Thank you

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments on our blog posts recently. I tried to go in and respond to everyone, but for the sake of time, I'm thanking you all in this post. We are beyond thrilled and so in love with Emma already. We can't wait to hold her, make her laugh and discover who this little person is. I want to know where her one tooth is located and I hope it's in the front like a jack-o-lantern! I love that look! It's the only time in life where it's cool to have "somer teeth"...some are here, some are not.

This last week has been crazy and I can barely keep up with email exchanges in addition to getting ready for a trip of a lifetime, let alone the blog, Facebook, Chinaadopttalk and the Suichuan Yahoo online groups...um, this girl needs to backoff with all the socializing!

We spoke to our agency yesterday and if the travel approval is received this week or next, I know when we are going to leave...but I'm not posting the dates on the blog, lol. If you want to know, email me.

Hopefully...

our travel approval shows up this week because our agency can't set up our appointments and we can't book travel until this "invite" from China arrives. Ooh, I just got butterflies in my gut typing this.

I spent time this weekend pre-packing any items I could, dividing stuff between 1 large suitcase and 2 carry-on size. We are in between luggage sizes on the packing...2 large pieces is too much, but 1 large, 1 carry-on is not enough. On the flight home, we will be much lighter...other than the 18lb little mouse we are carrying home with us...I hope she doesn't have motion sickness like her Baba!

The luggage will be lighter because we will be ridding ourselves of the 8 gifts we bring for government officials and our guides, plus we will be using the formula, diapers and wipes. If there are any clothes that are too small for Emma, I will be leaving those behind for the orphanage...wish we could lug more to give away! I'd love to figure out a way to get developmental toys and clothing to the orphanage...looking at the pictures, they don't have much and what they do have is very outdated. However, I've heard stories of donated items being thrown away or boiled to death out of fear of bringing disease to the orphanage, so I don't know.

Once our luggage empties out some, we will have plenty of room for shopping items. I'd like to bring back milestone gifts for Emma and some other "somethings" for her birthdays. Apparently Nanchang has really good shopping and we will have plenty of downtime between adoption appointments to shop and explore.

Flooding in China

Don't be alarmed! Emma is 11+ hours away from Fuzhou and her orphanage should be safe from the flooding reported today. Emma is located in Quanjian, and distance wise, this would similar to the distance between Cincinnati and Washington D.C.

If you google Suichuan, Fuzhou is east, just across the ocean from Taiwan.

Many of my online adoption friends children are in the heart of the flooding area, so please keep them in your thoughts. So far no deaths have been reported...

Paperwork has landed

It is confirmed, our acceptance paperwork is in China! I am doing the "Elaine Dance" in honor of the paperwork landing (Seinfeld reference...for those of you who have seen my moves in person, you know you love it).

Now we just wait for China to "invite" us to China, then our agency will setup the official appointments in-country. The time frame for receipt of China's invite is 1 week to 5 weeks from now. Stay tuned...

And for the record, they could tell us to fly next week and we'd be ready. I spent time over the weekend putting together Emma's travel bag contents and re-laundering her wardrobe. Geesh, I'm not very organized. ;)

Settling down...

We are finally resuming back to the "real world" after being on Cloud Nine for the past 4 days. This week has been a whirlwind, to say the least and filled with signing, copying and FedExing paperwork. The people at Kinkos now recognize me!

Our letter of acceptance lands in China today or Monday and our Visa application is being couriered today, to the Chinese Embassy in New York. We hope to get the Visas back next week. In the meantime, the next step is to wait for our Travel Approval from China. This could show up next week or 4 weeks from now. Another mom from our agency informed me that a family who received their referral in June, received their TA the week after referral. BRING IT!

We have received some of the most beautiful words and well wishes this week, from family and friends, who have waited the last 49 months with us, cheering us onward. THANK YOU! We could not have made it through without each and everyone of you.

SuiChuan SWI, Jiangxi Province

Emma is living at the SuiChuan SWI, in Southwestern China. This is a remote location and no families have ever been able to visit the orphanage; it is a long trip and roads are under heavy construction.

From the information I found today, more than likely, we will stay in Nanchang and the children will be brought to our hotel from several hours away, by their Nannies. Today I found an online group of families, all with children from SuiChuan and have become a member of their forum. I could just weep with the wonderful information I have discovered during my lunch hour perusing their forum.

Families say SuiChuan children are very well taken care of, are very attached to their Nannies and that adjustment to sleep and feeding transitions have exceeded expectations. SuiChuan babies like their bottles HOT, with rice and a large whole cut in the nipple. One of the struggles families face is figuring out how they were fed, which makes the first couple of days of family time very hard. It's so wonderful to have this information so we can make Emma as comfortable as possible.

The Doctor Report

Emma is perfect, just like we thought, which is why we ended up sharing photos before confirmation call.  She is 70th percentile in measurements and all bloodwork looks good.  Dr. Borchers didn't call until 10pm...I just knew she wasn't going to make us wait until the morning, even though Doug thought I was nuts when I asked him to watch my phone when I showered.

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The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. Get busy.

Emma Ai Zi has a face to go with that name...

More detailed medical files have arrived

Our agency was nice enough to email the translated medical documents before tomorrows FedEx shipment so we could forward them to the IA Dr. today, which we have already done. The turnaround from Dr. B is usually 24-hrs or less. We HOPE to post pics later today.

Per her medical file, she is a deep sleeper, is active, is rolling over, is smiling, LOVES music and books (yay), is sometimes obstinate and leery of strangers (uh-oh).

Herl name is, Emma Ai Zhi and the translation is:

Emma= whole, complete

Ai = Love

Zhi = glossy ganoderma (mushroom)

She loves glossy mushrooms? I dunno....but her momma loves mushrooms too!

And...

The stork has landed at the Todd casa!

Here is the teaser...she has beautiful big, expressive eyes, chunky cheeks and not enough hair for bows. The ears...well, let's just leave those for the picture unveiling, lol. Once the IA doctor gives the thumbs up, we will share pics, so hang tight.

We will receive her full medical file by email tomorrow and send to the IA Doctor. Our package will show up on Wednesday, which we hope to return by overnight for Thursday AM delivery. Our agency will send our letter of acceptance to China Thursday PM and we should be traveling the first week of August.

More than likely we will travel the first week of August!

Rumor is...

We've made the cutoff! Europe confirmed to their families that 4.26.06 is the cut-off. Europe usually receives information first then the U.S. I suspect Europe families will receive their calls Monday and the U.S. families a day or so later.

Our adoption coordinator will call us with Emma's Chinese name, birth date, age and her exact location in China, then Fedex the rest of the file once it's fully translated into English.

Once we have her Chinese name, we can book our trip to Hawaii! Emma's visa will have her full Chinese name, which is what we need for airline tickets until she receives her American passport. We still plan on using her Chinese name as her middle name.

Pins and Needles...

It's June 1st! 1-15 days from now we will know "something". There are no rumors floating around in the online adoption forum, so like the last few months, I believe families will start receiving calls without warning signs. I'm in my denial phase right now, that it is not really our turn. I won't believe it's true until our agency calls us and the FedEx man knocks on our door with Emma's file. FedEx guy is the stork!

We have the pediatrician on speed dial, as that is the first step after we receive Emma's file. Families have 24-48 hours to have the Doctor look over our child's medical information and sign a letter of acceptance to send back to China. Until we receive the seal of approval from the Doctor and sign the letter of acceptance, we probably won't share pics for superstitious reasons.