Day 7

We went to the Temple of Heaven today. This is where Madison was found when she was three months old. We didn't go to the specific place where she was left because it was too far of a walk for Madison. Feelings of sadness swept over me as I pictured a young mother walking in with a baby girl, then walking out of the park without her, with the infant lying near the peonies to be found later by a park worker.

On a lighter note, I wanted to mention our lunch yesterday when we went to get our notary. We ate at the office cafeteria, which was our least favorite meal. While John and Madison sat down to eat, I went with our guide to get some drinks, when I came back, I found a pig's toe laying on my rice! John thought he was pretty funny. Yes, they really eat pig's toe in China-I watched our guide eat hers. Needless to say, John and I passed up this cuisine.

We will get Madison's passport tomorrow, which is the last of the business we have to take care of in Beijing. We will leave for Gangzhou Saturday morning. We look forward to the new sights especially since it is much warmer down there; more like Florida.

Downtime in the Hotel Room

John and Madison playing a game on the computer.

Day 6 in China

We officially adopted Madison today; the paperwork is complete and now we just wait for her passport and visa. Our guide told Madison that she is stuck with us now and she can't do anything about it.

We think the gift that Madison has enjoyed the most is the sunglasses that John gave her. She told our guide today that it is "family equipment". Hardly anyone wears sunglasses over here, I only seen one person today with them on when we toured the Forbidden City, so perhaps Madison will start a trend in China before leaving for America. (She even sleeps in them.)

Madison loves to watch soap operas and has us hooked on one called Forgiven. We can't understand a word the actors say, but we sit watching it just the same. She will have to learn English quickly, so she can DVR American soaps.

Madison has a good sense of humor and laughs easily. She will need that to put up with her new family.

China Itinerary

(If you're reading this blog for the first time, start at the bottom and work your way up.)

This is our real itinerary while we are in China:

January 8 Arrive in Beijing at 16:25, stay at Wang Fujing Grand Hotel
January 9 Go to the orphanage to meet the child in the morning
January 10 Sightseeing the Great Wall
January 11 Sightseeing the Summer Palace (Should be called the Arctic Palace!!!)
January 12 Registration and apply for child's passport
January 13 Notarization (play lots of SkipBo and watch movies)
January 14 Sightseeing the Forbidden City
January 15 Sightseeing the Temple of Heaven
January 16 Getting the child’s passport
January 17 Fly to Guangzhou from Beijing. Stay at the White Swan Hotel.
January 18 Sightseeing the Liu Hua Lake Park
January 19 Physical test and photo taking. Sightseeing Family Chen’s Temple
January 20 Visa application and sightseeing the Six Banyan Temple
January 21 Sightseeing at the zoo, and getting the visa
January 22 Fly to Beijing from Guangzhou and from Beijing to Chicago then to Omaha

We will be more than ready to come home!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

We met and got our new daughter on Friday, January 9, 2009. Madison did not learn that she was being adopted until two days before our arrival. Even though that seems like it would be very scary, we were told she was smiling from ear to ear and was very excited. I suppose she was relieved to know that she was going to be adopted before turning 14 on Feb. 4, which is the cut off time when Chinese orphans can no longer be adopted.

We have a significant language barrier, but we are learning how to communicate. Madison admitted to our guide that she gets bored when we are at the hotel, but since getting our computer up and going again, we have showed her pictures of home and her new sister and brother, and grandparents. We used a picture dictionary to tell her who everyone is. We have also been watching some movies-CJ7, which is a Chinese comedy in Mandarin with English subtitles and Disney's Mulan, which we switched the audio to Mandarin. Judging from her reaction to the movies, I think she liked CJ7 better.

We have been sightseeing to help fill the down time. We went to the Great Wall yesterday. It is quite a sight, and we could hardly believe what we were seeing. Today, we went to the Summer Palace. We would have enjoyed our time there more, but it is VERY cold today and the wind made it even worse.

John wants to show Madison some other things on the computer, so he is kicking me off. Nothing changes whether we're in China or at home:)

Meeting Madison Ji

We finally got my computer working and Madison watched the movie CJ7 on it this morning while we waited for lunch time to come and our next sightseeing tour, which is only fifteen minutes from now. We are struggling through our language barrier and welcome when our guide is with us so she can translate. We will write more later when we have more time, but we are just thankful that we can finally get on here and let you all know what is going on.

Hello from China

Hello everyone! This is actually Mikelle typing this because moms computer isnt working right now...it updated itself and now its not working.

They arrived in Bejing around 4:00 pm, Bejing time, they were picked up by the agency worker and they went from there too the hotel. By the time they got back to the hotel and dropped off their things they went out to eat around 7:00pm and if you could guess it was indeed Chinese! They went back to the hotel around 8:00 out of exhaustion. The next day they went to the orphanage and picked up Madison Ji, they filmed when they first walked in. Next, they ate with the staff from the orphanage, at the meal they had a "lazy suzan" on the table so you could rotate the food and take what you wanted. They also had hot coke because its winter, they didnt like that much because here we drink it cold. They presented a present to mom and dad, after that they left the orphanage and went back to the hotel and Madison Ji has been with them ever since.

Today they are going to the Great Wall and they can stay as long as they like because there is only 3 of them. They said the wind chill was pretty bad.

Ill keep you updated when I can!

ps. food at the orphanage was jellyfish, cow stomache, calmarie, beef, pork, and chicken