100 Wishes quilt

Well I am starting Emma quilt today. We got most of the 100 pieces of fabric. I will make up the difference. I found a pattern I like. It is butterflies. I am going to make the wings and bodies from the different fabrics and in between the butterflies i will do a square pattern with different blocks in the different fabrics. I think it is going to come out pretty cool. Ryan is going to go to class with me to help design it and lay it out. We will probably start cutting the pieces tonight and finish out the week. Next week at class I hope to have all the pieces cut so I can start sewing. I will update this on the progress after tonight. Thanks to all my family and friends who sent in the good wishes. Emma is going to love this.

China adoptions

I found this post on MSNBC website. For some people who might have some qustions about Special Needs Adoptions click on this link.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36037857/ns/health-kids_and_parenting//

The Cake Boss

Last night my mom and two cousins went to see the Buddy from the cake boss. What a great show. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is the owner of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken New Jersey. It started out as his father business and when his dad died he took the bakery over and turn it into something really big and great. He does different cakes for all kinds of people and places. The show airs on TLC and its called cake boss. It really is a must see show. Well the show last night was buddy talking about him and his family, how much he loves them and he loves working with his family, that he loves doing this show because it is something that parents and their kids can watch together. It made me miss Emma, I just can't wait to get her home and start some family traditions with her. Maybe Sunday night dinners or picnic Friday. Well whatever we decide I know we will be watching Cake Boss together and hope that it will give Emma the inspiration to be creative.

I-800

Finally after 26 very long days we got our Approval from Immagration!! Now we are waiting for the National Visa Center to send their ok. Hopefully we will get that letter by early next week!! Once we get that our paperwork will be sent to China. Then Aritcle 5 and TA! Let hope we hear something before the end of April. Today I ordered a new truck. This way Emma will have a brand new car to drive around with her mommy. We got a Dodge Dakota Crew Cab in a light brown color with tan interior. We had to order one because in a 100 mile radius they only had two, one was a black one and one was blue. I really wanted to light brown so we should have it by the time we are back from China.

Baby shower

Sunday my family had a baby shower for Emma, Ryan and I. It was beautiful. We have such a wonderful family and awesome friends. Ryan and I are just so lucky, first to be parents to Emma Lin and second to be loved by so many people. When I walked into the room is looked so great. My mom and sister did a beautiful job decorating the tables with these super soft cuddly panda bears. They looked really cute. Everyone had a favor, it was a little Chinese take out container filled with a fortune cookie that said when you cracked it open welcome Emma Lin. The cookies were dipped in pink chocolate and tasted great. They also had chopsticks for everyone at their tables. My mom made a diaper cake and on top sat Mulan. Every detail was taken care of. The room looked great and was filled with so much love from everyone. After I got there I walked around to all the tables and everyone couldn't be more excited for us and can't wait to meet Emma. My mom and sister also had picture of Emma at each table. Well as far as the gifts go Emma go allot. We are pretty much covered in the cloths department until she is about 3. Emma will definitely be the best dressed girl in town. We got a cloths line full of cloths with shoes and socks to match that was pretty cool. My cousin Rose and her family got us the cutest chair with Ottoman for Emma it is really beautiful. My cousin Sally got us the cutest cloths she did a theme for different ages. I cannot wait to put Emma in this Panda jacket she got her. She also did a whole theme of Ladybugs cloths and a beautiful Pink fluffy jacket. We got this really cute butterfly rocker for Emma. It is really is the cutest thing. We got all of our big stuff from all our cousins. My parents, sister and Nephew got us our crib,mattress,nightstand, dresser and Armour for Emma's new room. My mom made me this beautiful jacket in red with ladybug buttons. it really is the cutest thing. My sister got us the cutest dresses,plus many great travel accessories to bring with us to china. I really could go on and on, we are truly blessed with everyonthing we got. I hope Emma felt some of the love that we were sending to her on Sunday. Thank you to all of our family and friends that came out to share in our celebration. We truly are grateful for everything that everyone did to help with the celebration and all of our gifts. WE can't wait to show them all to Emma.

Updated pics

Wow, thanks to Ann at Red Thread we got updates on Emma. It was such a nice surprise to see these pics this morning. I got into work and checked my email to see updates on Zhang Qi Fu. I got so nervous I couldn't even open the attachments. What a wonderful thing Ann at Red Thread does. She has such a great job and does this for families really for no money at all. I really want to send her a thank you gift but what? Something nice that says you don't know how happy you just me and thank you from the bottom of my heart. From the looks of the pics I think she might be walking, she has two teeth and weighs 19.8 lbs. Not sure if that weight is with or without her many layers of cloths. She looks so proud to be holding that flower in her hand. she still has her dimples and her hair is coming in. I really hope that they don't shave her head. I love the split pants, I can't help but get a kick out of them. Well all in all she looks happy and proud. Looks healthy. Now let hope we get the rest of our paperwork and Travel Approval real quick so we don't miss any more time with our Emma Lin.

I-800A

We received our I-800A yesterday! Pretty exciting we needed to renew this because we switched to Special Needs. We just got fingerprinted for the second time on Monday of last week and got the approval notice one week to the day. We are super excited hopefully our I-800 will be as quick. They recieved our paperwork on Wed of last week so hopefully we will at least get the receipt this WEd.

getting ready for Travel

Well today I have off for the first day in about a month. So I am taking full advantage of the day to get some things together for our trip to China. Ryan and I went shopping yesterday to get all the medicine they our friends and agency suggested we bring with us. So now we have a little box of medicine for both Emma and us. We bought all our travel shampoo, soaps razors and etc. We went shopping also for our gifts to give to the nannies, caretakers and our guides. We heard they like to get chocolate so we purchase different Hersey's candies with these cute Disney bags. When I get to China I will fill up the bags and tie them with some ribbon. We also bought Phillies hats and flip flops. One Yankee cap because the day Emma was born we got her newspaper from China and the sports section was about the Yankees no other baseball team but them so we figured they must like the stinking Yankees. we also bought them a hat with the liberty bell. I am also going to get them a couple sets of earring and necklaces from the bridal shop. We have to find out exactly how many gifts we should bring to make sure we have enough. One thing we were told was not to bring anything made in China, well the hats and flip flops both were. It is very hard to find items not made in China. But the candy and jewelry won't be made in China. We finished up all the painting in the nursery, so here are a couple pics before the crib and decorations go in. We ordered our crib and furniture, which my parents and sister bought for us. What a wonderful gift they are giving us. They place we got it from said it won't be in till April so it will be some time before we can finish the room up. My sister is letting me borrow her changing table and rocker from her son. Which will be really nice. I like having something from my nephew. We went out yesterday to try to find Emma the same toys that are in her pics from the orphanage but no luck. We did find one ball that was the same but we really want to find a drum that rolls with a handle on it. It seems she really likes this toy and would to have it at home for her when she get here. Hopefully we will be able to find it in China if we can't find one here.

Our Care package arrived

Ann from Red Thread emailed me today to let me know our package got there safe and sound. She is so nice I forgot to include in my note that I made Emma a blanket and me and Ryan slept with it for a couple weeks and we really wanted her to have it and get familiar with our sent. So I let Ann know that and she will add it to our letter for me. That was so nice of her. She is going to ship it to the orphanage tomorrow for us. In the meantime she did call to see if she could get any updates or new pics and they said right now the weather turn a cold so they don't want to take her outside until it get warmer in fear of her getting a cold. So now we have to wait for the weather to get a little warmer until we see some new pics. I am not really sure why they can't take her pic inside. But I am not going to complain. Evertying has been going fast and smooth for us this is just one little thing. I can wait a couple more days. I know you can't get a cold just from weather but it is nice to hear that they are worried about her and want to keep her healthy, that says allot. I feel great that she is being well taken care of. Thanks Andrea for posting about you experience. Its always nice to hear from other Zhangshu families.

Zhang Qi Fu

Let me formally introduce you to our daughter, Emma Lin Inch. Her Chinese name Zhang Qi Fu which means Special Blessing and she truly is special blessing to us. Emma was born April 15, 2009. She was born Premature and was found in the pediatric ward in the hospital of Zhangshu City. She is living in Zhangshu city SWI. Everything we read about Zhangshu SWI seems very positive. The other families that have traveled there all say there baby were well taken care of. They said they all were healthy and happy. They all seemed well fed and when they had there gotcha day, they were dressed nice and were clean with fresh haircuts and manicures. Even the families that adopted from Zhangshu chipped in for a care package to send to the SWI for the babies and nannies. That really says alot. We are happy to know our baby is being well taken care of until we can come get her and bring her home with us. Emma's weight at 9 months was 18 lbs, we are hoping to get an update soon. I cannot wait to see new pics of her. We sent her out a care package and we are waiting to hear if it arrived yet. We sent Emma a blanket I made for her. Some cloths and sock. Some snacks for the babies and the caretakers and a doll for Emma. We also included a picture book of for Emma to meet us. I sent a couple pics of Me and Ryan and my mom and dad. Google is great I typed in words i wanted translated and it translated all these words into Chinese so I could attach them to each picture.
We know Emma likes things that crinkle and she likes egg yolk soup. She likes complete quiet when she sleeps also does not like any cover on her. Right now we are in the process of decorating her Nursey. I got a blind that blocks out all light so I hope that help her sleep. We do have two dogs that like to bark so as for complete quite I don't know what I am going to. I might have to get better cutains for our windows so the dogs can't see whats going on outside and wont bark. Well it will be really nice having her home for the summer. we cant wait to take her for walks outside and in the park. going to the beach and most of all A phillies game.

One day later!

Wow what a day yesterday. I have heard rumors this weekend that LoA coul be coming out on Monday but I didn't beleive ours would be sent. I really thought after reading people's blogs and Rumor Queens blog that we were not going to hear anything until April 15. So I got to work around 2 in the afternoon and was setting things up when my cell phone rang. As my phone was ringing two customers were walking in the door. I almost didn't answer my phone usually when I am at work I don't answer my cell. Thank God I answered because it was my socail worker Sarah telling me LOA arrived. I couldn't scream or get very excited because standing in front of me were a bride and her bridesmaid ready to pick out bridesmaids dresses. So I put Sarah on hold and rushed them into the room with bridesmaid gowns and returned to phone call to tell Sarah I be there in an hour to pick up the paperwork. I couldn't hang up with her quick enough to call Ryan. I don't think he beleived me when I called him. I joke around alot but this would never be something I would joke about. I called my mom made her come to work and off to our adoption agency to sign our paperwork and we are now just waiting for a phone number so we can next day it to Texas for immagration to give us the ok. Then we wait for Travel Approval. We can't wait. Yesterday we had plans to go to my cousins house for dinner, just a nice dinner for me and my cousin John. Well I call Rose to tell her abour LOA. When we got there it was a nice suprise she had champagne ready for us and a nice toast. This is all very exciting for us. Hopefully this month will fly by and all of our paperwork will process and get back to us sooner than later.
Congrats to all the other families that got to see there baby today!!! We wish you lots of luck and hopeing you LOA's and TA get here really soon.

Letter of Acceptance

We just got word, we received our Letter of Acceptance!!! I will post more tonight. We are super excited.