Single Digits, Plane Tickets & My First Shower

We are down to single digits now, I leave one week from today. I am slowly getting everything packed and ready, I can't tell you how many times I've packed and unpacked my suitcase.

My plane tickets came about a week and a half ago and it was exciting to see Madison's name on the return tickets. My visa should be coming today, so I'll be all set to go.

Last Friday some of my friends got together and threw me a surprise baby shower, it was so nice. Thank you Kristin, Melissa, Carolina, Megan, Cait, Mariah & Brittany! Above are some pictures of some of the gifts I received. One gift not in the picture is a new jogging stroller, yeah! It was delivered yesterday. I will take a picture of it and post it after Andy assembles it for me. I will also post some more pictures of my shower as I get them.

Travel Plans

My travel plans are coming along. Yesterday I officially booked my plane tickets and my hotel. I will be leaving on Wednesday, September 3 (3 weeks from today) and will arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam on Friday morning (Vietnam time). I will be staying in a hotel in the Old Quarter part of Hanoi where many other families from our agency will also be staying. Over the past few weeks, several other families also received travel approval so there will be quite a large group of us over there at once. We are scheduled to go to the orphanage on Monday the 8th, that is when I will get Maddie!!

20 days, and counting!!

I-600 Approval!

We were beginning to think this day would never come, but it has! Late last night we FINALLY got our I-600 approval! This means I can travel to Vietnam to bring Madison home! We are still awaiting a travel date which we should hopefully receive in a few days.

When I blew out the candle on Madison's birthday cake 2 days ago, my wish came true!

Stay tuned for more details.

Happy Birthday Madison!

Today Madison turns 1. It is very sad for me to post this and not have her here with us yet. To think that she has spent the entire first year of her life in an orphanage. We are thinking of her today and praying that they do the investigation on her case very soon so we can travel to bring her home. The boys and I are going to make a cake for her today and sing Happy Birthday to her and we will take a few pictures so someday when she asks about her first birthday we will have some pictures to show her.

New Pictures of Madison

We got some updated pictures of Madison on Tuesday. She looks great and is so pretty! They are definitely feeding her well. We also got some of her recent measurements, she weighs 19.8 lbs and is 27.6 inches long. She has 4 teeth on top, 2 on the bottom and can sit and crawl by herself, and stand and walk with help. It seems she is doing very well. We are still waiting for them to do the investigations and keeping our fingers crossed that it will be SOON!

Maggie Maher

I finally got some recent pictures of Maggie from Kathleen. She is doing very well. She is a tiny little girl, only weighing in at 13 lbs. and will be "1" already this Wednesday, July 16; "Happy Birthday Maggie!".

11 Months Old

Madison turned 11 months old yesterday. Here is her nursery, the finished product!