Eagerly Awaiting Emma

THREE YEARS AGO TODAY!

2011-10-20T13:48:00.000-04:00

Three years ago today a beautiful little girl was placed into my arms and into our lives. It was a day to remember. I remember that day being so full of emotions. From being very nervous and excited to the sadness of knowing that my boys would not be there and they would never get to meet their new sister. I was missing them so much that day and was so excited at the same time about bringing a new child into our home. I remember the guide telling us not to cry, that it will scare the babies and that we were the adults. Well, guess what I did the minute they placed Emma in my arms? Yup! I cried like a baby. It was going from one journey, to starting a new one.It has been one incredible journey so far. Emma has brought so much joy into our lives. She makes you laugh when you never thought that you would ever be able to laugh again.In the three years that we have had her, she has grown from a very little 21 month old baby into a beautiful 4 and half year old that is so bright and sweet. She is always happy and loves everything about life. I feel so blessed to have her in our lives. I love to see the relationship that Katie and Emma have developed (Emma says," my dister"). Emma looks up to Katie so much. I love seeing them together. Katie is so good with her. It just makes me smile every time I see them together. So now I need to keep up my blog like I said or start a new one.Here are a few updated pictures of Emma.

3 Years Ago today!

2011-10-16T22:43:00.001-04:00

We began a wonderful journey to China to adopt our little girl. I can remember the day like it was yesterday. We boarded the plane for China with people that would become our friends for life. When the plane landed, I remember being out of sorts. It was 2 in the morning our time and 2 in ther afternoon China time. It was warm and humid and the sun was trying to shine through. We quickly had to adjust ourselves to China time. Within a few days after we arrived, we were on another plane to Emma's province.What a journey it was. I could not have been any happier.Will post more in a few days. I am having trouble posting from my home computer. I need to update with pictures.

IT'S TIME!

2011-10-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

It's time to update my blog and then make a name change to it or start a new blog all together. I have been really bad about updating it.So many new things have happened in our lives. Emma is doing great and has gotten so big and so wise. She is such a sweet girl. I can't tell you how much I love this child. She is such a joy.I need to be on my other computer so that I can put new pictures on here. Then I will be able to share all of the new news. Please stay tuned.I'm in the car right now and have a little time to write. No distraction, only traffic.On the way to the Lake for an Octoberfest party! Will catch up in the next week.

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!

2011-03-17T10:45:00.003-04:00

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone. Have a great day. Here are a few pictures of Emma today. She really wanted to wear this to school today. She was just so cute, so I let here wear it.
This morning when she woke up, I dressed her in a cute little St. Patty's Day outfit. When she came downstairs Erik said to her that she is a cute little Irish girl and she said, I am a Chinese, Irish girl. Too cute!

I know I keep saying this, but I really do intend to get my blog up and going really soon. I want to rename it and give it a whole new look. I want it to be ready before we get out next referral, which could be any time now.

Stay tuned!

TRYING TO UPDATE MY BLOG

2010-10-21T22:56:00.003-04:00

Please be patient. I am trying to update my blog and make it interesting again. I have a lot of changes that I want to make and hopefully it will be really nice in the end.

STORYLAND

2010-10-21T11:16:00.003-04:00

We decide to get away for Labor Day weekend and head up to North Conway. Erik, myself, Katie, Emma and Katie's boyfriend Ed.
It was a beautiful weekend. The weather was perfect, the skies were so clear and the mountains were beautiful. It was nice to go back to where we used to live. It was also bittersweet. Not having the boys there was hard.
We all did some outlet shopping and then out to dinner. The next day we decided to take Emma to Story Land. We have so many fond memories there from when the other three were little. We would go a couple of times a year when we lived there. We always had such a great time. Now it is time to start making memories for Emma.
We walked in and the first thing she saw was, Humpty Dumpty. She couldn't figure him out. Next she saw the Old Lady that lived in the shoe and wanted to know why she had so many children and where they were. She didn't like Little Miss Muffet. The spider was so big. It went on and on from there. She absolutely loved it. She was so well behaved and no matter how tired she was she kept going.
She loved the tea cups, couldn't stop smiling on the roller coaster, went on the balloon ride, whale ride and so many more. There's tooo many to name. I couldn't believe how much she enjoyed all of the rides. She was just so happy. She finally was getting so tired that we decided to leave. It was a wonderful day. I can't wait to take her there again.

EMMA'S FIRST DAY AT PRE-SCHOOL

2010-09-07T19:55:00.007-04:00

A few pictures of Emma's first day of school. Sorry if some got posted twice. Not sure what happened.The photos start from the end of the day and go to the beginning. I'm a little rusty at posting.

Today my little girl headed out for her first day of pre school. I am so proud of her.
She started out the day by waking up at 6:10 am. Now, if you know anything about Emma, you know that she does not wake up early. Normally 6:00am would be like the middle of the night for her. She usually wakes up anytime after 9:30am to 11:45 am. Yes that's right. I have a three year old teenager. I tried to get her to lay in bed with me so that I could sleep a little longer. She stayed awake. She also woke up during the night. I guess she was a little excited.
So we got up and got going. She had very little breakfast and then got dressed. But we had to promise her that if she wore the outfit that I picked out, she could change as soon as she got home and don't you know, she did just that. She was stripping down almost as soon as we walked through the door. She just had to have that summer dress on and her flops, flops on her feet. Nothing like a good pair of flip flops.
We finally got out the door and headed to school. She seemed fine, maybe a little nervous. When we got there we walked her into the school and waited for the rest of the children to arrive. After all the children were there the teachers brought the children downstairs. Emma wanted us to come down with her. Which was fine. The teachers wanted us to leave as soon as they started to play. We went downstairs and Emma hung up her backpack and walked right in the classroom. She really didn't even noticed that we weren't following her. She went right over to the table and started to play with the play dough. She didn't seem to mind that we weren't there. I walked in to say goodbye and that I love her, she looked at me with a little worried look and I said that I would be right upstairs. She didn't even look back at me leaving.
You see, school was only an hour today to let the kids see what the routine was going to be like. They had the parents wait upstairs just in case they were needed (they had coffee and muffins for the parents). We weren't needed. She did just great.
As the morning came to an end, the teachers wanted the parents to go outside and get in their cars and line up for pick up so that the kids would get the idea how it would work when the school day was over. The teachers put the kids in the cars at the end of the day.
As we waited in line we cold see Emma through the doors getting ready to come out. As we were waiting, another mom came over to the car as she was leaving and said that Emma did just great. I was so happy. It came Emma's time to put her in the car. The teacher said that she did just fine but wanted to know why it was so short. We told her that the next day would be longer.
She was in such a good mood. She told us that they read stories, sang a song, played with play dough and had to sit on carpet squares. I guess the day was just perfect for her.
I can't tell you how proud I am of her. It was such a big step for some of these little girls to make a big change in their little lives. I' a little sad that she is growing up so quickly but very happy that she did so much better then I thought.
I guess I have to wait until next week to see how she really feels.

21 MONTHS AND ONE DAY

2010-07-28T11:33:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that this day has finally come. We have now had Emma one day longer then she was in the orphanage. This one very tiny little girl that wasn't walking, crawling, only speaking and understanding Chinese the day we got her. Has come so far. She is now one very strong willed and a very determined little girl. She is the sweetest thing on top of it all. We have enjoyed every minute of her life with us so far. We feel so lucky to have her in our lives.
Every minute of every day is something new. She keeps us very busy with all of her questions of why? She has to know everything and the reason behind it.
She can be a challenge at times because of her strong will. She will not give up and always wants her way. All in all not a bad trait to have when she gets older (like I said, when she gets older). We just have to funnel it in the right direction. She keeps us hopping.
I love it when she just looks up at me in the middle of the day and says "I love you mommy" for no reason at all. I love it when she squeezes me so tight just because or when she wants me to pick her up and she puts her head down on my shoulder.
I love when she wakes up in the middle of the night and I bring her in bed with me and she cuddles right up next to me as close as she can get. Then she puts her arm around my neck really tight and falls asleep.
I love it when she says "mommy look" and I turn around and she is holding her doll all wrapped, cuddling her and rocking her like I would do with her. She is so proud of herself.
She's one wonderful little girl! All of it, priceless!
What a great 21 months and one day it has been.

I promise that I will be catching up the last 9 months of Emma's days.

ONE YEAR AGO WE WERE ON OUR PLANE TO CHINA

2009-10-16T22:24:00.004-04:00

One year ago today I boarded a plane to start a new journey in my life. Oh, the emotions are something that I will never be able to explain. Just writing this post gets me so emotional. I never thought that this day would come and now we are at almost a year that we have welcomed this precious little gift into our lives.
I remember that day as we boarded the plane. It was a rainy day. We started out going to Boston where we met up with some of our friends that we met through out the wait. We were all so excited and nervous at the same time. We all had a lot of nervous energy and I think we all felt that we couldn't believe that this was really happening. We then headed to Dulles where we met up with all of our travel mates. We were now on our way to Beijing. OMG! It was finally happening. The flow of emotions were incredible. I just couldn't wait to get there.
After many hours of traveling we had finally arrived in Beijing Airport about 2 in the morning. I remember getting off the airplane trying to tell myself that it was 2in the afternoon and not 2 in the morning. As I walked off the plane and into the airport you could feel the humidity and you could see the very faint sunshine. I was very out of sorts and was trying to convince myself that it was the afternoon. As we went through airport you really started to feel that is was day time. The feelings and the emotions were all so heightened with travel. We were finally here. Our long journey was about to begin. Holy Cow! She really is going to be ours!

HAPPY AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL

2009-10-03T17:56:00.002-04:00

LITTLE FARM FALL FESTIVAL

2009-09-19T16:46:00.004-04:00

Today was a beautiful fall day. It was sunny, about 69 degrees(a little chilly for me)with a slight breeze. What a nice day for an outing. We decided to take Emma to this little farm festival for children. They had hayrides, horse and cart rides, Arts and craft for the kids to do and little farm animals. Emma loved the animals and really wanted to pet the baby cow but, it got scared every time Emma got near it. She loved watching the pigs and even got to hold one of the bunnies. She is just so cute to see around animals. She just loves them so much.
We then went on to a little wading pool that the children could fish in and win a prize. She got tired of trying to pick up the fish with the little rod, that she just reached her hand in and picked up what she wanted. Next we went onto the pumpkin painting. She loves to paint. She really got so into painting the pumpkin, that we finally had to say are you all done. I think that the whole pumpkin would have been completely covered in paint if we let her. After painting the pumpkin we decided to get something to eat. She had a hot dog some chips and a little bite of my whoopee pie. YUMMY! Not the healthiest lunch
When we were all done with lunch we let her do one more craft. It was making a little paper scare crow. It was so cute to watch her attempt it. We had to teach her how to use a glue stick. She thought that she was painting again. She picked out the shirt, overalls, shoes, eyes, hat and drew the mouth and nose all by herself. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it. Right now it is on the frig.
All in all she had a wonderful time and so did I. She was really tired and it was time to go home.
On the way out there was a scare crow sitting in a chair in the farm stand. She stopped, looked at it and asked "what's that mommy" all the time she was keeping her distance. I told her that it was a scare crow and she kept asking "what's that". She really didn't want to get too close to it. It was so cute to watch her. She finally did get a little closer, as you will see in the pictures.
Then off to home we went and down for a nap.

COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS CHILDRENS MEMORIAL GARDEN SOCIAL

2009-09-14T15:30:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was our Compassionate Friends, Children's Memorial Garden Social. It was a rainy day but, many people turned out to celebrate our Children's lives.
This event takes place every year where we hold our meetings. It is in a garden that was made in memory of all of our children that have died too soon. Although it is a beautiful way to honor our children, it is still very painful to be there knowing that everyone there has lost a child or children. Where else would you want to be though? Of course amongst people that know what you are going through. It is always very hard for me to go to these events now. There are just so many people there and it pains me to know that so many children have lost their lives.
As we arrived we were greeted by friends that we hadn't seen in a while. It was nice to catch up with everyone and see what they all have been up to. It's amazing that almost seven years ago this Nov. we met these people for the first time. A club that you don't ever want anyone to join but, very glad it is there. Even though time has gone by, these will be people that we know we can always count on for a shoulder to cry on. They have been there with us from the very beginning.
As the day went on we caught up on everything that we have been up to and everyone finally got to meet Emma. They were all very happy for us. There was a real nice cookout, nice gifts and some little things for the children. Next it was time to release the butterflies. Everyone was given one for each child they lost. Then you can either go into a private place or over to the garden and release them. It is always an emotional time. It is part of letting go. Just to know that our boys are out there somewhere, is very hard for me.
This year was different because Emma was there to share it with us. She wasn't so sure about these creatures. She wanted so bad to touch them but, was afraid to. She eventually did. She really enjoyed the day and had plenty of children to play with. It was beautiful and sad at the same time to see hundreds of butterflies flying around and on all of the flowers. Here are a few pictures of the day.
I will eventually catch up on summer with my blog.

2009-09-14T15:23:00.001-04:00

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY WE SAW EMMA FOR THE FIRST TIME

2009-08-13T17:22:00.005-04:00

One year ago today in about 45 minutes (well by the time i finish, we would have already had Emma's pictures) we saw Emma's little face for the first time. We left our house at 5:30PM for the adoption agency. We were very anxious and excited. We had waited so long for this day and now it had finally arrived. We could not imagine what this little babies face would look like. Would she have petite features, would she have hair, would she be smiling in the pictures, so many things went through my mind in that short 25 minute ride to the agency. I knew that I would fall in love with her the minute I saw that face, and I did.
When we arrived at the agency we were greeted by our social worker, Maureen. She brought us into her office and asked us if we wanted all the information first or the pictures. She said that she usually gives the parents the information first because once she gives the parents the pictures, they don't hear anything after that. They just keep staring at the pictures. Well, we decided to see her pictures first. I cried the minute I saw her little round face and those beautiful Hershey kissed eyes. I feel in love again! She just looked so sweet. I knew from that minute on that she was meant for us and that she was my daughter. What a gift! How lucky were we.
I have sat here for the past two days reflecting on our long wait, everything that we have been through with the death of our boys and making the decision to continue with the adoption. We started this process before our boys died and had to make a tough decision whether to continue or not, or would we look back and regret it if we didn't go through with it? We knew that it was something that we always wanted to do and even though we were in so much pain over the loss of our boys, we knew that we still wanted to go through with it. You don't get second chances in life sometimes and if you do, you better take them. I can not tell you how lucky we are that we did. We made the right decision.
We got our referral, which was two days ago on the 11TH. I have gone through all of Emma's pictures and I still have to pinch myself to make sure that this is all real. I still can't believe that she is really our daughter. She is perfect for our family. She has made me laugh again with out feeling guilty. She has put the wind back in my sails. I don't know what direction we are going in from here but, I can surly tell you that it is the right direction. She is truly an amazing child and we love every minute that we have with her. I just wish that it would slow down a little. She has changed so much before our eyes. She went from this little tiny baby into a full blown toddler in 9 months. She has come so far and is doing amazing things. We love her so much that it hurts.
I hope that the pictures are in order of oldest to newest. If not you get the picture. It is amazing how much she has changed. Enjoy and I will catch p with all of Emma's summer pictures soon.

AMELIA ISLAND REUNION

2009-07-18T15:58:00.002-04:00

I know that this is a very past due post. On June 12Th though the 15Th we traveled to Amelia Island Florida to met up with some very special people. These people I met three years ago in what we all thought would be a short wait to the journey of our daughters and sons. Little did we know that we would have waited over three years to get out children. In those three years we chatted on the Internet and got very close with a group of very special women. I would like to think of them as my family.
We shared fun times, hard times, long waits and disappointing news in the process of this wait. We became each others support system and family.
We first met each other in Philadelphia three years ago for a girls weekend and that's where it all began. Next there was a weekend in Savannah and then about a year later we had another one on Lakeland, Florida. We did finally let the husbands join us.
Now that we all have our children, it was time to get together again and finally get to meet each others children. We all met in Amelia Island for a great weekend at the beach. What a great weekend it was. All the girls are so beautiful and each have such cute personalities. They are all special in their own way. They were so much fun to watch and see all of them playing.
The first night there we had a nice dinner at the beach thanks to all of the people that were able to drive. They all supplied the food and drinks. The next day we spent at the beach and then later in the pool at the hotel. Later that evening we all went to an Irish pub for dinner. Can you just imagine 10 babies and their parents in one restaurant? It was a true experience. The resturant knew that we were coming but, I don't think that they could handle all of us. It was a nice time anyway. I just love spending my time with everyone. I only wish that I had more time to send with each and everyone.
Later that evening we decided to do pictures on the beach of all of the girls. We had these adorable little ladybug dresses, that Stephe gave all of the girls(thanks Stephe) and after that we were doing the girls in white dresses. I made each of the girls white pillowcase dresses. They all looked so beautiful.
It was one very special weekend and I can't wait for all of us to be together again. We missed a few people that couldn't make it this time.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

2009-05-25T15:34:00.002-04:00

This has been one busy weekend. We started off with a big cook out on Friday night for Katie's Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!
The weather couldn't have been any nicer for a cook out. It was in the 90's on Friday and by the evening there was a nice tropical breeze.
The party went really well. On Saturday we had to be at a Soccer Tournament to present 3 awards in memory of Tim. The soccer tournament which is held every year in our town, brings teams from all over New England and some other states.
Tim used to play in the soccer club. He played from second grade until 8Th grade. After that they head off to the high school teams.
Because Tim always displayed good sportsmanship, they decided to present an award in memory of Tim every year to three teams that display good sportsmanship during the tournament. Not only did the teams have to display good sportsmanship but, the coach and the parents had to as well.
They ask us to come and present the awards and to talk to the parents. We had to be there three times during the day yesterday.
Later in the day we went up to my brother's house for a cook out and a bonfire along with horse rides with the cart. Maria took Emma and I for a ride. Emma just thought it was wonderful and kept asking for more. She was just so cute. She really loves animals. She really wanted to touch the tail of the horse but, was a little afraid. She finally did touch it. We had a really nice time.
Today is a relaxing day. Beautiful weather.

CUTE PICTURES

2009-05-25T15:25:00.002-04:00

I caught Emma sitting in her chair in the other room reading a book and it was just so cute when I walked in the room and saw her sitting there like that. I quicked grabbed my camera.
Emma's new slide. She loved it.
Emma really enjoyed her first cupcake.
Just a few cute pictures.

RANDOM PICTURES

2009-05-25T15:15:00.003-04:00

Here are a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago at Emma's first pre prom party. She loved all of the pretty girls dresses. She really enjoyed herself at the neighbors house.

WE ARE HOME SIX MONTHS TODAY

2009-04-29T20:41:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how fast time flies. The past six years have flown by in a very painful but, also an exciting way. From the loss of Kyle and Tim a little over six years ago to the three year wait for Emma. At times my life has dragged on forever and at times it has seemed to have flown by. I miss my boys terribly and the past six years have been very painful to have gone through and now, we have been home with Emma six months today. I can't believe it. Like I said, time has stood still and now it has flown by since Emma has been home. Now is the time that I wish time would stand still. I love what I have right now and want to keep Emma just the way she is. I know that she has to grow up and become a woman but, I just want to enjoy everything that I Have right now. I love everything about her and I am enjoying every minute of her. I love to hear her laugh and giggle. It makes me feel that she is OK. I love to go into her room in the morning and see her big smile when I walk in. I love the smell of her. I love when she signs I love you. I love to put her to bed when she is so dependent on me and just wants to lay in my arms feeling so secure. I love to hear the sound of her sucking her finger while she hums her own little tune. I know that is the way she comforted herself while in the orphanage. She has been the best gift that I could ever been giving the privileged to have. I am so lucky that China picked Emma for us. At times I can't believe that they picked the right child to fit right into our family. She fits into every part of our lives. She is such an easy going child and just goes with the flow. We are so fortunate to have her.
Emma has changed in so many ways since we have been home. You would never know that she is the same baby that we picked up in China. She doesn't even look the same. She has grown and changed so much. She now has hair and an incredible personality.
Emma was such a tiny, skinny, scared little baby when we got her. To see how much she has changed in just six months is incredible. She has grown into a little toddler and seems to love where she is at. She loves to sing and play.
To know that six months ago today, in a little over an hour from now we landed in Manchester with Emma. We had so many people waiting for us and I will never forget the emotions I had when the plane landed. I couldn't control my emotions. I started crying as the plane landed. I was so over whelmed with emotions. From the excitement of bringing Emma home and meeting Katie to the loss of Kyle and Tim not being there to meet her and the rest of family and friends to greet us. It feels like that day was so long ago but, I also feel like the past six months have flown by. I can't imagine my life with out Emma and feel that she has always been a part of our family. It's amazing how life changes. She is one very special little girl.
The past six months have been incredible. Way beyond what I would have expected. These special little girls from China are survivors. They are incredible little humans beings. They have so much love to give and are very special. I feel so LUCKY!

Beautiful Weekend For A Saab Gathering

2009-04-28T08:28:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was our 6TH Annual Springtime in Sweden Saab show in memory of Kyle and Tim. What a beautiful weekend it was. With the temperature reaching 91 degrees on Saturday, we had a great turn out. People came from all over the Northeast.
Just in case some of you don't know why we do this, it is because Kyle had a passion for Saab's and Tim was right behind him. Kyle would spend countless hours working on his Saab to make it just the way he wanted it to be. Tim was always right there with him. At 18, Kyle was already on his third Saab that he bought and sold. We started him off with his first Saab because we weren't going to put our old one on the road. We told him that he could sell it, fix it or whatever he wanted to do with it. That was at 16.
Both boys had always wished that they cold have a gathering in our back yard but, never got the chance. You see we have almost three acres of fields. So with that being said, Springtime in Sweden was born. The reason for the name of the event is, Kyle had a dream car that we never knew about. We only found out about this special car after the boys had died. Kyle used to chat with a group of Saab enthusiast all over the world. It was amazing to find out how many lives that he touched through this chatting. We were presented with a book of all the entries from the night they died and for days after at the Saab owners convention in Hershey PA. 19 months after they died. This book is treasured as it let us take a look into a part of Kyle's and Tim's lives that we weren't aware of the impact that they had on people all over the world. The entries in this book are so touching. With that being said we found out about this car through all of these people that he communicated with. They all knew about this special car and let us know what it was. It was a 1988 SIS Saab. There were only about 400 made in the world. These friends of the boys set out to find us one. They had success and they went to look at it before we would buy it. Well, we bought it. It is now in west Virgina being restores. That's another story for another day. Anyway SIS stands for Springtime in Sweden.
Eventually we would go to another one of the Saab owners conventions and find another SIS car, which we have in our possession.
Every year at this convention they present an award in memory of Kyle and Tim for young people under 21 that enter their car in the show. When ever we can we go to present the award. We probably won't be able to attend this year because it is in Colorado.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and help make this year a great success.
We also made Emma a little Saab out of Kyle's orignial Little Tykes car (24 years old) and made her a sign for her to park her car.

EMMA HAD A BUSY WEEK LAST WEEK

2009-04-22T16:00:00.002-04:00

Emma had a very busy week last week last week. I took her to her first story time on Tuesday. She wasn't sure what it was all about and was a little nervous to be in a room with a lot of other children. They read stories and sang songs. By the time it was all over she was ready for it to continue and was becoming comfortable. I was hoping to bring her this week but, it has just been to busy here. I also took her to a drop in gym and she loved it. There were things to climb on,instruments to make music, a kitchen set, which is where she spent most of her time. She just loved the kitchen. Again by the end she was very comfortable and was playing with other children and climbing through tunnels. I will be bringing her back there. It really helps with her gross motor skills, which is something she needs.
The weather was really nice last week so I was able to get her outside and play. She loves her little tykes car. Actually believe it or not it was Kyle's when he was little. So that means it is 24 years old and has been through many children, including triplets. I can't believe that it has survived that long. We will be getting her a new pink one and turning the old one, of course, into a little tykes Saab.
Kyle and Tim's Saab show is this coming Saturday. I was hoping to turn the little car into a Saab and put it in the show, also to let Emma ride it around the show. I guess it will have to wait until next year.

MORE EASTER PICTURES

2009-04-22T15:35:00.002-04:00

MORE EASTER PICTURES

2009-04-22T14:37:00.003-04:00

I should have posted the picures first and then my post sorry.

HAPPY LATE EASTER

2009-04-21T18:41:00.002-04:00

Well, as usual I am a very bad blogger. Emma's first Easter went well. The Easter bunny came and hide Easter eggs and left Emma an Easter Basket filled with fun things to play with.We showed Emma an Easter egg and told her to go find another one. She did and from there she kept asking for more. She had a lot of fun looking for the eggs. It was just hard to tell her that there was no more and that she had to look for her Easter basket. She didn't really know what the whole thing was about. We hide it where she would be able to see it very easy. She was so cute when she found it. She dragged it across the floor and looked in it. We told her to open it and she did. She liked what was inside. Then Katie got her Easter basket and wanted Katie to open hers.It was so cute to watch. The four of us had a really nice brunch. It was a relaxing morning.
Next, it was on to getting ready for dinner. We weren't having as much company as usual so we didn't have to prepare all kinds of food like we normally do. When we were finally done and the appetizers were out, we just had to wait for the company to arrive. So we decided to open up the Champagne and make a toast to the day. Our company finally arrived and we all had a very nice dinner.
It was a nice Easter for Emma's first.

EMMA'S FIRST VISIT TO DISNEY WORLD

2009-03-31T15:13:00.002-04:00

Well, I have been a really bad blogger. Here it is the last of March and I am catching up with our Feb. vacation.
We went to Florida in Feb for ten days. What a welcomed relief from the cold north winters.
We made our first stop at my mother's in Melbourne Beach. She had just bought a house there and we wanted to help her get moved in. It is a very nice house with a beautiful pool. I posted some pictures of it. I can't wait to go back for another visit.
Emma did real well with the flights. She enjoyed visiting with her Grandma and Pa poo! We stayed there through Sun. and then headed over to Disney World. I couldn't wait for her first visit. Although I wasn't expecting that much excitement out of her because she probably had no idea what was going on. It was just as much fun to walk around and just enjoy being there. We did take her on the carousel which she wasn't to sure of at first. After a couple of minutes she started to enjoy it. We also took her on Small world which she really liked. She loved the music. She went on the magic carpet ride and didn't really care for that. The reason being is that as soon as the ride took off, the camel squirted water and it went into her face. The poor little kid.
The rest of the week went well. we spent a lot of time walking around EPOCT and going back to some of the parks. We also met up with a few friends from home.
Emma did real well all week. She would fall asleep in her stroller and when we go back to our hotel she would go right to bed. She was never really whiny unless she was hungry or tired and she didn't complain too much then.
She wasn't a fan of the characters. Maybe next time. we didn't want to overwhelm her too much.
When the week was done we were meeting up with four other families at Animal Kingdom. We all have met through the adoption process and have become very close friends. The last time we all were together we didn't have our little girls yet. This would be the first time we got to see each others girls. I couldn't wait.
What a wonderful day it was. When we got there I first saw Lori and we hugged and cried. We were so happy for each other.Then I saw Susan and Riz and Sophia, ext Sharon and Mary Alice and then I finally got to meet Diane and Gary with Bing. All of the girls were just beautiful. What an emotional meeting. We finally got to see all of the girls and they were all so adorable. We strolled around the park chatting and caching up. It was wonderful. We did a few things here and there but, it was just more fun spending the time together and watching the girls play together. Our dreams finally came through after a three year long wait.
We all sat and had lunch together and just let the girls get to know each other and play. The day was coming to and end and I just wish that we all had more time together. We all got ourselves together and headed out of the park. Some of us were heading over to Lori's house for the weekend.
What a great weekend we had at their house. They are the greatest hosts. Again it was nice to just sit around catch up and let the girls play. Diane and Gary also stayed there along with their daughter Bing. The girls played really nice all weekend. It was just so cute to watch them.
We had a really nice time, the guys played some golf earlier in the day and we went shopping for the food for the cookout and just hung out at the house. We really enjoyed every ones company. I just can't wait for our whole group of friends can be together and finally have all of our new children together. Reunion here we come
Enjoy the pictures. I know I posted them a while ago but, now you will know the story behind them.
Thanks Lori and Andy. Miss all of you. What a great weekend it was.

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THREE MONTHS AGO TODAY WE BROUGHT EMMA HOME

2009-01-29T15:38:00.004-05:00

Three months ago today at 9:30pm we arrived in the airport with Emma in our arms. I remember as the plane landed this huge wave of emotions came over me and I started to cry. The final leg of our trip was over. We finally brought home this little girl that we waited three years for. I had so many emotions going through my head at that time. I was so excited to be home and see everyone but, I also felt such sadness that my two son's would not be there to meet their new little sister. They would never know who she is and she will only know who they are by the stories that we share with her about her brothers.
It was such a long journey to get where we got,not only the three year wait but, morning the loss of our two boys and finally having this precious little girl put in our arms.The day that they put this scared little girl in our arms is a day I will never forget. She was so tiny and just didn't know what was going on. I was crying just as hard as she was.I cried for her and I cried for me. Finally this day had arrived. We waited so long and went through so many emotions during the process. The wait was finally over.
We are on a new journey now, one of such great joy and one that helps ease the pain of Kyle and Tim. She make us laugh and smile all the time. She absolutely adores Katie, her big sister. I can't tell you how much I love seeing them together. When Katie comes home she just loves to sit in her lap and look at the laptop with her. Katie will pick her up and sit her right next to her in the chair. She always wants Katie to play the Hippopotamus song and Dominic the Donkey. She will get down from the chair and dance up a storm to them. Katie is just so good with her.
I am so lucky to have such wonderful children.
Here's a couple of pictures from 3 months ago and now.

EMMA'S FIRST NEW YEAR PARTY!

2009-01-29T15:16:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday we were invited to a Chinese New Year party. We put on our traditional shirts and Emma wore her traditional outfit. We put the same one on that she came home in. Then off we went. When we arrived, the house was beautifully decorated with lanterns,candles, balloons, there were Panda's everywhere, crafts for the kids and even a dragon pinata. It was really a festive atmosphere. The people hosting the party were very nice and welcoming. They served up enough Chinese food to feed about sixty people. There wasn't nearly that many there.
Emma really enjoyed all of the kids and hung out with them like she has always known them. There was one little girl, Samantha that she just loved and I think Samantha felt the same was about Emma. Emma kept holding her hand and following her everywhere. She just thought that Samantha was the greatest thing. Samantha(who is 5) was really enjoying Emma. She even said that she wished everyone could go home and that Emma could stay. She was such a cute little girl. I think that Emma thought she was older then she was. She really wanted to play with the big kids.
As the party went on they pulled out a dragon pinata. It was so much fun watching all of the kids hit it. Emma just stood there watching and tried to figure out what they were doing. We attempted to have her hit it but, she didn't want to. Then when it broke open, she really couldn't figure out what was going on. After it was all done, our friend Andy took the pinata and held it up so that Emma could try and hit it. She was really cute trying to hit it. It was at her height level.
It was such a wonderful experience to share with Emma and to know that we have such a great community of adoptive parents wanting to engulf their heritage.
We will be celebrating Chinese New Year this coming Saturday with a little celebration.

EMMA'S SECOND BIRTHDAY

2009-01-22T14:54:00.001-05:00

Emma turned 2 on Jan. 14Th. We had presents, cake and ice cream after dinner. She really didn't know what was going on. After dinner we toasted to her little life with Champagne. She was so cute. She saw us toasting and she wanted to get in on the action so we raised our glasses once again and she raised hers. She was so proud of herself. After dinner she opened presents. She is starting to get a hang of this present thing.
On Jan. 17Th we had a party with family and friends.It was a really busy day but, fun. She had a Minnie Mouse cake that was just so cute. She loves Minnie Mouse(I don't know why, maybe she takes after someone). Then more presents, cake and ice cream. We really tried to get her to dig right into the cake but, she was being too dainty. She would take one finger and lick the icing. We finally cut her a piece and then she ate it.
I can't believe that she is 2 already. At times I feel like we have always had her and other times I get so sad that I missed out on the first 20 months of her life. I feel like I missed out on so much. She is changing before our eyes and is learning something new everyday. I just don't want her to grow up too fast. I am enjoying every minute with her. She truly is a treasure. I am so lucky to have been chosen to be her mom.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

EMMA'S FIRST CHRISTMAS

2009-01-13T08:57:00.004-05:00

Christmas finally arrived. After the power outage, shopping, decorating, baking then wrapping, I pulled it off. We had a nice Christmas.
Emma had no idea of what was going on. She looked at all the presents under the tree and wasn't sure what to do. We showed her how to open up her gifts and of course she would rather play with the boxes. It took her three days to finally open all of them. We didn't even buy her that much. She would open one and would want to play with it and didn't care about opening another one. She was so sweet. We really enjoyed having her with us this year. She helps soften a very hard Holiday for us. She just makes me smile and laugh all day. She is such a joy. It was nice to see her sitting there under the tree with Katie and trying to help Katie open her presents. It was a good feeling to have two children here for Christmas. There is still two empty spots under the tree and nothing will ever fill them but, like I said, Emma helps soften that pain and of course having Katie here with us means the world.
After all the presents were opened we had our traditional brunch then it was time to start making Christmas dinner.
We put Emma down for a nap and continued getting ready for dinner. She woke up just in time to serve dinner. Perfect timing. Family showed up and we had a really nice time with everyone.
For those of you that read about Emma's fear of Santa, by now that has changed. Over Thanksgiving my brother came in with a funny looking Santa mask and Emma was scared to death. Well, over the next few weeks we tried to get her to like him. My friend Laura even bought her a big stuffed Santa and she wouldn't go near him. Eventually she did and even started saying Ho Ho Ho!. Now every time she sees a Santa that is what she says. It is the cutest thing. My brother bought her a Ho HO HO! sign for Christmas and the first thing she said was Ho HO HO! I couldn't believe it. There is a picture of her with that sign.
There is so much more that I can write but, I won't go on. Enjoy the pictures. Now I have to catch up on New Years. MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

HO HO HO!

"Aunt Maria" and Emma dancing

MORE PICTURES

2009-01-13T08:48:00.002-05:00

Christmas dinner with family

Katie and Emma

Emma trying on Katie's new ski glasses

She loves her piano

2009-01-13T08:36:00.003-05:00

Christmas Morning

Emma helping decorate the tree

2009-01-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

CATCHING UP ON EVERYTHING

2009-01-12T09:34:00.004-05:00

I must apologize to everyone for not keeping up with my posts. It all started with the power outage back in Dec. We lost our power from the ice storm up here in NH. The worst one in the history of the state. We were with out power for one week. It was tough but, we survived. Emma did very well with the cold days and nights. We would bundle her up in three layers of clothes at night and throw on four blankets. She was such a good little baby through it all. She didn't mind playing at night by candle light. I even got pretty creative giving her a bath making bottles and cooking ramen noodles in a pot on a kerosene heater. I would boil water to give her a bath in the kitchen sink, which she couldn't figure out why I was doing this. She wanted the water on and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't come on. It was cute.

We finally had to put our Christmas up during all of this. The power outage really set us back for the Holidays. I still haven't gotten my Christmas cards out. Hopefully today. With all of this we finally made it through the Holidays.

Anyway I am going to try and update the blog. Stay tuned for more posts.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!

2008-11-30T16:50:00.002-05:00

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

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!

2008-11-30T16:08:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-24T15:07:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-11-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

TRYING TO CATCH UP ON PICTURES

2008-11-20T16:39:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-20T08:35:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-08T15:39:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-08T15:14:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-02T15:24:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-11-01T13:35:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-10-28T19:40:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-27T09:22:00.001-04:00

LAST NIGHT IN GUANGZHOU

2008-10-27T08:40:00.003-04:00

As much as I can't wait to get home and settled back into life again, a part of me is sad. I am sad to leave this wonderful country. The people here are so nice. I feel like I'm leaving a part of my heart here in China. This is Emma's country and something for her to be so proud of. She has an incredible history to be very proud of.

This has been an amazing trip and I can't wait for my fellow Panda's to experience it. You will have the time of your life. Treasure every moment, take in every site, smell every smell, talk to the people, they are very interesting and have a lot to share. Engulf yourself in their Provence and get as much information that you can. It may be the only chance that you have.

Guangzhou is the vacation part of the trip of the trip. Don't get me wrong, there are still schedules that we have to follow but, we have a lot more free time. The shopping is great. There is one store that you don't want to miss, that is A Gift From China. 100% of the proceeds go to the orphanages. They have the most beautiful gifts. I bought Emma's Christening dress there and many other things. It is beautiful. The gifts are not the typical tourist gifts. If you want the best squeaky shoes, I would recommend Sherry's. The prices aren't the greatest but, they do have the cutest ones. I forgot how many pairs I am up to. Actually I am embarrassed to admit how many I bought.

Tonight most of our group went out to eat. We went to an Italian Restaurant. It was really nice and the food was good(not Giorgio's) but, it was very welcomed after all the Chinese that we have been eating. It was nice to share this last night with most of our group. We had a very nice walk a long the river to get to the restaurant and just as nice of a walk back. People are always out socializing, walking around and just enjoying themselves. We got back to the hotel around 8:00 and put Emma to bed. Now I have to pack. We leave tomorrow after we have our swearing ceremony. Emma will legally be ours by US standards. We get her Visa tomorrow. Now we will be able to leave with her. When we touch down in Chicago and puts her foot on the floor, she becomes a legal citizen of the US.

We fly back to Beijing tomorrow. We will get in really late and then have to get up early. I think they are squeezing in Tienanmen Square before we have to get on the long flight home. We leave Beijing later in the afternoon. We will arrive in Manchester Wed. at 9;24 pm. So if I don't get to post again, I will see you all when we get home. I can't believe that we are coming home in two days. The time has gone by so fast.

Oh, one other thing, we took a trip to the pearl market today. WOW! I did some damage, won't say how much but, lets just say I got myself the most beautiful set of pearls. I just love them.

Well, signing off from Guangzhou. Thank you to all of you who have followed my blog. It's nice for the support. I will continue the blog when we get home. It might be a few days but, keep checking back.

2008-10-26T11:26:00.000-04:00

2008-10-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

2008-10-26T11:17:00.000-04:00

2008-10-26T11:13:00.000-04:00

BUDDIST TEMPLE BLESINGS

2008-10-26T10:47:00.003-04:00

Today we went to visit a Buddhist Temple. It was such peaceful place. We were offered to have our babies blessed by a Monk. Most of the families decided to have it done. As we walked into the temple we had to take off our shoes. Only one parent was aloud to enter with the baby. We knelt down in front of three Buddha's. The Monk proceeded with the ceremony. He sang and went on to bless our babies. He sprinkled water on the babies and the parent holding them. It was a real nice ceremony. I felt that we needed to do this for Emma before we left her country.

After we left the Temple we went on to the Jade store. I won't even go into what we(I) bought there. We got some really nice pieces of jewelry. After that we went to have lunch. From there we had to be back at the hotel by 3: 30 for the famous red couch photos. We got back from shopping and we had to get Emma in her traditional Chinese outfit. We headed down stairs to get the pictures taken. It went very well. We had 10 babies to take a picture of all at once. Can you imagine trying to get that many babies to pose all at once? Well, the babies did very well. We got to take a lot of pictures. They sat there for a good amount of time before anyone cried. Emma is the second one from the left in a maroon dress. She just sat there and wondered what was going on. She even sat there for a little bit after all the other babies were gone

After the photos we had some free time. A few of us choose to go on a dinner river cruise. It was a wonderful time. We ended up with only 4 families. All the tables were right next to the windows so that you had a wonderful view. I can't say that the food was anything great. It was just more Chinese food(I want Mexican and Italian)I didn't eat anything but two pieces of pound cake. It was a very warm night. We went to the upper deck and all around you were buildings lite up in the night sky. The breeze was so warm and humid. It felt very tropical. When the cruise ended we had to head back to the hotel. Emma was really tired and we had to get her to bed. The photos are kind of all over the palce. I can only post 5 at a time so there really is no sequence. ECG Girls, I had tp take a picture of Emma in her beautiful Chinese onsie that some of you made. I brought it to China just so I could do that. Thank you. One of the other pictures is from the pizza part that we had and some of the babies are sitting on the bed.

2008-10-25T18:44:00.000-04:00

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2008-10-25T18:36:00.000-04:00

SQUEAKY SHOES!

2008-10-25T17:59:00.002-04:00

Well, yesterday Emma found her feet and realized what to do with them, try and walk. While we were waiting for everyone to get visa pictures taken of all of the babies, I went in a store next to where we were and found the squeaky shoes. I bought her a pair and then we had to get going so, I didn't have time to put them on. We had to get over to the clinic for the babies medical exams. Everything went well and very smooth at the exams. It's a little crazy but, it still was well done. Emma even laughed at one of the Doctor's. She didn't like them listening to her heart and chest, she kept pushing the stethoscope away. It was cute. She didn't cry at all through the exam. She did very well. All you have to do is give her a piece of paper or business card and she is happy. You just move from one station to the another until you have visited all of them. When you are finished you get them dressed and wait outside until everyone is done. We got Emma dressed and put her squeaky shoes on. We put her on the floor to see if she would stand up holding our hands and she did. She heard the shoes and just started to do a little dance. She loved the sound and started to move around. She would go sideways, backwards and forwards. She's finally learned that she can stand and try to walk. Everyone was surprised at how well she was doing so suddenly. We were all cheering her on and she was smiling. It was hard to put her back in the stroller now that she realizes she has legs and feet. We don't put them on her when we put her in the stroller, other wise she wants to use them.

She is just the happiest baby and is always smiling or laughing. She is always watching what is going on around her. What a curious little girl we have. We couldn't be happier with her. She is everything and more than I expected.

Guangzhou is so pretty. It is a small Island with beautiful gardens. The streets are narrow so that there aren't very many cars and you don't feel like you are going to get run over like in Nanchang. It feels like we are on a vacation here. It's so relaxing to just walk around and look in all the shops, watch all of the people and just take in all of the sites. We have a little more free time here so that we can take the time to just walk around and do some shopping.

The Hotel is just as nice. I will get pictures later today. We are going to do The Red Couch photo with all of the babie in their traditional dresses, the boys will have on their traditional outfits too. It should be crazy to get 9 babies to sit still for a picture. I will post pictures tonight our time.

WE'RE IN GUANZHOU

2008-10-24T18:57:00.002-04:00

Hi all, Just want to let you know that we arrived safely. we arrived here around 9:30 last night and we were exhausted. Erik and I thought that we might be able to go out and get something to eat for our anniversary as we hadn't eaten since lunch. We have a nurse traveling with us that offered to watch Emma, but by the time we got in our rooms and got our luggage it was after 10:00 and Emma really needed to get to bed. Besides I don't think I could leave her. We were really tired. Well I guess it's nice that we get to spend our anniversary in a five start hotel. The White Swan is a beautiful hotel. The rooms are just so nice.Today we take Emma to her medical exam. I hope all goes well. She has started to show us a whole other side of her. She is definitely a spicey girl from Jaingxi! Yesterday she got really mad at me a clinched her fists and started to cry and looked at me and screamed. I just looked at her back and couldn't believe that this sweet(as though we thought) little girl could be doing this. I sat there in amazement. I just wanted to laugh. I told her no and she started to suck her finger to calm herself down and then we had Emma back. She really has attitude. She was a happy little girl after that.
I will try to post more later and try to get in touch with those of you I haven't yet. I have tried everyone and will keep trying. We just have such a busy schedule. When I have time to SKYPE it is in the middle of the night there.

2008-10-23T04:57:00.000-04:00

2008-10-23T04:51:00.000-04:00

LAST NIGHT IN NANCHANG

2008-10-23T04:17:00.002-04:00

It is about 4:15 in the afternoon. Emma is sleeping and Erik is doing the paper work. I really didn't want to do it. It is supposed to be easier if the person that did all of the adoption paper work to do this final one today. I am the one that did all of it and I just didn't want to sit in a room for two hours. Plus, I think they would kick me out anyway for too much talking. So Erik said that he would do it. I can't imagine sitting there doing paper work for two hours.

Like I said Emma is sleeping and I decided to start packing. We leave tomorrow afternoon for Guangzhou. It is going to be hard to take Emma away from her birth place. All that we got to experience here has been an incredible journey. We have so much to share with Emma as she gets older. We have pictures, stories and so many memories that we will be able to tell her about. We can tell her what the countryside looked, what her orphanage was like, even tell her that we meet her Nannie who took care of her, her whole life. I know that her life will be so much better coming to the states but, I just can't help thinking that this is the place that she was born and we are taking her away from it. I want her to be very proud of her heritage.

Today we went to a little village outside Nanchang. It was another wonderful experience. Everyone bought candy and little presents for the children in the village. I didn't have a chance to get anything. I had a few lollipops so Melissa shared her candy with me.

As we are walking down the streets most of every ones doors are open. You can see right inside and watch them cooking. We continued walking down the street and the children would come out with either their parent or grandparent. We would give them candy or little presents and they would get so excited. It was like trick or treating backwards. The people in the village were so grateful. It was such a rewarding time. Just to see how they live and know that they are very happy, is just amazing. They are very proud people.

The village had a very small street and chickens and dogs were just roaming the streets. Some people had little pig pens right along side their house. Some buildings were just very old brick house and some were a little newer ones that were mad of cement. I feel like I'm telling The The Little Pigs story. There was actually piles of straw. Anyway, you would go from really old home that date back to who knows when to the newer cement ones. Some homes had rice spread out in front on the street to let it dry. It just was a great day.

Emma is getting funnier everyday. She loves to hum and sing as I have said before. She is just opening up. Today was the first day that she put her arms up so that I would pick her up. It was just so cute. Now that's all she does. At first she liked sitting on Erik's lap more than mine and now when he takes her she puts her arms out for me to take her. I just melt. She is just so happy all the time. Although when she wants something she really lets you know. She is just the sweetest little thing. She goes to sleep so easy. You just put her down and there is no fusing. Well, she fused a little this afternoon for about 30 seconds and I said no in Chinese twice and she was asleep in about 3 minutes. It's amazing.

So I just want to say that we will see everyone in Guangzhou. This is my last post from Nanchang. Don't worry if you don't hear from us until maybe Fri. night your time. Signing off from Nanchang.

Enjoy the pictures.

Sorry

2008-10-23T02:53:00.001-04:00

For those of you that saw all of the photos that I posted, I had to delete them. We were told that we were not allowed to post any pictures of the orphanage or anyone in them. For those of you that didn't get to see them I am sorry. I finally get to post a bunch of pictures and now I have to delete them. I do feel that I have to respect the Chinese government.

2008-10-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

AN EXTRA GIFT IN CHINA

2008-10-22T18:51:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we got the second most special gift from China. We got to go visit Emma's orphanage. Most of the time when you adopt from China, the chances of getting to see the orphanage are almost impossible. I tried very to make this happen before we left for China. I had contacted someone in China to help me out. As I think I said before that just two days before we were going to leave, I though that there might be a good chance that we could go. Then things started to unravel. I lost hope and thought that we wouldn't be able to get there. To my surprise the guide arranged it and before we knew it we were off.
This was the most amazing trip on my life. As we started out, we were in Nanchang. We were leaving the city and heading to the country. We were leaving the hustle and noises of the city and heading to the quiet country. Along the way we experienced all kind of smells that you would never smell here, well maybe some. The smells were everything from things burning to fish, manure and ones that you just can't explain. You would go through these remote villages along the way. Most were abandoned buildings, some were new but, not being used. The country side was something you would see in a National Geographic special on China. It put you back hundreds of years. The way these people live and work is just amazing. You would see them in the fields working and next to them are water buffalo. Then you would go up the road and see some new buildings. Along the roadside you would see people things on carts. There is so much to tell that it would take forever. Just let me tell you that it was a once in a life time experience.
As we arrived in Emma's town we drove into a downtown area. I didn't expect it. As we had been driving along country side roads for so long and out of no where is the town with a pretty big main road with shops and many other things. It was actually very pretty. We had to stop and wait for the orphanage director so that he could show us how to get to the orphanage. When the orphanage director arrived he escorted us to the orphanage. When we got there we were welcomed with open arms. We were treated so nice. As we went up stairs to the conference room people wanted to start taking Emma. She went right to them and looked so comfortable in their arms. You could tell she was so loved. She continued to be carried in different peoples arms. Occasionally they would give her back to us. After the meeting in the conference room they treated us to a very nice lunch that they made. Some things were very good. Emma couldn't get enough of the noodles,steamed eggs and the rice. She would let you know very loudly that she wanted more. I couldn't get the steamed eggs in her fast enough. It was time to go and she kept wanting more(you see she isn't a big eater) so our guide packed her up some so that we could take it with us. I guess this is her home cooking and loved it. It was the most she has eaten since we got her.
When we were done we were taking up to the third floor. That is where the baby rooms are. Emma was in room one so, that was the first room we came upon. As we were headed into the room Emma's caregiver came out. What an emotional time. To know that this is the women that has taken care of Emma her whole life, was one very special meeting. We are so lucky to have meet this women and have the chance to thank her for taking good care of Emma, it was one very special gift. She took Emma from our arms and carried her for the rest of the time we were there. Emma did very well and she didn't get upset. It was almost like she knew that she now belongs to us and that she loved this women very much and now it was time for a change.
We got to see Emma's crib that she slept in, her potty chair, the view from her room that she saw everyday and her little baby roommates. There were three other babies and one really little newborn in her room. I didn't think that was bad at all. The Nannie sleeps in the room with the children. It was a Fairley good size room.We continued on to all the other rooms and saw where Lily slept and Wren and all of the other babies. All of the rooms were a like, wooden floors lots of windows, about four cribs in each room, little wooded potty chairs with babies in them and some babies in baskets. It wasn't the The Plaza hotel but, it wasn't the worst place that they could be either.
We finally had to go and I wanted to go back to Emma's room. I took more pictures and got lots with her Nannie. She was still holding her. I wanted to give her a hug and thank her. I did and after I realized that Chinese people don't like affection that way. Oh well. We had our guide translate some things that I wanted to say. I wanted to tahnk her for taking such good care of Emma and some other things. She wanted to tell us that Emma was the smart one, she said, she really knows and that she was the older one and everyone loved her so she got a little more attention. One of our guides said that she mush have been the little Mayor. It was time to go now and her Nannie stood by the stairs waving goodbye until we couldn't see her. I just felt so much emotion. We are so very lucky to have had this cahnce. Not very many people get this cahnce. We have a part of her life that we can give her as she gets older that we wouldn' have if we didn't get this opportunity. It was the second greatest gift that we got in China an extra special gift.

2008-10-21T05:35:00.000-04:00

2008-10-21T05:34:00.001-04:00

2008-10-21T05:32:00.000-04:00

TODAY WAS WALMART DAY

2008-10-21T04:38:00.002-04:00

We are going to WalMart today. Yeah! You know you have to go to a WalMart when in China. There is nothing elase like it. I would have had pictures but, the battery died. I will have to get some when we go to Guanzhou. We all got what we needed for the babies and a few extra essentials, like real snacks, beer, for the pizza party tonight and lots of water. Then after WalMart they took us to a park to walk around. It was a very hot humid day and all of the babies were sweating like crazy. I really don't know why they took us there, I guess to kill sometime. It was a very pretty place though. After that they took us to lunch at one of the local restaurants. The food was much better there then at the hotel.

Let me tell you about our Little Miss Emma. She is just the sweetest baby. We couldn't be any happier. She just seems to go with the flow. On the bus today she was singing to herself very softly. It was just the cutest thing. We have gotten her to laugh and giggle. She loves when you tickle her. She was even a ham at lunch today. She does let you know when she wants something. She will point and make a noise to let you know what it is she wants.

A little story. Last night at dinner I tried one sign with her. It was the sign for more. I only showed her once. We continued eating and I looked over at her and she was looking at me signing more. Everyone at the table saw it. I just couldn't believe it. She did it a few more times durning dinner. She even did it at lunch today. I never thought it would be that easy. Now I have to teach her a few more. She is just perfect for us. I just love her so much already.

Everytime she is sleeping I .can't wait for her to wake up. I almost want to wake her up so that I can play with her. Speaking of sleeping, so far she is a good sleeper. I know that we have had her for only one night and yeaterday was an exhausting day for her but, she slept from 8:00PM to 7:00am. When you put her down for a nap, there are no complaints. I know that this might not last for too long but, I will enjoy it for now.

Tomorrow we are headed to the orphanage. I can't wait. I tried really hard to get all of us there but, at the last minute I didn't think we were going to be able to go(long story). It will be so nice to see where Emma spent the first part of her life. It will be just one more piece of the puzzle for her as she gets older. The caregivers are so nice. when we got Emma they gave us a photo album of her first days and other throughout her life there. They also gave us a necklace. When I sent Emma a care package I sent along two cameras and a red journal with a lot of questions in it. I was so happy when they returned it to us. I will now have a lot more pictures and a lot more questions answered about her life.

2008-10-20T17:31:00.000-04:00

2008-10-20T17:28:00.000-04:00

2008-10-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

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2008-10-20T17:09:00.000-04:00

CAN'T SLEEP

2008-10-20T16:42:00.003-04:00

I guess I should say good afternoon. It is about 4:45 and I have been about an hour. I wanted to try again to get my pictures posted.
As I write this I have Emma's crib right next to me.I can look over at her sleeping so peacefully. She just looks so inocent and sweet. I just want to pick her up and hold her. So far she has slept throught the night. I wasn't expecting that. Her nannie said that she usually wakes for a bottle at 1:00 am. I was surprised when she told me that. I thought that Emma was a little old for that but, it was good to know so that I could prepare myself.
As I'm sitting here going through yesterday, I'm thinking what a wonderful day it was. How lucky are we to have this precious little life join ours. She is beyond what I ever expected. She is beautiful in everyway. She is more than I ever could have imagined. She is just perfect for us and yes, you all have heard this before (adoptive parents) she is the right one for us. I don't know how they do it but they do. I know if that they gave me another baby that I would probably say the same thing but, she really is the one for us. She makes us laugh.
I gave her a bath last night and she just loved it. You could see how tiny she really is. She is such a little peanut. She is wearing 9 months clothes right now and she just turned 21 months old. She isn't walking yet. They did say that she will try if you hold her hands. They said that she is very cautious and will only do something when she feels really confident. Her development is a little behind but, I am sure before we even get home that there will be big improvements. Who knows maybe we can get her walking on her own.
OK so now lets see what today brings. Will she be just as happy or will she wake up in this strange place and wonder where she is and who are these funny looking people. I wonder if she will have a great day or a really sad day. We will be heading off to WalMart today to pick up anything we need. I know, doesn't that sound funny WalMart in China?
Lets hope that I can get pictures posted. I have a lot of time to keep trying. It's not letting me do pictures so I might have to do them individually

INTRODUCING EMMA

2008-10-20T08:38:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. It has been one busy day. From incredible emotions to a lot of paper work. We went to get the babie at 10:00 this morning. We had all gotten our babies by around 11:00. When we went to go get Emma a man from the orphanage was holding her. She looks just like her picture. She didn't want to come to us and I was finally told to just take her. She started to cry and so did I. She was so scared and confused about what was going on. We walked away and went and sat down. I think that she stopped crying because I was crying. She is so sweet and so quiet. She just sat there looking around at everything that was going on. We went back to the hotel and had about a half hour and then we had to meet for lunch. In that time in the room we got smiles out of her and even a giggle. After lunch we had to get on the bus and go to three more offices for paper work. We went back to the office that we got Emma at and did some paper work there. As we were leaving the same man taht gave us Emma was waiting out side. I went right over to him so that he could see Emma again. He had soem sought of attatchment to her. He wanted his picture taken with us and her after we got her and also kept coming over to play with her. I asked our guide to ask him if she was one of his favorites. As I was asking her, the man was talking to the guide at the same time and was telling her that Emma was his favorites and that he would play with her every day. You could tell how much he loved her. He said that she was one of the few that never cried. I let him take his time with her as you could tell how much he loved her. There were also two other men that you could tell really cared about her. I got on the bus and was sitting by the window and Emma could see them out the window. One of the men came up to the window to touch her hand through the glass. The one that really cared about her kept waving goodbye. You could see the emotions in his face. It must be so hard to see these childen leave. I am sure that they get attached to them. I filmed it so that some day Emma could see how much she was cared for. It was so touching.
So Emma is such a happy child. She was singing her own little song on the bus and baby babbling tp herself. So far she is doing well. She got a little whimpy when I was feeding her bottle tonight. You could tell she was a little sad. Susan, so far so good. I am still waiting for the bomb to drop. Maybe it won't but, maybe it will. She os just so sweet and so tiny.
Well, I am getting tired and could write a book. This was one incredible day. It was so bittersweet. It was so nice to share this with Melissa. We have waited so long for this day and to be able to share it with people that you know is wonderful and special.
I am going to attempt to put pictures on. I don't know why Melissa's pictures go up so easy but, mine don't. Cross your fingers.

WE GOT HERE AND SHE IS OUR!

2008-10-19T23:51:00.002-04:00

Just want everyone to know that we have Emma and she is beautiful. She is the tinest thing. I will post more later. We just got back to the hotel with her and have to head down to lunch and then lots of paper workthe rest of the day. I know this is a tease but will try to post pictures tonight our time. I love everone and thank you for helping us to get to this poit. Thanks for all of the suppport and the suppoet that we know we will need when we get home.

WE MADE IT TO NANCHANG

2008-10-19T11:46:00.002-04:00

It has been a very day long again. We got up and had to have our luggage in the hallway bt 8:00 am. That really wasn't a problem since I was up a 5:00 am. I really wanted to SKYPE Katie. We had a nice conversation.
Today we went to the Foribbiden city. It is so much more than I could ever explain. Words can not even begin to explain what we saw today. What an incredible place. After we went to the Forbidden City we went to tour Houtong. I have to tell you this is so far my favorite place that we have visited. It showed you some real life right in the middle of Beijing. There is so much history that goes along with Houtong. There is way to much to start blogging about it. If you get to tour it, GO! It is a very enlighting experience. These people look like they live in poverty. Their houses are made up of alleys ways and hallways that adjion everyone's rooms together. It is made up of a couple of families. They share their kitchen and dinning areas. Even in the winter they can cook in the kitchen but, they have to go outside to get to the dining room. It is so hard to explain. They just live the simple life and are very happy with the way they live. They are very proud of who they are. It really gives you a whole new perspective on our lives here in the US. If I can I will try to post pictures. There is so much to Houtong that I would love to tell you about but, I would be here all night and I have to go to bed because tomorrow is Emma day.
We flew off to Nanchang at 5:20 and got into the hotel about 8:30. We set up our rooms to get for the babies tomorrow morning at 10:00. There was so much to do. We all decided to meet at Melissa's room to go over anything that we felt we might need to touch base on. We have a couple of new parents that needed a little help. Now I am here and getting very nervous and excited about our day tomorrow. I just hope that Emma's transition goes well. We have a very bust day tomorrow and I hope that I will be able to post at least one picture,maybe more. This poor little girl is going to be taken away from the only life that she has ever known. We know that her life with us is going to be a good one but, I can't help but worry about her little life.
I am going to try and post a few pictures from yesterday and a few others.
See all of you tomorrow with Little Miss M.

Good night!

OFF TO NANCHANG TODAY! EMMA DAY!

2008-10-18T18:55:00.001-04:00

Well, We are off to Nanchang today. Tomorrow morning (Mon. China Time) we will be getting Emma. That means that it will be Sun. night for everyone back in the States. So all of you get Emma before we do. I can't wait. What a emotional day it is going to be. Just to see that little face that we have been looking at for so long now.
This has to be a quick post since we have to be out of our room at 8:00 and I haven't even taking a shower yet. We can't wait and are so excited.
I am going to try and post some more pictures from yesterday. It takes so long to download them. Dee you in Nanchang!

hopefully pictures

2008-10-18T12:02:00.002-04:00

CHINA IS WONDERFUL

2008-10-18T10:33:00.002-04:00

What a beautiful place. It is just so interesting to take in all of the culture that this country has to offer. The people, the country side, the smells, the food(I'm already ready for a sandwich) and especially the driving here wow! That's an experience all in its self.
Anyway I am so amazed by such a beautiful country. I am trying to take in as much as I can so that someday I can tell Emma all about her country and how special it is.
Today we had such a busy day. We got up and went to visit this beautiful park. Just walking into the park and taking in the whole atmosphere was just so peaceful. As we walked through this park, there were people everywhere meditating, exercising,doing sword dancing and so many other peaceful thing. There was a very calm feeling as you walked through this park. From there we came back to the hotel for a quick breakfast then onto The Summaer Palace. What a beautiful place. The history is just incrediable. I am hoping tobe able to post some pictures. From there we went to the pearl factory. To say the least I was overwhelmed and didn't get a chance to get what I wanted. We went to lunch after that. From there we went on to The Great Wall and that it was. What an expierence that was. It was just so magnificant. You have to see it to appreciate it. The weather was foggy all day and then whenwe left to go to The Great Wall it got sunny. Just in time for pictures. Just to stand and look all around you at this great big tremendous structure, is unfathomable. I can't believe that I was actually there. It was one place on earth that beauty is just unexplainable. I will never forget it. From there we headed back to our hotel and got to go by The Bird Cage and The Cube from the Olympics. It was really nice to see it. Oh and on the way to The Great Wall we got to see where the cycling was.
We got back to our Hotel with 45 min to waste and then had to head down for dinner. After dinner we took in the streest of Beijing night life. I felt as if I was in NY City, except there were a lot of Chines signs. We went down to the out door market where they sell all the bugs on a stick(no Erik didn't try any, he was full). This is the place where Anthony Bordaine does one of his shows(he's the one that eats all the gross stuff on TV). A couple of us decided to walk down to The Forbidden Vity to see it at night. All the lights were supposed to be on but, they weren't so, Erik and I decided to walk back down to the main area(kind of like Times
Square). We went into this beautiful mall.Inside it was all white marbel. It was beautiful. It had stores like (Emily you would like tis one) PRADA! and so many more famous brands.. We had enough of that and went back to the hotel. We were back by 10:00PM Bejing time Sat. night. Now I am trying to catch up on blogging. What a wonderful day. One I will never forget. I am so lucky!
Oh and one more thing, for those of you that know about the locks on The Great Wall, we bought one and got Kyle and Tim's name and todays date on it and locked it to The Great wall and threw away the key. When you do this, it means that you will have eternial happiness in your life. Kyle and Time have made it to The Great Wall. It was very emotional. We did get pictures of us doing this.
So tomorrow we are off to The forbidden City and we are taking in some of the local towns people. we are going to take a rickshaw ride around the town and visit with some of the local families. Then we are off on a two and half flight to Nanchang. We will arrive later in the evening on Sun. China time. Then only one sleep to Emma. Can't wait to see her little face. What a day that will be. Good night!

WE FINALLY ARRIVED! sorry for the late post

2008-10-18T06:19:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, Sorry that I didn't post sooner but, by the time we arrived yesterday and I had A hard time I had getting on my blog so I gave up.
We left at 5:00 AM Thurs. morning and arrived here in Beijing at our hotel at 6:00PM Friday Beijing time. So, you can see why I was so exhausted. In 28 hours I had only 2hours sleep. When we got here last night, we went right out to dinner and then went to a market to pick up water and anything else that we needed.
Our flight was uneventful except, (THANKS JIM B.) we got bumped to first class the whole way to China. What a treat. We were treated so special. They took really good care of us. It was always what would you like Mr or Mrs Crisman? This first class in the one you see in movies. The one with the sleeper chairs and you can pick your own video. It was wonderful from the minute they came and got us. Right away, would you like some champagne Mr or Mrs C?
Let me explain. We have these really good friends Melanie and Jim. Jim is a pilot for United and I guess he let some of his friend know that we were going to China(THANKS JIM). Well, we w
had gotten to our seats and were getting setteled in and then all of a sudden the pilot came and asked if we were the Crisman's we said yes and he wanted to congratulate us on the adopton and have a safe flight. He proceeded to hand us his card and that was that(THANKS CAPT.BOB). Then all of a sudden the fight attendent came and aske if we were the Crisman's and we said yes. She asked how many bags we had and we said one. Could you please get the and follow me. We thought that she was going to put us in business class but, she said that I have two seats in first class but, they aren't together. I thought, I was thinking that we wanted to be together and I wanted to be with our travel group. Well, some nice women moved and Erik and I were one in front of the other. What a wonderful surprise. It could not have been a better trip(THANKS JIM) We were feed well.
I finally got to bed around 10:00 woke up two hours later and was awake until about 2:45 when I broke down and took an advil pm. It worked and I woke up about tow hours later.
Sorry if there is spelling mistakes but, the internet is slower than my fingers.
Hugs to everyone. Katie I miss you. Sorry I am having a hard time posting pictures. I will have to catch up in the next post and try to fix it.

NEXT STOP BEIJING!

2008-10-16T04:36:00.002-04:00

Well, I don't know who book flights this early in the morning but, I can tell you right now THIS IS FOR THE BIRDS! I am not a morning person. Well, we are off to China and I will see all of you on the other side of the world. LOve you all.

FINALLY ON OUR WAY TO CHINA FOR ONE VERY SPECIAL LITTLE GIRL

2008-10-14T21:12:00.003-04:00

I sit here tonight and wonder. I wonder how much my life is going to change. We all know how much life changes when a child comes into our lives. We have been touched in a way like none other. Each child has amazing qualities. Each one give you something so special that is their own. Something so special and never to compare it to the other. There is no comparison. Each child gives you a special gift all of their own and one that is to be cherished forever. They all love you in their own very special way. You have a very special relationship with each and everyone of them. I have been so blessed to have experienced all of this. I have had three such a wonderful gifts in my life. I love my daughter Katie in a way that I can't even explain. She is a very spunky loving person that you like to be around. She makes you laugh and just enjoy life. We have a wonderful relationship that I will treasure forever.She is the joy in my life and I am so proud of her.I enjoy every moment that I get to spend with her and Cherish every second. I thank her for taking the time to enjoy it with me. My boys each had their own way that we got along. Each one so different but, so special. Tim was the quiet one but, very loving and loved spending time with me cooking. Kyle was the more outgoing one. He had quite the social life but, never hesitated to include me in his plans. He would always want all of his friends to come to his house. He would always say OH! my mom doesn't mind. I loved that and that is the way all of my children felt. What a lucky mom I was and I knew it!
Well, now a new chapter is going to happen in our lives. This one very special little girl doesn't even know how much joy she is going to bring onto our lives. She is so much wanted and so loved. I am just so nervous, she has no ides that her life is about to change and that we are going to take her away from the only life that she has known. I just hope that it is an easy transition for her and that it isn't too hard on her. We will be there for her no matter what. We will love her with all of our hearts, comfort her and just be there through this adjustment in her new little life. She is truly a wonderful gift. She will change our life forever.
Emma, we are on our way! We love you already and can't wait to hug, kiss you and make you smile.

WE'RE ALMOST PACKED AND READY TO GO!

2008-10-14T21:03:00.002-04:00

OH BOY! What a whirl wind this has been. It sure isn't like going to Disney World. I have been packing and unpacking and repacking. We have to make sure that we are within the weight requirement with in country. China only lets you have one checked in bag per person and one carry on (not even a purse or laptop, one bag!). Your checked bag can't weigh more that 44 pounds and your checked in bag can't weigh more that 11 pounds. Talk about STRESS! That means that we are packing for three people and only have two bags total checked. We have to pack everything for Emma, myself and Erik all in two bags. WE DID IT! YEAH! A lot of our BTDT friends said not to worry so much about the carry on weight. That took a lot of pressure off me. Thank you Susan and Hope!
I can't believe in little less then 48 hours we will be on our way to Emma. HOLY COW!

EMMA'S ONE HUNDRED GOOD WISHES QUILT

2008-10-14T20:51:00.002-04:00

I just thought that I would catch up with a couple of things before we left for China. First off I want to say that my MIL has been working so hard on Emma's quilt. She has put in so much time and love into this quilt. I can't believe how much work goes into making one. I know that I would never have the patients to sit there and put in so much time and effort. I admire anyone who has this kind of patients. I guess that is why so much love is wrapped up in a quilt. Emma is going to know how much love went into making this very special blanket. Everytime she wraps herself up in it she will know how much love and effort went into making it and how much she is loved. THank you for all the hard work that you have put into Emma's quilt. Erik and I really appreciate it very much.

WE ARE FINALLY OFF TO CHINA

2008-10-02T09:59:00.007-04:00

This past Monday we finally had our travel meeting down in Waltham MA. We are leaving for China on October 16th. YEAH! Our CA (Consulate Appt.) is on October 27th.
That is where we get Emma's visa and then we can come home.
We did have a little problem with our CA. Last Friday we found out that China never received our CIS approval, which means you can't get a consulate appt. without it. In order to get your CA you have to have your CIS clearance forwarded to the National Visa Center and the NVC forwards it to The Chinese Embassy in Guangzhou. The Chinese Embassy never received it so we had to call the NVC and ask them to forward it to China well, they said that they never received it and that we had to call our local CIS office and ask them to forward it to the NVC and then they would forward it to China. We did that and as of yesterday the NVC said that they sent it to China so, I hope that we are all set. I am going to China no matter what!
I can't beleive that this is finally going to happen. We have waited so long for this and now it is a reality. we have been through so many emotions through out this journey. We are so excited that in only 18 days we will finally get to hold our sweet little Emma. We're coming to get you Emma! Not much longer now. We just can't wait to get you home.

Here is a brief itinerary:
Leave Oct. 16 8:31 - arrive Beijing 1:55PM
Leave Beijing fly to Nanchang Oct. 19
GOTCHA DAY!! Oct. 20 The day Emma comes into our lives!
Leave Nanchang Oct. 24 (our Anniversary) fly to Guangzhou
Leave Oct. 28 and fly back to Beijing for an over night
Leave Beijing to fly home Oct 29 arrive home 9:24PM

I HAVE DECIDED TO POST EMMA'S PICTURE

2008-09-25T19:42:00.003-04:00

We have waited so long and now I feel that I can post Emma's picture. Don't ask me why I waited so long to do it, I just did. I just felt I had to respect the agency's request not to post. I guess where has that gone? Anyway here is our "Little Miss M"
Thank you Stephe for the beautiful picture. It is beautiful.

FINALLY RELEASED FROM JURY DUTY, NOW WHERE IS OUR CA!

2008-09-25T19:22:00.004-04:00

I just got my letter in the mail today that releases me from my Jury Duty that was supposed to happen while we are in China. I am so relieved. I was starting to wonder, as they picked the first juror for the trial yesterday. I thought that I missed my Appt. but, I didn't. I was supposed to report on Oct. 23rd. As of now, we will more than likely be in China then.
We have not heard anything about our Consulate Appt. yet. It has been such a long wait. I am so frustrated with this long wait. Our agency isn't given us any answers as to why. At this point we will most likely be traveling around or on the 16th of Oct. and probably returning around the 30th of the month. This is just a guess at the dates.
As many of you know that there is a problem with the formula being tainted in China. We are very nervous that Emma could have been exposed to this formula and just want to get her home and to a Dr. as soon as possible to have her checked out to make sure that she is OK. Just one more thing to worry about. It makes me sick and very sad to know that this has happened. I am hopping that Emma is OK. I can't even imagine if this has affected her and to know that something might be wrong, just makes me so angry and so sad at the sametime. I just need to get her home and make her safe and healthy.

WE FINALLY HAVE TA!

2008-09-20T09:59:00.003-04:00

On Thursday our agency e-mailed us to let us know that we finally have our TA(travel approval or assignment). TA means that we have been approved to travel to China to get "little Miss M". I know that doesn't sound exciting to those of you not adopting but, it is very exciting for us. We have waited five weeks for this news and it is one step closer to bringing Emma home. The next step is, that we are now waiting for our CA(consulate appointment. This is where we will receive Emma's visa and be able to bring her home. Once we get our CA, we will know when we are traveling. I am hoping that we will get that early next week. I am hoping to have our travel itinerary by the end of the week. We are getting closer and I am starting to get really excited.
Now on to packing. How over whelming. I plan on doing a lot of that this weekend.

5 WEEKS AGO TODAY!

2008-09-15T18:41:00.002-04:00

Well, it has now been five weeks since we got our referral for Emma. I can't believe that five weeks have passed. In one way it has gone by so fast and in another way it has been the slowest five weeks of my life.
We still have no information as to when we will be traveling. It is so frustrating. Our agency keeps saying that we are still on target. On target for what? We don't even have our TA(travel assignment). There have been other people in our Jan. group that are already in China picking up their babies. I wish that I knew what was going on. I do think that we will be traveling mid Oct.
In the five weeks a lot has been accomplished. As I have said in the last posts, there has been a lot of paper work to be done. Now that it is all done (I hope) we just sit here and wait. We are also waiting for our Visa to come.
We have gotten an update on Emma within the five weeks of waiting. She has only gained 3 ounces, yes that's right, three ounces. She has gotten 6 more teeth and has grown about an inch to an inch and a half. I just have no idea what size clothes to bring for her. She seems so small. I think we will bring some 9 months and some 12 months clothes.
We have also gotten Emma's finding ad. The finding ad is a picture of her that has been put in the local paper, in hopes that her parents will claim her. Once this ad is put in the paper and no one claims her, she is then free for adoption after a period of time. Emma's picture was taking at one day old. I feel so lucky to have this very small picture of her. I want to have as much history of our little girl as we can get. It will be something that we and Emma can treasure forever. The more information and pictures that we can get of her life before us will be very special. Just to have a glimpse into what her life might have been like in the orphanage, is something.
OK so now lets get traveling. I want to bring this very special little girl home and love her, hug her, kiss her and enjoy her so much.

JURY DUTY UGH!

2008-09-05T10:46:00.003-04:00

Wouldn't you know it. I got called to Jury duty yesterday. Erik came home from work and had the mail and there it was. Just one more thing I need to have on my plate right now. More paper work. UGH! Not only did I get called but, it is when we are supposed to be in China. Just great!
What I have been called for is not a small case it is a capitol murder case. Now I have to try and get out of it. Not only just for that time frame but, probably for the next six months until Emma settles in. I couldn't imagine throwing her in a situation too soon. I don't know who would watch her durning the day. I can just see it now, I get home from China and they will be calling me to come in. This is not good timing.
Erik is calling and trying to get the information to see how I can get out of it. I was to upset yesterday to even think about it. I am sure that I can get out of it under the circumstances. It's CHINA or BUST!

THREE WEEKS!

2008-09-03T08:21:00.002-04:00

Well, it has been three weeks since we got Emma's pictures and information. It feels like it was so long ago. Since referral, we have had to fill out lots of paperwork including an application for our Visa's. As soon as we finish one set of paperwork, they give us another set. I'm wondering what's next. I hope that we are almost done.
I have also been trying to figure what we need for the trip. I am starting to gather things that we will need. It's going to be hard because our suitcases can only weigh 44 pounds in China so, we need to pack light. How do you pack light for a baby?
I have started washing all of Emma's clothes and bedding. What a job!
Within the three weeks, we have gotten a DVD from a women that has been to the same orphanage that Emma is currently in. We were very lucky to find her in the DVD. She is just so cute in. We can't believe that we have a glimpse of her life before us. I know that this is a very special gift for us and for Emma to have as she gets older. We are also waiting for Emma's finding ad which should be here any day. I have also sent Emma a care package. I put a bunch of different things in the box. A few of them are a photo album with all of us in it, a book of questions for the Nannies to answer, two cameras for them to take pictures of Emma's life for us and her, blanket,a little doll and other things for the babies and Nannies. I hope that she receives it. The only things that I care to get back are the cameras and the book. I will post a picture of the care package. It has been a busy three weeks and there is so much more to do before Emma gets home.

HAPPY 23 BIRTHDAY TIM!

2008-08-24T12:33:00.004-04:00

Today is what would have been Tim's 23rd Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! I can't believe that you are 23 already. Where does time go? I would have loved to see what you would be like right now. You would have graduated college this past spring and I wonder what you would be doing. Would you have a girl friend, would you be living at home or trying to get an apartment with some of your buddies. I miss all of these mile stones and am very saddened that I will never get to experience them. I am happy that I do have wonderful memories of you and I will Cherish them forever.
We will be having a cookout tonight and I will be making some of Tim's favorite foods. I think that we will hang out on our deck, enjoy the evening and toast away to Tim.
I love you Buddy and miss you more everyday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!