Lilly & Jesse on her first day at home

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Lilly's arrival July 10, 2008

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One from the Proud Daddy

After three and a half years of praying for her, our Lilly is finally
home. She is a tiny package of energy. She laughs, smiles and
cuddles. She is perfect.

For those who are not up to date, I left for Nanchang China on the 27th
of June While Julie remained behind in Cayman with Jesse. I arrived on
the 29th. After a whopping 45 minutes of rest there was a knock at my
hotel door and a nice Chinese lady who was fluent in Chinese but spoke
no English (fortunately I am fluent in English but speak not Chinese)
handed me this beautiful crying baby. That was it. Within 20 minutes I
was alone with her.

Yesterday, Lilly and I completed our travel home. We had a 1 hour
flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong followed by 16 hours from Hong Kong
to JFK. We spent about 4 hours in a hotel room in New York before our
last 4 hour flight home to Cayman where Momma, Jesse and Aunt Barbie
(thank God for Aunt Barbie) waited.

Lilly seems very happy in her new family. She will eat anything you
feed her and apparently has little value for sleep. Who could ask for
anything more.

Thanks to all who have prayed with us and for us over the last 3 1/2
years. Thanks to all who have helped in ways to numerous to mention.
More pictures will follow after a little sleep for me.

Blessings

Scott

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Lilly is amazing!

Lilly is amazing. Truly she is. She's soft spoken, yet confident. You can see her little mind working. She is beautiful. Just a tiny bit of a thing. She loves to smile, belly laugh, eat and just be around all of us. She loves her little brother Jesse as she finds him quite fascinating. And while Daddy is her hero, she has taken nicely not only to me, but to my sister as well.

I am in love w/ our new little addition to the family.

Thanks for all your prayers, please continue them, we are blessed beyond words.

Love,

The Momma

I'm going to be a Mommy!!!!!!!!

It's 10:58 a.m. and all I can think is . . . Holy Guacamole I'm going to be a Mom again in less than an hour!!!!!!!! This is the most surreal moment of my life.

Ten Centimeters Dilated

Hi all,

Many have said - we haven't heard anything - no blog - how are Lilly & Scott coming along! And on and on w/ the interested questions. My apologies for holding out for so long. So let me update you a little on all the adventures of this past week.

First as the title mentions it seems I am dilated by 10 centimeters at this point. Scott & Lilly are either in or on their way to New York City via Hong Kong as I write. I haven't heard from them yet, so I have to assume they are still in flight. They arrive their tonight (Wed.) and then will take a direct flight to Grand Cayman tomorrow (Thurs.) with an arrival time around noon.

So how was the week?

Let's start w/ chemo. Chemo #3 finally was a go on Friday, so I am halfway done w/ my chemo treatments and quite happy about that I might add. Even though I had to be bumped back a few days for this chemo - the timing was perfect.

My sister, Barbie, arrived in town on Thursday, July 3rd. So she got here just in time to be on hand should Jesse or I have any needs during that time. I am so thankful for the cleaning lady/cook she has been for me and the little friend she's been for Jesse. :) As it is Chemo # 3 went fine and I am doing ok. The worst of it has been the anxiety and tiredness that sort of sets in about days 3-6 following the chemo treatment. It just sort of puts me on edge a little, leaving me in need of extra rest. My sister would say I do not rest enough, but this night owl is doing her best to at least take naps and to get to bed a little earlier than usual. I guess the whole get more sleep thing is good advice as a whole as we have a baby arriving here soon!!!!

More importantly - how are Scott and Lilly???????? Right????????? They are doing really well. Scott is doing amazing w/ Lilly and they seem quite bonded to one another. I could tell by his emails at one point that they were going from bonding to spoiling - but overall, I just think little Lilly is just so happy to have the attention of such a doting Daddy and so that makes me happy. She seems very much at east w/ her Daddy.

Text messages from Scott throughout the week:

While in Nanchang:

Funny thing: they serve baked beans on the breakfast buffet. Tell Ellen it will make her laugh. (Ellen and Dave are our friends from the New England states). Turns out she was right. Beans are for breakfast. Who new?

Is is 9:00. Lilly and I just returned from a 2 hour self guided tour of the city. We stayed w/in 10 blocks of the hotel and took 200 pictures. Reminds me of Peru accept for all the Chinese people. Loving it but missing you.

I have one extra bag of Chinese formula. I will buy two more this morning. She is asleep again and I am studying. She really is wonderful. You are going to love her. Sorry about the photos. I am trying a bunch. I just can’t send them. Love you. By the way, I think Lilly may have called Lisa Welman (a friend in Cayman).

At 3:00 a.m. gave her a bottle and now she is back to sleep. Me, wide awake at 4:00 a.m. and loving it.

She usually has 2 hour naps and sleeps the night. I think she gets overwhelmed by the new world unfolding around her these days. We will be home in a week. You can recognize me by the carnation in my lapel and the Asian baby in my arms.

Her clothes do fit well she is a tiny angel

I think I am spoiling our daughter. It is hotter than hell and we just walked for two hours and she is copping an attitude because I stopped. Could this be another princess?

Eating lunch in the restaurant. Lilly is in a high chair eating bread w/ a hard crust and a sweet cake. Had a bath. We both survived. While I typed this she stole bread from the table next to ours. Very funny.

I don’t know how much she was fed before. All I know is that if she is fussing, she is hungry.

In Guangzhou:

The white swam is really nice. Not certain, but I think I ate him for breakfast. Yum. Lilly is chowing down on a piece of French toast. This kid loves to eat. Warn the dogs. I fear what will happen if they leave food in their dishes. Miss you. Give Cuatro a hug and a kiss. Warn Garbo & Lucy their worlds are about to change.

Had a great afternoon. Explored the hotel and visited some of the local shoppes. She had fun. Lilly fed herself two sweet rolls at lunch. Made a mess but had a great time. She does not mind sitting in her high chair jamming food in her cakehole. It is 6:00 and she just put herself to sleep. We played together most of the afternoon. Afternoon may be her best time. Tomorrow it is bath time again. Probably after breakfast. Love and miss you. P.S. Tell your sister not to touch my stuff.

Good morning. 6:30 and just woke up. Touring Guangzhou than just hanging out today.

Back in our room. She pooped is eating and then it is nap time. Tour was nice. Lilly seemed bored as if she had seen it before. Hmmmm.

Getting ready to leave for Hong Kong:

All that remains is to finalize on the other side of the sea. I have her visa et all. Love you.

Eating breakfast. Getting packed. Leave for airport soon.

So there you have it some texts from Scott about Lilly. He jokes all she does is eat, sleep and poop, but Joshua said, that's the same w/ him, so it seems all is well in her world. And Josh's for that matter, too.

Say lots of prayers for a great celebration tomorrow when Scott brings Lilly out the airport doors and we finally meet her in person!

Be blessed and thanks for praying and waiting for her arrival with us!

Love,

Julie & Scott

I Dig Your Wig

Hi all,

As most of you read via my email - no chemo today. My white blood count too low - but no worries. God has a plan. They will try again on friday after giving me shots to help boost the old white count. Good news is my hemoglobin count is up.

Better news I got a new wiggy thing today. I ordered it from the American Cancer Society and it is called a fall - no hair in the middle, but looks cool under hats & scarves. I already have one, but this one is even cooler looking. Although I must tell you - my friend, Erika, calls me Ivanka when I wear the first one I bought w/ my little newsboy cap. I bought it at Moffitt and was happy to have it, but was also wearing higher heeled shoes that day and so was walking around doing my Mary Cate & Ashley in high heels walk in my very blonde hair w/ the a flippy shag hairstyle. Plus I had blush on to make-up for any paleness - so me as the day went on felt more like Julia Roberts as the hooker in Pretty woman - and now can't get that out of my head, but everyone else seems to think it's fine. Makes me laugh and you know that's perfect for me.

Scott's cousin, Abby, got my email about the new wig and told me to google the song "I Dig Your Wig" by the 80's group Ben Vaughn Combo - now I could only get The Many Moods singing it so I tried to attach that - but that made my day as it's funny to me. So enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0z9TIc8_cU&NR=1

On the Lilly & Scott news - Lilly is still doing well and seems to be getting on just fine w/ her Daddy. He says she is an easy baby and really isn't even upset by the rash that I think is going to come down to either heat rash (Scotts and the adoption agencie's guess) or a detergent allergy. Time will tell - we will not switch her off her Chinese formula till she gets home as she did not fair well when Scott tried to do that. So he will come home w/ lots of Chinese formula and will work on this when we have a pediatrician nearby and at our fingertips.

Here's a sampling of great Text messages I have received from Scott:

July 1

Hola mama. Como esta? That is Chinese for hi mama how are you? (Scott claims his brushing up on Spanish has done nothing for him there in China. Go figure)

She eats fruit, cereal, bread and Chinese formula.

Will send pictures soon. Lilly is grumpy must feed her and let her nap. Hot here. Otherwise Ds Lilly is helping with this message fjfhjgfgfgg

Looks like heat rash. Salee took us to the park it was beautiful. Lilly is doing well stop worrying. OK?

Nothing planned for the PM. More crowded than Cayman. Lots of things to see. Lots of people to watch. Kind of reminds me of Lima (Peru)

She is laying here next to me asleep.

She may be teething. She has 4 teeth on top and 2 in the bottom. She just fell asleep.

And that is just a taste of the great texts he sent. He also told me on the phone that she was lying on the bed and she touched his nose and he went "Honk" something he used to do all the time to our friend Grace Whitley's baby who also loved it and therefore when first met her baby brother in the hospital reached up, touched her brother's nose and said, "Honk" - a proud day for Scott. Anyway, back to Lilly - he went "honk" and she had a great belly laugh - he said it was beautiful and she is quite the happy little one. Little being the operative word as she is tiny.

Off to rest and drink lots of water. Nurses orders.

Thanks for all of you who have said at one time or another - perhaps in different words - "I dig your wig."

Be blessed,

Julie