Madison's 14th Birthday

Madison turned 14 on February 4! We celebrated at Godfather's Pizza with Mikelle, Sean, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and lots of cousins. The ice cream cake looks small in the picture, but it fed everyone at the party. She got lots of presents including new bedding, a Nintendo DS, games for the DS, a big pink stuffed animal that now sleeps beside Madison and Sponge Bob, lots of fingernail polish, some nail clippers, and a file so she can have lovely nails, a bracelet, and a hair straightener.

John's birthday is today so I made his favorite dish, lasagna, and Madison picked out a small cake when we went grocery shopping today. It was just me, John, Sean, and Madison here for supper since Mikelle had to work. It was quiet, but nice. Earlier, after Madison and I returned home from the store, I signed John's card and asked Madison if she wanted to sign it. She said no and informed me by using our hand-held translator that she already had something for John. So, after we ate our cake and ice cream, Madison gave John a card she had made, and she even had a little present all wrapped up for him. She wrapped it using left over tissue paper from one of her presents. The present was a little figurine of Madison's from the Monkey King, Pigsy. The Monkey King is a Chinese legend. While we were in China, we got to watch the T.V. series about every day, since it was another of Madison's favorite shows. Even though we have missed out on a lot of her growing up, we are getting to experience her youthful innocence and generosity. Happy Birthday Madison and John!

A New Post Is Here!

I don't know if anyone is checking the blog any more since I haven't written for a week now, but I've heard that perhaps there may still be people checking up on Madison.

We are still trying to find food that she likes. Breakfast is no problem, she likes cold cereal, poptarts, eggs, toast with jelly, hash browns, and she even had oatmeal today (cinnamon roll flavor). Last night we had spaghetti. She just had the tomato sauce without meat on her pasta and ate it all. She didn't want seconds, but she ate three slices of garlic bread. We don't have any problems with desserts either, so obviously, she has a sweet tooth.

Tomorrow is Madison's 14th birthday. We are having a party at Godfather's in Shenandoah with mine and John's family. I hope she is not too overwhelmed, but she has met most of the people that will be there.

We took a tour of Madison's new school this afternoon. She didn't seem nervous and didn't have any questions afterward. We are starting her in 7th grade on Feb. 17, and she will go from 8 A.M. to 11 A.M. for the first couple of weeks before starting full-time. The majority of her time will be spent learning English. When she goes full-time, she will have art, band (hopefully), and keyboarding. At first Madison did not want to do band because she thought she'd have to sing, but we cleared that up real quick. I work with Madison's ELL teacher, Sonia, at the primary school, but she also works at the middle and high school. Fortunately, Sonia will be able to devote quite a bit of time to Madison each morning.

I just read this out loud to John and Madison heard her name and pointed to herself. I can't wait for the day that we can talk back and forth. I'm sure she looks forward to that day too when she can tell us how she's feeling, what she wants, etc.

Day 6 at Home

Madison got bored at home yesterday, so we went shopping again today, looking for things for her room. She doesn't want one style or theme, so her room will end up being a hodgepodge of colors and decor, but it's her room, her little haven.

Madison has been watching Sponge Bob Square Pants and found a big, stuffed one at Target today. It is now sitting beside Madison on the couch and has been close by her side since we got home. I tried to get a picture of her and Sponge Bob, but she kept hiding behind him.

We ate lunch at Hu Hot today thinking Madison would enjoy some Asian cuisine, but she did not and neither did the rest of us. Surprisingly, it made me miss real Chinese food. Madison does, however, like Blizzards, so she, John, and Mikelle enjoyed them on the ride home to make up for the disappointing meal.

I made tacos for supper, hoping that Madison would like them, but she stuck to her veggie tendencies. She ate lettuce, spicy tomatoes, and Doritos. She tried ground hamburger with taco seasoning and grated cheese, but she made it clear that she did not care for either one. I'm going to have to make her her favorite Chinese dish...scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Thank goodness she likes eggs, but she can't live on them alone!

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Shopping

Mikelle, John, and I took Madison shopping for some new clothes yesterday. I thought she may not like shopping because of all the walking around, but she went through all the racks of clothes and said yes to this and no to that. Mikelle found out how frustrating it can be to shop with an opinionated person and said that Madison was worse than herself. Apparently Madison likes gem studded and sparkly clothes. She tried in vain to get a shirt that I already purchased for her before I went to China, I guess she likes it. I had to go put it back on the rack when she wasn't looking.

We received some special gifts in the mail yesterday before going on our shopping trip. We would like to thank the generosity of Teresa Euken's wrestling cheerleaders from Red Oak for selflessly giving Madison their Aeropostale and Old Navy gift cards. Once we got to Mall of the Bluffs, we made a bee line to those stores. Thank you again girls!

Meals are going to be a challenge. I made baked chicken, rice, green beans, and prepared a bowl of fresh fruit for supper last night. She didn't like the chicken, so all she ate was veggies and fruit. It's hard for a midwesterner not to include meat in a meal, I felt like I was starving her. Kyra, my neice, who's a vegetarian, will have to help me to know what to feed this poor girl, since she's not too fond of meat either!

Home!

We are finally home! That was some trip coming back. I believe we spent almost 27 hours either on a plane or in an airport. I mentioned a couple in my previous blog who were on their sixth adoption from China; it was actually their seventh! We traveled all the way to Chicago with them. I can't imagine doing that trip that many times with a toddler! They either have a great passion for these children or they are just insane.

Madison was almost giddy at the Guangzhou airport; perhaps she was overcome with joy because her day to leave and start her new life had finally come. We enjoyed more Starbucks at the Beijing airport, much to John's chagrin...he had to wait for us to slurp them down before going through security to get to our gate. We had plenty of time though, so Madison and I were in no hurry. We wanted to enjoy our frappiccinos.

John embarrassed a waitress at the Beijing airport too or she embarrassed herself. John was wearing a t-shirt that said father in Mandarin and as she was handing him the bill, she said something to a co-worker about his "ba ba" (father) shirt. Jokingly, he asked her why she was talking about him and his shirt. She didn't think he'd figure out that she was talking about him. Her face got all red and she hid it with her hands. She'll probably think twice about talking about a foreigner again when he or she is close by.

The Beijing to Chicago flight, of course, was very long. Madison slept a lot, but she also watched the Disney channel in Mandarin and we played SkipBo. She listened to music too. Apparently she likes 80s music (John's influence), because once when I looked over at Madison and John, they were both jammin' to it with their headsets on; their heads synchronized, keeping time with the beat.

Madison had her first Mexican food today. I thought she'd like the spicy chicken, but she nixed that and the refried beans. She did, however, like the rice (I guess that's not too much of a surprise) and the chips and salsa. After lunch, we hustled down to Howard's Sporting Goods to get her some new tennis shoes. Let's just say, her feet really needed to breath and her old shoes did not allow for that.

Madison got to meet John's parents at the airport last night, and we all went to Perkins before coming home so they could have a chance to visit with her...or look at her and ask us questions and talk about our trip. Mikelle, Sean, Madison, and I went to my mom and step-dad's today and she also met my sister, Theresa and her daughter, Kyra when they came over. Madison especially liked playing with my mom's two cats and moving the infrared pointer so the cats would chase it. She was probably pretty bored with us, since she couldn't understand our conversation. Although, she had to know we were talking about her a lot since we'd say her name and look at her.

This is getting to be quite a lengthy post, so I'll write more later.

John got a couple of pictures of Madison without her knowing. She doesn't like to have her picture taken, so we have to be sneaky to get them.

We have our clothes picked out for tomorrow, our bags packed, and will soon be getting ready to sleep one more night on the hardest beds we have ever slept on. Madison will probably think her new bed at home is way too soft. I hope I don't find her sleeping on the floor in her bedroom.

There were several groups of Americans at the U.S. Consulate this afternoon, all picking up visas for their new children. It was quite a sight seeing all those adopting families and little ones getting new mommies and daddies. One family was on their sixth adoption from China and others were on their second and third. Wow!

This is my last post from China. We can't wait to get home and see Mikelle and Sean and for them to meet their new sister. We also can't wait for you to get to know Madison too. Thank you for coming along with us on our special trip to China. We will continue to post after we get home to let you know how Madison is settling in.

Our Last Day in China

Last Friday it felt like we still had a long way to go before we could leave China and now it's hard to believe we will be leaving tomorrow. It will be good to get home and get into a regular routine again, even though I don't look forward to cooking. For some reason, I haven't missed that at all.

We went to the Six Banyan Trees Temple. It was more like a museum, so there were lots of artifacts to look at. I enjoyed that, but as you can see in the last picture, John and Madison were ready for a rest. John was showing Madison how to use the camera.

While we were at the Temple, we met a group of Americans who were oddly enough from the University of Nebraska on an agricultural trip. The lady I was talking to gave Madison a University of Nebraska pencil and pen. John told them, however, that would not make us Husker fans. It truly is a small world, and it was nice seeing midwesterners.

We are going to lunch with our guide in five minutes, then later, we will go to the U.S. Consulate to get Madison's visa...the last hoop to jump through. Tonight, we're ordering Papa John's pizza. Mmmm, I can't wait!

P.S. Please forgive my format, for some reason my spacing is not showing up when I post.