final posting

Hey all – This may be our final post on the blog. It is Sunday, just after lunch and Jill is feeding Emily. We have had her for almost a week now, and are getting a good feel for what her looks and cries mean. She is very snuggly and active, with arms flailing when she is rolling around or being fed. At 10 months, she likes to sit up on the bed and roll over, but sometimes gets frustrated if she cannot get up. She lets us know when she is frustrated with her cry. She cannot walk, and we haven’t seen her crawl much. We were in the playroom yesterday and she crawled a short distance to a ball. We will let her loose at home and I’m sure she’ll be crawling longer distances and then walking in no time. She is very sweet, and we cannot wait for all of you to see her. As Kristen mentioned, she will soon understand the Gove family hug and kiss requirement! Allie is warming up to her more every day. Allie still doesn’t want to hug or kiss her, but she will watch Emily’s every move when she is on the bed or in the crib and likes to push her in the stroller – that is Allie’s way of showing affection, for now. Allie is doing well. She loves to go swimming and to the playroom. As we wrap things up, this is the schedule for the rest of the week: Sunday night, dinner with friends Dean and Gwen from Iowa, with daughters for Allie to play with, Jordan and Joslyn (4 years old). Monday we are going on a half-day tour with our guide Peter through the Lianhua Mountains, about 30 miles from where we are staying in Guangzhou. We are hoping to go with John, Rose and Madelyn (2 years old), from Rockford MI, our “Michigan friends”. We will drive through the countryside into the mountains (in, what else, a nice air-conditioned van) to see steep cliffs and a well-preserved ruin of an ancient quarry. It should be interesting. Tuesday we have to confirm some information in preparation for our appointment Wednesday at the US Consulate. Then we will do some shopping and meet some friends for dinner at the hotel barbeque. It is a beautiful spread with a view of the outdoor pool on one side and the Pearl River on the other. The food is excellent and the atmosphere is warm. On Wednesday, we have a 3pm appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, where Emily and a number of other babies will be sworn in as US citizens. American parents holding their precious little Chinese babies pack a room and pledge to uphold the writings of the Constitution. You know you are taking your baby from her homeland, away from Communism, to your stable, loving family (thanks to all of you reading this) and that she will forever be raised in the land of liberty. There are tears as we all know what we are doing for our babies – we save their lives, and they save ours. Wednesday night, 9pm, we will fly from Guangzhou to Los Angeles and arrive on (drum roll, please) Wednesday night at about 7pm. We have a layover for three hours in Los Angeles, which, in theory, will be enough time for us to go through customs and re-check our bags. In theory. We fly out of LAX on Wednesday night at 10pm and arrive in Detroit at 519 Thursday morning, ready to start the day with our family of four. On the way to baggage claim we will stop at the Northwest Worldclub to visit the man who made our flight to China possible, Jim Manolakis. Yes, Jim will see Emily before all of the Gove’s and Chafetz’s, but it’s only fitting since he helped us get here. Then we will go to baggage claim, where will be on our way…. Thanks to all of you for your support through this long process. We don’t have to wait any longer, baby Emily is finally here, and I know you will love her. She is precious.

back in Guangzhou

We are back in Guangzhou, in the homestretch. We will be at the White Swan Hotel until we leave on Wednesday. Emily had her medical appointment today, she check out great! Very healthy, as you will see when you meet her. Please see a few photos attached.

finding place and orphanage visit

Very tired Thursday night....just wanted to give a brief update on our in-country trip yesterday. We were able to visit LePing Village, in the rural depths of southern Hubei province. This is where Allie was born and lived until she was moved to the orphanage at 7 weeks old in late March 2004. It was as breathtakingly beautiful as it was poor. We were also able to visit the orphanage, where Allie was well taken care of until we received her at 15 months old. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that we will tell you about when we come home. Baby Emily is doing great, getting prepared for hugs and kisses. I have posted a few pictures - 1) Emily 2) view from orphanage 3-4) LePing village. Hope all is well, Love, Mark Jill, Allie and Emily

It's official

June 5th -- As of 945am, Emily Hope Xiangni Chafetz is officially in our family. She has been in our hearts for two years, and now she is with us in person for the rest of our lives. She is warm, cute and snuggly. She giggles as we bounce her up and down. She is outgoing and "wild" (as Jill calls her), always putting stuff in her mouth and squirming around. She is healthy and curious. She is precious, and she is ours. June 6th -- We are going on another grand adventure. We are flying to Ensi, the airport closest to Allie's orphanage, about an hour flight from Wuhan. From the airport in Ensi, we will go to our hotel, check in and then make a two hour taxi ride to Allie's "finding place", the village (Leping) in which she was born and lived for the first 7 weeks of her life. We will get an idea of Allie's birth and early life that never would have been possible without our kind and willing guide, Peter. The village may not be easy to find because it is in a remote and mountainous region, but we will give it a shot. On the way back to the hotel, we will visit Allie's orphanage from the outside -- per the Chinese government, we are not allowed inside. We may be able to have dinner with the orphanage director outside of the orphanage. This will take up all of Wednesday and we will fly back to Wuhan on Thursday. A very busy two days! We'll keep you posted on details of the trip on Thursday or Friday. Love, Mark, Jill, Allie & Emily Chafetz

Gotcha Day!

This morning at 9:00 A.M. we went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to pick up Li Xiang Ni, or "Emily Bemily" as Allie has nicknamed her. As we were walking up the stairs, we were introduced to the Orphanage Director, who was sitting there with some ladies who were holding babies in the hallway. She told us that "this is not your baby" and then led us around a corner and there she was! We could hardly believe it! It was all so casual. It took us by surprise, not at all like it was with Allie.

Our newest little cutie, Emily Hope Xiangni Chafetz, is a little firecracker! She is so stinkin' cute and a little wild thing!!! She didn't cry at all (unless she was mad about not getting something) and is sooooo affectionate. She is a little chubette and smiles and laughs almost all the time. She is very active and SO STRONG!!! She has more hair than before and is lighter than Allie's. We all can't get over how much she looks like Allie's good friend, Elizabeth.

Allie is such a good big sister, and is our little responsible girl, keeping her sister out of trouble. She has changed her diaper and fed her a bottle and is very attentive. Emily watches her intently. She talks about what a cutie'patootie her little sister is. It is precious to watch how she interacts with Emily.

Well, we are off to do paperwork soon. Pics to follow through email.

Love,
The Four Chafetzes

safe in Wuhan

Sunday night, 1148pm. We are at the White Rose Hotel in Wuhan, the capital of the province of Hubei, the home province of Emily (and for that matter, Allie). Monday morning at 9am we are going to the Civil Affairs Bureau (CAB) building. The CAB is the Chinese government agency which oversees adoptions. This is where we make a donation to the orphanage and get baby Emily. Emily was born on July 20th 2006 and was left on the doorstep of Tuanfeng County Welfare Institute (orphanage)in the province of Hubei when she was one day old. Think of Hubei as Michigan and Wuhan as Lansing, only with millions more people. Emily was given a medical exam and vaccinated in the orphanage. At three days old, she was placed with a foster family, where she has been ever since. Each foster family works closely with a local orphanage and provide a monthly report on the baby's progress, including a medical checkup. Emily is very healthy and robust. As we understand it, the foster family has already handed Emily back to the orphanage director so we can adopt her -- the foster family will not be present at the CAB, which is probably good because it would hurt them to see Emily handed over to us. I know they hurt anyway. Emily will be driven by the orphanage director and some nannies to the CAB as her orphanage is not far from our hotel in Wuhan, where we will receive her Monday June 4th at 9am (9pm Sunday night EDT). Right now it is midnight and Allie is watching Pooh's Grand Adventure. We are wired and over-tired. Tomorrow is the grand adventure for all of us, for our new family. We are so excited!! The digital camera is powered up and we are ready to go. More to come on Monday. Love, M, J, A

Sunday morning

It's Sunday morning, 340am. We are all awake. It's the middle of the afternoon for our body clocks, so Allie woke up a few minutes ago hungry and had a little snack of raisins. Now she is coloring and drawing pictures with Jill. Only three hours until breakfast. Our body clocks are all dorked up -- by the time we get acclimated to the time here, it will be time to go home! Thanks much to Uncle Vince for going into our house to get a document and faxing it to our hotel -- this is a document that we need to get to Allie's finding place -- without it, our guide wouldn't be able to get there. This is our loving family and modern technology at work. Also, it's good to hear from our friends Tim and Jennifer Hicks from Texas and Patti and Don Harris from Ohio. We traveled with Tim, Jennifer and Patti the last time we were in China in 2004 and miss traveling with them this time. We were a great team. Their daughters are four years old like Aille -- beautiful little Lauren Hicks and Joanna Harris. Tim and I ran around and did most of the shopping while the girls were back at the hotel watching football, I mean taking care of the girls. The last day we were here, Tim and I went to the depths of the Guangzhou marketplace (believe me, this a'int no Somerset Collection)and bought some US silver dollars with dates in the 1700's and 1800's. We were gonna be rich -- right Tim?! -- and sell the coins to pay for our next trip to China! We took them to coin dealers in the US and got some quotes -- one guy was going to give Tim $5000 and a guy in Birmingham was going to give me $700. When it came really sell them, we were told they were fake -- what a surprise, it was too good to be true! Hope all is well back home. Signing off for now... Love, Mark, Jill and Allie