GOTCHA DAY

Original Entry posted on January 25, 2010

Today is Monday, January 25th. I am so sorry for the delay in this entry. I know most of you are anxiously
awaiting this entry as well as pictures. Yesterday, January 24th was "Gotcha" Day, when we actually got
Madelyn. This was quite an emotional event. We were shuttled to the Adoption Affairs Office along with 8
other families and waited for our children to arrive. Madelyn was the last one of the last to arrive and Keith
knew from the moment he saw her in her caregivers arms that it was her. (She was sleeping in her "Auntie's"
arms when she arrived and we could only see the top of her head). The handover was a little anxious for both
her and us. Her orphanage caregiver "Auntie" loved her very much and was visibly upset in handing her over,
to not ever see her again. Madelyn was apparently very attached to her as well. In talking with her Auntie I
found out that she had been with Madelyn since she had been found at birth. Her Auntie had prepared a memory
book for me which included some "priceless" photos - the day she was found, her first bath, her surgery, her first
birthday, her friends, her room, her potty training, etc. This gift was priceless to me as things are events that I now
look at and share with Madelyn through these photos. The book even included a hand made Birthday card in
Chinese. Before we leave we will have someone translate it. This was quite an emotional event and one I will never
forget. Once we finished the initial paperwork to enable us to take her with us for the first 24 hours we returned to
our hotel. She cried the whole way back and for a while in the hotel room. She wasn't too sure about what was
going on and who we were. She finally settled down when we took her to dinner and she was enjoying us and the
food. She was even playing and acting silly with Keith. After a short and sweet bath (which she hated) she snuggled
up with Keith and went fast to sleep. She slept all night until we woke her up this morning. In the short time we have
had her I noticed several things. She is completely potty trained. She doesn't ask to go potty but will go whenever
you take her. She is VERY bright - (her auntie said the same thing). I brought some toys for her, stacking cups,
electronic toys, etc. It only takes her a few moments to figure out how they work. She understands what we are
saying such as wipe your hands, use your napkin, let's go bye bye, get your bag, etc. She has even repeated English
words - fry, Lizzy, etc. She plays quietly and is very happy child. She is beginning to get use to us. She will reach for
Keith or I when she wants to be held. We have seen several smiles and laughs. She will hold our hand when she walks.
She will look and make sure that we are both with her - for example if we are walking out of the elevator, if one of us is
a little slow getting out of the elevator she will stop, look and wait until they catch up. While at the table if Keith gets up
and walks to the buffet, she will croon her neck and continue to look for him until he returns to the table. Today, we
finalized the adoption so she is officially ours!!!! This was a GREAT moment! We have applied for her Chinese passport
and it should be here on Friday so we can fly to Guangzhou. During our free time we are going to see the sites in the City.
We will tour the City Wall, Wild Goose Pagoda and the Terra Cotta Warriors. She is such a good child we are certain
that she will enjoy getting out and having a bit of fun.

1st Day in Beijing

Original Entry posted January 23, 2010

Today was a full day! This morning we attended Orientation hosted by our adoption agency.
This was very informative and gave us a bit of insight into Chinese culture. Interestingly
enough the Chinese don't believe in forming lines, waiting their turn, using ashtrays or tipping
wait staff. We also received our itinerary for the next weeks and what to expect, as well as updated information and hard copy photos of Madelyn. These were the same as we received the other day but it came in a beautiful Chinese bound memory book. The remainder of the day was spent sightseeing in Beijing. We toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. It was an amazing dose of Chinese history. Keith and I both commented that one day we will bring Madelyn and our other children back to China to see all of the wonderful sites. We were able to do a bit of shopping this afternoon at a Silk Factory. I purchased some beautiful white silk, in the hopes of having either her first communion dress or even her wedding dress made. I think I bought enough fabric for both.

Keith and I went out walking the streets in Beijing tonight before dinner. It was quite interesting to see all of the outdoor food vendors and all of the crazy things they are selling to eat, such as water beatles, fried starfish, crickets, etc. Needless to say I did not partake of that portion of the local culture. We found a quaint Chinese restaurant that had pictures of each dish along with the English description. It was delicious.

We are now preparing to leave first thing in the morning. We catch a early morning flight to Xi'an. We are traveling with a family from Kansas that is adopting a 4 year old little girl. The two of us will be the only families that are getting children in our province so it should be nice and orderly. Once we arrive we will check into our hotel and then off to meet Madelyn and pick her up. I am a nervous wreck at this moment and I doubt I get much sleep. However, Keith and I are very excited! To our surprise, the 15 or so families that are with us are all adopting an older child ( age 2 to 9) with one exception. There is one couple that is getting a 14 month old. I just figured we would be adopting the oldest child out of the group. Tomorrow my blog will include pictures and video of our "Gotcha" moment. Keep praying for us that this transition goes smoothly.

We have Arrived!

This is the post for January 22, 2010

After 19 hours of travel, we have arrived in Beijing. It is Friday afternoon at 5:30 in Beijing and we are just getting settled into our hotel. I am on a downward spiral - FAST! I did not sleep but 2 hours Wednesday night in Houston. Too excited, nervous.... whatever it was I only shut my eyes for a brief period of time and watched the clock countdown the minutes until it was time to go and board the plane to China. I did not sleep on the plane to Newark and I got a couple of hours of sleep on the flight to Beijing. It is a struggle for me to speak, type and think. Once we arrived at the airport, we quickly found our English speaking guide who shuttled us and another couple adopting through Holt to our Hotel and through the check in process. So far so good. Of course there is no rest for the weary. I received a packet from the Adoption Agency and to prepare for Madelyn's adoption I must make many copies of several documents on a special sized paper. So I hope a quick shower will refresh me and down I will go to the Business Center to complete this task and be ready for tomorrow. It is 1 degrees F here in Beijing, so we will be staying in for dinner. lol Tomorrow we have a quick orientation and then off to see the sites. I tried to access my original blog through google and not to my surprise - it is blocked. So this is the blog I will be using until our return to the United States. I post an update tomorrow. Thanks for all of your prayers!

The Journey to China begins....

We have completed the first leg of our long journey to China. We arrived in Houston around 7:00 p.m. tonight and will be staying overnight. Our flight for China departs at 6am tomorrow. It was, of course, a mad dash to the airport as both Keith and I were wrapping up last minute items before leaving. (It was actually more Keith than I). Leaving his business for 2 weeks has proven to take an enormous amount of forethought and planning on his part. He has been burning the midnight oil trying to take care of everything before we leave. My work was a little easier to wrap up, as I have several people both locally and in our corporate office that will pick up my slack while I am gone.

To our surprise, when we landed in Houston we received an email from our adoption agency with updated PICTURES and Information on Madelyn. Her pictures shows how much she has grown and how truly beautiful she is. (I think she looks like me - lol). The information was again very encouraging. She weighs 26 pounds and is 33 inches tall. The orphanage states the following:

- She has 16 teeth

- Her vocabulary consists of 50-60 words (This makes me nervous to think that she is speaking in short phrases and knows that many words in Chinese. I hope she can pick up our language quickly)

- She is potty trained and will ask to go to the bathroom unprompted, however, she has to be awaken at night and taken to potty.

- Her favorite foods is oranges and grapes. They also state that she is not a picky eater.

- She can feed herself with a spoon and drinks from a cup.

- She likes to play with others and does share both her food and toys.

- She can draw with a color or pencil but not in a straight line

- She follows directions from her caregivers without them having to point or gesture what they want her to do

- and much much more

This was a really good report that we received this time. It gave a lot of information that is relevant to us now that she will be coming home. I am not an expert in child development but in reading the information provided I am encouraged that she may not be too far behind the standard for her age.

I can't believe this is actually happening - that we are on this final leg of our journey. It all seems so surreal. I am getting VERY EXCITED now! Only a few more days and she will be in our arms!

Keith and I were just talking and commenting how wonderful our family and friends are. We love you all and appreciate your thoughts, prayers and offers of help while we are gone.

We will keep you posted. Tomorrow we fly all day and our next post will most likely be on Saturday.

Change in Blog Address

I was recently introduced to someone that had adopted from China previously. We have had several email conversations and she has become a valuable resource to me. In one of our many chats, she shared with me that I might encounter some difficulty posting and updating my blog while in China. Upon further investigation, it appears that China has blocked all gmail accounts, google products and eblogger. Censorship at it's finest. However foreign to me that concept is, I must deal with it. I have searched the internet to find a blog site that will work in China. Windows Spaces is reported to work. I have moved the travel portion of my blog to this site - http://portieadoptionjourney.spaces.live.com . This site will be allow me to blog, share pictures and videos. I am sorry for this change and I hope that all can continue to follow our blog.

Countdown....

We are on countdown.... 11 days and counting until we leave for China. We have spent the last week making travel arrangements and booking international flights. It has finally all come together. Here is the plan:

We leave January 20th from Lake Charles and will stay overnight in Houston in order to catch a 6am flight to Beijing. This is not a direct flight (although Continental considers it a direct flight). We will change planes in Newark, NJ and have a 2 hour layover there before heading to Beijing. We arrive in Beijing at 3pm on January 22. Once we arrive in Beijing, we will be staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel through Saturday, January 23rd. During our brief stay in Beijing we have to attend an orientation directed by our Adoption Agency that will brief us on what is to come during the next couple of weeks. We will do a little sightseeing and tour Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

On Sunday, January 24th we fly to Xi'an and will be staying at the Hyatt Regency. This is GOTCHA DAY - we will get our little girl this day and be able to take her with us. We finalize her adoption the next day and will apply for her a passport. We will stay in Xi'an until Friday, January 29th and will have time just to get to know each other, bond and enjoy some down time. Friday afternoon we should receive her passport and will catch a plane to Guangzhou. In Guangzhou we are staying at the White Swan Hotel. The US Consulate is located in this city along with 6 million other people. Keith thinks he hates Houston traffic - just wait until we get here! LOL. Madelyn will need to go through a complete medical exam as well as filing for a US entry Visa. We will stay in Guangzhou until we receive her VISA on February 4th. We will take a train to Hong Kong and will spend the night. This is our last stop in China. The morning of February 5th we will catch a flight to the US and will arrive in Lake Charles at 10:02 p.m. For those that feel so inclined to do so - we would love to see you when we step off the plane in Lake Charles. We will be so homesick for our friends and family and would absolutely love for all of you to meet Madelyn as she arrives home.

Again, we will be communicating through Skype both on our laptops via video connection and through the iPhone Skype app via voice connection. If you have a Skype account please let me know what it is and we can connect.

We still have a couple things left to take care of before we are ready to leave, but we are working on them each day and the list is getting smaller. We purchased a new digital video camera to make it easier for us to download videos of her and share on our blog. I have attached a test video to this blog.

Aside from all the details, I am a bit nervous about flying and so much travel BUT I am "over the moon" excited and can't wait to get my hands on my baby girl!!! We are soooo close.

I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all your prayers and support along the way!

Travel...

We finally received the confirmation from the US Consulate of our VISA appointment which dictates our travel dates. Although we are waiting on the in-country travel arrangements to be finalized, we are confirmed to arrive in Beijing on January 22nd. Once we arrive in Beijing we have more travel which is what our adoption agency is working on confirming. We will travel to Shaanxi Province (which is where Madelyn's orphanage is located) and then on to Guangzhou to the US Consulate and then HOME.

I can't believe it is finally here. All of the paperwork, roadblocks and waiting is almost over. This is the last leg of our journey to get Madelyn. This news stirs many different emotions in me. Excitement that I will actually get to meet her and hold her and love her. Anxiety about the travel to China, while we are in China and the travel back home (I am not a big fan of flying). Worry about how I will handle a 2 year old once we get home. It has been a long time since my kids were toddlers. But what I feel most is Overwhelming JOY that my family will finally be all together and the 5th member of my family will be HOME - safe and sound where is she loved.

This week we should have confirmation of all travel and will be able to book our flights to China. I was on vacation the week after Christmas and was able to get many tasks accomplished for upcoming events for the kids and things for our upcoming trip. I was able to get Madelyn's suitcase packed and am working on packing for both Keith and I. There are still many things to get done before we leave.

I will update my blog with our itinerary once it is confirmed and then on a daily basis while we are in China. I hope to post some videos so that all can see Madelyn. I have also downloaded Skype onto my laptop, mainly so I can communicate with my kids at home while we are gone. For those that have web cams and are on Skype - let me know your Skype name and we can video conference each other.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They have meant so much to me and our family, especially through the agonizing wait. I will ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel there and back.