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!

HAPPY AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL

LITTLE FARM FALL FESTIVAL

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

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.