We're HOME!!!!!!!!!!! ("to the place where "we" belong"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
We cannot believe how well she is adjusting ALREADY!!!!!!!!! She is now glued to Hannah's side and is sitting in Hannah's lap as I post this!!! Hannah said she already loves being a big sister!!!!

Thank You ALL sooooooooooooooooo much for your constant emails and postings!!!!!!!!!!!
It is such a wonderful feeling to know that we are loved this much and now by the grace of God Emmie will now know that same feeling!!!!!!!!!!!

We love you all
The Marsili's
Ken, Ann, Lauren, Gabby, Hannah & Emmie

Attached is Emmie and her friend Sara. Sara is also being adopted in our group and is 7 1/2 years old, they have bonded and become very close friends. Tomorrow we have our consulate appointment where we will obtain Emmie's visa and then we are out of here. Cannot wait to come home and be back with all of you. God Bless you all for your emails and support what a great experience to share.

Monday, September 23

Today we went to a museum with our group and completed a large amount of paperwork. Tomorrow we have the medical appointment and then we are just waiting for the paper work to be processed before our consulate appointment on Thursday. We went shopping again, (the most shopping I have done in 2 years) and we bought Emmie her first dress. The hotel we are staying in has a Starbucks so the coffee has been flowing well in case you where worried.

Friday

Today we received Emmie's birth certificate and pass port. As part of the paper work we found out that Emmie had been abandoned at a local hospital when she was 2 and was then in foster care for the last 6 years. We went to the orphanage and the hospital where she was abandoned. We also went to her school that she attended for the last year where during recess we became a little bit of an attraction with about 100 kids gathering around us to slap five and say hello in English. We where a couple of Americans on display.

Today is a our last day in Nanchagn and tomorrow we travel to Guangzhou. In Guangzhou we obtain Emmies Visa, have a medical exam and complete the Consulate appointment. In Guangzhou we will meet up with the 12 families we started with in Beijing so it will be nice to be with some English speaking folks.

Emmie has made great progress in learning English, really she has learned the most important word she needs to be American, "COFFEE".

September 19

We have the official China Adoption Certificate with our gifts given to all of the offices needed to process the Certificate. All we have left to do at this point is to obtain Emmie's passport that will be ready on September 20. We then fly to Guangzhou on the 21st where we have the medical inspection and the visa for Emmie. Guangzhou is more Western from what we hear so we are hoping for some food without a fishy taste, does not go well with coffee.

Tuesday

We have her and all went pretty well. She was quite for about the first hours at the orphanage but that only lasted a while. She is very busy, into everything, and has a great sense of humor. We have a video from our initial meeting but I cannot load it onto the blog. Today is a day of paperwork at the Adoption Affairs Center where we will be at for the next 3 days.

SHE"S HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,

It's 6:45pm on Monday the 17th!!!!! We have our Emmie!!!!!!
I have to say the meeting seemed very scarey for her!!!! She didn't smile at all and didn't seem to want much to do with us!!! Well.........along comes Ken......need i say more.......? He decides he's going to be 8 years-old too!!!! And I have to say that's all it took!!!!! The "Emmie smile" appeared and it hasn't left her face since!!!!!

We went to the market and had Emmie pick out some snacks (she loves to snack....Daddys girl already!!!) she wouldn't let go of Ken's hand. I have to say I love watching them together my heart just swells!!!!!!

They just cut her hair very short!!!! She told our translator she likes long hair...she like to wear pig tails.......so we are goingto let it grow!!!!!!

She laughs at Ken's "Chinese" (if that's what you call it)

Ok now she is jumping from bed to bed.....I'm waiting for Ken tojoin in!!!!!!!

She loves to skip and jump, she was skipping and jumping all down the street today!!!!
She is truley a gift from God as is her smiles and laughter.

I have to say it was pretty scarey at first......once again God was faithful!!!!!

Well we are waiting for room service and Ken is TRYING to leave to exchange money....she keeps following him to the door and pulling is arm back......she has now put her shoes on and is going with him........what a wonderful Daddy he is!!!!!!!

ok now I'm saying good night....we'll try topost the video soon>

Love to all,
Ken, Ann & Emmie

Monday, September 17

Our flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours from Beijing into Nanchang. We have just arrived at the hotel in Nanchang at 3:00 pm and we will be going to the Adoption Affairs office to meet Emmie at 4:00 pm. Right now it is 3:18 pm and we are meeting our guide in the lobby at 3:30 pm. Ann's been crying a lot so I think we are ready.

OK, it's 5:30am on Monday morning September 17th.
We get Emmie in 10hours. They come to pick up our bags at 8:00am and we leave for the airport at 9. Our flight leaves Beijing at 10:55. It's about a 2 1/2 hour flight to Nanchang.

We'll post again once we check in. I love how they keep us so busy that the time goes by FAST!!!

We are the only family going to this part of China. Our group grew a lot we ended up with 15 families total!!!!!! Most of our group stays together and besides Ken and I about 3 other families split off. However, we all meet back up in Guangzhou on Saturday. There is a family adopting a 7 1/2 year-old so it will be fun tho see them interact.

I have to say we are a little tired of Chinese food.....OK A LOT!!! We were thinking IN-Out(go Pastor Bob) sounds pretty good right now!!!!!!

Well we'll sign on again a little later!!!

Sunday, September 16 in China

Today we attend church service at a local university where only international visitors where allowed to attend. Good service, but the music was to soft. We then went to the Great Wall of China where we climbed up to the second tower. Tomorrow we fly down to the province where Emmie's orphanage is located. We are scheduled to meet her between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm, from this point she will be with us for rest of the trip until our return home. Thank you for all of the emails and your prayers, it is good to share your life with your family.

Saturday, September 15 in China

Today we did sight seeing and eating all day. We spent the entire day with the other 7 families who are here to adopt, great people and very fun to be with. We went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. We had Beijing Duck dinner that came with several vegetables so that was not so great, but we had warm beer to wash it down so we managed. Tomorrow we go to church service and the Great Wall. We cannot read any of the comments so we will read once we return. God Bless and hope all are doing well.

United Flight

Here is the United flight UA 0889 that made it safely to Beijing. The flight was good as they provided coffee refills about every hour. I think Ann liked the flight also. We cannot access the site at this time but we can post. Until we resolve this problem you can also email to k.marsili@yahoo.com.

Emmie

Family Photo

Here we are just 5 days away from meeting the newest member of the Marsili Family! It's 4:30 a.m. You know I'm excited....I'm up before Ken!!!!!!!!!! (and with NO COFFEE!!!)

Let me give those of you who don't know a little history of this INCREDIBLE journey.

It all started a little over 2 years ago (April 2005), I was sitting in church and had an overwhelming tug on my heart that our family was not complete. But I was OH SO DONE with the whole pregnancy thing!!! God placed it upon my heart to adopt. I'm thinking, " OK God you want me to go tell Ken this?" So I did, he said "NO'' the end, right? WRONG!!! It's funny how when God has an idea and you have a different one...He ALWAYS wins!!

So, I was going on living life when we were asked to host a child from Children of the World. They are a group of orphans from around the world who have this incredible choir. So, I said sure.

We had little Ronitta, from India, she was 7. Our family fell in love with her and we only had her for a little less than 48 hours.

Which brings us back to Gods original plan, He wanted me to go back and talk to Ken again! Only this time I had to go to Ken bring this whole adoption thing up again after he already said no, and get this, my small group had just finished a study on listening to our husbands, respecting them, being submissive, they whole nine yards, and now God wants me to do this!!!!! See, God has a sense of humor?! OKAY! Now I'm thinking I better do this, cause I don't want to see what happens next if I don't.

So, I went to Ken and this time the "no" wasn't as quick. It was more like a......lingering one. OK, OK, I'll take that. NOT!!! Oh yea, here's just another little "thing" God threw in there... the adoption was to be from China, Oh, there's more....I was about to BLOW his budget..oh for about the next 5 plus years, it was going to cost $20,0000.00 (we are at 25,0000 now)!!!! OK so now I'm thinking Ken is going to have me institutionalized!!! But.... being the rational man that he is... He said" OK, if this is what God has planned for our family He'll also provide financially."

So, plan A was to borrow from his 401k...plan failed...and Ken thought it was all over....I DON"T think soooo.

SO, my parents knew what was going on and we talked with them they loaned us the first $10,000.00 and my dad said to Ken, " now go get my granddaughter!"

That was it Ken knew from that point it was God driven and every time fees went up(which they did a lot) he was so wonderful! OK Ok he would freak out a little!!!

He was so patient through all of the delays and held ME up when I thought the process would NEVER end!! He was the one providing the spiritual strength and would keep reminding me of Who was behind all of this!!!!

The process was taking much longer than originally planned and by February 2007 it was going to be at least another 22 months. Originally it was going to take 15-19 months start to finish.

Ken & I decided to go out to dinner for Valentines Day on the 13th and we both wanted to talk about the adoption. We both had thought about the Special Needs Program. They put older children on this list and we both had decided that we were so way past the whole diaper, formula thing that this might be a better fit for all of us!!!!

The next day we emailed our Family Coordinator and let her know. So, everyday I would come home and ask Ken the same thing, "have you heard ANYTHING yet?" and every day he would say no. April 20, 2007, I came home and said, "Anything?" just knowing what the answer would be and this time he said, "you might want to come into my office" and there she was, this sweet little 7 year-old face looking right at us. We fell in love instantly, we knew she was the missing Marsili!!! Hannah was thrilled she finally saw who she would be a big sister to, Gabby was so excited too, she was the one who was for adopting right from the beginning and Lauren she was even excited!!!!!!
We decided to name her Emmie Yuming, Emmie means beauty and Yu=jade ming= bright.

We were hoping to have her by the time school started in August, but more delays and we now figured it probably wasn't going to happen until October, November and let me tell you that's like telling an over due mother she is going to pregnant for a few more months!!!!!!!!



Ok, whew, now this brings us to August 23 2007. This day has been circled on our calender for MONTHS!!! It was the Giants & Cubs game GO CUBS!!!!!! Anyway, we were with our VERY good friends they had invited us because they know we loved the Cubs. So we were driving along and my cell phone rings just after 11:00 am. I didn't recognize the # and those of you that know me....I don't pick up!!!!! Well, something (someone) told me to answer, on the other line was our agency calling with "GOOD NEWS"!!!! They asked if we could leave on September 13th!!! I could barely speak all I could do was sob (uncontrollably) about the only word I could form was YES YES!!!



Which brings us to now, 5 days to go!!! Oh, just to let everyone know, the day we leave to China,
is Emmie's birthday!!! GOD is GREAT!!!!!!

OK, now I'm tired....how does Ken do this all the time....Oh yea....COFFEE!!!!

We will start logging in and uploading pics in China (I promise it won't be as long...LOL!!!!

One more thing, thank you so much to everyone who wrote letters,
Bill & Merilee, Amy & Matt, Margaret, Keith & Sandy, Bob, Kirk, Mom & Dad, Erica!

Thank you Mom & Dad. Dad you have been a perfect example of what being an adoptive parent is like. You have never made me feel like I wasn't yours from the beginning. I know I wasn't born with your blood but I was born in your heart.

Thank you to Shelley my best friend for 30 plus years for be the optimistic one!!!
Thank you Ann you're an awesome deacon your generosity will NEVER be forgotten!!!
Thank you Pastor Bob
Thank you Lorna & Jerry
Thank yoy Michael & Tandy
Thank you Jan for taking over an hour to talk to a perfect stranger. I can't wait until our daughters meet!!
Thank you Ryan Wolfe & Erin. The "waiting clock" ment so much to our family. I can't wait to see who it will bring home next!!!
Thank you to our Church family at LPC

Thank you to TCK "the best school that ever was"

Thank you to Safeco, Mark, and yes even Dusty (lol)

Thank you to our families we love you so much see you all on the 28th!!!!!!!

And most of all, Thank you GOD, you once again have shown us just how faithful you are!!!!