The Inspiration for the Title of this Blog

Emily

They walked hand in hand along the beach
yet on the horizon, just beyond their reach,
lay a heart of gold, not earthly treasure,
full of love, beyond all measure.

So together with grit & determination
they crossed the sea to another nation.
A baby sparrow had fallen from the nest,
alone, hoping to be chosen from all the rest.

She placed her tiny hand upon Julie's hem
and Peter knew she was the one for them.
Sunshine & laughter sparkle on the beach today
where Mommy, Daddy & Emily play.
... Uncle Greg

My brother sent this wonderful poem along with a patch of fabric for Emily's 100 wishes quilt. We will always cherish this poem - more so because in 2008 Greg sadly passed away. We miss him and will share our fond memories with her. Amazingly, we received the referral call for Emily on the third anniversary of his passing.

Special little treasures from the past.

Thank you so much Auntie Tina, Uncle Mick and cousin Chloe for the lovely clothes for Emily, we love the Monsoon clothes. She will definitely look like an island girl in these. How special that you kept the bunny book and the blanket that I bought for Chloe back in 1994 and now Emily will enjoy them both and I can tell Emily the story of these very special gifts.

Thank you Helena and David

Somebody has been shopping at Baby Gap??? Wow all these clothes for Emily!! I had one pair of P.J's age 9 months and no clothes for a younger baby, now we have so many that Emily will have an outfit a day for the next couple of months. Thank you so much we really appreciate your generosity. Emily is going to be one smartly dressed little girl!!

A parcel from Grandma!

Last week we received a parcel from my mum in England. It was early morning in U.K but my mum was awake so we opened it together on skype. So many wonderful gifts not only for Emily but also for a very proud mummy and daddy! I can see grandma is going to be spoiling a certain little girl!

A Gift from a Special Artist

Thank you to Betty for this adorable painted chair. Betty is a beautiful artist and hand painted this chair for Emily. We love the chair and I know Emily will cherish this chair for many, many years to come. I know you must be enjoying your amazing trip Betty and we will catch up with you when we get back from China.

More beautiful gifts for our sweet Emily.

Thank you so much Genevieve, Mark, Felix and Oceane for the lovely soft blanket and the "Goodnight Moon" story book. I am sure that Emily will want this story over and over again! we are looking forward to some playdates together very soon.

Look Who's a Happy Baby!

We were surprised to find updated pictures of Emily in our in-box this morning. What a happy baby! It's made our day to see that she's smiling. Can't wait to giver her a hug... XOXOXO

Grandad's Graffiti

Kudos to Grandad for outdoing himself on the congratulations card he sent. But did you HAVE to cut up our wedding pictures? Emily will be sure to get a kick out of it when she's older - you scored again Grandad. Very funny and witty - just like you. XOXOXO

Thank you to very special friends

Dianna and I went shopping and brought back this cute coordinated outfit for Emily. Thank you so much, Dianna and Brent - we're sure Emily will look adorable in her new outfit. XOXO

A Surprise in Today's Mail

We got a beautiful surprise from Jacqueline - one of our past homestay students from Germany. Emily received not one but two fabulous gifts - and Mum and Dad received something more special - encouragement and validation. We're really touched by the support she's shown us and appreciate her thoughtfulness. One day we hope Emily can meet her in person! XOXOXO

Where exactly is Emily now?

Here is a map showing the location of Emily's orphanage. It's in Yugan - the small red dot beside the big yellow dot. We will probably meet her in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province. We'll spend a week there before returning to Beijing. In 1949, Nanchang had a population of ~275,000 - now it's more than 4 million.

Another step closer!!!!

So on Thursday our Facilitator called and said go ahead and book your flights for China. How exciting, now that we know for sure which day we will travel to pick up Emily!

We leave on the 10th of September. On Monday 19th Septeber we will fly to Nanchang (Emily's Province) and meet our sweet baby!! We will stay in Nanchang until the following Friday then all head back to Beijing for the final formalities and all three of us will head back home September 29th

While we are in Nanchang I hope to meet up with my step brother who is living in Shanghai! We just do not have the time to visit Shanghai as there are formalities in Nanchang. We will have to see Shanghai on a return trip in the future. It is great that my step brother will be the first family member to meet Emily.

So everything is moving along and right now I have list after list after list!!

This weekend our two international students left! We had one from South Korea and the other one was from Japan. It has been so wonderful hosting students for the past 3 years and we have learnt so much about other cultures and made life long friends. It is sad when they leave as they become part of our family, especially when they have stayed with you for a year! Most of the students keep in touch through email or skype and it is interesting to hear what they are doing in life. We have had a German student return to the island and she came to visit us.

So now our house will feel empty as we are not hosting students for a while as there is just too much to do with travelling in September. I will leave you with a beautiful message I found on the chalk board downstairs after the students had left.Kanako bought Emily a lovely Hello Kitty toy and gave it to us before she left. So sweet!!!!

Signing our Proposal for Emily

Today was a busy day!! We sent out Emily's Care Package and also had an appointment at our Adoption Agency to sign Emily's Proposal! A very exciting day, meeting the staff at our agency ready to give us hugs and congratulations!!! We are another step closer to meeting our baby!! We are lucky that we had our updated homestudy done 3 weeks before our proposal so no more paper work for a while.

After the Agency appointment we went on a hunt for a car seat. We found the one we wanted but they did not have it in stock so it is being sent over from Vancouver.

We had a lovely lunch in Victoria, then walked the dogs along the Gorge. A beautiful day!!!

Care Package

Today we had to send our Care Package to Ottawa as our Facilitator is leaving for China on Saturday. She will deliver it to Emily's Orphanage for us so that Emily will get the items very quickly.

The items had to fit into a kleenex box, which is not very big! We put in a diposable camera, hoping that Emily's carer will take some photos of her and we hope to get the camera back when we go and pick her up. A rattle, stuffed little toy bunny, a small photo album with pictures of mummy, daddy, and our two lovely dogs and some candies for the carers. Our Facilitator has to take 8 of these boxes in her suitcase as there are 8 other couples in our travel group. We feel so lucky that Emily's Care Package will be hand delivered by our Facilitator.

Celebrating with special friends

Yesterday we had a celebration lunch with our special friends in Parksville. They were as excited as we were!!! Thank you so much guy's! We can not wait to introduce Emily to you very soon.

A Big Thank You to our Cyber Shower Pal Andrea

Today we picked up a parcel chock full of travel necessities for our trip to meet our sweet Emily. We both had fun taking turns unwrapping each individually wrapped gift. All these items were on our shopping list! A fun and practical gift!
Thank you so much Andrea, it will be your time very soon and we both wish you all the very best.

Wow!! Thank you

The last couple of days have been just amazing! We would like to thank everyone for all their beautiful wishes and flowers. We have been waiting so long for this day and I am still on cloud nine!!
We have pictures of Emily all over the house, so wherever we are she is there too.I cannot wait to hold her in my arms and love her unconditionally. We are coming very soon Emily to pick you up.
A huge thank you to my husband Peter who has been a rock through this wild ride. Peter always told me throughout this wait, "We will get our baby." He has been so supportive and loving. He has had a smile on his face from ear to ear the last couple of days, knowing that he is a daddy, and a beautiful daddy he will be!
To our famillies and wonderful friends, thank you for supporting us during this wait. Thank you mum for counting down the days with us!!

To all the people waiting for their turn to adopt, the wait was very hard with many ups and downs but I want to say once you get the call from your agency the feeling is absolutely amazing and very exciting. Good Luck to everyone!!

A Big Thank You with Hugs!

I picked this arrangement up for my lovely wife - who I know will be a fantastic mother. At the top of the bouquet there's a tiny pair of flip-flops - I can just imagine Emily and Julie hand in hand on the beach. I love you Julie XOXOX, PeterThank you so much, Linda and Stephan for the beautiful roses. They were arranged by Linda and even had small hearts lovingly added onto the petals - so thoughtful. We feel so lucky to have such lovely friends. Dear Ayse and Erdin: You brought tears of joy to our eyes because your beautiful bouquet and plush bunny are another sign that our dream is coming true - you made it real for us. Your words touched our hearts. We love you both, and miss you. Love, Julie and Peter

Our First Pictures of Emily

Here she is! We found out her name is Yue Lidi which means: Exceedingly beautiful younger sister! She is from Yugan County SWI, Jiangxi Province.

She is so cute and look at those kissable cheeks!!! We can not wait to meet her very soon!

What a beautiful day!!! We got the call we have been waiting for from our agency at 10 a.m this morning.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!! Her name is Yue Li Di and her birthday is Dec 4th 2010. So 7 months old!!
We do not have any pictures yet as our file has gone to Ottawa for translation and we have been told we will get all the information and pictures by Friday at the latest.

We can finally get off the roller coaster and start planning for our baby!!!!!

Any Day Now!

It has been confirmed that China has matched through to July 6th 2006 - our LID is July 5th so we're in! We will receive our child proposal any day now. Any phone call could be our Agency with details. We will keep you posted! Wish us luck.