Work Baby Shower

My colleagues threw a wonderful baby shower in honor of Lilly Tai Isabelle today. They pitched in and gave us a new high chair, some components of our bedding, a very nice diaper bag, and a few other assorted items. Every one has been so generous. Amie planned the shower, but everyone pitched in and participated. It was a lot of fun. I must admit it was not a total surprise, but that's ok. It didn't take any of the fun out of it for me. I loved the pink cake with her name on it. It had chocolate inside. With less than 14 days to travel, it is hard to think of anything else!

Sister's Charity

My sister is involved in a very important charity, and it is definitely connected to International Adoption. http://superkidscharity.org/index.html

If you have time, please visit the link above for more information. This is a very worthy cause. This cause started in China, but they hope to expand to Vietnam.

Lilly's Lily Room

The nursery set pictured above is Tiger Lily by Kidsline, and it is the set we picked out for Lilly's room. What a surprise, we picked Lilies as a theme for our Lilly! Any of you reading this that have been to one of Eli's birthday parties know that the Brown's know how to do a theme (i.e. The Dog Birthday Party {1st} and then The Wiggles Birthday Party {2nd}). Right now Eli thinks he wants a Barney party, but Adam is really hoping Eli will pick baseball. Hmmmm, I think I prefer Barney. August 31 is just around the corner and we can hardly wait to show Lilly her pretty room. We found the set on http://www.babyuniverse.com/ after searching high and low for a lily set.

Still Waiting

Yesterday (August 12, 2007), a few friends got together to celebrate Lilly's impending arrival. We had a nice lunch, and we talked about our upcoming trip. Ally (my niece) ran into my son (Eli) and they bumped noses. Ally cried for what felt like an eternity, and we thought her nose was broken. Finally her nose stopped bleeding and we avoided a trip to the Emergency Room. Once we changed her clothes and she was back to her normal happy self, we continued celebrating Lilly's upcoming arrival. Of course, we are very excited for our little one to arrive. We think about her all the time and the count down continues. Just 18 days to travel and about 20 days until we meet our Lilly in person.

Updated Picture

Today we received updated photos and medical records! One of the photos of our gorgeous daughter is on the left. We will leave for Vietnam on August 31, and the count down is under way. Eli is excited to see his baby sister, and Adam and I can hardly wait. Lilly seems to be in good health, and her pictures look wonderful. We are so excited to meet our daughter and take her home.

Travel Dates

We finally got our travel dates!!! We leave for Vietnam on August 31st and stay in Vietnam through around September 22. Every day we try to purchase or set aside items on our packing list. We have prepared a package to send to Lilly Tai at the Orphanage, and our friend, Amie, asked a friend of hers to have the letter we wrote to the care takers translated to Vietnamese. I will try upload the letter in both English and Vietnamese in my next blog entry if I am able to upload a PDF. If not, it will go in Lilly's scrapbook at a minimum. We think about Lilly all of the time, Eli included. He wakes up each morning and asks about "baby sister", "Lilly", and/or "Vietnam". When we ask him what he will eat in Vietnam, he will reply "rice and noodles". He is very excited to see his baby sister, and he knows she will sleep in"baby's room" in the "crib".

We cannot wait to bring Lilly home!