It has been about a month since the referral of Madeline to Crystal and I. A lot has changed in this time. We have recently been informed that Madeline is just over 25 inches tall and weights almost 19 pounds. She has 4 teeth. She can sit well, can stand by holding and is learning to walk by holding. She responds when she is called. She likes colorful toys and she prefers to play ball, which I like to do as well. A perfect match.

As for Crystal and I, I have been released from my second stay in the hospital due to complications from my appendectomy. I am still not feeling normal, however, I do feel better everyday. I even returned to work full time last week, Thursday February 28th. Crystal is finally beginning to relax. She has completed the additional paperwork we received required to allow our adoption of Madeline to proceed and her nursing care duties for me have ended as I am now almost able to take care of myself. My reliance upon her will never end.

We may not receive any additional information or photos regarding Madeline until we actually go to China to pick her up however if we may hear something new we will add it to this blog.

I want to Thank everyone who has assisted us in our application for this adoption. Crystal and I are both very excited and somewhat in shock after receiving the referral. We can not believe we are parents of a girl who doesn’t know we exist. How are we doing? Are we parenting right? Maybe when she actually gets physical possession of us she will give us some feedback.

Oh!! We have learned that a possible meaning of Madeline’s Chinese name “Xiao Xing” is Morning Star, as she was found in the morning. We will have to wait until we are provided with the actual Chinese characters before we know if this an accurate translation. It seems reasonable and for now this is what we are going with.

We hope everyone is well and we look forward to keeping everyone updated. - Jim “Dad”