More Photos!!

Today two more photos of Emily arrived. These photos are still 4 months old, when Emily was around 7 months.


Emily in Red


Emily in blue

Isn't she cute?? And here's information on her birthplace. Emily is located in one of the more scenic areas of China. Guangxi is at the very southern end of China, northeast of Vietnam. Take a look: Travel China Guide

How interesting is that? Kevin and I love the outdoors, especially water, and love culture. The many ethnic minority groups in Guangxi should make for fascinating sightseeing. Caroline has always enjoyed doing embroidery, and embroidery is one of the main attractions of this region.

Here are more photos of the region: Guangxi

Here's Our Emily!!

Finally!! Sorry for the late post, but we didn't get the call until 4pm--the wait almost drove us crazy!! And then we had to call family, which took the next 3 hours! So heeerrreee'ssss Emily!! We're not sure how old this photo is--it's probably several months old, and we'll have 2 more updated ones tomorrow. The babies' heads are usually shaved to get them through the hot summer months, which is why Emily actually looks like Kevin!! Aren't her eyes just beautiful, though? The babies are so heavily clothed that they usually don't have necks, as you can see here. The updated photos should have her looking more normal.

Here's the info we have on her:

Chinese Name: Cen Fu Pei (Cen = orphanage surname, Fu = Good Fortune, Pei = Abundance)
American Name: Possibly Emily Fu Pei Lewis
Orphanage: Guanxi (just northeast of Vietnam)
Date of Birth: approximately 6/13/04 (she's 11.5 mos old)
Age requested: 0-9 mos (oh well!)
Weight (as of 1/21/04): 16 lbs
Height (as of 1/21/04): 25.2". We'll get more updated information in the next few weeks.

Emily has 4 teeth, gorgeous black almond eyes, a round face and possibly a dimpled chin (it's hard to tell from the photo). She holds her head up, rolls from left to right, laughs, smiles, responds to her name, and shares a crib with another little girl, whom she's very close to. We're exhausted from calling so many family members and following the other families' progress all day, but we're extremely happy. We're only weeks away from holding our little girl. It doesn't get any better than that.

We're off to the hospital now to visit Caroline's dad and show him his granddaughter for the very first time. We'll check back in later tonight or tomorrow, so let us know what you think!!

Caroline and Kevin
a.k.a. Emily's Mommy and Daddy

Referrals are in but we're waiting!!

It's 2pm and we're still waiting for our call. The referrals are pouring in, and our friends are receiving their babies, all of them so far under a year old and mainly from the central and Southeastern part of China.! Emily could be any age and from anywhere, so hang in there and keep us in your thoughts!!

Caroline and Kevin

Referral Dream

Well, it's referral day, and I've been up since 4am! I had a referral dream. Here's how it went...

I dreamt that Kevin and I had just received Emily. She was so tiny and adorable! And crawling. And Kevin and I were a little clueles about how to take care of her. We kept forgetting to work as a team, so we didn't keep a constant eye on her and kept losing her throughout the house. At one point, family and friends around us would tell us what room she was in and what mischief she was up to. We'd go find her each time but somehow lose her again. At the end of the dream I found her, and she was covered in chocolate syrup! That's KEVIN'S chocolate syrup!! I'm allergic to chocolate!!

How are we ever going to make it to this afternoon??!! :O

Caroline

We find out tomorrow!!!!!

Much to our complete surprise and absolute shock, we will be receiving our first photo of Emily TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!! Rumors were flying about referrals this week, then the first week of June. However, today we received word from our social worker and adoption agency that tomorrow we'll receive THE CALL. This means we'll have Emily's name, possible birth date, orphanage name/city, Chinese province, her age, weight, height and general health. That information might be several months old (as the picture will be), but updated information will follow later.

We even have a travel group number, so we're slowly finding out which other families we're travelling with. It looks like we might be flying to China with a couple who belongs to our local Families with Asian Children (FAC) group (the group we celebrate Asian holidays with). These are now good friends, so it's incredible luck that we'll travel at least part way together (our babies are apparently in different orphanages).

Check back tomorrow for Emily's photo!!!!! I don't know how we'll sleep tonight!!

P.S. Caroline's father is in the hospital with severe back pain--we don't know much right now, but something is pressing on his spine--possibly a nerve due to a herniated disc. We'll post more about Dad as soon as we know something.

--Caroline and Kevin

Chrysalises in the Garden

The Scarlet Milkweed in Emily’s garden proved irresistible to Monarch caterpillars. No less than 36 caterpillars stripped the flowers and leaves in a day, leaving mere sticks behind! You can see a couple of the "sticks" behind the pagoda. Once they were lush and leafy, with pretty yellow and orange flowers at their tips.

Luckily, the caterpillars were kind enough to build chrysalises (cocoons) in the surrounding garden. Here are a few photos of the gorgeous Monarch Butterfly chrysalis. Soon we'll watch as Monarch butterflies emerge from their cocoons!


Chrysalis on Emily's Pagoda

The color of the chrysalis is incredible. It's the lightest shade of jade, with lovely gold trim.


Chrysalis on Coquina Rock

Our hope is that every year, Emily will be able to watch as the caterpillars spin their cocoons and then emerge as butterflies...so she can enjoy nature as much as we do.

Grammi Frani's Curtains

Look what Grammi Frani made for Emily!! Can you see the white eyelet material? Ahhhh, lovely.

When are we getting that baby???

May 18th Update--Matches could push out to the first week to June, after all. We still don't know much more at this point. We'll update as soon as possible.

In answer to everyone's excited inquiries, here's the latest information we have. We're definitely getting Emily's photo in the next few weeks. Our adoption agency, Chinese Children Adoption International (www.ccai.org) believes we're not in the match room yet. The match room is a large area at the Chinese Children Adoption Agency (CCAA) in Beijing, China. CCAA is the governing authority that adopts out children from orphanages across China. In the match room, paperwork from adoptive families around the world--which is stacked piles high in CCAA's offices--is addressed on a first-come, first-served basis. So there's no telling what day we're actually matched!

Rumor is the matches will happen the week of May 23rd. I can't give my source, but it's reliable. This date isn't set in stone, but as soon as our agency has more information, they'll let us know--they refuse to publicly speculate, and who can blame them? As soon as we hear anything solid, we'll update the website.

Once we get “THE CALL”, the agency will give us Emily’s Chinese name, birth date, orphanage name/province, and general health information (height, weight, Hepatitis B results, and any other available information). The health information should be dated within the last 6 months. Hopefully we'll receive more current medical information and updated photos of Emily before we travel.

Keep us in your thoughts these coming weeks--sleep is getting harder and we're getting reaaaallllyyy excited!! And feel free to add your comments to the website, because we'll keep it as a momento for Emily when she gets older! :D

Caroline and Kevin
mommy- and daddy-to-be

Back in Emily's Garden

We have a new addition to Emily's garden--her swing! Daddy put it up today and is very proud of it. Thanks to Aunt Joan and Uncle Bob Slowey for their lovely gift.

And here's Brammie's garden, updated with a pretty bench. Eventually, the Hibiscus will create a wall around the garden. Kevin wanted to recreate the feel of his grandparents' garden, which had nooks and crannies that made him want to explore as a child.

Emily's Closet and Bookcase

How could I forget?? Kevin built Emily's closet from scratch, after we pulled out the old fixtures and added a fresh layer of paint. Didn't Kevin do a great job? I just love the baskets!! We're hoping her closet replaces a dresser...at least for a while.


Emily's closet

And here's Emily's bookcase. We'll continue to fill it, 'cause it's too empty!! This bookcase used to be a dark brown--it was a record cabinet that belonged to Kevin's dad. So it's nice to update it and keep it in the family!


Emily's bookcase