Back from China // 2nd Shower For Ella

It's now April 1st, 2007 and we're officially back from China, having landed 3 weeks ago yesterday. Its been a great three weeks, culminating with yesterday's shower, thrown by our great Sycamore Trail neighbors (Jennifer, DeDe, Meg, Wendy, Chris etc...) and made extra special with a visit this weekend from Laura's best friend from Minnesota (Dawn along with our godson Preston) and another great friend Krista, who is responsible for Laura and I ever having the chance to meet in the first place. Here are some pictures of yesterday's shower and from our fun weekend with Dawn, Preston and Krista. Coming up soon, this month in April, we will have some minor surgery for Ella to remove her ear tag - minor in everything but cost (its self pay due to cosmetic nature - how many kids have plastic surgery at 11 mos - Ella I sure hope I get out of braces for this one - though I doubt that!). We're also having Ella's first birthday party and baptism at month end. Laura and her crafty friends (especially Krista) put together some slick invitations to the party on April 28th - I'll get those on here when I post later this month - thanks!

So Long from China - Please Leave A Comment for Ella!!

So long everyone - we leave China in exactly 24 hours from now, at 9pm on Friday, March 9th and I will not have time to post tomorrow as our internet access expires in the morning. Evan and I went to the Guangzhou Electronics market today and Evan got a bunch of DS games (Jordan, take note of this). 20 games and a Revolution memory card/adapter for $$$, well lets just say we got a good sale. The big event today was that we took the oath (just affirming that all of the information we have given is true etc)! This was our final step which allows us to bring Ella home (we received her Chinese passport and Visa to enter the US). When she lands in the US and we pass her through customs (Non US Citizens Line), she will then officially become a US citizen (she'll also retain her dual Chinese citizenship). Then there is the matter of just some ongoing paperwork back home (Social Security #, official birth certificate etc). We also had dinner and shopping with our friends Mike and Jill, parents of Maya, who are just terrific people that we love hanging out with even though the jokes are usually at my expense - there is a salesperson here named Dong - I'll try to snap a picture of him tomorrow but suffice it to say he could sell cars in the US real well. Well Dong got the best of me on a few purchases early on in the trip and we've all had a lot of fun with this. But in closing, and speaking for Ella, we know that she wants to thank everyone who has followed our journey to bring her home. We will be absolutely certain to save these memories forever, including all of the wonderful comments we have received from all of you. It means so much to Laura and I that you all could be part of our adventure and more than that, will be a big part of Ella's childhood. She is so lucky. So if you could leave a comment for Ella, we would really appreciate it. We're definitely not done - all of you should look into starting a blog on blogspot -we'll keep this going after special events (like Ella's baptism and first birthday weekend- we've learned that its such a great way to communicate and create/share memories, plus I will help with some of the technical aspects). Thanks again everyone - So long from China, but we can't wait to get HOME!