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