In Beijing Day 1 - Hutong tour

Beautiful people, beautiful scenery, beautiful city... We are so lucky to be able to experience what Beijing is all about, without even going to the Olympic parks we have seen some very beautiful parts. We weren't sure what we wanted to do today since we had left it opened to relax and recoupe from the jetlag but as we were in the lobby we felt so alive (besides a pain in the a... cold I caught on the plane) and so ready to go that we looked into any type of tour we could do... and then Joe remember the "Hutang tour" yeah!!! good choice, the door man got us a cab and we were on our way. As soon as we got there we were approached by the Hutang tour people and we gladly accepted with a little reservation since we had no clue where we were. But after paying and getting our own little rickshaw and our own guide who rode her own bike along our rickshaw we knew we had made the right decision. We went around all different hutangs (which means streets or roads), there are all sort of hutangs, very narrow, narrow, little wider and wider, there are temples and courtyard homes. We pretty much stopped every time we wanted to take pictures and do a little shopping. We visited the Drum Tower and the Bell tower, pretty amazing these were used to make people aware when they needed to get up (at 6 am with the Bell which was heard throughtout the city) and the Drum Tower to tell them to stop working (6pm) and to go home. If they didn't go home the gates of the city would be closed with them in them without being able to go home.... It's 6pm right now and we are done for the day... enjoy the pictures

We are finally here!!!!

After a very long flight ( *even longer because I couldn't help but watch the clock on the flight status screen every 5 minutes) we arrive to Beijing at 315pm more or less... So far so good, we got to the airport and were very impressed by the attentiveness of everyone there and everywhere else we've been to. We did have a tiny incident in Newark, the gate ticket person told me that my visa was wrong and that China would not let me into their country!!!! PLOP!!! I asked her why, and she said because the visa was issued in my married name and my passport had my maiden name. I showed her the amendment on the back of the passport and told her that my agency had taken care of this and I had asked them about it and they told me it was fine but she was determined to freak me out... which she succeeded when I said "OK, so what do I do now?" and she said, "good luck".. grrrrrr.... Needless to say China had no problems letting me into their wonderful country so there Ms ticket person!!! get another job!!! grrrr but other than that all it's been smooth sailing.... Heidy and Joey

WE ARE FINALLY ON OUR WAY!!!!

Gracias Dios, Mamita y Abuelito, hicieron todo esto posible, realmente son el "equipo perfecto". Mi corazon no puede describir el amor y las emociones que sentimos en estos momentos... Joey y you simplemente nos miramos a los ojos y sin decir nada "carino, es verdad!, realmente sera nuestra para siempre. Madison sera parte de nuestras vidas por siempre. En las buenas y en las malas, en la enfermedad y en la salud... si si la aceptamos para siempre!!. Pequena, agarrate fuerte que ya llegamos pronto y nunca te dejaremos ir, bueno derrepente cuando tengas suficiente edad derrepente... Nos vamos a las 8am manana y llegaremos a Beijing el 6 de Nov a las 3pm. Y el 9 de Nov. saldremos para Guangzhou por avion (mas o menos 3 a 4 horas de viaje) y el 10 de Noviembre nuestro "GOTCHA DAY" y por si acaso no me escucharon GOTCHA DAY, una vez mas GOTCHA DAY!!!.... y estaremos de regreso con nuestra princesa el viernes 21 de Noviembre a las 7:30 pm.... asi que por ahora hasta pronto. Trataremos de escribir en este todos los dias con fotos y videos.....
ENGLISH
Thank you God, Mom and Grandpa, you made it happened for us you are the perfect "dream team!... My heart can't describe the love and emotions that we are feeling right now. Joey and I just keep looking at each other and withoug saying anything we know this is it "honey, it's true, she'll be ours forever, Madison will be in our lives for better or for worse, in sickness and in health... yes WE DO WE DO!!! Baby hold on tight we are coming for you and will never let you go. Ok maybe when you are old enough but only then!. We'll be leaving at 8:00 am from Ft. Lauderdale and will arrive into Beijing on Nov. 6th at 3pm. On Nov. 9th am we'll go to Guangzhou about 3 to 4 hours by plane. On Nov. 10th our long waited GOTCHA DAY!!!! wow that sounds so good GOTCHA DAY, one more time GOTCHA DAY!!! ha ha I crack myself up! ok.... and then we'll finally be home with our princess on Nov. 21st at 7:30 pm Ft. Lauderdale airport.... So for now, it's see you later. We have promised to post as much as we can at least more than Brenda, sorry Brenda, couldn't help it!....
So see you later.....

Madison's Shower of Love

Last Saturday, October 4th 2008 our very good friends Shelly who gave up her newly renovated home (what were you thinking??? thank you!!!) for the party, Jeannette, Bianca, Vicky and Gaby organized and executed the most amazing babyshower in honor of mommy Heidy and baby Madison. From the minute I arrived until it was over I felt the love and warmth of every one who was able to be there to make our celebration extra special. The organizers, wink wink, gave up their extremely busy times to put together this beautiful affair. I can't leave out my sweet Lyonna, who came to help out with the decorations before I was able to see her, she couldn't stay for the party (no hard feelings... ummm) and my little almost adopted girls Suzie and Carmen who were there helping out every minute to make my time special. To Mom Rhoda who's among numerous gifts Madison's bed became a reality. To dad Frost, you know what you did!!! thank you!!! To my family from Spain and Peru who were also present from the beginning fedexing the bedding set and curtains of little Madison's room. To grandma Nanette! thank you for the beautiful stroller and yes we did pick it but you gave it to us and we will never forget it. Extra thanks also go to my very good almost childhood friend Haidee who with her daughter and my God daughter Jovanna came all the way from Maryland to be here for me. To each one of you who came to be present to participate your good wishes and for those who were not able to make it, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts... thank you cards are on their way for the beautiful gifts THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! we love everyone of you for being such special people with the biggest hearts and for being there for us.
With all our love
Joey, Heidy and little Madison

Farewell To the Wilcox Family!!!

Our friends Brenda and Mark are on their way to pick up their little angel "Mae Li", they left this morning, their "Gotcha Day" is October 6 and can't wait to follow their journey. As they post I will update to let you all know. They are one of the most amazing people we've ever known and they deserve all the happiness that awaits them!!! YOOO HOOO for the Wilcox, Mae Li Mommy and Daddy have loved you forever and ever!...Love Heidy, Joey and Madison

WE GOT TA!!!

Yes!!! we are going to China! we are going to meet our daughter for the very first time, our red thread that at one point had so many knots and pulls has finally untangled and has reached its destination after an almost 3 year journey. We'll be a family of 3 soon.... We'll be leaving Nov. 5 and our Gotcha Day! or Due Date will be November 10!!! OMG! this is all really happening. I will post the itinerary later just wanted to post the news!!!!
Love you all... .Heidy and Joey

WE GOT OUR LSC!!! IN ONE WEEK!!

We can't get over how fast we got our LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) which is the official Referral of our little girl. We have been officially granted the honor of taking her home with us and it's a privilige indeed to having been accepted to proceed with such honor. Here we come baby, now it's probably 3 to 4 weeks to get our TA (travel approval) where they tell us when and where we must be in China and then it will just be 3 more weeks after that when we go far far away to the land of the mistery and the host of the most amazing Olympics ever.... our Madison Xiao awaits and she looks so grown from the previous pictures.... we were lucky enough to find a service where they will get updates and pictures of your child for a very affordable price... if interested please ask me I would recommend them 100%....

TA!!! where are you?????

Heidy and Joey

What we've found so far....

We found out that:

• Bai Xiao Rong, Bai is considered her last name and it usually takes after the city she was born, or the name of the Director of the orphanage at the time she was found, in her case they named her after the city she was born and found in "Dianbai", and just yesterday we found out that "Xiao" means "early morning" "sunrise/sunset" "dawn" and "Rong" means "happy" "good nature" and according to our own interpretation just means she "wakes up in good mood"... wishful thinking I guess.
• Bai Xiao Rong was born in the year of the rooster: The sign of the Rooster indicates a person who is hard-working and definite about their decisions. Roosters are not afraid to speak their minds and can therefore sometimes come across as boastful. They make good restaurant owners and world travellers. Wow, I guess we could use a little discipline in our lives just about now... On the other hand daddy Joey was born in the year of the "monkey"! now that's a surprise! lol.... If you are born in the Year of the Monkey, you are very intelligent, well-liked by everyone, and will have success in any field you choose. Lucky old you! way to go daddy!. Now, mommy was born in the year of the "horse" If you are born in the Year of the Horse then you are amazingly hard working and very independent. Although you are intelligent and friendly, you can sometimes be a bit selfish (me??? ok, maybe now I am because is all about us can you blame us??? our dreams have come true!). Careerwise you would make a good scientist or poet, Heidy aka Dr. H Frost... lol... ok I like that...
• We found a group of families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Dianbai and we are getting as much information as possible from a very friendly and helpful group, thank you guys!. One great thing this group has is that they have two lists in their database. One is a list of all Chinese names of their children and their translations (we got our translation) and the other one is a list of medical issues all these children have had either as pre-determined special needs or issues they developed after having them home. Very educating indeed, some of them are medical conditions that are being taken care of or have completed disappeared and some of them where gone the minute they brought them home which is very encouraging...
• We'll be staying at the White Swan hotel for about 12 days of the process, yeah!!! this is the hotel all families stay in either the whole trip or part of their trips. If their child is in the vecinity of Guandong province like in our case, Dianbai is about 5 hours by car from Guangzhou, then they get to stay there every day but if their child is in a different province then they need to go and stay at that province for about 4 to 5 days i believe and then they would go to Guandong since the US Embassy and the governemnt offices where we need to do all our paperwork are in Guangzhou (see sites to see on the left column), the capital of Guandong and where the White Swan is.
• Madison's room almost finished!!! pictures to come soon.
• More updates coming soon as well...

Madison is welcomed by our FCC family...

FCCSouthFlorida : FCC - South Florida Chapter

OUR MADISON TO BE.....

FINALLY WE COULD SHARE OUR NEWS!! WE ARE GETTING OUR MADISON AND WE NOW GOT OUR PA

I don't even know where to begin but I guess the best way to put it is that we can now officially be called "MOMMY AND DADDY" to the most beautiful angel in the world, yep that's the new mommy talking!!! it's our news and I think we are allowed to brag a little bit, right??? So it all started Tuesday, July 22nd, reading one of the so many WC (waiting children) emails we get from our agency. But this one had a special something that made us go through the whole email, and there it was a little girl in waiting for her forever family. Not knowing anything about her and not even knowing what she looked like we contacted our agency to get more information. Right away we received more details... although she had been listed in the age group 3-4 yrs old it turns out she was only 2 1/2 and her condition although alarming at first was not as bad once we were able to talk to a doctor of course after receiving her records for our review. We received her records and pictures on Wednesday July 23rd, keep in mind that she was part of a shared list, meaning other families could be looking at her file right this minute and could lock it up before we get a chance so we need to act fast!...so guess what??? of all days that I have been home and Joey usually in the neighborhood, that one day I was in downton Miami and Joey in Weston, neither one with computer access. It was impossible for me to get to a computer because I was in an all day interview so Joey had to leave his job go to the closest Kinko's to get to his emails to open the file! Although our dream was to be able to open her pictures and see her for the first time together well ladies and gentlemen that did no happen! So Joey gets to Kinko's his nerves got the best of him and although he's done this hundreds of times before has no idea what to do now, sits in front of the computer opens the emails but sees something extremely upsetting!!!! "What is a ZIP FILE again???? he panics, looks around, looks back at the screen no answer turns to his right and there she was another angel to the rescue. A college student working on a paper, Joey turns to her and says "HELP" "I need to open this file but have no idea what to do" and proceeds to tell her what the file was about. She immediately offered her help and untangled the mistery email... just when he thought he got it! oh no! ah, excuse me" "how do I print all of these?"... she again helped him and mistery solved... Joey opened the file looked at the pictures and read her profile and medical records... he text messaged me in the middle of my interview, I excuse myself for a second and read "she is ours", a second text message comes through but this time I was on a break and was able to open it with confidence but never expecting to see this beautiful little face, the face of "our daughter".....In the middle of the break I was able to call my friend Brenda (Mae Li's mommy) "another angel in disguise" and after hearing our news I asked her to contact Joey and help him get in touch with the doctor... Joey tells me later that she was indeed an angel because she basically took the "mommy to be" role while I freed myself from the interview and helped him relax enough to make the phone call to the doctor. My interview finished a couple of hours later!!! The minute I left I got on the phone with my friend Brenda who was able to get the number to the Doctor who takes care of most of our families children and Joey was able to call them to find out that she was on vacation!!! so I got on the phone and was able to find out that her colleague would look at the file if it was faxed to him right away!... I get on the phone with Joey who by then was already home and he got everything ready to fax as I was coming in the house. With the push of a button we where sharing the life of our daughter with a total stranger but this stranger turned out to be the most amazing human being as far as doctors are concerned because not only did he accept our file after 5PM but he called us within 20 minutes to tell us that SHE WILL BE OK!!! Well, needless to say after a couple of minutes of consideration we decided "she will be ours and us hers"... just like that I was going to call the next morning to request the locking of her files but Joey suggested I called that night and leave our representative a message so that she could get it first thing in the morning! Way to go Dad!! because it worked! she called US first thing in the morning to let us know her file was now locked and she'll be ours!!!... Like many of you know, in two days we had to fill out forms and fax and email back to the agency to get the ball rolling... once we did that our rep told us, "now you could relax and wait for about two weeks when you will get your PA" PA= Pre approval... which is what we got today YES WE GOT OUR PA TODAY!!! DID EVERYBODY HEAR THAT??? WE GOT OUR PA TODAY... ok sorry, I'm not to jump and make scenes but today I'M FORGIVEN, WE GOT OUR PA IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!!! PA is the acknowledgement of the CCAA that they have accepted us to adopt BAI XIAO RONG... soon to be MADISON XIAO FROST... Xiao will be 3 years old December 1, 2008 yeah!! and most likely we'll be a family then....!!! Our next step is called LSC or Letter Seeking Confirmation which is an official letter that will come to us via fedex for us to sign and send back to our agency via fedex within 24 to 48 hours I believe.... that could happen between 4 to 6 weeks from now... so stay tune for our LSC celebration....

The 2008 Olympics in China

How amazing to know that China where our little Madison will come from is all over the news for hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. It's a privilige to know that one day we could tell little Madison that the country that saw her for the first time is being watched by the whole world tomorrow! We are so happy that everytime we turn on the TV we see a special either about the culture, politics and their amazing rise. Some of the specials not so positive and sometimes a little disturbing but nonetheless about China!!! we are learning so much these days that if it wasn't for the Olympics we'll probably be buying books and books about it.... Which brings me to this cute video about the Olympics I found in YouTube... I hope you enjoy it!

TO OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO ARE ALWAYS THERE FOR US IN THIS LONG LONG JOURNEY... WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Our anniversary trip to Amelia Island May 2008

Then they were THREE...Welcome baby David Jordan....

To our friends Lisa and Brian BIG CONGRATULATIONS, on their new little angel David Jordan...who was born June 15th and became a Shislowski on June 20th, 2008... We are so happy for them!!! He's the most beautiful baby! I got to hold him and feed him and he's just so good.... May God bless him and watch over him always....Love you guys and we'll always be there for you whenever you need us... after all we are tia Heidy and tio Joey.... lol...

In Memory of Maria Chapman...

FELICITACIONES A NUESTRO SOBRINO WILLITO!!!!

FELICITACIONES A NUESTRO SOBRINO WILLITO DE BARCELONA, ESPANA. Hoy es un dia muy especial para nuestro Willito, hoy marca con una celebracion especial el final de su Secundaria!!! felicitaciones mi amor, nos haces muy orgullosos porque con tu esfuerzo y perseverancia haz llegado a la meta... sabemos que tienes un futuro brillante y esta en ti llegar a el!!! CONGRATULATIONS... from both of us... you make us very proud! today marks with a special party/celebration the end of your secondary studies.... we know how much effort and perserverance you made it happen!!

This video is for you!!!!

June 10, 2008 Referrals

UPDATE!!.... Referrals came up to Jan 20, 2006 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HAPPY PARENTS....

According to the Rumor Queen there seems to be mostly referrals for from Jan 12 to Jan 20th and a couple for Jan 22nd.... Either way is great news compared to last months 3 days so YUPPI!! YEAH ! YEAH!!! Congratualtions to all these babies that finally found the red threat finding their forever families... what an amazing month...

As per the Rumor Queen.... it could mean 10 days of referrals up to Jan 22, 2006!!!!

June 6th, 2008
Three agencies have confirmed that they have something on the way, scheduled to deliver on Monday.
They do not know what is in the packages, but they all think there is a chance it is referrals.
If you are expecting a referral in this batch and want your blog listed on the Babies! post, go ahead and start listing them on this thread and I’ll start putting the post together. Be sure to give me both the name of the blog and the URL of the blog.

Rumor Queen today....

Rumors this morning are more of the same.
They are either matching, or they have matched but have not signed yet. (R2)
More agencies repeating the “more days than last month” thing. (R3)
It still looks like we can expect a cut off between the 16th and 22nd. (R2)
Sorry, but there doesn’t appears to be anything new.
THE WAITING GAME
I really feel for all those waiting who are just waiting and have nothing else but wait.. did I say they've been waiting for a long time? and could be next but then they might not!!! grrr this would drive me crazy... but BEST OF LUCK for those who are next... just "wait" a little longer...