So in the spirit of the ongoing observations of others that our baby really does look like us, this week I thought I would start off with some "proof in the pudding" so to speak :) The photo below is side by side set of baby photos of Nancy, Emily, and myself (each of us at 1 year of age).
As Nancy and I look at this, we are compelled to admire how someone in the matching room at CCAA was actually taking our baby photos into consideration as they worked through process of matching baby to parents. See, we actually did send our baby photos in as part of our dossier photo set, thinking we had nothing to lose. Sure enough..... WOW.... the little sweetheart of ours looks more like us then the best Dave & Busters composite mom + dad = baby computer image possible. Of course, in my opinion, Emily looks much more like her mom then she does me, but Nancy is quick to note the similarities to my ears, nose, forehead, and eye brows. I won't even get started on how many similar behavior traits and personality characteristics Emily has that are similar to Nancy and/or myself....because that just starts to get spookie to the extreme. And if we wanted to get way way out into the spookie zone, I could dwell on how every step of our paperchase/wait/referral seemed to go super fast, with people actually prodding US for this document or that signature, as though our little sweetheart was actually pulling strings with our agency, the CIS, and the CCAA through the whole process of adoption (which took a total of just over 9 months from first application to our agency...to Gotcha Day). We laughed about this often as the months passed by.
Well.. I guess enough of the spookie stuff, at least until Holloween :) Let me just end by saying, Emily is the most powerful and clear proof of faith, fate, and destiny (in action)I have yet to experience in life.
Heading back to the weekend's events, on Saturday we had the opportunity to meet with some of the local family's (and one visiting family traveling from the east coast) that also have adopted babies from YiYang CWI/SWI. This was Emily's first outing to explore Santana Row, our meeting place for the YiYang gathering, and Emily is quickly out and exploring with mom in tow (below).
Ummm...we're not lost.... we're just exploring!
YiYang families are parents and their children who were adopted from one of the two orphanages in YiYang City, Hunan China. We are all connected through the Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YiyangSWI_Hunan/ and http://www.yiyangfund.org/about.shtml .While I have met a number of folks via email, yahoo group, etc, it was really awesome to actually get to meet face to face with them for the first time. Below is a photo of the YiYang girls from the day's events [the littlest munchkin is of course Emily, note the tongue sticking out :) ]
And just for good measure, this next photo shows Emily having some fun on the lawn there at the park.
A couple of outstanding things I would like to share with you about the parents of YiYang CWI/SWI children. First and foremost, they are just the warmest and most loving parents I have ever met. Secondly, as a group, they take that warmth and love to new levels through their very successful fund raising efforts and work with Half The Sky Foundation to enable both orphanages in YiYang to have fully staffed Infant Care Centers for the babies there. Please do take a few minutes of time to visit http://www.yiyangfund.org/about.shtml and learn about the outstanding results of YiYang parents efforts to improve quality of life for every baby in YiYang orphanages.
Note: it is fundraising time again, and one of the main fund raisers each year is an annual calendar. Each year a calendar is produced that has photos of YiYang babies and children who have been adopted. I encourage you to take time to order a Calendar if your heart moves you to do so. You will find all the information needed at the web site.
Stay tuned for next weeks continuing photos and stories about Emily Sarah :)
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