Our little China doll

We are not sure when these were taken, but they are from our friend in China that helped Madelyn get her heart surgery in 2006. Since she looks so healthy it would have been after her surgery so she would have been about 2. He sent these to us today. We also found out alot more about her history and her surgeries. We are so thankful to our new friend who was so generous in not only sending us these photos but for helping our little girl get the surgery she needed. Without his loving heart and generous support, Madelyn would most likely not be here today.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as we have. I just cannot stop looking at them. How amazing that God brought this man to us but so much more amazing that He brought Madelyn to our arms.

I will post some Christmas Pics soon, the kids had a great Christmas (as did the parents).

A little bit of everything

Hard at work on those Christmas Cookies
Maddie likes to play in the flour!!

Joshua's Christmas Program for School

First day of Panther Basketball Camp. Yes, I am bragging when I say he does really well and loves to play. He made one shot where the whole gym clapped for him, it was neat and he liked that!

Our main course at the Melting Pot...Lobster tail, shrimp, chicken ,pork, salmon and filet mignon.

And the dessert that we DID NOT have room for....but we ate it anyway :)

Lets see, where to begin. Matt and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary on December 18th. We spent the night in St. Louis and had dinner at the Melting Pot. For those of you wondering, you fondue everything, it comes raw and you cook it at your table. The food was fabulous and we were so stuffed! Then we headed to the Fox to see the Rocketts Christmas Special. Matt was able to land us third row seats and the show was great! I didn't want it to end. On Sunday Joshua had his school program, grades 1-6th are all involved so hundreds of proud parents and grandparents were there. He also began another season of Panther Basketball Camp. He really enjoys the sport and he understand the rules.

Now onto Madelyn's news. Back towards the end of October Maddie developed a cold and cough. Since that time, the cough has gotten worse off and on. We have talked to her Pediatrician at Childrens and they had us give her Delsym, an OTC medication. Last week, after two months of waking up EVERY night coughing, I decided to take her to a local Ped just to make sure her lungs were ok. She told us that the Lisinopril Maddie takes for her Blood Pressure can cause serious side affects, including chronic coughing. We then spoke to Childrens again and her Ped there said take her off of it for three weeks to see if the coughing subsides. In the mean time the local Ped (which is really great) decided on a chest x-ray, just to make sure there was no Broncitus or Pneumonia there. She didn't hear anything but was being overly cautious. Well......today they called us and Madelyn has Asthma....sigh...... At this point they think its mild but she began breathing treatments tonight with a tunnel and inhaler which she will continue for a while. She was actually excited to hook this crazy looking thing up to her mouth and when we squirted the spray in, she never even knew it. She's such a trooper, she never complains about taking any medication. So right now we are praying she will grow out of this and in the mean time the treatments will help her sleep at night (help all of us).

On the bright side, the kids are looking forward to Christmas next week and hoping for some snow....not the ice we got today!

Happy Holidays!

A few new pics for everyone to see! The kids are very excited and looking forward to Christmas. Maddie has gotten into the "I want everything I see stage"while Joshua seems to only want some Wii games from Santa.

We have ALL been battling the colds around here and can't seem to shake them. Maddie has been coughing for at least a month and has so generously shared with all of us along that time :) TIS THE SEASON!!

The rest of the family is doing well. Very proud to say my mom (Linda) wrote an essay about going back to college and WON a scholarship....so proud of her. Jeni (my sister in law) is doing much better with her pregnancy and she and my brother Ryan are expecting a little girl in April.

Matts business is doing fabulous, they keep very busy, PRAISE THE LORD!

Happy Holidays to you all!

A day at the movies

While I was at home recouperating from my wisdom teeth surgery (yes that was so much fun) Matt took the kids to see Return of The Jedi and meet some Star Wars characters. The money raised goes to a local charity. As you know Joshua LOVES Star wars so he really enjoyed their day. Maddie fell asleep :)

Our Storm Trooper meets Mickey Mouse

None other than MICKEY MOUSE and a STAR WARS STORM TROOPER!!!!
Ok, this is kinda ridiculous, who is going to eat all of this candy????

Maddie, Sarah, Joshua and Sophia

Ewwwww....... was Joshuas words!

It took a minute but once she got her hands in it, she was good to go!

Picnic and Trails

This Sunday after church we piled into the jeep and headed down to Giant City Park to have a picnic. (Mysty, we stopped and ate at the exact place where we took you guys and the kids played on the playground). The weather was FABULOUS and we took a mile long hike then another shorter one. Joshua climbed EVERY rock in site and Maddie was wore out by the end and asking when it was time to go home, ha ha. We had such a good time.

Fun with Family

We spent the day with Aunt Deb at her home BBQ-in' and just hanging out. The kids had a great time!
Just being cute!

Missing something....???!!!

This was SO COOL. We camped in Eureka, Missouri this weekend (about 30 minutes from St. Louis) and visted Lone Elk Park, hoping to see some ELK. They were everywhere and you could get so close. We also saw some huge Buffalo, one guy did not like the car in front of us and charged it. We laughed so hard...and was thankful it was not us, haha! The kids loved it!

We also taught the kids how to play UNO. Joshua became a pro right off the bat and kept winning. Probably was our last weekend camping since the weather will turn colder soon and we have run out of open weekends!

Some news for Madelyn

Ok, I was approached last night about a rumor that Madelyn's parents are looking for her! WHAT???!!!!! Just goes to show you how something can get totally mixed up in translation from one person to another! To set the record straight this is totally untrue. We do not know who her parents are and neither does the CCAA in China. And even if we did, there is nothing they can do to get her back, she is ours legally! Matt and I received a letter this week from a gentleman in Hong Kong who assisted in getting Madelyn her heart surgery in 2006. He was letting us know who he was and inquiring about her to make sure she was ok. He also offered some medical information IF WE ASKED for it. Right now we are working with an agency to make sure he is legit. He does not even know her adopted name. Our agency says we have NO reason to be alarmed and that this is perfectly OK. We are currently in the process of finding out how he got our name and address, but just as you are reading this blog right now, he might be as well. Madelyn has been legally adopted into our family and has a US birth certificate. China has no record of her even being a citizen of China and no Chinese birth certificate. ONLY adoption paperwork! When children are found and placed in orphanges in China they have six months before they are available to be adopted so that the parents can come back and get them if necessary. If within that time they are not "claimed" so to speak then they are placed on a list for "adoptable children". International adoption is nothing like adopting domestically. Trust me, WE KNOW how this process works and it took us 3 years and 4 months to get the final paper saying, "Your adoption has been completed". We are taking extreme caution in writing this gentleman back and taking advice from our adoption agency". Depending on what we find out, it is possible I will have to discontinue the blog and facebook. We will just have to wait and see how this turns out. Its horrible that sometimes you cannot trust anyone isn't it? We will let God take over this situation and right now we are hoping this is going to be a blessing and that he has some photos or more information on Maddie before we adopted her :)

I just wanted you all to know that everything is perfectly fine, Madelyn is fine and forever OURS. Thanks for the concerns though :)

Love, Jennifer, Matt, Joshua and Madelyn

Fall Fun

Ok, so it was more like summer weather today but it was beautiful and we had a great time at Eckerts! We headed out to the pumpkin patch where the kids (& grandparents) found the perfect pumpkins. We ate a great meal to celebrate Jennifers birthday(a few days early), drank apple cider, shopped in the wonderful store and just had a fun day. The kids loved getting to choose their own pumpkins right out of the patch.

Update on Madelyn

Back in August we visited Children's for Madelyn's semi-annual cardiologist appointment and testing. They had indicated they wanted her to begin blood pressure medication. Matt and I were skeptical so we asked for another opinion. They agreed to take Madelyn's case to the next Pediatric Cardiology Meeting held at Children's in September. The called us last Thursday to let us know they reviewed Maddies case at one of their meetings and all Doctors present agreed that due to her condition, they felt the medication was needed and that surgery was not. The Doctor explained that they felt Madelyn would still need surgery later on in her teenage years but were confident her heart is strong and should be able to hold off until then. So, this week she began taking Lisinopril. This medication will help control the blood to oxygen flow in her arteries, especially as her heart grows as she gets older. The crappy thing is that it is indefinite....she will be on it forever. They also informed me that Madelyn can no longer take over the counter cold or allergy medicines. If she gets a cold she has to tough it out or if its bad enough we can bring her up there. She is also going to be prone to dehydration.......once they told me this I began asking more questions about her always being thirsty and the Dr told me this was a very common condition with heart disease..?? WHO KNEW. With all this said, we have some minor obstacles to face, mostly remembering her medication each night and what she can and cannot take over the counter, but nothing we can't handle! Considering all she has been through already in her short 4 years of life, this is nothing!

Just wanted to give you all an update. Otherwise she is doing fine and doesn't complain at all about taking the medicine, its a liquid and she likes it!

Joshua is doing fine too, so far he has been healthy this school year, yay!

School Pictures

Joshua and Madelyn's school pictures for this year. Aren't they fantastic??!! Joshua is about to loose another tooth, right in the front and Maddie's lip looks better each day! We are so blessed by these two wonderful children. We are all looking forward to the Fall weather, the leaves changing and both kids are ready for Trick or Treating!! We enjoy tailgating at the Panther football games...well the kids like to eat then play on the playground with friends, not sure they know that there is actually a game going on. Hope to have some pictures soon from that in our Panther attire!

Matt and Jennifer are both doing well too!

New hair-do's

Joshua got a buzz and Maddie got her hair trimmed. Sarah the gal that does our hair likes to fix Maddies different each time. Today she gave her rolls with lots of silver glitter. She looked like a little princess!

We're still here!

Ok, Mysty, I know two pictures is not alot but I cannot get them to download without locking up my computer!!! :( Something is wrong just have to find the time to figure out what it is!

Ok, so things have been a little busy around our house. Remember how I said Matt's shop has been busy..?? Well, they have been putting in 10-12 hour days and I have been out there after work doing paperwork so its been hard to find the time to post lately.

We did go camping this weekend and had to come home early today as "Ike" decided to throw some major wind and rain our way. Lots of trees down, power outages and wind damage around, we decided the camper was not the best place to be :)

Kids are good, Joshua is still adjusting to second grade. Its been a rough 4 weeks, he just could not seem to get in the swing of things but its better now. Maddie is loving pre-school and wishes she could go every day!

Let's see what else? Matt is good, just very tired from working so much but we are certainly blessed and thankful for the work. I am having all four of my wisdom teeth cut out on November 6th....yes I am sooo excited...NOT! I'm actually very nervous since my brother did this earlier this year and faced months of problems and tells me the pain was horrible........but it has to be done and I have waited too long already.

Our family is great! My mom is doing her clinicals at a hospital and finishing up her Transcription schooling. My pregnant sister in law is doing good, considering she is REALLY really tired and hungry all the time! I keep telling her to enjoy this part :) My brother has been blessed with an awesome job building a nearby power plant that will bring hundreds of jobs to our area.

And I have to add that this is my absolute favorite time of the year, FALL! Its supposed to be in the 60-70's tomorrow and I am looking very forward to that! I am ready to get the pumpkins and scarecrows out!

I'll try to get some more pictures posted soon!

A Week of Firsts!

Is she ready for school or what? Maddie started pre-school today. The first thing she told me after school was "guess what, I did not even get in trouble for talking once"...... She has already learned she has to raise her hand before she can talk!
Joshua's first day at his desk in Mrs. Malans class.

Getting ready to leave for second grade!!!

Both of our wonderful kids headed off to school.

NO training wheels!!!!

Maddie needed her helmet on too!

Well, so far Joshua thinks he likes second grade :) Homework started the first day and I thought he was going to have a fit, but he did good and is already reading about 40 pages per night! He said they are doing science and he likes that. He did not get in the same class with Sarah but we knew eventually that would happen, over 60 kids in one grade with three teachers....bound to happen at some point. We told him what a great chance to make new friends! He still sees Sarah on the playground at an lunch. He really is dealing with it well, so proud of him!

Now Maddie began private pre-school today. She wanted me to drop her off at the door!!!!! Sorry girlie, gotta sign you in and out each day, ha! She was nervous but that lasted about 2 minutes and she's ready to go back on Thursday! Our neighbor Addie is in her class too and that will be good since they see each other every day and are comfortable around each other! I think that really helped. She said they had snacks, played outside and thats all she remembers.....funny that is all Joshua ever remembered too!!

Very proud of our two kids, thought second grade would be no problem when we took him the first day...well, it was no problem for him.....now mommy on the other hand did not handle so well. And yes Mysty, I did WAIT until I got in the car to cry! Today when I dropped Maddie off, I was crying before I got out of the room...sigh.... they really do grow up right before our eyes. I can't even find the right words to say how much we love these kids and what wonderful, precious blessings they are to us!

Business is still fantastic, God is truely providing so much for us right now!

Until later,

The Wright's