HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!

Here are some more pictures of our wonderful day. Enjoy!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!

This year was a very different Thanksgiving for us. We got up and did all of the usual things that you do to get ready for a big meal with the family. The thing that was different ,is there was this new little life to take care of. What a wonderful thing to be thankful for. We waited three long years for this day and now it was finally here. We couldn't have been happier. We are so lucky to have Emma in our lives. She is just bringing so much happiness to us. I'm still smiling so much and yes my face is still getting tired from smiling all the time. She loves Katie so much and loves playing with her. The only thing that was missing from the day and to make our day complete, was that Kyle and Tim were not there to share in this very special Thanksgiving. I just wish that they were here to share in Emma's life. That would have made our life complete.

Emma played around all morning very content. She just went from place to place as happy as can be. By the way she is walking everywhere. She toddles like a little penguin. It is so cute and she is so proud of herself.We put her down for a nap around 1:00 and she slept until the whole meal was cooked and ready to be served. I had to go in a wake her up at 4:30. I got her up and put her in a cute dress, brought her down stairs so that she could see everyone. We all sat down for dinner and had a very nice meal. Except for Emma. She only had dinner rolls for dinner. She tried everything but, it all came out of her mouth. Oh well, there's always Christmas dinner.

We decided that we wanted to celebrate Emma's first Birthday with us on Thanksgiving. We thought that it would be a nice time to do it since we missed her real first Birthday. So after dinner we brought out all of the desserts and Emma's adorable Elmo cake that my friend Laura got for her. It was so cute. We sung Happy Birthday to her but, she couldn't figure out what was going on. I then gave her the whole cake to see what she would do with it. She picked Elmo's eyes off very carefully and was very dainty picking at the cake. I finally had to show her how she was really supposed to eat her first B-day cake. I bent down to the cake and took a bite out of it. She just looked me and wondered what I was doing. The next thing you knew she was doing the same thing. It was so funny. She didn't take real big bites so we ended up giving her a piece that she could handle. She liked it. YIPPEE! We gave her a couple of presents and just enjoyed the moment. She was having a great time.

A funny thing on Thanksgiving that happened is, my brother showed up at my house dressed as a really "fake Santa". He tends to do things like this from time to time. He is a real joker. It was really funny but, Emma got so afraid of him with the Santa beard that he had on. I think that she is now traumatized and will probably never sit on Santa's lap. She doesn't even like stuffed Santa's. I was going to take her to get her picture with Santa this week and now I'm not sure. I really don't think that she will sit on his lap. Poor thing, she will probably be the only kid that hates Santa.

LILY'S BAPTISM PARTY

Yesterday Erik,Emma and myself went to Lily's Baptism party. It was so good to see Lily, Melissa and Pat. We also got to see Dave, Sandy and Wren. All the girls have gotten a little more hair. It was so nice to see Emma's China sisters. I really miss everyone that we traveled with. We all shared so much together.

The girls all looked so cute. They have all advanced so much sine we got them. The party was very nice. I got to meet a lot of Melissa and Pat's family. What a nice bunch of people. I also got to meet some of their friends. Melissa and Sandy's friends from the Nov. group were there with their little girls from China also. It was so cute to see all of these little girls together. They all are very special little children.

Thanks Melissa and Pat for a real nice time.

Here are some pictures from the day. Sorry I didn't get to get a picture of Wren. I am also posting some of our friend Jim(the pilot) and his daughter(Emily)Emma. Some real cute one's of my two daughter's.

TRYING TO CATCH UP ON PICTURES

I am trying to catch up on pictures. I can only post five at a time so please have patient. These are of Emma and Katie. Now that Emma isn't afraid of the dogs, she likes to hug them and goes ohhhhhhh! It's so cute. She just loves Katie. She wants her to walk her all over the house and then when I want her to come to me she shakes her head no and wants Katie.

HOME FOR THREE WEEKS AND WE'VE HAD EMMA FOR FOUR

We have been home for three weeks yesterday. It's amazing how fast time is going. I almost wish that it would slow down. I hate to have Emma grow up too fast. I am enjoying her so much. I also can't believe that we have had Emma four weeks already. She has progressed so much from the day we picked up this one scared, confused little girl. She is not the same baby that we got on Oct. 20. She has changed so much and is starting to do so many new things. She is a very happy little child. She brings so much joy n our lives.

So much has happened in the past three weeks. Last Tuesday Emma had to have all of her blood work done. They had to take six vials of blood and they weren't baby size vials. They were our size. She did really well considering that they had to stick her three time to get enough blood for the tubes. It took two sets of two people to try and get all of it. Finally after about 45 minutes she was done. I felt so bad for her. She was so good.

This past Tuesday Emma had her first set of shots. She got three. She cried for just a little bit and then was fine. She started not to feel well pretty soon after. She was uncomfortable all night and I finally brought her in bed with me and gave her some Tylenol at 4:45 and she fell asleep. I put her back in her crib at 5:45 hoping that she will sleep until 9:00. She did. The rest of the day she wasn't feeling well and didn't eat or drink very much. I was giving her Tylenol every four hours. Last night she ended up with a fever of 103.2. I felt so bad for her because she is just so good all the time. It was the first time that she just wasn't herself. Finally about 8:30 her fever broke and you could see she was feeling better. She was getting silly with Katie. I put her to bed at 9:00 and she slept the night. This morning she is feeling her old self. I am glad that she is feeling better. In Dec. she has to get three more. I'm not looking forward to that.

She is still a good little sleeper.

In the short time that she has been home I have taken her to Maine (with a friend) shopping at the outlets in Kittery. I bought her a few Christmas dresses at Gymboree and some other cute outfits. I got her winter coat and snowsuit at Hannah Anderson and some other outfits too. The snow suit is just so pretty. I will have to get pictures of her in it. Of course we have to teach her about the outlets.

She's now taking about 4 or 5 steps and really wants to walk. She gets nervous if you get to far from her and she starts to cry. She is so cute. When she does accomplish it, she starts to laugh. If your not holding her hand walking all over the house, you will find her scooting on her little butt from the playroom into the kitche. She now says puppy, puppy, puppy that was her first American word. She said that the second dayshe was home. Everything is the puppy, the dogs, the cat and her stuffed horse. I might have already posted that in a previous post. Sorry if I did. She is also saying Daddy, trying to say Katie, she says ma ma but I don't think she knows that's me yet. She also says uh oh when she drops something. She's blowing kisses now and understands bye bye and hi, in English. She will wave.

She knows about five signs. Boy, does she have a little temper and lets you know when she wants something. I just have to laugh at her sometimes. I can't believe that this little baby can have such a little temper.

The photos are of Emma at our waiting parents meeting, Emma in her pretty dress going to Rebecca's bridal shower, Grandma and Papoo and Teresa, Emma and Taylor.

All and all she is wonderful and I am cherishing each and every moment with her.

CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE BEEN HOME OVER A WEEK NOW

It's amazing how fast the time has gone since we have gotten home. I have been so busy enjoying Emma, that the time just flies by. We have been busy with Dr's. appts. and trying to find food that Emma likes and also finding some clothes that will fit her for the winter. I have enjoyed every minute.

Emma is truly a gift to us. She is the happiest baby, always smiling, laughing at us and keeping us up and running now that she has realized that she has legs and they can move. She loves her squeaky shoes and loves using them. She is (so far) a wonderful sleeper. She will sleep an where from 10-12 1/2 hours a night. We have had no problems with her liking her crib. She does just fine in it. I love when I go to get her in the morning and she just looks up at me and smiles. I just melt. She starts pulling off her blankets and lets me know that she wants me to pick her up. She is just so sweet. I then bring her downstairs and give her a bottle. She is very quiet in the morning and loves to be held for a while. Of course I love it too. After a while I put her in her highchair and get her breakfast. Eating is the only struggle that we have with her. She really doesn't like very many things. I have to fall back on Congee and steamed eggs just to get her to eat a good amount of food. I have to learned to make some Chinese food. I just need to learn to make more. The Dr. has me making her formula more concentrated so that she gets more calories. We just keep trying everything that we can. eventually she will like something.

It's a funny thing, I am really missing China. I enjoyed everything about our trip and wish that I could go back. I hope that we will be able to some day. I really miss our travel group and wish that we all lived closer. I miss the babies too. Most of us don't live to far away maybe about an hour or so. I can't wait until we can get together. Hopefully soon.

Here are some pictures over the past week home.

MONDAY NOV. 3rd KYLE AND TIM'S ANNIVERSARY

I'm way behind in posting and hope to catch up soon. Monday Nov. 3rd was Kyle and Tim's sixth Anniversary. I can't believe that six years have passed since we lost them. It feels like only a couple of years. I hate that the years are adding up because, is that much further away from seeing them the last time. This year was a very quiet year. Not very many calls or cards but, that's OK. It just was almost too quiet.

It was a very bittersweet day. Here I am missing my boy's so much and now I have this beautiful little life to enjoy. I almost feel guilty that I am enjoying her so much. It is so much harder then I thought, having Emma and missing the boy's at the same time. I just wish that they could be here to enjoy her and play and laugh with her. I would have loved them to know their new little sister. It makes me miss my boy's that much more. She makes me laugh and smile. Sometimes I think my face gets exhausted from smiling so much. I can't remember the last time that I have smiled this much. She is truly a gift. I never thought that I could be this happy again.

Erik, Katie, Emma and I celebrated it in a way that the boy's would have liked. We went to Giorgio's. It's our favorite Italian restaurant. Kyle and Time loved to go there and get steak tips. So we went and had a real nice time. We had to expose Emma to Italian food. She ended up only having angel hair pasta(I guess that was appropriate for the day) with no sauce. She really enjoyed herself there. Costa(the owner) came out to finally meet her. She liked him. One of Katie's friends Heather showed to meet Emma and they hit it off real well. Emma just adored Heather. When we were getting ready to leave Costa wanted to see her again. He took her and put her up on the counter and let her do what ever she wanted. He let her play with the pen and marker and let her write all over the seating chart. The he was giving her the paper to take the orders on. To say the least, she likes Giorgio's.

We had a nice evening. We came home and the jet lag finally caught up with me. I feel asleep with Emma in my arms. I was so tired.

HALLOWEEN AND FIRST DAY HOME

Well ,our first few days have gone really well. We have had lots of company. I have been doing really well with the jet lag until this afternoon. I think this afternoon it is catching up with me. I was feeling better then I did the whole time in China. Maybe it takes a few days to catch up with you. Emma is still doing great with sleeping.

Halloween was really fun. I couldn't find Emma a ladybug costume before we left so, Erik and I went out to look for one and couldn't find one anywhere. We decided to go home. When we got there out neighbors were out and wanted to see Emma. I was saying that I couldn't get Emma a ladybug costume and one of my neighbors said that she would make her one. I said don't worry about it and she said that she would like to do it. I was so surprised by what a nice job she did. It was just so cute. Thank you Patti! We put it on her and went to three of the houses in the neighborhood. She didn't understand why we were dressing her up in this silly costume. It was fun and she looked so cute.

WE ARE HOME!

We made it home safe and sound. The flight coming home was much easier than the flight going to China. It just seemed faster. The flight left around 4:20 in the afternoon China time. Emma did really well on the flight. We kept her awake until about 8-8:30, her usual bedtime. She fell asleep and slept until about 3:30 am, just about an hour before the plane was going to land. Once we got off the plane we had to go to customs and then pick up our luggage and then onto immigrations. After that we had to go through security again.

Well, this was the worst part of our whole trip. when we arrived we went straight to customs and got in line, we soon found out that it was the wrong line and moved to the right one. This one was just as long as the last one. They eventually let the adoptive families cut a head of everyone else. That was the quickest part. We then moved onto get our luggage and then we had to go over to immigrations. That is where they get all of Emma's paperwork from China. All of the people that we traveled with were there along with a lot of other people waiting. They had one guy working the counter and he was moving so slowly. The families going to Boston found out that their flight was delayed two hours, other wise they would probably have missed their flight. Our flight was in 45 minutes. This guy had no intentions to go any faster. He was even asked if he could do the Manchester group first, he just shook his head no. He would do a few of some other peoples paperwork and then one of the adoptions paperwork and then go back and forth like that. We were all getting very angry. At this point we were going to miss our flight and there was no other flights going into Manchester that night. I didn't want to spend the night in Chicago. I just wanted to get home. He finally got to us and we took off. We had to go through security with all of our bags and then go get them checked in. We left immigrations and went to go check our bags for our flight. When we got there they said that it was to late and that we might miss our flight. At the point I started to cry along with another mother in our group. I just wanted to get home. We decided to see if we could make the flight. We left our bags and didn't even get a boarding pass. They told us that we could try and make the flight. We took off to go get the tram, only to find out that the terminal was three stops away. We decided to try it anyway. When we finally got to the third stop we got off and started running again. We got into the terminal and had no idea where to go. We looked left and right and decided to go left. Wrong way! We started running in the other way and got to security with only a couple of minutes left to make the flight. Another stupid person at security. He took his time looking at the passports. We looked up and on the other side of security we saw a very welcomed face. He was telling us to slow down that he held the flight. It once again our wonderful friend Jim(who is the pilot). He pulled through for us again. He grabbed our bags and headed to the gate while we were getting ourselves together. He just made this very stressful situation so much better. THANK YOU JIM! He flew home with us and had a little time to get to know Emma. We toasted to Emma on he flight.

When we arrived at the airport I was feeling so emotional and was starting to cry. I was thinking about my boys and were wishing that they were here to meet Emma. Finally this long journey was coming to an end. A new journey was about to begin.. We headed down stairs to find a huge crowd waiting for us. It was more that I expected. The news was there with their cameras and all four families were a part of a very special story that I wrote the to them. about Home For The Holidays. They did such a nice job. We got home in time to watch it.

We finally got home and I kept Emma up until 2:00am thinking that it was around her normal nap time. She went down and I figured that I would get a couple hours sleep. She didn't wake up until 8:30 in the morning. We had to take her to the Dr's that afternoon so she didn't get down for a nap until 4:00. We got her up at 6:00 and she went to bed around 10:00pm. She slept through the night until 8:30am. She has done so well with the time change. I am almost worried that it is to good to be true. She sleeps 12 hours a night if we let her.

We couldn't be any happier with her. She is such a sweet little girl and so much fun to have in our lives. We laugh at her all the time. She definitely has brought back much needed joy into our lives. She did really well at the Dr's. She is just very tiny and not on the charts. They have me adding more formula to her bottle so that there are more calories in it. Next week she will go for some test and then over the next few weeks she has the rest.

We love her more than we could have imagined.

GOOD BYE CHINA!

Last night we arrived very late in Beijing. We got into out hotel room and settled by around 12:00 midnight. Emma slept the whole plane ride and we had to wake her up when we got to the airport. She did very well. Although is is afraid of flying. She does not like when the plane is taking off. She covers both eyes with both of her fore arms. It is just so cute. She will than start sucking her finger with her arms still over her face. She fell asleep very quickly after that.

Today is going to be a very busy day. We were going to see Tienemen Square but, half the group didn't want to go. I was so disappointed. That is one of the places that I really wanted to see while in China. Erik and I might take a quick walk there on our own this morning. It is about a half hour walk. If we can do it and have the time, I really want to go. After that we head to the airport. I can't believe that the trip is coming to an end and that we will be heading home in just a few short hours. There are so many emotions, I really can't wait to get home but, every little step in this process in emotional. As I said before, we are taking Emma away from her culture and the only life that she has known. I know that she is going to do very well but, You just can't help feeling sad for her.

Yesterday in Guangzhou we had our last few hours there. The weather was warm and humid. The perfect day. I ran around and ot a few last minute things. We decided to skip the Zoo. I just hope that I won't regret it someday. There was just to much to do to get ready. We hurried around getting packed. We had to be ready by 2:40 and then it was on to the Consulate appointment for our swearing in ceremony. This is where Emma becomes legally ours. It was a nice ceremony, very short, but you like it that way. They swear all of the babies in at the same time. Emma becomes a legal US citizen when her foot touches the ground in Chicago. Just another emotional event. I jsut can't wait to get a picture. I am just hoping that it is not to crazy getting through customs.

We are off to the airport at 12:00 noon China time. I can't wait to see everybody there.

GOOD BYE FROM CHINA!

MORE PICTURES FROM GUANGZHOU