My Little Angel....

Original Entry posted on January 31, 2010

In Guangzhou continued...

Original entry posted on January 30, 2010

Today was really a fantastic day with Madelyn. Today is the first day where we felt that she felt part of the family - if that makes any sense at all. She is such a happy baby! I wanted to include some additional pictures from tonight that we took after getting back from dinner and taking a bath. She still is not crazy about taking a bath. She cries when I am bathing her and still has not sat down in the tub, but her anxiety is getting much better. She is learning the reward to taking a bath and that is LOTION! She gets to put on lotion when she gets out of the tub. She even mimicks me in the way I put the lotion in my hands, rub them together and then apply. She is too cute. Enjoy these pictures!!!

In Guangzhou

Original Entry posted on January 30, 2010

We made it to Guangzhou finally! After a week in the congestion, smog and dirt of Xi'an it is nice to be here. Guangzhou is much different - clean, safe, minimal traffic and very adoptive family friendly. We are staying at the White Swan Hotel which is amazing. It is located on Sheimen Island and is comparable to Galveston Boardwalk or San Antonio Riverwalk. Although alot of the shops are under construction it is still a much nicer place to be. We can get out of our hotel and walk around and shop. It even has a Subway!!!! We arrived late last night via a 2 hour plane ride. Madelyn did really well overall. She did not like the seat belt and wanted to sit in my lap most of the time. For just being 2 years old she did a great job. The landing was a bit loud which scared her but no other trouble beside that. There are hundreds of adoptive families that arrived in Guangzhou last night, with many different adoption agencies - all seem to be staying at our hotel. Matel (the toy making company) has a sponsored play room here in the hotel and even sent up a special adoption Barbie doll called "Going Home Barbie". Today we had a couple of meetings to complete and prepare documents for our upcoming Medical Visit and Visa Appointment. That was an interesting meeting. There were 9 other families in the room and we are all listening to instructions on how to fill out the paperwork and because the paperwork process has had to be so precise all of us are asking questions like - How do you write the date (1/30/10 or 10 January 2010), How do we sign our name (First Middle and Last or First and Last). It got to be comical! We also had a quick trip to the Medical Clinic for a TB Test and Visa Photo. She was actually ok after the TB test. Keith of course couldn't watch nor was he going to hold her while the nurse administered the test. He couldn't even take pictures - Wimp - lol. She cried for just one minute and then was fine. Although she curled her pointer finger up (of the same arm) and held it that way for some time. It was weird. She is definitely bonding to both of us. Her and Keith are really getting closer each day. He is able to hold her and kiss her without her wiping it off. Today was the first day that she actually kissed me. She has come several times today and held my face with her hands and kissed me and hugged my neck. She giggles so loudly when she plays with us. She is sooooo sweet. She is such a good little girl. She mimicks everything we do. If we take off our shoes she takes off hers. If I put lotion on she has to have some. Every time we go to the bathroom she wants Germ-X for her hands just like her momma (her momma taught her right! LOL) and she has to have chapstick for her lips everytime we put it on. When we are in the hotel room and she goes to potty she has to have all her clothes off with exception of her shirt. Then she will get dressed herself after she is finished. When we are out and about and has to potty - she will go sniff out the bathroom several times. Lizzy used to do this as a little girl - my mom and dad report that I did the same too. It must be a girl thing. lol We have taken such sweet videos of her, I so wish I could share them with you. Unfortunately I can't even email them out. Internet is so slow here and it apparently does not allow for video to move through email. I will definitely share some of the cuter ones with everyone once I get home and can blog on my regular blog. Can't wait to see everyone! This has been such an amazing experience!!!! I can't wait for everyone to meet my amazing little girl!!!

Another day in Xi'an

Original Entry posted January 28, 2010

Today was our last full day in Xi'an and I am definitely ready to move on to Guangzhou. We receive Madelyn's passport tomorrow morning and have a flight at 6:30 p.m. to catch. This should be interesting considering how crazy the airports in China are and now add a baby to the mix. lol Today we just spent good quality time together. Each day it gets better. We did a lot of Skype calling today. She got to talk with her brother and sister and can call them by name. She also got some face time on Skype with Aunt Penny, Aunt Suzanne, Jena and Poppy. She made a really good effort to say each of their names and is doing a great job at saying english names and words. I also saw a softer side of her today while we were playing. She accidently hit me in the head with a puzzle piece and immediately noticed that she hurt me. She wanted me to take my glasses off and she rubbed her hand over my forehead and face in an effort to make it feel better - how sweet! Our guide came to our room earlier today before going to dinner and translated her birthday card. I was able to write down all of her caregivers birthday wishes for her. They had such sweet words for her. The amazing thing was the people who cared for her were all Christians. This is evident in the birthday wishes they wrote in her card. They all wrote that "Jesus Loves Her" and asked for his blessing upon her life. How amazing is that. All of that time I was worried about her in the orphanage and could not understand why I had to wait so long. And to know that God had his hand upon her life and blessed her with Christian caregivers gives me a sense of peace for the last 6 months that she was with people who really loved her and loved and served my God. GOD is GOOD!!!!! Tonight we went to a Chinese Opera House/Restaurant. We ate dumplings and watched an authentic chinese show. It was really fun. While we were eating we gave Madelyn chopsticks to eat with instead of a spoon. Little girl could use the chopsticks very well. She was leaps and bounds better than me with the chopsticks - lol. It's was really neat to see such a little hand use those chopsticks. It's late and Madelyn has crawled up onto my lap waiting for me to get in the bed with her. So I will cut this blog short. We love ya'll. Thanks for all the prayers. We'll see everyone soon!

Sightseeing in Xi'an

Original entry posted January 27, 2010

Today was an even better day with Madelyn. Each day we are making progress and all growing closer and closer. She is such a sweet child! We arranged for a tour to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. This is an archeological dig site which found hundreds of Terra Cotta Soldiers built and buried by Emporar Qing near his tomb (in a mountain side). It was fascinating to see. We did alot of walking at this attraction and today was better for Madelyn than yesterday. I did not have to hold her the entire time as she walked most of the time just holding my hand. There was one time at the end of the day when she was holding hands with her friend Rachel that she actually let my hand go and walked just with the little girl. This is a milestone for her compared to yesterday. She is growing closer and closer to Keith each day. She was actually more receptive to Keith doing things for her today. He played tickle monster with her today and she loved it. She even shared her cheetos with him and learned how to give him a high five. lol He still can't hold her or sit by her in the car (go figure) but we can definitely see the connection. She even called him Dada today while trying to get his attention. Today while touring we saw a dog. She loved seeing the dog and kept pulling me toward the it calling by the chinese word - which sound really close to the english - dog. A few times repeating the English word Dog and I think she got it. I hope this was an indicator that she likes dogs - this will be good for Pressley. Our guide that is with us in Xi'an met with us and review some paperwork from the Notary's Office. We had to make sure that all was correct on the paperwork. One of the papers that we were given a copy of was the declaration of her abandonment. This document specified where she was found and when. This is such an important document in her history. We were actually going to arrange a day trip tomorrow to go and see the specific place where she was left but it is a 4 hour trip. Madelyn would not make that long of a trip - so we won't be going. However, I am certain that someday we will return to China with all of our children and seek this place out. We have now made our way up to the Regency Lounge to give us more room to spread out and play. Maddie is now playing with 2 little girls from the Dominican Republic. The few times I have seen her interact with other children - she is a good sharer and plays very well. She is not bossy or fussy when she plays. She likes to share and is always happy. Tomorrow we will just hang around the hotel all day until supper time. We have reservations at a Chinese Dumpling house with a dinner show. I am very excited to go tomorrow. I will post more tomorrow

Day 3 with Madelyn

We had a great day with Madelyn today. We arranged to do a little sightseeing with our tour guide. We visited the Wild Goose Pagoda, which is the Chinese Leaning Tower of Pisa - it does lean. We were also able to walk along the city wall of Xi'an. The city wall is approximately 60 feet tall and surrounds the city. This was the original city wall that protected the city almost 600 years ago. The city was preparing for their annual celebration and had the begun decorating up on top of the City Wall. It was beautiful! You will notice in the pictures that the city background is kind of dull and dingy. This is not the result of a bad picture - this is because of the smog, dust and lack of sunshine in the city. For the 3 days we have been here in Xi'an we have not seen the direct sunlight - just the sun behind the smog. Madelyn has really taken to both of us. She has settled in and her personality is starting to shine through. Today is the first day we have heard her speak alot. It is apparent that she was talking in sentences in Chinese. I wish I understood what she is saying. However, she understands exactly what we are saying and follows our exact instructions and directions. We can't get over how well she understands and how on target her motor skills are. She is a healthy baby girl. We did have some issues today. When we left the hotel today she only wanted me to hold her. She didn't even want to walk around. We went with the another family that is here with us and has a 3 year old daughter that is very active. Madelyn watched her intently and once got down and hung out with her but it was very short lived. She cried when Keith had to carry her and immediately shut off the water works when he handed her back to me. We were puzzled a bit by this but think we may have figured out why she was doing that. When we returned from sightseeing today both her and Keith played in the room and we all had such a good time. She laughed, talked, acted silly and played. It was so special. We decided that we would walk across the street for supper tonight and prepared everyone to leave the room. Madelyn was fine until we walked out of our hotel room door and immediately wanted me to hold her. I couldn't let her down. We walked across the street for dinner and the restaurant was experiencing a power outage so we decided to return to the hotel for supper. When we walked into the hotel lobby and I removed her coat and hat (a sign that we were staying "home" ) she was fine - she walked on her own, held my hand and made a bee line for the restaurant. She was fine after supper coming to the room. We think that maybe she thinks we are going somewhere where we are going to leave her and go away. That's the only thing that I can think that it is. Who knows what goes on in her little mind. All in all she is a great baby, well mannered, listens well and is bonding to us very well. Although I am so ready to go home, I am glad that we have this time where we have no other distractions. My undivided attention goes to her and she is eating it up. I know it would not be like that if we were home. Her and Keith are both in the bed right now snoring. lol Enjoy the pictures. I post some more tomorrow.

More Pictures

Original entry posted on January 25, 2010

Video is not a possibility on this blog - unfortunately. This site requires that I upload the video via You Tube before posting it to the blog. However, in China I am not able to access You Tube. So pictures will have to suffice until we return. I have added some additional pictures from earlier today. She is warming up to both of us and is loving life right now. We are beginning to see her personality. She is starting to say words in English and likes to mimmick what we are doing. We bought her an English alphabet puzzle today and she is working very hard to master it. For her age she is doing amazingly well. She is a doll and we love her immensely. I can't wait for you all to meet her. I'll keep you posted with more blog entries and photos.