Ni Hao or Hello

(If you are reading this blog for the first time, start at the bottom and read your way up:)

John and I were informed today that our petition to adopt has been approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department in Chicago. This was our last hoop to jump through before going to China next Wednesday. John called me with the good news while I was at school making plans for my substitute. I could hardly concentrate because of the butterflies in my stomach. For some reason, these butterflies come to life around 4 A.M. and flutter about throughout the day.

We have busy planning for the arrival of our new daughter by buying her some clothes, but not too many because we want to take her shopping to let her pick out clothes for herself; something she has never been able to do before. We have also been studying Mandarin Chinese by using the Rosetta Stone, which John was fortunate to get through his job. We purchased a hand-held translator too. We just type what we want to say in English and the translator will speak it in Mandarin. It will also work the other way around, so that Madison can type what she wants to say in Mandarin and it will speak it in English.

We are not sure how much, if any, English Madison knows. Sadly, she was put into special education because of her immobility caused by her leg. She would have learned English if she had received the standard nine year compulsory education.

We think Madison knows by now that she will be adopted; she probably found out last week. However, we can't begin to imagine how she's feeling, her whole world is about to change drastically and dramatically. Please keep her in your prayers, as well as Sean and Mikelle. Even though Sean and Mikelle are excited, they may go through different emotions that we can't foresee.