Emma's Lair

Emma's room increased greatly in cuteness and girlosity yesterday with the delivery of furniture from the good folks at R.C. Willey. We'd wanted to put in a daybed or something on which mom could..er..recline and then decided to just go ahead and get a twin bed for Emma to graduate to at some point. We chose white to go with the white shutters (who says we're not good interior decorators). And then we hung the quilt, which immediately lit up the whole room. Then we purchased a sage green comforter and lavender sheets and thereby pronounced the colors of the room "sage green and lavender"! They're all colors in the quilt and I believe the whole room "works." There are a few more details to finish up...but dang, I think it's one cute little girl's room, if you don't mind my sayin' so (although it does need the little girl).

Emma's Room, Etc.

While Joe was in South America my friend Madeleine and I started painting Emma's room lavender. We ran out of paint and Madeleine said she could come back and help me finish the next day, but I had a big R.S. event I had to work on so I told her I'd finish it when Joe came home. Madeleine called the next day and said she REALLY wanted to finish it, so she and her husband, Ed, came up and finished painting the room!! It was so very dear and sweet of them. . We painted it lavender so it will go with Emma's cute quilts. The most recent quilt we received for Emma was handmade by my sister Barb's friend Debbie. Debbie is unbelievably good. She made a beautiful dragonfly quilt for Emma. The dragonflies have three-dimensional wings (check out the close-ups). This is truly a work of art and will be hanging on a wall soon! More pix to follow when the room is more complete.

Although we're still not sure when we will be traveling, our agency's travel coordinator (she is a native of Taiwan) did send us the following itinerary of what will happen when we're there. It's very exciting....

Day 1 arriving Beijing
Day 2 Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, HuTong tour
Day 3 Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Acrobatic Show
Day 4 Beijing - local province (Changsha City if your baby is from Hunan province; Wuhan City if your baby is from Hubei province; Huhehoute City if your baby is from Niemenggu province.)
Day 5 Gotcha Day! Receiving your baby/adoption registration/notary/passport
Day 6 Baby supply shopping
Day 7 Orphanage visit (optional)
Day 8 City tour
Day 9 rest
Day 10 Local tour
Day 11 pick up baby's Chinese passport/birth certificate/adoption certificate
Day 12 Local province - Guangzhou/medical exam/paperwork review
Day 13 Consulate appointment (not confirmed)
Day 14 pick up baby's immigrant visa
Day 15 depart from China

We have heard from two of the families in Minnesota we will be traveling with. One family is from Duluth, MN, and is adopting a two-year-old boy they will name Nathaniel Gregory. The other family is from outside the twin cities and is adopting an 11-month-old girl they will name Lydia. Lydia's from the same orphanage as Emma (Qichun). Her Chinese name is similar to Emma's: Qi Jia Tian. Too bad Emma and Lydia won't live near each other, but maybe they can be pen pals.

Baba in Chee-lay

Today Joe was in Santiago, Chile. Spring was in the air. He had lunch at the restaurant featured in the photo. He and his fellow lunchers got an appetizer plate with many kinds of fish: smoked oysters, raw oysters, shrimp, crab, smoked & raw salmon, octopus, squid, and "stuff I didn't know," said Joe, including something with barnacles. Monday is Chile's independence day and Joe is attending a holiday lunch tomorrow with 150 Church employees who work in the Santiago area office. Joe will be a "dignitary" at one of the tables. That's my Joey: dignified. Then he leaves Santiago tomorrow evening, flies 10 hours and gets home Saturday morning. Yippee. It's fun to see his photos from South America, sure, but it'll be more fun to have him home again.

Baba in B.A.

Today Joe is in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is a picture of him in front of the Presidential Palace in the center of town. He says it's lovely weather (it's early spring down there, don'tcha know. The seasons, they're reversed in that part of the world.) He and his boss had a good dinner this evening; it started with an empanada, progressed to something like a chicken fried steak only better, and ended with delicioso South American ice cream. After church manana, Joe will be flying to Montevideo, Uruguay, his old mission stomping grounds.

Baba in Lima

In non-Emma-related news: Joe is currently on a work trip, making a whirlwind tour of distribution centers in seven countries in South America. First stop, Lima, Peru. Yesterday he told me he was taking a "two-hour tour at 2:00" and would e-mail me a picture of a sight he saw. He saw many statues, churches, and government buildings. I don't know who the statue represents, but I think Joey looks quite fetching. ("Baba," by the by, is how you say daddy in Chinese. Mama in Chinese remains mama.)

July 2005 Group's Referrals

For a look at some of the cute little girls who were referred last week along with Emma, check out this link: http://www.julydragonflies.com/Referrals/babies1.htm There's even a set of twins, Rose and Marie, born in Emma's province, Hubei. Maybe we'll get to meet them when we're there. (Rose and Marie's parents have a cute blog at http://salsainchina.blogspot.com. They got 515 comments on the post where they announced they'd been referred twin girls.)