Henry and Tess

Joined together here only in pictures, Henry and Tess will be together soon. And he can hardly wait. The process thus far has been a long one. We started our journey more than two years ago. People at the time asked how we thought Henry would adjust to a new sibling (he is currently the center of attention, you know). We joked that our plan was to use the waiting time to our advantage and have him begging for a little sister by the time we got her. It seems to have worked, to our surprise. He is eagerly anticipating her arrival. He insists on going with us, in fact. But looking at other blogs of folks going through the same process, it seems like not such a good idea. We'll have to come up with another plan.

For those who may not be familiar with the process, we received a referral for a baby girl from India in July after months and months of paperwork and notarizing and waiting. She was soon turning 5 months (she was born March 1st - a Pisces). We reviewed the paperwork with our pediatrician, Eugene Lu, and decided to accept the referral. Henry did the accepting. He called our agency contact from The Italian Couple where we were celebrating on pasta and Italian beer (not for Henry!) and left her a message on her answering machine saying he wanted his baby sister. After signing a zillion and one pieces of paper (some bound by string) and having every other one notarize (and here I must give a big shout out to Kevin -- thank you so much!) and sending them in, we received the above picture -- our one and only.

Since then, it's been all about Tess. Tess and Henry. Just yesterday, Henry and I were talking about being vegetarians. I was naming off all the other vegetarians/vegans we know. "You're vegetarian just like mommy. And daddy. And Milo. And Rhett. And Julian...." I went on. "And Tess!" exclaimed Henry. "Yes, and Tess." At least she will be anyway! Until she rebels.

I hope that this new blog thing that I have never tried before will be something you like. It's partly for friends and family who want to keep up-to-date with the news. It's partly for people going through this themselves--I hope to give a nuts and bolts account of the travel experience to help others plan their trips. It's been so helpful to me to view others' blogs and find out more about what to expect. And, finally, this is mostly for us: Luke, Ellen, Henry and Tess. A kind of baby book.

Thanks for reading. More as soon as there is any...