I Finally have my Little Sister!

I want everyone to know that I finally have my little sister. She is very little, much smaller then mommy and daddy thought. She is just so cute and I love her already. I just don't like it when she is napping. I want her to wake up so that I can play with her. Today we went visited The Teng Wang Pavillion and boy there were a lot of stairs to climb, but nothing like the Great Wall. Now that was really a climb and guess what, I did it. It took a little over two hours to do it and some of the adults didn't even do it. Mommy and daddy were so proud of me. I really like being a big sister and helping mommy and daddy with Sophie. Mommy is going to try and get the blogs straightened out so that I can blog on mine and she can blog on Sophie's. Mommy is going to have her friend help her out with it and post pictures also. Stay tuned. Love Emma

I'm At the GREAT WALL!

TODAY IS SOPHIE DAY!

I just want to post this morning and let everyone that, no we did not get Sophie, Thank goodness, We didn't;t even get tour hotel until around 10:00 last night, We were so exhausted and I had so much to do to get ready for Sophie.is morning around 6:15.  I got to bed around 1:00 and woke up this morning around 6:15, Best sleep so far.

I had so many emotions when that plane touched down in Nanchang. I was overwhelmed with unexpected emotions. Emma was back home..... I couldn't believe that we were right back where we started with Emma and now we are on another new journey where it all began. It's an emotional journey. I started remembering how I felt that morning that we were to get Emma and got so teary eyed knowing that a new life was beginning and that I was leaving behind one of the most precious things of my life, my boys. I remember being so excited and sad at the same time knowing that the boys would never get to meet Emma. I ever knew how much I would have falling in love with Emma and how precious she is to me. How lucky we are to have her. And now, here we are again. I am full of all of the same emotions this morning that I didn't expect.

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Now, we are about to start another new journey and bring some more happiness into our lives . I only hope that Sophie will be ok. It is so hard knowing that we will be taking her away from the only life she has known. Her world is about to be turned upside down, Wish us luck and I only hope that she will do ok.

So, I will post as soon as I can and I hope that I will be able to post pictures. We will be getting Sophie at 11:30 today and will have paperwork to do. It is going to be a busy day,

 

We Made It!

We finally made it to China. We arrived 8:00 Fri. night China time. I have been trying to post on my blog s, but it has been impossible. I have a fellow adoptive parent helping me out. He is actually on his way to China right now. Hopefully we will met up in Guangzhou.

I tried a post with all of the details from yesterday, but it did not go though. Sorry, this is so frustrating.

We went to the great wall yesterday. It was better then the first time. Emma amazed all of us. You could not imagine a 5 year old doing what she did. we climbed and climbed and climbed and walked and walked. It was beautiful. Extremely windy and cold. At some point you almost felt like you were going to blow away.

I have so much to post. I am just trying to see if this will go through. I don't think that a lot of pictures will work.

Today we are going to Tienanmen square, the forbidden city and hutong. After all that we get on a plane and head to Nanchang. SOPHIE DAY! Either tonight or tomorrow morning, Mon. China time. Hopefully it will be tomorrow morning so that we can get our selves ready.

Sorry no pictures. Hopefully when we get  I will be able to email, blog and skype. We can't do any of that right now.

Just checking to see if my blog is working

Just

Trying to blog

Hi folks - I'm a fellow adoptive parent trying to help Kathy with her blog. They did make it to China ok. I'm following them to China tomorrow and will get to meet them in Guangzhou next week. Hopefully Kathy can post here soon.

Sitting In the Dulles airport

We had to get up very early this morning to head to the airport. We just made it to the airport on time. When I got on the plane, I feel asleep almost right away.I even slept through the landing. When I woke up I said, "that was quick" Now Mommy,Daddy and I are sitting the the Dulles airport waiting for our long flight to China. I'm getting little antsy though. I just want to get on the plane and go to China. Although, we are waiting in The United executive club (thanks to our good friend Jim) thanks Jim!. It's really nice in here. There is a lot of good things for breakfast. I've had a couple of mini muffins, some yogurt, juice and now I am having cereal. Well, I better go now and find something to do. See you in China! Love Emma

ONE MORE SLEEP!

Today Emma woke up and took off one more piece of her paper chain. Only one more sleep before we go to China. I can't believe that it is already here. I don't think that Emma realizes that tomorrow morning very early, we will be on a plane heading for China. She is very excited. We'll see you on the other side of the world.

We're going to China and how many more sleeps mommy?

It's been a long time, too long since I last blogged on Emma's blog. A lot is happening for those of you that don't know. We are heading to China in a few days to pick up our new daughter Sophie. We are very excited and Emma is very excited to have another sister. She loves her bigger sister Katie and now will have a little sister. Sophie just turned 2 Feb. 17 and she is from Pingxiang CWI, Jiangxi China. Same province as Emma. She is in foster care. Emma will be traveling with us to China. We are hoping that while we are there, we will be able to take Emma back to her orphanage. I plan on updating Emma's blog during our trip. I have also started another new blog for this trip. It is www.itcanhappentoyou5.blogspot.com Please feel free to follow Emma's journey to China. Emma is so excited to be going to China and wanted to know how much longer it would be before we go. So I decided to make a chain with her so that she could see how many more sleeps it would be before we got to China. Stay tuned for more! I will do my best to update her blog in China.

THREE YEARS AGO TODAY!

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!