About Me

My name is Tracy and I am married to an amazing man, his name is Thomas! We are a busy family that is always on the go between church, school, work and sports.... we are not a sitting around kind of family. We have 4 amazing children and are working on bringing home Elias to make 5. My hubby is Deaf and I am a sign language interpreter,we are very involved in the Deaf community and are excited to be adding another Deaf member to our family. Our kids, Aaron-19, Luke-11, Tommy-10 and Paige-5 are anxious for their new brother to be home. This is our second adoption and we are learning more everyday to lean on God, this journey is already strengthening our faith! We are working on learning how to turn everything over to God and know that He has a perfect plan and all will happen in His time! Good things come to those who wait.

Monday, January 24, 2011

2 days of pure joy and amazement

We love Guangzhou and love our new friends we have made here. I do beleive it is going to be very hard to leave our new friends we have met. There has been alot of laughter with our crazy American adoptive families and I have never felt so releived to have others around that are all going through the same thing. We Madison families have bonded very well and Tom and I truly  enjoy everyones company. We have some great stories to tell and memories for a lifetime!  Mrya, Mike and Will... Lisa, Wayne and Madison,  Angela, Scott and their beautiful entourage of children have been such a blessing to us the last few days.. Much love to you all!!!  We havent seen Marcie as much as her poor hubby has not been feeling well and we are praying he gets better very soon.

The last two days with our budding comedian have been the most amazing days.  Luke is taking off like there is no limit to what he can do. His sign language is incredible and he is learning at least 20 - 30  new signs everyday and retaining and using them. We can discuss alot of things now and it is crazy how fast he learns and that after one time of being shown it is stored nicely in his brain!!! 

Yesterday we went to a Famous Buddhist temple here called Six Banyan Temple and it was truly interesting to see what the religion of this country is.  Luke doesnt seem to have been taught any religion but has obviously seen it practiced as he can mimic what they do, but has no idea what for. He was again the photographer for our journey there and the boy has a great eye and is taking some amazing shots. I do beleive he is going to need his own camera back home, I will write that down on his wish list hehe.

After the Buddhist temple we went to a Jade market and got to buy some really nice good jade and it was wayyy cheaper then if you bought it in the USA.  Luke saw an artist there that was making ink drawings with his fingers and the artist let all of our kids try and he LOVED it.. he did pretty good too, he really does watch what all is going on and picks up quickly. 
After the temple our friends here wanted us to see a dried spice and also a meat market, really an experiance you cant miss when you come here but it truly makes you wonder about why and how they eat the things they do here... We saw some crazy things here and are pretty sure we scarred Luke some as he didnt know that the chicken he eats was actually once alive until we went to the market, he got pretty upset but just hasnt eaten chicken since then.  He was facsinated with what we saw and couldnt wait to show his mommy, daddy and his 2 new best male friends ever , Mr Wayne and Mr Mike all the things we saw. 

We ended our night with going out to an AMAZING Chinese dinner with Mike, Myra, cutie pie Will and Lisa, Wayne and the amazing Ms Madison and we had some great food and great laughs. I love the support of our little group and sure do hope we can stay in touch and stay close when we leave. It has been amazing to have such a support group here.  We are missing Julie and Eric and there gorgeous son Max as they are with another agency and we dont really get to see them. We spent alot of time in Jinan with them and they are amazing people. Hoping to see them again and spend some good time together before we leave.

Our time here with Luke is something I will treasure forever. There are moments when it is just so hard for me to look at him and wonder how no one could ever take to the time to teach him ANYTHING (like what a cat, dog, and mouse are..  how to tie his shoes.. that he was born in the year of the dragon, that he is a human worth loving..), he is so bright and has heart of gold. He has turned into a social bug and is making friends with everyone. He is just a joy and a dream to be around.... tonight as he was going to bed he told me he loved me for the first time and it  makes me cry to type it, his little heart is opening up and he  is truly letting tom and I in. Tonight we laughed and danced and giggled and tickled and played goofy games, he loves just being in the room with us being goofy and laughing until Tom and I have tears in our eyes. He cant understand how I can be happy when I am crying and he seems confused when I sometimes cry looking at him and I try hard not to do that, but he is so amazing that I cant beleive no one ever got to know how amazing he was for the first 10 years of his life. I  am truly blessed to be the one to be able to see this joyous little boy blossom right in front of my eyes. God is truly shining down upon us and I dont feel worthy of the joy. We know that this is not going to be an easy journey for us and there will be bumps in the road.... but seeing the smile the size of Godzilla and hearing his amazing laugh and giggle and seeing his eyes light up when he learns something new and seeing him just about jump out of his skin with excitement of flying home to meet his family....surely makes it worth any bumps that are to come. 
                              The happy Buddha at Six Baynan Temple
       Luke trying to throw the coin in so he can earn so good luck with wealth
                      The Buddhas of the present, past and future
         Luke copying the monk, he thought he was funny as heck doing that
 The artist at the Jade shop showing Luke how to do some of the artwork
                He really enjoyed doing it and did pretty well too
                                       A budding artist.....
 Lizard on a stick anyone? They say it is great for people with asthma.. am I thinking about eating it? umm.. NO
 We can always have some scorpion which they say is great to cure hot flashes and arthritis......
                       A Little Croc anyone?
                                    How about some snake???
 Wonder what the FDA would think of this meat market.. I have many more photos but they are too graphic
 Luke with his new best bud, Mr Wayne!!!! ( he thinks Mr Wayne rocks and we do too!)

        Ms. Myra getting her thigh master workout playing with the kids.. she sure is fun!!!!

Our little boy!

Our little boy!
Opening up my care package from my family!

Curious what he is thinking!

Curious what he is thinking!
Checking out my Family for the 1st time ever! (this pic is of my new Brothers and Sister!)

His first reaction after seeing us

His first reaction after seeing us
This is my Forever Family!

Some goodies from the care package

Some goodies from the care package
Some of my new books

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!
My 1st picture of my mommy and daddy! They say I love to look at my pictures again and again!

Studying our faces....

Studying our faces....
Checking out my new family again!

Look at that face!

Look at that face!
Checking out my new books

Aaron's Graduation

Aaron's Graduation
We are so Proud!

Xin Hai's name in Chinese!

福新

Fu XinHai

Xin Hai

Xin Hai
Isnt he the cutest ever?

Aaron's Senior Prom

Aaron's Senior Prom
My handsome Son, Aaron

Aarons prom

Aarons prom
Paige, Aaron and Tommy

My Family

My Family
The Worrell Family

Our Precious one

Our Precious one
Xin Hai in 2008 - so precious! Love that smile!

adoption countdown

Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers