Some updates on Emma. She is doing great! We have been home for 6 months now. Emma is all done her PT, today was her last appointment. Her therapist says she can't believe how great she did in such a short time. She caught up plus is doing things a 2 year old is doing. Her docs and her parents are so proud of her. She is such a strong and smart little girl. She is talking a lot more. She has the cutest voice and I love listening to her talk. She is right on target for both motor skills plus she has surpassed her age and is advanced in a lot of things. She is such a joy. This time last year me and my husband decided to switch to the special needs program. It was Dec 14 I officially dropped the paperwork off to Living Hope. I can remember the feeling of complete happiness and couldn't wait for a new special needs list to come out. At that time we thought we would have to wait until April to get a match. I remember getting an email from my social worker and she ended the email saying this will most likely be your last Christmas with out your daughter. At that time is was so hard waiting. I remmebr not really being into Christmas last year. I only put up a few decorations and just kept thinking, I can't wait till next year. Now Christmas is almost here and I can't wait. Can't wait to see her little face when she comes down stairs and sees the gifts. Can't wait to see her tiny fingers open up her gifts and listen to her "Thanks" which sounds alto like Daffy Duck. Can't wait to capture it on Video. We are going to have a house full Christmas morning, with both families coming over to help us celebrate. Its going to be so nice. We are going to church Friday with Ry's family. Emma is not the best in church so a Christmas mass should be pretty interesting, can't wait to see how long before she lets the church know she doest want to be there any more. I can't believe how lucky I am to have her here with me this Christmas. Its going to be the best ever. Well merry Christmas everyone, hope everyone has a happy and healthy New Year.

Baptism

Emma's Baptism was this past Sunday. The day was beautiful and everything turned out great. The day was about Emma being blessed and all I could think about was how blessed I was to be her mom. She did a great job at church she didn't cry only a little wince when we had to lay her back for the priest to pour the water over her head. It was kind of funny because she had a lot more hair then the other babies so it was dripping all down her when she was done. Father Rudy did a great job and the ceremony was really beautiful. We got a lot of remembrances of the day. A unique shell that he used to pour the water. A rose in honor of pro choice and rosary. A piece of cloth from St. Katherine Drexal and the holy water they used to bless her with. We kept it all in a beautiful box my cousin Linda got for her. Its a sacrament box. Here are some pics of the day. Her dress was hand made for her from my wedding dress. It turned out beautiful.

I can't believe how much you could love a child. I never thought in a million years I would love a baby like I love my daughter. She is the world to me. Emma has come such a long way in 5 short months that she meet us. I am just so amazed at her. This week has been a bad week. She got herself into a little trouble and needed a trip to the ER. What a horrible mom I must be to have her home for 5 months and she already has a trip to the ER. My heart hurt so much for her as each doc had to come in to look at the cut on her ear. Of course first the triage nurse, then reg nurse, intern, his boss, his boss then a plastic surgeon. Did we really need this many doc to look at one little cut on my baby's ear. as each doc come in she got more and more upset. All I keep thinking is I wish she talked so she could tell me her fears. I know with each new person she saw, she thought, no please don't take me away. It killed me to know that she doesn't yet understand she is not going anywhere. That no one will ever take her away from me. She is such a trooper she did need a couple stitches but doc said it will heal with no problems. I just wanted to jump into her place and take all her pain and fears away. It took everything I had not to cry in front of her. Try to keep a smile on face (I thought this was a good idea, if I looked happy then she would to). so now I am sitting hear two days later crying my eyes out that my little baby was hurt. mIssing her so much now because she is sound asleep and I can't wait till morning to hold and kiss her. She is such a happy little girl, always smiling and laughing, dancing and singing and being silly. I just can't believe how lucky I am to be Emma's mom. I wish I could spend every moment of the day with her. I hate having to go to work and missing time with her. I am so grateful I have the next three days off with her and can't wait to do fun things with her. The best thing that ever happened to me was the day I got the call that I had a daughter. While I knew how happy I was that day and weeks to follow I had no idea how happy and great life would be once she was in my arms. She now says ma ma and it melts my heart. She takes my face in her hands and gives me kisses. She runs over to me and gives me a big tight hug when I get home from work. I just can't believe how much we have bonded together. My little girl is the best most rewarding thing in my life. I am so happy that I was chosen to be her mom. I love you my little Emskie.

4 month cupcakes

Wow its been a while since I posted last. Most of the reason is that I cannot post pics to the blog because something that my husband did to my laptop. He is working on fixing the problem so hopefully when its back to normal I will start posting more. We celebrated Emma's 4 month gottcha day on Friday with a little mini Halloween party. Emma had some friends and family over and gots lots of fun Halloween gifts. I made cat cupcakes and Emma looked every so cute in a little pumpkin out with a orange tutu. She is doing great. Physical thearpy is going really great and she has come such a long way. We now only need therapy twice a month. We did start on speech therapy but only once a month. They would like her to have about 15 words now. She says hi, thanks, bless you,eye, Nicky (which sounds like deck), turtle, hot, da da, and said (short for Sadie our dog). The speech therapist said her muscle tone in her mouth and jaw are not fully develop yet that why she has a hard time learning new words and chewing certain foods. So we have some exercises to strengthen those muscles. She is such a smart cookie. She understands and does everything we ask her. She is a really happy baby and laughs all the time. She loves to be swung and even loves the Phillies. We got her a cheerleader outfit with pom poms and she walks around shaking them as we say go Phillies. She is having a great time in music class. She dancing up a storm and does all the movements that the teacher does. We go to story book class once a week and she gets to do a craft each week. She has made a apple tree, pumpkin patch and Dalmatian. they are so cute. We go to CHOP this week for her checkup and we have our home study follow up on Tues. Looking forward to see what everyone says. I going to try and post a couple pics I took from my cell phone. We also went horseback riding and Emma absolutly loved it. I couldn't beleive she was not scard she couldn't wait to get up on the horse and laughed the whole way. The pic I have she looks a little scared but that was because she was ready to get mad because the horse stopped.

Month 3 for cupcake night

Well its been a while since my last post. Emma Lin's surgery went well. She did great. I did pretty good. Once they gave her the sedative I didn't feel so bad about them taking her. She didn't even cry she was so dopy and tired. I don't know if the surgery worked, her eye still seems to tear up. We took her back for a follow up appointment and the doc said give it another 2 weeks sometimes the tear duct stays swollen for a while. So hopefully that is the case. I am not sure if I would put her through a surgery again so soon.
We have been keeping busy with such nice weather we have been outside and enjoying the sun. Emma is getting so big, she is now into 12 months cloths they are still a little big but she needs them for the length. The 9 months stuff is just to short for her. I think she is going to be tall. She is so funny, I really can't get enough of her. She is still not really talking,but on occasion does say a word or two. The other day I sneezed and she said bless you as clear as day. It was so cute. My mom was holding another little baby cousin of ours and Emma took one look at her and you could tell she was not very happy she was holding another baby. She grab a book and said to my mom "take this". I almost fell over, it was so funny. I guess she thought if she held the book she couldn't hold the baby.

Cupcake night went well. We celebrated in princess style. We have princess cupcakes and Emma wore a little cupcake princess outfit. We had my parents over, my nephew nicky, Ryan's dad and nephew. Along with my grandmom, friends lisa and john and their two little ones and my cousin rosie and her mom along with rosies two little ones. It was a nice night. Emma had a good time playing with Kyle and Colin and her new kitchen set. I really like having cupcake night it a good time to get everyone together to celebrate Emma's new life here with us.
She has come such a long way in these past 3 months. She has such a personality. She funny, playful and full of life. She doesn't miss a beat and wants to learn everything. She has a great time rough housing with daddy and cuddling with mommy. She really loves our cats and gets so excited to play with them. Emma and our dog Sadie have become best friends, Emma torchors Sadie while Sadies sits there waiting for treats from mommy. I think Sadie has gain a couple pounds since Emma has been home. She get Emma leftovers and steal some of her snacks. Its so cute to watch them two interact.
Emma just loves to sing and dance so we signed her up for a mommy and me music class. We had our first class on monday and it was really fun. Emma just sat on my lap and stared at the music teacher taking it all in. Hopefully this week she will get up and dance like the other kids. I know she liked it,but just wasn't sure what to do. Well ta ta till next time.

eye surgery

Emma Lin goes in for her eye surgery tomorrow. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes good. Her appointment is set at 6:30 in the morning.

What a week

Well we found out this week Emma Lin is going to need surgery on her tear duct! We got a second opinion and this doc said the same thing as our first. So she is scheduled to go in next Friday the 10th. My biggest fear is this is going to set back some of our bonding. I feel as though Emma trusts us 100% and I really hope that this surgery does not change that. The doc said we can stay with her up till she goes into pre op. Then we have to leave. This is going to be very traumatic for her. She does not like being without me, ryan, my mom or my sister. I hope she won't think we are leaving her and the nurses and doc are taking her. I really wish this surgery could wait, but the doc said success rate goes down as they get older and its could get more involved procedure. She also had to get blood work done again this week. Boy that was really ruff on both of us. Being held down with strangers holding her arms was super traumatic for her and she was not her self the whole day. I feel so bad for her. I can't wait till she can understand no one is going to take her away from us. All this happen this week just when I went back to work. I don't like being away from her. So happy Monday is a holiday.

Me and Ryan are gong to take her to the shore, she loves the beach and loves rides so hopefully she will have a great time and forget all about the bad experiences of the week. To many doc appointments for such a little girl. here are some cute pics!

Some cute stories

Well it been interesting to say the least since we brought home Emma Lin. I knew we would get some rude comments or questions from people, but this past week two different little kids had some funny and cute questions.
First was at my friends son birthday party. there were about 10 kids there aging about 5 and 6 years old. There was a little boy adopted from Korea there. About the time the party was dying down a little girl came over to me and said
you little baby is so cute
ME: Thanks
Little girl as she is pointing to the little Korean boy "is that her brother"
ME:No
Little girl: are you sure
ME: yes honey I don't even know that the little boy
Little girl: Oh ok well your baby is cute
ME. Thanks

Thought that was pretty funny

Then a week later we were at another friends son birthday party
and this little boy came over to me and said is she (pointing to Emma) really from China
Me: yes
about 2o minutes later he was talking to Emma tring to get her to sit on his lap, he was kissing her and tring to give her a snack.
Of course Emma is just looking at this kid like he is crazy, not really sure what to do. So she just stood there for a minute then looked at me so I called her over to me and she jumped into my arms.
he then said is a really sad voice "whats wrong with her cheek" I told him about her rash and her eye.
As he listened to the answered he walked away and said again I can't beleive she is all the way from China.
When we were getting ready to leave he said bye Emma hope to see you again. Then asked me is she ok and healhly? I said yes and then he said oh ok good.
Not sure why he thought something could be wrong with her?
Kids are so cute, I am sure we are going to encounter some mean ones later on in life. But these two little ones were so sweet.

Well heres one story that took me by complete surprise. and i really don't think this was very nice.

We were at the mall (Emma, me and my mom) Emma is all dressed up in a dress with a bow in her hair.
This old lady ( normally i wanted use old lady,but this lady diserved the title) come up to me and said
"is IT adopted"
yes
" is IT a girl"
yes she is
well how much do they run you now adays?
So i just walked away how do you response to that>?????

This was our last week together before I go back to work, BOO. We had a fun filled week and got to spend time with some of our friends. We went to the zoo with Greg and Sarah and also to Point Pleasant beach with Judy and Micheal. Point Pleasant beach is super beautiful we really had a nice time playing in the sand and walking the board walk. Emma is doing really good. Her physical therapy is going good and Emma likes her therapist. Her belly and legs mussels are getting stronger everyday. She still likes to hold our hand when she walks, but when we are at home she gets around by herself. She still had a struggle getting up from a sitting position, but we work on getting herself up everyday. The one bad thing is her eye, I don't see any improvement on the clogged tear duct so I am thinking we might need the surgery on her eye. Its so bad it is causing a really bad rash on her cheek. I am not crazy about our last eye doc so I think I am going to make an appointment with a new doc and get a second option and see if there are drops or something else that might help the eye before we do the surgery. Well I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and hopefully we will get another month or two before the weather starts getting cooler.

2 month cupcake night

We celebrated Emma's two month gottcha day tonight with both families. I had my parents, sister, nephew, grandmom and cousins over. Ryan had his dad,nephew ,sisiter, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins were over. We celebrated Emma Chinese heritage this month. We made panda bear cupcakes and Emma was dressed in a panda outfit. Emma had a nice time celebrating with her cousins and friends. Ryan friend Brian and his daughter came over and brought a moon bounce. Emma loved it. She had allot of fun sitting there while the girls jumped around her. It was nice for the two families to come together to help us celebrate our 2 month anniversary as a family. It sounds funny to say two months it really seems like she has been part of our life forever. She is such a joy in our lives. Life really can't get any better. I wish she could stay this age forever, she is so much fun. I love watching her all day. She is so smart and wants to learn everything. She already figured out how to open the baby gates. We were at the mall yesterday and saw a family with two children that had server special needs, when I looked at this family it brought tears to my eyes. I realized just how blessed we are that we have a happy, healthy little girl. We were in the special needs program and you never really know until your home in what kind of medical shape your child will be in. When we heard about Emma needs e really prepared ourselves for the worst, that when we brought her home her breathing could be bad. We feel in love with this pic of a beautiful smiling baby and when i said to my husband I think we should send in our Letter of Intent this baby was meant to be ours even if is only for a short time. He reply by saying or maybe she wasn't meant to be alone and if the worst happens she will have a family to be with her. We prepared ourselves for the worst, but thankfully when we came home all our docs said she is fine, no problems heart and lungs are great. We truly are thankful for a happy, healthy fun loving little girl. She is the joy in so many peoples lives. We also received her citizenship papers this week. Our little Emma Lin Glori Inch is officially a US citizen!

misc. pics

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Emma has been keeping me busy. We are enjoying the summer by taking some day trips. We have gone down the shore, zoo, malls, picnics, over friends houses. Emma is doing really well she is starting to crawl (well its more like the army crawl) she is walking great. She still likes us to be around her when she is walking but she does it on her own now. She can almost pull herself up on her own. and can even climb onto the couch herself. She has come such a long way in 2 months. Her Aunt Debbie is spoiling her, she bought her a roller coaster ( it is a really cool ride) and a motorized train with track, not to mention the super cute outfits and shoes. My nephews really love her and they do great with her. I can't believe the summer is almost over, I wonder what we are going to do all winter long? I am going to take her to please touch museum today. We go back next thurs for her hearing test, hopefully she will pass this time and we won't have to worry about getting tubes for her ears. Emma is starting to watch some cartoons on tv. She loves music so everything a song comes on she starts dancing. Watching her cute little butt shake is the cutest thing.

Great Adventure

We are on our way home from getting some pictures taking at Sears of me wearing this cute little dress and I can hear my mom talking to my da-da. Grandma is in the front seat trying to turn around so she can play with me. As I try to entertain her, I listen to what mom is saying to da-da.
She mentions something about Great Adventure and tells him there is a promotional offer. From the speaker on her phone I hear him say "It's Tuesday and you want to take the baby to great adventure tonight!" His excitement about this Great Adventure place gets me going and I start laughing.
Grandma takes all the credit for my chuckles, she thinks she is making me laugh. It is a realistic thought because she always makes me laugh. I love my grandma, she's the best grandma I have. Earlier in the day she bought me a bib that had a turkey on it that said "grandma's little gobbler". Pretty soon all my clothing will have some reference to grandma on it. My da-da has some shopping to do if he wants some free advertising. I smile and blow grandma a rasberry which sends her into hysterics. I love entertaining my family, they are such a good audience!

I am feeling a bit sleepy right now and thinks it is time to wrap up the show. My mom takes the cue and gives me the magic white sleeping potion and that is the last thing I remember until I open my eyes and see da-da hovering over my in my bar-bed. He gives me a few minutes before he scoops me up into his strong arms. (I think he works out when I'm not looking) The floor boards creek as we make our way down the steps and my smile stretches out to my waiting ears. Mom is before me, my mom is before. My metal arms are pulled for towards her magnetic body and into her arms I go.

They start talking about Great Adventure and off we go to this place I have been hearing about all day. The drive is nice and surrounded by miles of trees. We pull into this huge area where cars are everywhere. There must be hundreds of babies at this place. I cannot contain myself and raise my hand in excitement. "Da. Da. Da!" I scream. My da-da turns and screams back a single "Da!". I do not know what he is saying because I don't know what I am saying.

We leave the truck and head toward the entrance to this Great Adventure place. Once we are inside my eyes do not stop moving. Everything is amazing, all different foods, colors, sounds, people, smells and things fill my senses. It is an awesome place. We head for this place called the Tiger Show only to arrive 1 minute past showtime. We do not get to see these tiger things and instead we make our way to the flying elephant ride.

My da-da decides that it is best that he stay on the ground and hands me to my mom for a ride through the sky. We sit in our little elephant and go around in a circle, up and down, round and round. I cry when we start moving but soon we start bouncing, and bouncing, and bouncing. Up and down we go as we go around in a circle. I can not say for sure but I think my mom has something to do with the up and down part of the ride. She has her hand on this stick and keeps moving it around.

All of a sudden the elephants tire and slow down to a stop. They need a break and Da-Da mentions something about a ferris wheel. We walk through the park passing a spinning object along the way. It has horses on it that also go up and down. I point at the horses and say "Da". My mom once again scoops me out of my dad's arms and heads towards the spinny thing. She plops me on a horse all by myself and I have no other option but to freak out. I do not have the qualifications necessary to ride a horse all by myself. Mom stands there and holds me but I use my baby wiggle powers to crawl into her arms. The ride is cut short for some reason and we are the first to leave the spinny things. The animal I was near in got tired really quick.

We make our way to this giant wheel in the sky. My da-da says "here is the ferris wheel". I do not know what he is saying and bend over to pick up some neat rocks that are on the ground. A strange man talks to me and I blow him a kiss. My mom and dad laugh so I blow kisses to everybody. We go for a ride on the big wheel which is very exciting. It goes around and around. Since it is not animal powered, we spin for a while.

On our way out we had the oppurtunity to meet this very nice yellow bird and this daffy looking duck. Neither one of them say anything which I think is rude considering the crowd of people that is there to talk to them. The yellow bird and duck take their picture with me and we decide it is time to leave. I really like Great Adventure. As we leave I look up and see this tall racetrack and wish we had time to go on it. I think to myself, maybe tomorrow we will come back and ride the roller coaster. Whatever that is, it looks like fun! I would stay but I have to get mom and da da to bed, it is already past their bedtime.

Sarah and Lydia

Well Tuesday Emma Lin and I went for a little trip to visit some important people in our lives. Little does Emma understand now just how important these people are to her life. First we started the day off with our usual playtime, breakfest and bath. After we got dresses we got into the car to make a trip to Fort Washington, where Living Hope our adoption agency is located. For the first time Emma Lin met Sarah our social worker. Little does Emma know or understand that if it wasn't for Sarah she wouldn't be our daughter. For my family and friends that don't understand the adoption process I will explain. There are two choices right now if you adopt from China. One is the regular program. You sign up go though the paperwork home study etc and get a log in date. When China reaches your log in date (right now the wait time is about 4-5 years) you are matched with a child that the CCAA decides is a match for your family. As of right now we don't know why they pick the child for the family, some people say they try to find similar facial features, but as of right now I am not sure why exactly why they pick who for who. Then there is the Special Needs program. That is what program me and Ryan were in. How that works is about once a month a list comes out with children of all ages and different medical conditions. Some drastic and some really minor and some are just older healthy children. When the list comes out the social worker locks in file for families to match which medical need the family feels works for them. When you sign up for the program you and your social worker go over the different needs that will work for your family. The social worker has the task of matching a child with a family. I can't image doing that job, I really would love to do it once because it has to be the best feeling in the world to find a child for a loving family. We were 4 or 5th on the list when Sarah our social worker found Emma for us. I often wonder why she choose Emma for us and not one of the other families ahead of us. Her needs seemed minor and how did we get so lucky.
Which brings me to our next visit, little Lydia. She is the daughter to a family who received a referral on the same day as us. Sometimes I look at her pic and wonder how did our social make all these decisions for us. What drew Lydia pic to her family? Well needless to say Sarah did an excellent job and found us the most wonderful babies and I can't ever thank her enough for matching us with Emma Lin.
We were so happy to meet Lydia and her family, I feel a little connection to them because we shared something on Jan. 19th that know one else can understand. The fact that we were matched on the same day from the same special needs list brings us together. Hopefully Emma and Lydia can grow up and become friends, have each other to talk to and know that on Jan 19 their parents feel in love with them thru a picture on an email from the greatest lady ever.
Thanks Kelly for the play date and thanks Sarah for the visit. I can't wait till Emma is old enough to understand and tell her all about you and hopefully get to meet you in person.

Enjoy the pics of the kids, they really didn't play together but seemed like they had a nice time with the company. I will post a pic of Emma and Sarah when I get to work. I can't do it from this computer!

Longwood Gardens

Friday after Emma Lin's eye doc appointment. Which I won't say much other than I was not crazy about her Doc and we might be getting a second opinion. We went to Longwood Garden's, our daughter just loves the outside and love trees and flowers. What better place to take her the one of the biggest gardens in our area. We had a great time. It was really beautiful there. Emma enjoy all the sights and even picked a red thread plant. I didn't even know they had such a plant. We bought a season pass so we will be bringing her back each season.

cupcake night

Tuesday was one month since we met our daughter! One month since I became a mother! One month since the best thing in the world happened to me! This last month has been the greatest month of my life! One month since we first held our daughter! We celebrated our one month anniversary by invited our parents over for cupcakes. One month ago we entered an elevator at the Galactic hotel in Nanchung China. We were nervous, excited and anxious to meet our daughter for the first time in person. After waiting 6 months to finally hold our daughter to feel her skin to kiss her cheek to hear her voice to see her smile it was only seconds away. At 10:30 in the morning we entered the elevator to the 2nd floor with a pit stop at the 8th for someone to get on the elevator with us. We stepped off the elevator which dropped us off at the breakfast buffet, we were confused which wayto go,where was our daughter as we turned the corner I saw her. This tiny little face and body sitting on a lap of a lady with glasses, oh my was my heart racing, my mind saying what should i do. We handed over our passports and this lady with glasses walked over to me and the time finally came I had my daughter in my hands. As I held EmmaLin she made a whimper looked at me I gave her a kiss on her cheek told her I loved her in Chinese, rocked her and told her everything is ok. She looked around taking everything in. We sat down on a chair while Ryan asked questions to the orphanage director. Me not really paying attention but staring at this beautiful baby not wanting to let her go, I was smiling like crazy and just couldn't believe this day was finally her. I just couldn't wait to go back to our room and be with her, see her interactions with her. After some paperwork and questions her entourage left. It was official Ryan and I were this precious baby parents. It was such a great feeling. We were in love!
So much has changed in our lives this past month. Its funny how I can't remember my life before Emma, I feel like she has been apart of my life forever. The 18 months of waiting seemed long ago and forgotten, the minute we held her.
One month ago we met Emmalin known then as Qifu (Pronounced T Fu. Which means blessing, They told us this is one of the most special names to be given to a child. The Fu symbol was everywhere in china). She was handed to us almost a lifeless body this tiny body unable to do anything. For three days all she could do was lay on her back barley moving any part of her body. Now this amazing child can walk with assistance, sit up, play peek a boo, blow kisses, give Eskimo kisses, Blow raspberries, move her tongue like a lizard,give great big hugs, hold a bottle, play with her toys, kick her fit in the pool, press buttons and dance. All this she has learned in less then month this little girl is so amazing. She has come such a long way. I am truly blessed to be her mother I can't even image my life without her. she is so much fun to be around. we really have bonded and I truly believe she loves me. She has bonded with me and her daddy her grand mom and aunt Debbie. She is quit comfortable around her grandpops and cousins. She prefers me the most and I am not complaining. This lite girls smiles and laughs all the time. When you r around her you just can't be sad she just makes u happy. Well we celebrated our one month gottcha day with July 4 th cupcakes. One month of freedom. Our daughter came to us from a country were their were no freedoms and now emmalin can make her own choices have freedom to do what she wants. While I think she is lucky to be in this country my heart wonders if she had a choice would she rather be back in china with her birth parents. I often wonder about them what were they like? young? old ?married? single? Did they have a choice to keep her? were they rich or poor? I hope when Emma has questions the little I know about her past will be enough for her. I wonder how I will comfort her when she is feeling sad. I wish I could understand what she will feel like, to take away her pain hopefully she will understand about her past and grow up to be a strong confident women. She definitely is a strong full of life little girl.I can't beleive how strong willed she is. This tiny 3lb baby with no one in the hospital rooting for her to stay alive, no one was saying prayers for her. She said to herself, I want to live and I am going to fight to stay alive and boy she did and her spirt found ours. Thank God!!!
Cupcake night was fun, we ate cupcakes had coffee and tea. Watched video from when we were in China. Boy did I forget so much of the time we were there. It feels like forever ago. It was so nice for our parents to get to see the time they missed with Emma. How she fit right into our family. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful child. We will be celebrateing cupcake night ever month on the 13th for Emma first year home. All ready excited about the next one. I think I am going to make panda cupcakes.


I want to thank all my family and friends for their support concerns and prayers. You guys have been great. Thanks for the visits, the phone calls all have been appreciated.
Thanks to Jackie j for your friendship prayers and advice. I am grateful we met and became friends.
Thanks Kelly r for all your helpful advice. For all the emails the comments. I can't wait for our little ones to meet.
Thanks china dreams for all your comments and sharing your stories.
Thanks blog families for the advice, I feel like we are all friends even though we never met. I wish we all could get together.
Thanks to all of Traci C friends. For all your support, comments and quilt pieces. It really is nice to know that people care and they never met us. You touched our hearts.
I especially want to thank living hope for all they did to make this process easy for us. They truly took care of everything and were there anytime to answer questions. I really can't thank Sarah h enough for finding our daughter. You really found us the perfect child ever. I wish I could repay you somehow. You will always have a special place in my heart.
Thanks to all my fellow Zhangshu families. Your advice really helped while we were in china.
Thanks to my father in law for taking care of my 4 legged babies while we were gone. I really missed them.
Thanks to my parents and sister for all their help. I am so happy you will be apart of my daughters life.
Thanks Lindsey for updating the blog while we were gone. It kept us sain to get to read the comments while we ere gone.
Thanks to Joanne and Kim and my mom for working really hard and keeping Sadies in tack while we were gone.
Thanks to my husband Ryan for marring me, You gave me the best gift ever of a family. I really can't express how grateful I am to you for all you do. I love seeing you so happy. I love you so much.
Last but not least thank you emmalin for coming into my life. For filling my heart with such love. Thanks for being such a great baby for loving me, for your smiles and giggles. Thanks for sleeping thru the night, for waking up with a smile on your face when u see me. For your hugs and kisses. THanks for sharing your sweet tooth with me. I can't wait to show you the world teach you new things watch u do the things u love. You truly are the greatest gift ever and knowI will always love you!

CHOP appointment

Well I had my first visit to CHOP. I had fun playing with Amy, Amy did some exercises with me to test my levels of speech, physical and mental development. I need some physical therapy to help me using my stomach muscles and upper legs, but she was happy that I am walking almost by myself. My speech is coming along really good and she is going to recommend speech therapy but she is not sure if we will be able to get it because I am doing good. My mental development is great and right on target for my age. All in all that part of my exam went good. Next we meet with my Doc and she seemed really nice, but of course I had to put up a little stink because I really just like when my mom holds me. But the good news is she said my heart and lungs sounded great. All my bones felt good and my eyes look good. So I got an A+ for that part of the exam. Which made my mom and dad real happy. But soon their happiness went away,because we were off for blood work. Again I had a hard time with the nurses holding my arm down and poking this crazy needle in my very tiny arm. So I cried alot and mommy and daddy were getting said. Well after a while the nurses could not get any blood out of my arm, so now I had to get another needle in my other arm. Oh boy was I upset. The nurses were really nice though they let daddy give me a bottle and fall asleep. But I am to smart for them and woke up as soon as the nurse touched me. Well after some time of moving this crazy needle around in my arm they got a couple tubes of blood, but not enough to run everything that needed to. So after a couple weeks I have to go back and get more taken. I hope my mom can handle that again she is very sad when i get sad. But she knows that it is only for my health that I have to go thur all of this. Sorry we don't have any new pics, mommy is working on getting the computer fixed so everyone can see how big I am getting. My hair and nails are growing like crazy and I gain 2lbs since gottcha day. I am in the 50 percent tile on the American growth charts,which our doctor is very happy about. She told us if I gain weight that is ok but she is happy with the weight i am now. So a little less Cheerios and snacks.

Also this week my mom, grandmom, grandpop and babchi (greatgrandmom) took me to the aquarium and I had so much fun looking the fish. I really loved the shark tank, it was so neet to watch them swimming all around me. That's all for now! talk to you soon.

pics from visit with kyle and colin

We are having some trouble uploaded pics. We will post some from this weekend as soon as we figure out the problem. Emma really had fun with this little guys. We are going over there house today for some swimming!

4th of July

Well this is EmmaLin first American holiday! We spent some family time and took Emma Lin down the shore. Sat. night we went to the boardwalk with Greg, Jess and Sarah. Daddy and Greg took Emma and Sarah on the carousel. Both girls loved the ride. Then off the the air balloon ride with me and then the train. By that time it was getting late and we took Emma Lin home. The next morning we headed to the boardwalk and went bike riding with our cousins Jen and Maggie. That was pretty fun, Emma sat on the front of a suri and me and daddy rode the bike. After our morning bike ride we had some ice cream and water ice. Its never to early for ice cream. Then back home for a nap and lunch. After lunch we headed for the beach. WE meet Maggie and Jen and Mike for some beach time. The girls loved the water, but were not to crazy for the sand. The girls had fun playing with there toys and eating snacks and drinking there water. By the time we got back home and showered and dressed Emma was ready for bed and fell asleep. So we didn't get any more boardwalk time and EmmaLin missed out on the fireworks. Hopefully next year she will get to see some fireworks. All in all we had a nice time down the shore and can't wait to bring her back for some more rides. She really loved going on the few we did get to do.

Emma LIn

Well we been home for a week now. Things are going really good. Jet lag wasn't to bad and Emma did pretty good on adjusting to our time. We started the week off at waking at 4am than 5am then 6am and now 7am. So I think that is pretty good thing. She take a nap at 10am and 3pm for about an hour each. She is eating great and pretty much will eat anything we give her. She has such a great personality, she usually is smiling and laughing. She yells when you take to long to give her the next spoonful of food. She loves taking baths and going for stroller rides. She really loves the outdoors. She loves picking flowers and is getting used to the dogs. She points to them and lets them get close to her. She hasn't tried to pet them yet though. She loves playing with toys that she can take out of things and put them into something else. Loves, loves, loves music. She signs and dances to all kinds of music. Does not like to be read to. She is getting better with the sippy cup, but really loves her bottle. She enjoys meeting new people and really had fun with her cousins this week. She had a nice visit with kyle and colin, playing with her new toys and riding her around in her little car. We are going over their house next week to go swimming. We went on a nature trail walk with nicky, cayden and chaira and had a really nice pinic. Well we off to the shore today to meet more cousin and go to the beach and boardwalk! I can't wait to see her on rides, I think she is really going to like them. She loves things that move or bounce.

professional pics

Hi everyone, I am doing great! I am having so much fun with this crazy family. Grandmom and mommy took me out today to buy some walking shoes, hopefully this will help me to walk on my own without the help of mommy and daddy. I think there backs are hurting from bending so much. While we were at the mall I got some pictures taken. I had fun, the camera lady really liked me and I was all smiles. Mommy just couldn't decide on what pics to get. I think she almost bought everyone. While we were their we had lunch, guess what they fed me? Chinese food, but I just think they were fooling me this was the Chinese food I remember but I liked it just the same. I am having fun meeting my family, I got to spend some time with my Babchi yesterday and tomorrow I get to meet Aunt Lisa, Kyle and Colin, hopefully they will take me swimming. Well enjoy my pics. I really enjoy looking at them all I do is laugh every time I see them. Also Robin thanks for my Sushi set, it is my favorite toy. Love Emma Lin

our first couple days home

We home and somewhat settled. We are all unpacked and cloths are washed. Emma is adjusting really well. She likes her crib and room except for the panda bears. We had to hide all of them. It funny but she really does not like them at all. She loves to take baths and go in granmom and granpop jacuzzi (with the temp low). She is warming up to the dogs and cats, they really don't seem to even bother with her. Lucy had yet to even come near her and Sadie just walks by her. She still gets a little scared when they bark, but is getting used to them little by little. She loves books, but won't let you read to her. She takes the book right out of your hand and turns the pages. She is eating great and likes everything we give her. She goes poopie on the potty, we had to buy one in China, because she likes to hold on to the handles when she goes. She likes riding in the car,but we have a really hard time getting her into the carseat. We are getting some sleep,but still no real schedule. We are truly blessed with this little one. We love her so much and truly believe she loves us. She loves her cousin Nicky and mom mom and pop pop. She really loves her Aunt Debbie and she really loves her to. She has adjusted so well to her new life and we are grateful to be able to be her family and we are having so much fun with her. Emma has her first American Doctors appointment today and she will get the last of her shots. I don't get a lot of computer time. If she is awake she likes to play with key pad. She does have quit a temper and likes to get her own way. Daddy is working on getting her to realize she will get what she wants but sometimes it can't be done in a second. She is getting better with it. One thing for sure is she is happy almost all of the time. She laughs and laughs, loves looking at herself and even blew kisses to herself in the mirror today.

We are home

We are home safe and sound! All is well Emma did great on the plane. We stayed over night in Washington. We arrived home this afternoon,
Emma loves all her toys,but does not like the dogs. We will slowly have to get her used to them. WEll this is a short post. Will post more later.