Hooray for Kate

Its been a few days but I thought it was time to post another entry before the curtain closes on this journey.

I hope Day 1 of 2008 was a great day for everyone. We're in between snowstorms today so we were appreciative of the sun and enjoyed the day. Jen is still fighting a cold so Kate and I had some extra time to ourselves today.

Things are going exceptionally well here. Awesome would be a better word. Kate is bonding nicely and is still sleeping thru the night. She is healthy, happy and just a joy to be around. She's taken nicely to her grandparents and still wants to come to her mommy and daddy. Travelling in the car goes well, nap time goes well, everything goes well.

Looking back on the trip, China was an absolutely beautiful country and the trip was nearly perfect. We have nothing bad to say about China at all. It surpassed our expectations 100%. A word to everyone who is waiting... anything you need can quickly, cheaply and easily be found close to the hotel, so do not over pack. We packed quite lightly and still had lots that we didn't need or had too much of. We had 2 large suitcases 3/4 full... if we did the same trip again, I could do it all in 1 suitcase and get the rest in China. I'll post more on that at a later time as I feel this subject deserves a detailed explanation as this is the information I found hardest to find before we left.

The arrival into Moncton and seeing all of those people there was spectacular. We didn't receive many pics from people who were at the airport when we arrived home, so if you have some pics, could you please send us a few? We've shared so many with you... can you share some with us?

Work wise, I've been given the opportunity to spend more time with Kate and Jennifer than I had planned. This notice was given to me on my last week at work and came as quite a surprise. I will not be returning to my old job or to my old employer. Wait... this is a good thing. I can honestly say that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to bond more with Kate over the next few weeks. The timing on this ended up working out perfectly with our adoption so I packed up my desk for good on that last Friday. So, if someone is looking for an excellent people person / sales guy / IT professional, call me.

Jen and I would like to thank everyone for all the gifts and well wishes we've received. We could never have expected all the support over the last few years and especially over the last few weeks. Giving everyone a look into our lives thru this blog and the previous blog was a labour of love and I'm glad I maintained this since the very beginning. Now we have a complete documented journey for Kate to read in the years to come.

As we begin our lives together as a family, we will always be indebted to a family in China for being brave and strong and doing what they felt was best for their child. We will never know what thoughts were going thru their minds when she found out she was pregnant, when her belly began to grow, as she gave birth, as she walked away, we will never fully understand the process on how He Fu Qing ended up being matched with us, we will never be able to fully understand how a year in an orphanage feels, but we do know that no other child out there could make us as happy or as proud as we are right now. Because of those people who we will never know, who we can never thank, who we can never update, because of a system we don't understand, because of a society so different than ours, we can now live the dream that we've been chasing for so long. We are mother and father. Thank you whoever you are and wherever you may be. We love our baby Kate.