Hello from Paris

We are having a great time here in Paris. Our hotel has a view of Notre Dame, and we have been doing more walking in the last few days than in the last few months! We have seen Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs, and this evening the Champs Elysees. We're really missing the kids, though, and are looking forward to going home tomorrow. I'm posting from a very smoky cafe and can't wait to get out of here and breathe some fresh air. I'll post some pictures when we get back.

The Palmers in Paris!!

It's so funny how things all seem to happen at once. On Wednesday Jamie and I will be taking a trip to Paris. Jamie has to go for work, and he's going to take me along! We'll be returning on Sunday, so it's only a short trip, but hopefully we'll get to see a few sights while we're there. If we're able, I'll try to post a few pictures while we're there!

More information

Ok, here are some other facts about our little sweetie. She is in Guiping, which is in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Guangxi is located in southwest China between Guangdong, Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan provinces. It shares a border with Vietnam and has a southern coastline along the Gulf of Tomkin. When we travel to get her we will be staying in the city of Nanning, then in Beijing.

When she was born she was 19.3" long and weighed 6.4 lbs. At the time of her check-up in October, she was 24.8" long and weighed 15.6 lbs. We are told that "She is a very optimistic little girl. She will cry out loud when feeling unhappy, but will calm down quickly. She will laugh out loud and yell when feeling happy." We noticed that the word "loud" is mentioned a couple of times-- she should fit right in with our other kids! Her report also says that she has a very ready smile, is a deep sleeper, and is active. Her favourite activities are outdoor ones, and she likes toys. She eats milk, rice panada and bone porridge (sound yummy?). She also eats a little mashed apples and bananas.

We can't wait to meet her!

Here's our beautiful baby girl!!

We are so thrilled! It was worth the wait to receive the referral of Jin Xia Li, born June 19, 2005. She is currently living at the Guiping Social Welfare Institute. Right now we are going to the Diplomat for a celebratory supper, but I'll post some more info on her when we get back!

Finally good news!!!!

We just found out that our referral has arrived in New Brunswick, and was faxed to Children's Bridge yesterday for translation. We should be receiving it either this afternoon or tomorrow. So stay tuned for pictures and info!!! Yay!!!

Still waiting.......

As we watch our group members making travel plans, booking flights, etc., we are still waiting for our first glimpse of our Rachel's face. Apparently some kind of mistake was made and the two New Brunswick referrals for this month were sent by regular mail instead of by courier. No one I've talked to has ever heard of such a thing happening before- if in fact it's true, it's very strange. All we know at this point is that it should be arriving this week. This is very, very hard.

Still nothing.........

The waiting is really starting to get to us! Yesterday we called both Children's Bridge and the provincial adoption co-ordinator. They haven't received anything yet. So we continue to wait. I'm preparing myself now for the very strong possibility that we won't hear anything at all until next week.

No news is not good news!

Well, Monday has come and gone and we haven't heard anything yet. I'm trying not to be too obsessive about checking my e-mail, but since today was a snowy day and I never left the house, I'm afraid I spent much of my time glued to the computer. Oh well!

Here we are on Easter Sunday 2005. This seems to be the most recent picture I can find of all of us together! I'll try to get a more recent one up soon.

The Palmer family 

Welcome! Thanks for joining us on our journey to Rachel Grace!

We are not so patiently waiting to hear and see who our new daughter is. The rest of our travel group (Children's Bridge #229) have already received their referrals, but here in New Brunswick the process takes a little longer. We hope that by the middle of next week we will have her pictures and info.