Meimei

Hubby and I have talked about what we wanted to name her. We've settled on "Emma." I like the name, makes me think of Jane Austin. I think she looks like an Emma. It's just that it seems to be a very popular name these days. It wasn't when I was growing up. We also liked "Emily," but there are already 2 Emily's and 1 Emmi in Evan's class right now. For now, the "working" name is Emma. Btw… we really didn't intent on both names starting with "E." It's a very "Chinese" thing to do but it's just a coincidence.

We had a Skype session with St. Lucy's last month. It was almost an hour. The whole session is recorded (see screen shots below). The older lady is her foster mom. I'm not sure who the younger one is, maybe her foster sister?? There's another lady there with SLC helping with the Skype set up. Miss Emma is 102 cm (40") and 21.5 kg (47 lbs), and seems very well taken care of. The foster family even took her to Japan and Tokyo Disneyland this month! Not too shabby. She can talk pretty well, even knows some simple English words. The foster mom was coaching her a bit and had her sing some songs too. Evan was pretty goofy as usual and kept bringing all kinds of stuff around the house to show her, even bananas. She seems to know she will be coming with us, even thanked us for giving her a home (with foster mom's coaching). I'm not sure if she really understands what that means yet. She likes dogs, big dogs, which made Hubby very happy. She's ok with cats. I'm just glad she's not allergic or anything. At one point, Paul brought Blue to the computer. They were all very impressed by his good looks. Good thing they couldn't smell him, he needed a bath. While we were on the call, there was an earthquake. It's on the news here this morning, measured 6.1 on the richter scale. They were a little shaken up but nothing fell. All was ok. Hope it's not a bad omen though. Miss Emma likes to eat fish and rice. She shares a room with her 9-year-old foster brother (I think). So that's good since she'll be sharing a room with Evan until they get tired of each other and want their own rooms. All and all, it was a good call. Evan seems to like her. I think he'll like someone to play with. Mama and Baba are always tired. We didn't ask about how our case is going since I didn't think they'd know. But we told her we hope to bring her home with us soon.

Afterwards, Evan kept asking if he is gege (big brother) now. I guess he is. He is so ready to go to Taiwan. Talks about it everyday, tries to pack his "jin" (favorite towel) in his backpack. He's been talking and thinking about her. When we went to the Easter egg hunt, he even said meimei is missing all the fun. I know things will be different once she is here and he's having to deal with sharing things and the attention he's had all to himself for the last 2+ years. It's a little scary. I shall anticipate lots of crying and yelling. The family dynamics will change and everyone will have to adjust again. 

Btw again, our dossier did make it into court by April 1st, so we don't have to go through all that CIS (immigration) rigmarole. YAY! Still the process is taking long enough. We're waiting on both fronts, Taiwanese court and the US immigration. CIS will take a while since I have very poor fingerprints (as I have mentioned before), especially my ring fingers and pinkies. It's too much housework, I tell you (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)!