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.