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.