Oh what a day...Friday was... that is!!!!

I was sitting at work and at 9:04am I heard "Shelby alert, Shelby alert answer the phone it's CHI" (I had the ringtone for them set to this on my phone). All the nurses were quickly surrounding me on the edge of their seats. It was Rebecca and she asked how I was and when I replied with "I don't know" she informed me I was great that my referral had arrived! I was in a state of panic because I wasn't ready to write anything down (there were no rumors of referrals being on the way and I had given up for the week). She quickly told me she didn't know anything but wanted to call if I wanted to get on the road to come and pick up my packet. Well needless to say mom and I went on a road trip. We drove the 5 plus hours to St. Louis to see our angel. We didn't have any info on her until we got there and the staff was so excited to be able to give it to us in person. So without further delay please meet Shelby Marie from Tennessee...she will be 19 months old on the 14th of April. So her official birthday is September 14, 2007. This means we don't have a "rat" that she was born in the year of the Golden Pig (if you remember from the news Chinese families feel it is very lucky to be born in this year...I would agree!) At her year check-up she weighed about 16 pounds. She is in southern China and is in foster care (that is wonderful news indeed because it means she has been loved on and that is an answered prayer). Her Chinese name is Cao Ming Ying and I'm still waiting on the translation of this. We have some information that is in English and if I must say at a year she seems very advanced indeed (not that I'm partial or anything). Here are just a few of the things she could do then: walks with one hand held (I bet she's running races now...I better get my tennis shoes ready), imitates drawing lines and circles, imitates words, knows what "no" means, moderate sleeper, fond of playing games and with toys, fond of singing (we may have another choir member yet), shy, quiet, and it looks like she might be potty trained. I could go on and on but you are probably ready for pictures already. So I will finish by saying I have some of the best family and friends in this world. My phone didn't stop ringing or texting yesterday and when we arrived home at 10pm last night we had a huge welcoming committee and we were blown away! Here she is (she is 10 months old in these pictures)...








We hope to travel in 6-8 weeks and then we truly will be China Survivors!!