December 2007

Bringing Madison Home

Madison’s dad, Chris White offered to write this trip report.
Chris  and Tracey White of Boundary Creek, NS travelled with 5 other families  to Nanchang;
two other families in the group of 8, travelled to Ningxia and Guangzhou to receive children from the Waiting Child program.
All the families were together for the second week in Beijing.

It was only a couple of years into our marriage that we realized that we were destined to have children. We did not

know at that time that this would be fulfilled not through a child born of our own flesh but through that of an adoption....... a child born into our heart.

After a year of paper work we were approved in October 2005 for international adoption, later on given our LID of Dec 5th, 2005. Then began the first of many rounds of waiting which at the time seemed like forever, with not much notice in between. The 15 round prize fight turned into almost 23 months of waiting, but then it happened......

On February 12th, 2007, Tracy’s birthday, and unannounced to all, a little girl who’s name would become Madison was found in the city of Yingtan in the province of Jiangxi. A tough decision was made that day, but if only her birth mother could see her now, in a home filled with unconditional love by two people that Madi will grow up to know as her Mommy and Daddy.

Then on November 9th, as we got ready for work we anxiously awaited our call from our social worker with the news of our referral. At 7:45 the phone rang and our hearts skipped a beat -- we had a meeting set to see our daughter Madison for the very first time at 10:45. That day we became closer to parenthood than we had ever been. On this day there would be put into a motion a series of events that eventually would lead to “Gotcha Day”.

Our Gotcha Day was December 10th. After a 2 hour flight from Beijing to Nanchang, in a cold Government Office building, Madison Yi-Xuan was born into our hearts, and into our arms. December 10th, 2007 is a day beyond description, there are no words that will ever truly describe what we felt as Tracy and I and five other families were united with our daughters. It is a day that from across the room a friend of ours, Shelley, described as a 10.

The journey of adoption is bitter sweet. First of all, it is through this journey that Tracy and I have become parents to our precious daughter Madison. Also we shared a very profound moment — becoming parents —  with the friends that we travelled to China with. The bitter part of this adoption journey is that we are taking Madi from her homeland.

Today, it is a cold January morning in Nova Scotia and we are watching Madison and reflecting on our December trip. Madison has adjusted very well, and is growing up too fast. We are so blessed to have her in our family and we are witnesses to the notion that dreams do come true............

Chris White