We have Maddux!!

Yesterday we got Maddux around 9AM. We got to the government building before the children got there. We waited about 5 minutes and then all of a sudden a door opened and both kids walked in with staff from the orphanage. We have a couple pictures, but not good ones since it was so sudden (probably good - less time for tears on our end!).

Maddux was shy at first, which we expected, but warmed up to his toy cars pretty quickly. No tears and he was very good. We were there for over an hour completing paperwork and talking with the orphanage staff (Jenne - the orphanage director was happy to see your pictures and remembered your daughter!).

After we were finished, we went downstairs (Maddux let us carry him downstairs), into the car and then into a grocery store. It was kind of like Walmart, with shoes, toys and groceries. Maddux has definitely been here before with his foster mom - he wanted to push the grocery cart. We got lots of water and some snacks with our guide that we think he will like, as well as some milk and yogurt. Then it was back to the hotel and we had our family picture taken for something we need tomorrow.

We finally got to back to our hotel room, but only for about 15 minutes. Our guide took both our families to lunch - Maddux did great and ate a ton (which has been a common theme for all our meals). From there we had to walk to the bank to exchange money - this was a good half mile, if not longer in both directions. Maddux did great - held our hands both ways, and let Jacob carry him up the stairs. We had to wait for about an hour in the bank. Maddux did great playing with his cars and his Magnadoodle.

We got back to our hotel room for good around 5PM - it was a long day with lots of activities that took longer than we thought. We stayed in and ordered room service. We also discovered that Maddux loves bubbles. We have a great video with him laughing and blowing bubbles - we will try to post videos and pictures later tonight when we have more time (we have another appointment in 30 minutes). We played with his cars and Magnadoodle. Maddux also discovered the camera and in about 30 seconds knew how to turn it on and off and take pictures. He also started repeating English words, including (and you are not going to believe this) hippopotamus!!! We have a book with 100 pictures and words that we went through with him this morning and he was repeating everything!

Finally took a bath (which he loves) and went to bed around 9PM. Maddux fell asleep quickly, since we had missed his nap that day. He slept til around 4AM. We have all been up since then, we got him to lay in bed with us and play for a couple hours before we got up. He also loves his harmonica - which I'm sure our hotel room neighbors and way less than thrilled about!

He is definitely a good eater - for dinner last night had both parts of a hamburger bun, half the hamburger, 3/4 of an order of french fries and 3 dumplings. This morning for breakfast he had 2 bowls of congee, an entire fried egg, along with a few bites of potatoes, fried spring roll and cheese. Pretty sure all this food is contributing to some stomach issues -we are going to ask about that later today, to see if he knows to stop eating when he is full, or keeps eating.

Sorry it has been so long since our update, I know you all were anxious! It has been going really really well, much better than we expected. He was only shy with us for about the first hour and then has warmed right up. We were told he may sometimes get motion sick in the car, so the plane rides could be really interesting!

We will post pictures and video to our blog later today - hoping we get back to our hotel in time for nap time.

Today is the Day

We get Maddux in 2 hours! It is 7AM Monday morning here and we have been awake for a few hours - still adjusting to the time change and nervous and excited! Hopefully we will get some pictures and video owhen we meet him and post here soon.

We are going downstairs to have breakfast, then wait until 9AM when we meet our guide and go to the Civil Affairs Office to meet Maddux! Afterwards we will go to the grocery store with our guide to get water, etc., and then later today to the Bank of China.

Tomorrow we sign the official adoption paperwork!

We are in China!!!

We just checked into our hotel in Shanghai for the night. All our flights were good and on time, and all our luggage made it! We didn't sleep much on the plane, so have only slept about 6 hours out of the last 48.

Have some decent pictures from our cell phone when we flew over the Rocky Mountains - will try to post tomorrow after we get some sleep.

Tomorrow (Sunday morning in China) we have a car that is picking us up just after noon and driving us to Hangzhou - the city where Maddux is at. We will check into our hotel where we will be for the next 10 days.

Only 34 hours til we meet Maddux!!

Tomorrow

Wow - still really can't quite believe that tomorrow - less than 24 hours - we will be on a plane on our way to China!

I think we will be ready by then, although we haven't started packing our own clothes yet. We have everything for Maddux laid out, all the paperwork we need, a letter to take to Hanzghou with us from a family that has been there previously, and our carryons packed.

A BIG THANK YOU...
...to all our friends and family that have supported us and helped us through this adoption process. We wouldn't have made it through without all your support.

Also a very special thank you to our friends K&D that will be moving into our house for 3 weeks to take care of all the animals, so they don't have to stay at the kennel. We are so grateful for this!

We will try to post again tomorrow morning, but if not, the next post will be from China!

Time to Take Down the Overalls...

These overalls have been hanging on our bedroom door for about 2 1/2 years now (as many of you have seen). They were the first piece of clothing we purchased when we decided to adopt and were fairly certain we would be adopting a boy - this was back when we were still thinking we would be adopting from Bulgaria.

We hung these on our bedroom door so that we could see them and help remind us as we were struggling through paperwork, approvals, waits, etc., that what was really waiting at the end of this process was a child.

So last night we took the overalls down and folded them up (they will likely be too small for Maddux) since we are leaving in 4 days!!!!!!

Can you believe that we first requested information for Bulgaria from that adoption agency on March 31, 2008 - 1041 days ago! Seems like a long time, and it has definintely seemed long while we waited. But, we are so glad to be near travel and on our way to Maddux in a few days!

Less than a week!!!!

This time next week we will be on a long plane ride....yeay!!!!

We have so much to do still to get ready, the list of to-do, to pack, to buy seems to keep growing instead of shrinking. But, we will get there, and one way or another we will be on that plane!

Another goal for this weekend is to get a VPN for our computer so that we can continue to blog while we are in China. We also have Skype setup so we can communicate with everyone at home while we are there.

Hang on Maddux....we are coming soon!