exception of the American Consulate appointment, we will be traveling very soon. Once receive our appointment date, our travel date will be set!

The dresser is finally finished!

2006-09-04T19:36:00.000-05:00

After quite a few months, the dresser is finally finished. We just put the finishing touches on the dresser the past weekend by adding the handles to the drawers.

It is a good thing I don't have to do this for a living, I would starve!

Anyway, here is the sucker:

So, Where is Madison?

2006-09-03T19:35:00.000-05:00

So, we have been doing a little bit of research (Google), and I'm 90% sure that her orphanage (YangDong Social Welfare institute) is located in Yangjiang, China. Yangjiang is approximately 140 miles from Hong Kong along the South China Sea. According to the website for the city (They have a website!), it is:

"an uprising city by the South China Sea. It is based on the hill at the back and overlooking the South China Sea. It is born with excellent natural conditions. Such as its pleasant climate. Abundant natural outcomes and traffic facility Besides, it has a unique culture and tradition and is honored the titles of China excellent tourist city."

So, like any good Google fan, I pulled up Google Earth, and typed in Yangjiang. It is really close to the ocean.

The image is a little hard to see, so just click on it if you want to see a larger version of the image. The next image is a close up view of the Yangjiang:

According to the official website, it is a moderate size city in China of 2.6 million people! Not quite a moderate sized city by our standards!

Needless to say, it is pretty cool to see exactly where she is at. From what I have seen on the internet, it sounds like she is at a nice orphanage, which is very cool. Hopefully we will get an opportunity to tour her orphanage, that would be just great!

Madison Pictures

2006-09-03T18:57:00.000-05:00

Here are the updated pictures of Madison, isn't she just a cutie!!!!

AAAARGGGGGG

2006-08-28T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to upload some more pictures, but blogger must be having issues...More pictures tomorrow!

Our little bundle of joy...

2006-08-28T20:48:00.000-05:00

Just in case you don't know Spencer and I got our referral phone call on Friday. Here's a couple of pictures for all of you to see. She'll be 8 months old on the 30th, weighs 15.5 lbs and is 25 inches long. She's in the Yangdong Social Welfare Institute in the Guangdong Province (close to Hong Kong). I can't even begin to describe how this feels so I won't even try. It looks like we'll probably travel in October sometime.

The Call!!!!!

2006-08-25T20:09:00.000-05:00

It's Official, the wait to bring Madison home is almost over! Today we received a Call from Childrens Hope saying our referral was in!!!!!

As soon as I figure out how to post the wave file, it will go out here!!!

Needless to say, we were pretty excited!!

Here are the details that we know for now:

Chinese Name: Dong Xuan Xuan
Birthday: December 30th, 2005
Where: Yangdong Social Welfar Institute, Guangdong Province

The package is being overnighted here, but of course, UPS does not deliver on Saturday .

Fingerprints - Round 2

2006-05-15T18:17:00.000-05:00

Today Tina and I went over to CIS (The new name for INS) to get another round of fingerprints. With the delay in processing, we figured it would be a good idea to have our fingerprints redone. Our current prints "Expire" at the end of July.

No other news really happening. The dresser is pretty much all done, we just need to haul the sucker upstairs (It's HEAVY), and finish putting it together. It doesn't look to bad.

Spencer

It's almost finished

2006-03-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, the dresser is "almost" finished now. I just need to get some stain that will match Madison's Bed, and we should be all set. This project has been lots of fun. I'm going to have to find some more stuff to build. Of course, this will require a new tool .

Finally some news!!!!

2006-03-02T20:00:00.000-05:00

We received a great e-mail today from Ann at Children's Hope! Here it is:

Congratulations to our July 2005 dossier families! All of our July 2005 dossiers have successfully moved from the CCAA Department I to Department II (the matching room) per our Beijing office on 3/1/06. The CCAA Department I is currently reviewing our August 2005 dossiers
Basically, this mean's that our paperwork in China is in the matching room. This is the step in the process where we actually get matched up with Madison!!!

Here is a website that shows some pictures of the CCAA. It's pretty cool!

http://www.angelcovers.org/ccaa.shtml

Link to CCAA:

http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp

Hopefully in a couple of months we'll get our picture of Madison!

Happy New Year!!!!

2006-01-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year. Today is the first day of the Year of the Dog. Here is some good information for those of you interested in the holiday:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

Here is some more info also:
http://www.google.com/search?q=lunar%20new%20year%202006&sa=N&tab=iw

Today we meet with the "Girl's" to celebrate. It is always great seeing everyone and spending some time with all of the families.

Madison's Dresser - In Progress

2006-01-01T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, so far, I still have all of my finger's intact, and Madison's Dresser is starting to take shape. This is something that I've been working on and off for the past 4 weeks or so. It actually getting to the point that you can actually tell what it is . I Hope to have it all finished by the end of the month of January.

Happy New Year!!!!

2006-01-01T10:25:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

As with every good New Year, everyone makes some resolutions. Well, #128 of mine is going to be updating this blog a little bit more often. Summer has come and gone, so I have not real excuse now. I'm going to pull together some of the old paper work and back-post some of the really important events.

All the Cat want's for Christmas

2005-11-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

We were putting up the Christmas Tree earlier, and well, the Cat (Mia) Decided that she wanted to play in the tissue paper.

Here is a video of her....(This might take a few moments to download)

Well....Name Change

2005-10-02T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well, after going back and for on our Daughter's Name, we have settled on Madison. Nothing against the other names, but "Maddy" has a cute little ring to it .

Her middle name is still up in the air, but it will probably be her given Chinese name. We really feel that it is important that Madison has a sense of understanding and attachment to part of her rich cultural heritage!

Latest FCCS Class

2005-06-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

Even with the Strike at FCCS, we were able to take our class "Principles of Effective Families" at FCCS today. The building was actually pretty busy tonight, because of the Strike. They were using all of the classroom's for supervised visitations. It was actually kind of eye opening to be quite honest. It was amazing how many people were there.

Anyway, our class was just amazing. The instructor was Mark Garrett (http://blog.markanthonygarrett.net/blog), and he was just amazing. He had a great story about how he was a product of the "System", was adopted in an abusive family, and all of the problems with he had. He then told us about he was able to turn his life around. The most important point he could of made is how it just takes one person to make a difference in a child's life. I could go on and on about how great this class was. While the class was a good topic, but it was the instructor that made the class!

I-171 in Three Weeks???

2005-05-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

Well, we actually received a phone call from our Local INS/CIS office today. Needless to say, we were a little surprised! When I called them last week, I think I actually got hold of someone who accidently picked up the wrong phone line. He really sounded confused with the questions I was asking him.

According to the lady who called us back, our documents is in the Case Officer's Stack to be reviewed, and that we should be hearing something back sometime in the next three weeks. It sounds like we might actually see it earlier, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Oh, and yea, FCCS is still on strike, and it doesn't look like it is going to be ending anytime soon. We have a class scheduled in a week, so hopefully our class is still on, but I'm not counting on it.

And they are on Strike!!

2005-05-18T18:51:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official, FCCS went on strike today. Tina drives by the building every morning, and saw the FCCS employees out picketing this morning. Hopefully the strike does not last to long, we have a class the second week of June that we need to take!!

First FCCS Class

2005-05-09T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well, we had our first class at Franklin County Childrens Services (FCCS) today in there new building on Mound Street. The facility is actually really nice, with most of the first floor being used for classroom space.

Now, the class was about dealing with cultural Issues. It was, well, an interesting class. The majority of the people at the class were Foster Parents, with a few people interested in adoption. Overall the class was okay.

Hopefully we will hear soon if we are going to be able to attend additional classes at FCCS. We need a couple more before we bring Ayden home.

Waiting, Waiting and Waiting...

2005-05-08T18:24:00.000-05:00

Well, INS has had our documentation for two weeks now, and we are some what patience waiting for our I-171 to come back. I have never been so excited about checking the mailbox every day. Of course we are always a little disappointed everything we open it and it's just Junk mail or bills.

Final Class as Children's Hospital

2005-04-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

Well, Tonight was our final class at children Hospital for a while. These classes have been just outstanding over the past couple of weeks. We have learned so much.

What is even more amazing is meeting some of the other people who are either considering adoption or are in the process of adopting.

Tonight's class was a panel discussion with people who had adopted internationally. They brought in photographs of there trip, and it was just amazing. An interesting idea we picked up was a "Life Book" scrap book for your trip over and all of the major events for you new girl. I think this is an amazing idea! I'm sure we are going to do an electronic version of this, but I think we should also do a real version of this. There is just something about physically being able to touch something that us humans just really require.

During class tonight there was also a Lady speaking about her experience adopting two girls from China, and talking about how important bring into our family a part of Chinese culture. We always thought that would be important, but it is really nice hearing from other people how much of a difference this makes. We really want Ayden to feel connected to her heritage. One idea which I thought was just wonderful was when the girls get a little bit older (Tween'sh), look into sponsoring a exchange student from China. She was talking about how wonderful it was for her daughters to have a "Big Sister". It really sounded amazing, so we might just have to try that...

At tonight's class there was also someone from FTIA (http://www.ftia.org/). FTIA is a adoption agency that also appears to have a lot of community/culture events. There are several really good classes coming up in Dayton that I think we are going to take. Any interested in international adoption should really look at these classes!

Homestudy on it's way to INS!!

2005-04-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

Well, Today Tina stopped by the post office and sent a copy of our Homestudy down to INS! The US goverment requires that you submit a copy of your homestudy before they can issue you an I-171 Form. For those of you who do not know, the I-171 form is required before you can legally adopt a Child from outside of the United States. After that, our Paperwork will be ready for it's trip to China!!!!

Our paperwork chase is almost over!

Our Homestudy is Done!

2005-04-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

Our Homestudy is done, our Homestudy is Done, Did you hear, our Homestudy is done .

Okay, today was a great day. We received a phone call from our Social Worker on the 22nd letting us know that our Homestudy was completed! So, today Tina and I drove thru the snow (Yes, you heard it right, snow!) and picked up the Documents today. You can not believe the feeling knowing that the paper chase is almost over. It is just amazing! Bill did a really great job putting all of the documented together, getting it noterized and certified! The first part of this week Tina is going to overnight the documents down to INS. INS is the last US approval we need for our Adoption!

Oh, speaking of the Snow, for those of you in Ohio, it has been just wonderful for the last couple of weeks. The Temperature has been in the high 70's and very Sunny! Well, today mother nature played a nasty little trick and decided to toss some snow our way. It was snowing like crazy! Some places of Ohio actually received a foot of snow! We only got an inch or two, but it was still kind of crazy.

Third Adoption Class

2005-04-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

Tonight's Adoption Class was actually probably the best one yet. Tonight's topic was "Our government and Their's". The Director of International Adoptions from Holt (http://www.holtintl.org) was in today teaching the session. It was actually pretty intestesting understanding the different processes each government requires, and some of the cultural reasons why.

One thing I found really interesting is she was explaining why with China you have to get all of your documents Certified, and have the Secretary of State place his "Seal" on the documents. Chinese culture thruout the ages has always placed a very high importance on "Sealing" Documents to make them authentic. One of the highest coveted items during the Chinese Dynasty was the "Seal of the Emperor". Without this seal, any document from the Emperor was worthless. Still in today's culture, the seal is still very important...

Okay, enough with the history lesson :-)

Spencer

Second Adoption Class

2005-04-13T21:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, tonight's Adoption class was, well, "Interesting". Tonight's topic was talking about health issues that you might encounter when adopting internationally.

It was actually good to be informed about all of the possible conditions, but I think that if you were going into this process blind, you probably would of walked out of the session with your hair on fire.

If nothing else, tonight's class should really show people why it is so important to open up their hearts and houses to adopt children internationally.

One of the best parts of tonight's class was the fact that the instructor for the session is a Doctor in Children's Hospital's New International Adoption Clinic. This is a great program! They offer pre and post placement assistance for families.

During pre-placement, they will take a look at the photographic, video and any medical information provided by the government. It is amazing what they can discover from these documents! It sounds like they even had a computer program so that they can scan in a photographic if a child and determine the risk factor for fetal alcohol syndrome. It sounds like this is a risk from Russia and former soviet Block Countries.

During your visit to pick up your child, the Adoption clinic will place a doctor on call should you need any help during your visit. While I'm sure we will not have to call, it sure is nice to know that we can call should we really need to!

Within two weeks of bringing your child home (They will see you immediately if your child is sick!), you come in for a full days worth of test. They will do test like:

Full Hearing Test
Bloodwork
Physical development
vaccination Status
psychological Testing

What was really interesting, according to the Doctor teaching the class was that a lot of children coming from China appear not to have proper vaccinations. They should all be vaccinated while they are in the government care, but he is not sure why they test as not being vaccinated. He feels that they probably are being vaccinated, but that the vaccine is probably old, has been left out, or was not properly given to the child.

It really does give us a good feeling to know that there are some experts in the field that we can bring our child to!

Fingerprints, Round Two!

2005-04-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

Today's fun adventure was getting our fingerprints taken at our local INS office in Columbus! That was an adventure. This is our first "Official" face-to-face interaction with INS, and it was actually pretty pleasant. Everyone was very nice, even the security guards who "Wanded" us before we could get our fingerprints taken.

The process was actually really simple. They looked over our appointment letter (yes, you have to have an appointment to get your fingerprints taken), checked our Photo ID, and gave us a number. We waiting with a few other people, and then they called us in one at a time to get our fingerprints taken. INS now does all of the fingerprints taken electronically, which from a geek factor was actually pretty cool. The entire process probably took 30 - 45 minutes.

Sitting in line today, I did realize that we much have a pretty great country, for all of these people to want to come to the States to live and work. It must not be to bad.

Well, now that our fingerprints are on file with the State and FBI, I guess I can never rob a bank or anything .

First Adoption Class

2005-04-05T20:12:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had our first adoption class. It was pretty interesting class. Tonight's topic was just an general overview of International Adoption. Most of it was pretty much review for us, but this would be a great class to take if you are in the "Just Considering" it part.

Oh, on another note, what a small world it is. Tonight at class, we bumped into a guy and his wife from the building that we work at! Come to find out, they are interesting in adopting internationally! Wow, what a small world.

Going to be a Busy week

2005-04-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Well, this week is going to be a real busy week! On Tuesday, we are going out with some friends to Scali's, Wendesday is our first Adoption Class at Children's Hospital, and on Friday we get our fingerprints taken at INS!!!

Oh, for anyone who does not know this, there is a GREAT Italian place in Reynoldsburg called Scali's Restorante! We know it's good when our Italian friends (John and Barney) recommend it!. Tonight is Jazz night at Scali's, so I'm sure that we will have fun.

Adult Proofing the House

2005-03-05T17:20:00.000-05:00

Well, our Journey is slowly continuing on. We are right now waiting for all of the paper work to come back, scheduling a few parenting classes and waiting to get fingerprinted for the FBI/INS check.

Anyway, over the past week or so we have started to "Adult Proof" the house. Any parents out the knows what I mean. We have started to put outlet covers on our outlets. I even installed my first cabinet latch this weekend under the sink. Oh, that's fun to use. Actually I'm already starting to get use to it. I'm sure in a few weeks it will be like second nature.

Envelope #2 from INS

2005-02-28T20:18:00.000-05:00

Well, we came home a little bit late today, and I noticed a form from INS in the mailbox again. And hey, it even looks like a real letter, so I was a little excited and a little anxious needless to say. So, we opened the sucker to find our fingerprint appointment letter. We have to get our fingerprints taken at the Columbus INS office during the week of April 4th.

Yes, you probably are thinking "Didn't they already get their fingerprints taken", well, the answer to that question is "Yes and No". We had our fingerprints taken for the State background check. INS requires a seperate set of fingerprints taken for a FBI background check to make sure we are not a major criminal. We were a little disappointed that it is not sooner, but it's only something like 4 weeks so that won't be so bad. From what I understand, it only takes around 2 weeks to process the INS forms, so we might still be on our target date.

Envelope from INS

2005-02-23T19:15:00.000-05:00

Today while getting the mail I picked up a letter we just received from INS. How excitting! I rush to open the sucker and I almost missed the little 1 inch by 4 inch receipt they had placed in there. That was it. No letter, no note, form or anything. Just a little cash register receipt saying that they had received our check. Well, at least we know that have our form :-).

Nothing really new to report. We have been working on completing some of the necessary forms and starting to get our paperwork in order. Hopefully we will have more information soon.

I-600 over to INS

2005-02-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

Today we sent our I-600 form over to the INS for processing. This form is required by the INS in order for us to bring our little girl home from China and legally adopt her. If anyone is interested in seeing the form, here is the information (http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-600.htm).

Hopefully we will here back quickly on this form. This is one of those really important forms that we need to have before we can send our information over to China.

A Little Present in our Mailbox!!!!

2005-02-18T19:03:00.000-05:00

We came home today to find a little present from the US Department of State in our mailbox. Our Passports have arrived!!!! We both know it is a really small step, but we were so happy to get something back already! I will have to admit, my head does look a little to big in the passport picture. It's kind of scary looking .

Hopefully the rest of our information comes back this fast. We sent in our passport application a couple of weeks ago.

Fire Inspection

2005-02-16T19:53:00.000-05:00

We came home early today (Any excuse to leave work early ) to come home and meet with the Fire Prevention firefighter from our local Fire Department. Once again, the pets were very well behaved. But, the dog was a little more "excited" than she was with Bill, but she was overall very nice.

Anyway, the fire inspection was well, kind of anti-climatic. I have been around when they are doing professional/commercial fire inspections and they are making the smoke detectors going off and take stuff apart. When he came over, he basically just walked around the house checking to make sure we had smoke detectors, plenty of fire extinguishers around the house and escape routes.

The one thing that he noticed was that we recommended that we out outlet covers over the outlets and cabinet latches. So, I'm sure we will be going out this weekend and getting those take care of.

Fingerprints...Oh What Fun

2005-02-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

Well, today we continued our paper chase journey by getting our fingerprints taken along with a quick police background check.

luckily, today was a wonderful warm spring like day, so it was really nice take a long lunch with my lovely wife and walking around downtown. Our first stop was by the Sheriff's office on High Street for our fingerprints. To get your figerprints down, you walk around to the back side of the building into the parking garage and take the elevator up to the 7th floor. Then you walk into this small room and they start to take you fingerprints the old fashion way. I was actually surprised, but they still use the whole ink-card way of doing finger prints. I have had finger prints taken before for the office, but this was a very unique experience for Tina. To be quite honest, it was a little strange for me still. You feel like "Oh, crap, are they going to find something out about me"? Of course, there isn't anything that fun and exciting to find out, but still...

So, next we walk across high street over to the Records section of the Sheriff's Department for a background check. Now, that was interesting. You walk up to a counter and a really nice older lady comes up and ask for your drivers license. She takes them back, does her magic on the computer (Which takes a couple of minutes) and then take the form we had just filled out and stamps on "No police record found" and that's it. Oh, and it was 5 cents per page, so our total bill was something like 20 cents. This sure has been the cheapest expense in this entire process.

Well, we will be sending in our fingerprint cards to BCII in London today so that they can complete our background check. I'll have to make from now own that I don't commit any major crimes, they have my finger prints now .

And Ayden's Room Theme Is.....

2005-02-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

Pink. Well, technically we are going to be painting her room Antique Pink and Antique White. We are thinking about either Tone-on-Tone strips (9" wide strips, don't worry) or maybe Big blocks on two of the walls. Then we plan on stenciling outlines of Dragonflies, Butterflies, ladybugs and Flowers on her wall. We are still tossing around the ideas on how we are going to paint the room, but I think everyone get's the general idea.

We have a Name!!!!

2005-02-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well, after much discussions and thinking, we have picked a first name for our future little girl!!! We wanted something that was going to be somewhat unique, but not anything that would be to difficult for her to write. So, Ayden is it! Her Middle name is probably going to be her given or middle Chinese name. We really feel that it is important that Ayden has a sense of understanding and attachment to part of her rich cultural heritage!

We made her name official last night as we were walking around Pottery Barn for Kids (Very bad store by the way!). We have been eyeing the wooden letters that they sell there, and we decided to pick them up last night. Big step for us.

One Home Study Done...3 More to Go

2005-02-09T21:35:00.000-05:00

Well, we survived our first home study without to much blood being spilled. Actually, the experience was actually pretty good. Bill spent most of the time spending time asking us about our family, going over some forms and just generally chatting. The entire process took right around two hours, which really isn't that bad.

During the entire visit our pets where actually very well behaved. They were almost model pets to be quite honest. The entire time the cat was laying down on the bench by Bill, and Jane was very well behaved. Of course I am sitting there watching the pets asking "Who are you, and what have you done with our pets!". The cat is always good, but the dog can sometimes be a handful in the evenings.

It sounds like our next meeting with Bill could even be as early as this weekend, which would be really cool. We have a couple TODO's to get done in the next week or so. We get to have our finger prints taken, and have BCI run a background check. Once that is done, they will send the information to Bill. We also have to have the local fire department come over to the house and inspect the house. Needless to say we still have some paper work that we need to get finished.

Well, I'm totally wiped and it's almost time for bed. More later in a couple of days!

Getting Ready for our First Home Study

2005-02-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, after many days of organizing and cleaning the house, and pulling together all of the necessary paperwork, we are almost ready for our first home study! There is still lots of cleaning to do tomorrow afternoon before Bill comes over but we have made a good dent in it.

Needless to say we are a little "Anxious" about the home study process. We both think that it is a good process to go thru, but no one ever really likes the idea of being "Studied" by someone else.

For those of you who are interested, we are required by China to have Four (4) home study visits prior to our information (Better known as a Dossier) being sent over. A Licensed social worker has to come over to ensure that Tina and I will be good parents and that we have a safe home for our little girl. From what we understand the process actually goes pretty easily, so lets hope that is the case for us!

More Tomorrow post-Home Study.

The Paper Chase has begun!

2005-02-06T21:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, it is official, the great paper chase has begun in full swing. Today we spent seemed like 5 hours looking for all of the paper work that we need.

We originally started to get the paperwork together for our first home study on Wednesday (scary!), but we will need this same documentation to forward over to China for the approval process.

What really helped is the advice we received from Eric and Karen. We meet Eric, Karen and Lilauna around Christmas while out to lunch with Tina's Parents. Eric was so helpfull on giving us some really good tips and advice on how to fill out all of the necessary paperwork!

Off to get our Passports

2005-02-02T21:25:00.000-05:00

Today we left the office and went straight over to the US Post Office Facility at the Airport to turn in our application for our Passports! As part of our paperwork chase (more on that soon), we will need to send over copies of our Passport to the China Consolte in New York.

The lady at the Post Office was actually really nice and helped us finish all of the information on the passport application. According to her passports are taking between 3 and 4 weeks. So, hopefully we will see them really soon.