And Finally...A Photo! + Some Updates April 17 - Photos Added

Nancy and I want to thank you all for the kind and warm replies to our posts here! It is nice to be able to share our adventures, and to hear back from our friends and family.

This is a scan copy of little Emily's visa photo shot. As I have said before, she is a cutie, isn't she?! :)

So while she has great big pudgy little cheeks once she starts to smile, one thing I have to make everyone aware of is this little girl has a tiny little butt. Yep, baby has got NO back! But she more then makes up for it with all the spunk and frolic she now sports each day.

So today is the application meeting with the US Consulate. Nothing for us to do except stand by for questions if the Consulate has any. Chris will do the actual meeting and application filing on behalf of all the families.

We pretty much have a leisure day today to get out and do whatever we want after lunch and we get the "all clear" from Chris. Emily loves outdoors and as the weather is now sunny and warm... I am sure we will spend a good deal of time outside today seeing the local sites. I know for sure I will be shopping for more locally made toys with bells in them as she just loves them.

Yesterday we bought Emily a cute little traditional Chinese dress, Teal colored with gold trim and little butterfly patterns scattered across it. She will wear this for her "red couch" photos on Tuesday. I really want to get a little pair of the "squeaky" shoes for her too, for when she is ready to walk in a few months. Nancy shows all the signs of a small buying binge for little dresses to take home as well :)


Emily Waits For Her Medical Check-up
.... A Pondering Look In Her Eyes

Progress Update on Emily:
Let me just start by saying that yesterday she developed and released some really nice vocal squeals when she gets really happy (which is often these days). She continues to become more and more animated each day, and we have not seen this plateau yet. She has a very effective little movement of looking over her shoulder slowly to make eye contact with daddy and then giving a great big huge toothless grin and giggle. Yep, you guessed it.... she owns daddy with that move.

She continues to do well with developing her skills for sitting and I expect her to have full balanced sitting within a couple weeks. She has the ability and physical strength, just has not had this coached and developed prior to our receiving her. She has good strength in her legs and can stand with assistance for balance for several minutes at a time. We have to trick her into laying on her belly (by cuddling her and then leaning back so she is resting on our chest) and she had full ability to lift and articulate her head as well as typical crawling movements with legs and a good level of arm strength when she wants to apply them. This makes for a good outlook for a quick move to crawling after she matures with sitting. [babies in China orphanages go straight from crib to walkers at about 5-6 months age so they generally do not learn unassisted sitting and absolutely devoid of crawling skills. On the other hand, when we put them in walkers at the Dolton Hotel in Changsha, some of them were pretty much hell on wheels.]

Emily has developed a taste for licking mommies food spoon, which is a habit we think she picked up from her nannies at the orphanage. If Nancy takes a table spoon and rubs the back side of it in any food that has a salty taste to it, Emily will stick out her tongue and lick and lick and lick with joy. We now have her on a regular pooping schedule after the initial intervention with a suppository at day 4 to get her going. Chris advised that we put a little bit of honey in her milk at each feeding as this is a traditional remedy in China for constipation. We have taken to putting a third of a container of baby food banana in as well in place of half of her rice powder. While the normal orphanage diet is a bottle of warm sweetened milk power (4 parts) + rice powder (8 parts), this combination is definitely binding in nature so I have to wonder how they kept em flowing at the orphanage. I am guessing that they fed them mashed fruit and fruit juices in the afternoon. Emily shuns baby food at this point, so we have opted to slip it in her milk for expediency with the honey and seems to work fine.

Tomorrow is our final meeting with the US Consulate where we will swear-in that we have provided factual and accurate paperwork and further swear that we will provide for and never abandon Emily. At the conclusion of this brief ceremony, Emily receives her IR3 visa and a super secret sealed envelope we are not permitted to open and must present to the Immigration officials when we land in San Jose.