Monday, March 26


Hi, greetings from the newly minted parents of 4.
we got our little girl this morning and i can tell you already that she is quite a character.
there were no tears at our meeting (at least on Ellie's part) she was calm and cool. Brian and i sat down on the floor in the room at waited for her to decide we were OK. the sweet nanny kept telling her that we were her mama and baba and she kept looking at us like we were from the planet mars. fortunately she feel prey to our devious plan, bribe her with food. she has pretty much been eating ever since. we had some tears at nap time but we have also been rewarded with big smiles and a giggle that would melt a Grinch's heart.
she came to us wearing four layers of clothing (2 sweaters a long sleeved tee and a heavy coat) it was about 65 outside. the nanny told us that Ellie eats just about everything and so far she has been correct, she hasn't turned down a thing. shes a lovely little girl. she enjoys things being in there place, if something has a lid it has to be on it. Her favorite toy is her staking cups (thanks auntie Amy). i have three full disposable cameras to develop that were taken by the nannies they also brought us some wonderful pics of Ellie and her friends eating the birthday cakes that we sent (can't post those till i get home to the scanner)
Ellie seems very healthy, she has a little cough and some of what i think are bug bites that she enjoys picking at, I have medication that should help that though. All in all i think we are a happy bunch. for a little girl who at our last update wasn't speaking at all she really is very vocal and is probably going to pick up English pretty quickly. I miss my big kids so much i can't believe it. i wish there were here to see all of the strange and wonder full sights. more later
much love to all

Sunday, March 25

hi all its 4 am here and i can not sleep. we are headed to the civil affairs office to get ellie in about 4 and a half hours. i don't think that i am scared but the anticipation is killing me. it has taken so long to get here that i cant beleive its right around the corner.
because i have been unable to access our blog i decided to upload our pics onto dropshots so go http://www.dropshots.com/walshpics and you can see pics. there arent too many as we dont have wee one yet. brian is fascinated by the construction. the lack of safty gear just blows him away. ther are pics of transformers, not remarkable right but they are less then six feet off the boround (at home they are min 12 ft)
anyway i have my little bag packed and our gifts all lines up. all the money for our fees is sorted and ready to be paid. just a few more hours of waiting. i think it might kill me.i hope all are having a great weekend. ill post more after gottcha
well all we made it to china. i am not able to access blogger so my little Korean Savior of this trip (aka aunt sherri) is going to try to post this for me. our flight was long but just fine. there was lots of food and the attendants spoke enough English that we were able to get by. i say the flight was fine but i will also say that if it is at all possible we will be springing for the upgrade to "premium" economy. i think that it will be worth the investment.
Hefei is an interesting city. there is a beautiful park that is 5 miles long just up from our hotel. its really peacefull. we walked it yesterday.and saw people getting men getting pedicures and shaves on little stools, people seemed to be taking dancing lesions, oh and i have to mention the one legged monkey. there were several people playing musical instruments that i had never seen before and the sounds were beautiful. it is interesting to be stared at everywhere we go. most people are very nice, children giggle and seem to dare each other to walk up to us and say "hello", older women comment on how big and strong Brian looks(that working out is paying off). but there are some people really not many who honestly look at us like we are going top eat there young, its a little disconcerting. the hotel in nice and most folk speak enough English to meet our needs. we have had fun running into a few fluent in English who are very foreword (i mean that in a good way) and will strike up a conversation. we helped a few college student get extra credit, they were English majors and if they talk to foreigners they get extra points.they were really cute.
we have thus far had no tummy troubles. but we do tend to stick close to the hotel for food. there a six restaurants so we have lots of options. there is even a little deli where you can get a slice of cake for like 75 cents!!!!! if you don't know already i love cake.
we get Ellie on Monday morning local time. i appreciate all of the prayers and good vibes that i can feel coming our way. thank you thank you more later

Wednesday, March 21

leavin' on a jet plane.....


well we're off in a few hours to the airport. then at 11:45 pm its off to China. before we go im sure that a good time will be had at Malibu Al's....Margaritas anyone??
well post when we get settled in our hotel.

Tuesday, March 20

tomorrow tomorrow i love ya tomorrow!






well, we leave for China tomorrow and i can't even describe how freaked out i am. wanted to give you a little run down of the goings on while we are there. we will be staying at the Holiday Inn in Hefei. it comes complete with a revolving restaurant on the top. Yes we are livin' large. we will arrive in Hefei (this is the capitol city of Ellie's province) on Saturday morning local time (it's a +15 hour time difference so were generally a day ahead) we will have a day to acclimate ourselves before Ellie arrives. we should be meeting a beautiful girl on Sunday evening. We will have a brief opportunity to talk to someone from the orphanage when we meet Ellie. During the next few days we will have several meeting with various officials and finalize Ellie's adoption. Hopefully wed. Brian will be able to visit her orphanage and takes lots of pictures. We will be traveling to Guangzhou on Friday mar 30. where we will be staying at the White Swan hotel. It is sort of the Mecca for adoptive families in China. Everything here is complete and were ready to travel were just waiting patiently for it to be time to leave for the airport. While we are gone the kids and grandma will be busy. the kids test for their next belts in Tae Kwon Do and they start spring nest week. The three of them are very excyted to be FINALLY getting there little sister home with them. just because i haven't posted any kid pics in a while here are a few just to make me happy!


















Friday, March 16

WE GOT US SOME PLANE TICKETS BABY!!!!!
WOW IN 5 DAYS WE ARE HEADED TO CHINA!!!!!

Wednesday, March 14

haleluya!! is that how you spell that?

We are going to China baby, yes the adoption gods have finally felt pity on us and we got our consulate appointment. We are leaving on march 21st. and we will be coming home on the 4 th. somewhere in there we will meet our beautiful daughter and try to convince her
we are not completely horrible. I hope that you will join us on our journey, we could not be more excited!

Tuesday, March 13

no gnews is good gnews??



Well, its tuesday evening and we still don't have a consulate appointment. we are hopping to leave on friday march 23. I know that our agency is doing all that they can do to get a responce from the embassy. I think all of us are just so frustrated. but hopefully we will hear tomorrow and can start making plans. Otherwise all is well. we are thrilled to be hosting my brother and his lovely wife for easter this year. i am pretty sure that brian, ellie and i will sleep through alot of it i know that the big kids will enjoy having there aunt and uncle here. anyway hope to have good news to post tomorrow. have a great night

Friday, March 9

i'm sad today

Hi because we were unable to secure the consulate appointments that are necessary we won't be able to leave for china until at least march 23. Our agency tried very hard to get things done but when you dealing with the government it isn't always in you control. i am so sad. I don't know what else to say. ill post when there is more info. thanks

Wednesday, March 7

coming out of the fog and random bits

We are finally comming out of the flu fog. Everyone in the house with the exception of mom have been seriously draggin. We are still awaiting our consulate appointment so there is no itinerary to report but we are still planing to leave next friday.

I find myself experiencing a huge array of emotions these last few days. i am nervous about leaving the big kids for so long. i know that they are in the best possible hands but the process of putting all the important papers in one place so they can be found easily were something were to happen, we'll its a little sobering.
i love these kids so much and they have brought me more joy then i ever thought possible. i have also been very sad for Ellie and for all of the changes that are about to come her way. i know that ultimately she is getting a better life complete with siblings,dogs and frogs. but in the short term she is loosing EVERYTHING that she has ever known. driving in the car today i found myself crying for her losses and wishing there was an easier way for her to have come home to her family.

Thursday, March 1

we're wearin our squirll coats, come on in

Well another day goes by and no news on the travel approval front. Looks like it will be another week before we hear anything. Monday i was nuts today those nuts are cracked. i am going CRAZY, i know not usually not much of a streatch but it is miles from normal. I have gone over all my lists, i can not concentrate on a quilt. In the usual Murphy lives here the Refridgerater repair man was here ning. and $200 later im not sure what he did but the fridge no longer smells like burning rubber, and congrats to my mom who quit smoking long enough ago to smell the stink, that sort of thing could drive her back to the smokes. Hopefully there will be news soon, PLEASE GOD!!