Abigail's Arrival

Today our Emma is 11 months old! We have been thinking about her alot today and hoping we will be there next month to celebrate her 1st birthday with her!

This week we welcomed Miss Abigail into our lives. She arrived Thursday morning weighing in at 7lbs, 12ozs and 20.5" long. She is very sweet and has already stolen our hearts! Big brother seems to be adjusting pretty well and when we left today he wanted her to watch movies with him! We think he will be a big help to his momma and daddy as they adjust to being a family of four!!

What a week!!

We have had a wonderful week as new parents to our sweet Emma! Above is just a glimpse of the many activities we have had going on since receiving Emma's referral information on the 8th. Everyone is so excited to finally put a sweet face to the child we have all been axiously waiting for. We quickly went out and made many, many copies of the precious photos and handed them out to everyone. On Thursday, we were reminded that some babies are delivered by FedEx!

We also made a trip home to celebrate Easter Sunday. It was definately an appropriate holiday for us this week, as we are having a new beginning in our household. We also spent Saturday signing a stack of documents to send back to China. They were mailed on Wednesday the 15th - and so the wait for travel approval begins! We are told this can take anywhere from 2 to 7 weeks - so we are praying for 2 and hoping for the best.

On Monday evening, we arrived home to find two new glider rockers in our living room! Thanks Mom and Dad! They are perfect for rocking, napping, and reading to our sweet girl. We can't wait to get her home and put them to good use. We have also received some really cute outfits and cards from all our family and friends! Everyone is so excited and we can't wait to get Emma home and introduce her to our large, loving group of family and friends!

AT LAST - HERE SHE IS!!

Introducing......

Emma MeiSi Wheeler

THE CALL

Oh my, yesterday was exciting! We started out the day with our normal off to work routine. I told Russman maybe I would be calling him today and he replied with his standard "I hope so!" which has become routine over the last few weeks while we've been waiting. I made it to work and checked the rumor queen, but still nothing - no news on these precious referrals.

About 10:00am I took another look at Rumor Queen to learn that phone calls were being made in the US. Well, you can just imagine the excitement that finally this day had come! I immediately sent out the emails to everyone and called Russman to let him know that the calls were being made. I think he was in shock - much like myself! However, all this excitement turned course when the email from our agency arrived saying that they did confirm a package was on the way but would not arrive till Monday! With this news I again sent the emails and called Russman to let them know and we all settled into this news that Monday would be "the day"!

After getting back from lunch, I was paged for a phone call on line 1. I answered and the conversation went something like this:

"This is Angie"

"Angie, this is Allison (our case worker)"

"What are you doing calling me, you're not suppose to call till Monday!"

"Well, I'm calling you today and you need to get Rusty and call me back!"

The next part is a blur but I'm pretty sure I screamed, said we would call right back and hung up. Then began the phone calls to Grandma telling her to get here now, and of course, Rusty - who was not answering his phone! Are you kidding me!! Seriously, you are not answering - went through my mind! I then called his work number and waited for them to find him. Finally he answered and I said we got our call! I know he was shocked and said "Em, okay - I"ll get there as soon as I can!" Come to find out, his work was total chaos and to make a long story short, he finally came barging thru the doors at 4:30! In the meantime, I had made numerous phone calls while waiting with my parents for his arrival! Finally, the call was made! We've posted the video, but of course, our battery went dead during the call! I can tell right now that a couple of more batteries are on the top of our shopping list!

We are so thrilled with our news and relieved to know our baby girl seems to be healthy and in foster care getting some TLC. We are also excited to know she will hopefully spend her 1st birthday with us! It sounds like we may be planning a birthday party in China! All the more fun!

We will post more Monday - when hopefully the rest of the packet is translated and can be sent! Until then, enjoy!!

Introducing..........

Cen Si Mei

Born May 26, 2008

Hengfeng County Social Welfare Institute

Jiangxi Province

At her 6 month check up she weighed 14.3 lbs and was 24.8" long. She is currently in foster care. We hope to receive her entire packet on Monday and will post more information then. We have a video of the call and will post it later this evening.

WE GOT THE CALL!!!!

I'm just sitting here waiting for Rusty to get here so we can call our agency back and get all the details! We will post Miss Emma's info soon!!!!

Where are you stork??

Where the heck are you stork? I'm in some serious labor pains today and really need you to make your appearance. We did receive good news when our agency emailed and said that referrals have been processed for our group and now it is just a matter of waiting for them to get here. I'm hoping and praying they were mailed yesterday and we will hear something on Friday (apparently it takes 3 days mail time). So, in the meantime we continue to try and get through the days without going completely nuts. I will say I had a Dr. appt yesterday and told them I was going crazy - but they assured me I was normal, not crazy! All in all, we have done a pretty good job of being patient but these last few days are killing me! I'm tired of waiting and I want my referral - so fly stork, fly!!!