Thankful

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for that first moment when we saw the girl who would soon be our daughter.  We are thankful for all of the twists and turns that led us to our daughter, and every step we have taken since then to bring her home to us.  We are thankful for her foster family for taking care of her.  We are thankful for our family here who has been a source of love and support throughout this journey, and who can't wait to welcome E into their lives.

Today was a day of food an fun (and driving!!) with our families.  Since E's birthday was yesterday, her grandparents and adoring Auntie gave her some nice gifts.  It was really fun getting to open E's presents, but sad, too because we wish she were here to open them herself!  We promise we'll tuck them away so they'll be waiting for E when she comes home!  (But I wouldn't mind cuddling up with her new Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan doll...)



We'll try not to wear out the batteries on the Elmo phone...



Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

Today is our sweet daughter's second birthday.  We are so excited that we are getting closer to meeting her, but it is heartwrenching to miss yet another special moment with E.  We hope that she is having a wonderful day, and celebrating in style with people who care about her very much.  On the other hand, we are very sad that we can't share this day with her.  We are already thinking of ways to make up for all of the things we have missed.

Today we'll have a little mini-celebration in honor of E's birthday, and blow out a little "2" candle for her.  We won't say what our birthday wish is, because we want it to come true!

On the flip side, we guess the terrible twos start today!!!

 

Closer to Fine

Over the past week or so we've hit some pretty important milestones in our adoption timeline:

I800 Approval:  11/15/2011
NVC Cable and pdf:  11/22/2011
Article 5 Drop-off:  11/23/2011

To those of you who are in the adoption community, you know what this means.  To those of you who are just learning, stand up and cheer because it means we are moving through the last steps to Emmilene! 

Next, we wait 2 weeks for our Article 5 Pick-up, and after that, we are just waiting on TA (Travel Authorization).  Depending on how quickly we receive our TA, we are crossing every finger and toe that we might have a fighting chance of meeting our daughter before Chinese New Year, which starts on January 23.  Otherwise, we have to wait until after.

You can bet that this Christmas, we are only asking for one thing under our tree...TA!!!!!!!

Sleepy

Since we've missed seeing the first couple of years of E's life, it's exciting to receive a "new" picture, even if it's old.  Today we got an adorable picture of E from November 2010, right around her 1st birthday.  She looks a bit grouchy, as if she had just woken up, perhaps on the wrong side of the bed.  Sorta how I look every day before my coffee.

Did you really wake me up to take this silly picture?

P thought it looked like she was winding up her little fist to punch someone in the nose.  Again, sorta how I feel when I get woken up.  But she looks so darn lovable in her little pink jammies!

Emmie's House

We live in the tiniest one bedroom condo you have ever seen.  The fact that we have survived here for 9+ years with our marriage intact is a real testament to how well we are matched.  But it is no place to bring a child to from half way around the world. 

At the start of the adoption process, people kept saying we had plenty of time to find a house.  For us, the biggest stressor was not the adoption, but the lack of a home to which to bring E.  Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and all of a sudden we found ourselves bumping up against a deadline to find a home that we could be in before E's arrival.  Realtors kept telling us how "uncanny" it has been for the past 6 months, with practically no homes coming on in our target towns.  We were both losing a lot of sleep.

Well, one week before our internal "deadline" to put an offer on anything with four walls, and the search is over!  After an agonizing search for a home to bring E to, we finally found a house.  Our offer was accepted last night, and barring any unforeseen disasters, it's ours!

It's no McMansion, that's not our style.  It's a cute house, on a super lot, in an idylic neighborhood in the town that I grew up in.  And--get this--E's Nana and Grampy walk right by this house every single day on their morning walk.  Auntie Sue Sue said we have to get a little step stool so E can stand at the window and wave to Nana and Grampy as they powerwalk by.  My mom said, "You just better make sure those shrubs don't grow up too much and cover the window...we want Emmie to be able to see us waving at her!"  Yes, Nana, we'll keep the shrubs trimmed.  Hey...Grampy can feel free to come up the street himself and give them a trim if needed!

Emmie's House...Ours, too

Treasure Box

Since we've moved on to the next phase of the adoption process, our agency said it would be a great time to send a "Treasure Box" to E.  This is perfect timing since it will coincide with her second birthday coming up later this month.

P and I spent several days searching store after store for the perfect items for E's Treasure Box.  It's amazing how much time we can spend looking for 3 little pounds of stuff!  We had so much fun putting it together and sending it off to her.  We included a Ni Hao, Kai-Lan birthday card as well as a short letter for E and one for her foster family.  Some of the items we included this time:

• Hello Kitty PJ set (we hope she loves Hello Kitty as much as we do!)
• Disposable camera so we can hopefully get some pictures of her life in China
• Red Sox animal crackers--P had to send those!  Making her a Sox fan already!
• Toy cell phone (maybe she'll give us a call?)
• Super cute fleece hoodie and hat
• Candy for her and foster family (we couldn't leave out her favorite food group!)
• Toy recorder--we bet her foster family will love that one...especially after all of the candy.  I hope she leaves that in China!

Enjoy, Emmie!