Busy Saturday

Saturday has been a very busy day. I met my Mom at Toysrus and she bought this beautiful stroller for Sarah. Thanks Mom and Dad - we will be sure to log very many enjoyable miles with this stroller. It will be a major part of Sarah's everyday life.
We then spent the rest of the day organizing all the clothes that we have received over the past while, which was no small task as you know, friends and family have been extremely generous. We were busy washing new clothes - trying to decide which pieces would be the best ones to take with us. We put a lot of the clothing away. We hung up all the beautiful, fancy dresses in the closet. Put all the toys in Sarah's room. Put all her bathroom items in her bathroom. We got a lot of exercise running up and down the stairs all day. I am now glad to report our living room and dining room look pretty much back to normal. Our dinning room table has still been the collecting area for all our important adoption papers, so it's not quite back to normal, but we are getting there.

We also got a large amount of clothing today from my sister-in-law, Heather's best friend Heather, whom we have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, but we are looking forward to meeting. This box had lots, and lots of lovely clothing including some beautiful dress and a winter coat. Thanks so much Heather, this was so thoughtful and generous of you and we very much appreciate it. (I broke the picture up into three so it is easier to see everything). There is also a pink hat and mittens - they are already in the packed pile and didn't make the picture.

Thanks again Mom for all your help - we got a lot accomplished today towards getting organized for our trip.

Last day of Work

The day before my last day one of the girls at work surprised me with these books. They are terrific books and as you can see I've already tagged a couple of pages. I'm sure we are going to get some great information out of these two books. Thanks Gillian.On my last day at work another one of the girls stopped me just before I left and gave me a lovely little gift of a track suit, music box, three pop-up books and jammies - the jammies are not in the picture because they now reside in the packed clothes before I took the picture.
Thanks so much Kory, it was very sweet of you and everything is wonderful.
It was a very strange feeling on Friday to be packing up my desk. All day people were stopping by and wishing Wes and I all the best on our trip. It is such a unexpected and nice feeling to have so many people excited for us - we feel so very fortunate to have all this attention and well wishes towards our new family.

Friday was also my dear friend Nancy's birthday - we had her over for a Swiss Chalet birthday dinner and she brought over a gift for Sarah. Two beautiful dresses, two hand puppets, a children's book and an Anne Geddes, squirrel doll. Hope you enjoyed your birthday Nancy and thanks so much.

Last Night

Last night Wes was coming home from work and found this gift bag in his locker. It was this adorable little outfit. His co-worker Angela had snuck it into his locker sometime during the day - how very sweet. The picture doesn't show the beautiful little rose buds down the front as well as I would have liked. This is sure going to keep Sarah nice and warm.

Thanks Angela, James, Matthew, Craig and Ashton.

More Gifts

Last night was my last night at Jazzercise for a while and Laura had yet another surprise for me; more new clothes for Sarah - they are just so beautiful. Thank you Laura, Luc and Kristin

Those of you who know Laura know that wouldn't be good enough for her. She was up thinking all Sunday night what she still had stored in the basement of Kristin's when she was young and wouldn't you know she found this perfect winter coat so Sarah can have a nice warm coat when she comes to Canada and the boots, shoes and sandals. She was also busily washing bins of clothes before Jazzercise on Monday night which she will be bringing over for Sarah later.

Thanks so much Laura we really appreciate your generosity and all the trouble you have gone to.
And yet the thoughtfulness continues. Reanna, a friend from my work found these "cheater" chopsticks for Wes and I to take to China so we won't starve while we are over there and she also found the cutest children's chopsticks for Sarah - if you can't see in the picture, they are pink with little bunnies on them. Notice she didn't get the "cheater" ones for Sarah, obviously Mom and Dad are the ones that need the beginner chopsticks. Thanks so much Reanna we certainly are going to find these very, very useful.

Thanks so much to everyone, your generosity and thoughtfulness has been greatly appreciated. We feel truly blessed to have so many wonder friends and family.

Jazzercise Shower

Today the Jazzercise Chicks had a shower for Sarah and what a wonderful shower it was. Gayle's home is beautiful and she had all the trimmings. The food was delicious, the cake was perfect, topped with cute little keepsake booties, which was all served elegantly in her dinning room. Laura had arranged for some fun games to play and we laughed all afternoon - what fun! They had all gotten together and got this generous group gift. It will be so nice for Sarah to have her first car ride home from the airport in her new car seat. As you can see there was much more than the car seat.

But to my surprise the generosity was not done then. They then bought individual gifts as well. Everything is so cute - you hardly know were to start and they didn't forget the practical side as well - bibs, fork/spoon set and even a tooth fairy box. Sarah is going to be the best dressed little girl in town.

Kim gave me these beautiful flowers which are sitting beside Sarah's picture just waiting for her to see them in person.

There were so many gifts that I had to split them for the pictures. Grandma went crazy with her shopping and as you can see - she is spoiling her new granddaughter all ready with all the new clothing, toddler manual(guess that's for Wes and I) and the cutest wall hangings (another wee job for Wes). Thanks Mom.

Everyone was so generous and what a fun and wonderful afternoon. Thank you, Kim, Fuza, Laura, Stefanie, Nancy, Mom, Jennifer, Jeanna and a special thank you to Gayle for hosting the shower - you are all wonderful friends and I can't wait until Sarah gets to meet you all.

From Ottawa

Yesterday we received a large box from Wes's sister and niece in Ottawa. They told us they wanted to send some things that Sarah's cousins no longer needed. Cindy sent it down by bus and we received all the treasures yesterday. As you can see there were lots of clothing and toys.

Thanks Cindy, Phil, Christina and Sean.

There was also included this cute little dolly.

Thanks Annabelle and Samantha.I have also been working away trying to get through all the bins from Kevin, Heather and Gavin. Here's a peek at what I have found that I think we can use - I had no idea it could be so much - actually I think I'm going to have to go through it again - I think I may have picked some things out that are probably too boyish just because I loved dressing Gavin in it or I remember Gavin wearing it and was getting too sentimental - either way - we are going to have enough pants and t-shirts and sweaters to last for quite a while - not to mention all the blankets, shoes, sandals and boots.

Another Surprise

I received another surprise at work today - yesterday I was surprised with a beautiful cake and gifts from my co-workers and today I was told I was being taken out for lunch by a group from work. What I didn't know was that it was a baby shower with lots and lots and lots of wonderful gifts. It was a total surprise since I had received gifts the day before I certainly wasn't expecting anything more. Everyone was more than generous. I'm still in shock with the whole surprise.

As you can see by the pictures we received some beautiful clothes, lots of books and toys and wonderfully useful and very much needed items.

I tried to take a group shot of all the gifts but there were so many that I couldn't get them all in - so I broke up the picture to hopefully show them better.

Thank you to everyone - I had such a wonderful time and it was just great to see everyone and enjoy such a nice lunch and the gifts were so generous. All of them will be greatly enjoyed by Sarah and both Wes and me. Thanks to everyone.

Generous Family and Friends

We have been extremely fortunate to have been receiving over the last little while, a lot of gifts. Family and friends have been so generous and we are so grateful and appreciative. Here are some pictures of the wonderful things we have received for Sarah - there is no doubt she will be a very spoiled little girl.

Wes's Mom and Paul bought Sarah her beautiful crib, which is up and in our room just waiting for her first sleep at home.


Janice and Rachael have been going crazy with shopping as you can see by the lovely things.

Thanks, Janice, Greg, Rachael and Liam





We were at my brother's place on Monday and they cleaned out their basement of Gavin's baby things that Heather had kept all these years. As you can see there is a large number of bins for me to go through and sort out what we can use for Sarah - I've only gone through a couple of bins and have found some wonderful treasures - jeans, cords, overalls - some sweaters that my Mom had knit for Gavin when he was a baby, baby blankets, rainy boots - just too much to name. The extra treat is getting to remember dressing Gavin as a baby in some of these little things - so hard to believe he is going to be turning 14 in a matter of weeks.
Thanks so much Kevin, Heather and Gavin.



Wes and I have both received thoughtful gifts from friends at work. Thanks Kelly and Angie.














I was surprised today at work with a beautiful cake and some gifts from everyone at work. As you can see the cake was amazing with Sarah's picture on it - I didn't want to cut into the cake but it was so delicious we just had to (I even managed to get a piece home for Wes) and the gifts are just perfect for our trip - we can't wait to get them packed.
Thank you to everyone - your generosity and thoughtfulness is so appreciated - we are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family and friends.

Our Trip Itinerary

We have an abbreviated itinerary of our trip.

We are flying out of Toronto on Friday March 6th (my Mom's Birthday)

Arriving in Beijing on Saturday March 7th

We fly to our daughter's province on Monday March 9th in Guangzhou city, Guangdong and receive Sarah the same day.

We spend the next 5 days completing the adoption in the province and fly back to Beijing on Friday March 13th.

We will get an opportunity to do some touring in Beijing in between processing Canadian documents - Beijing Zoo, The Great Wall of China, The Summer Palace, Olympic grounds, Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City and of course shopping

We will be departing Beijing on Thursday March 19th - arriving in Toronto on Thursday March 19 around 8:00pm - both flights will take about 13 hours.

As you can see it's going to be a very busy and exciting trip with the date getting closer and closer - and still so much to do.

Introducing Our Daughter

We would like to introduce our Daughter, Sarah Zhutong Quinn. She was born on August 10, 2007 in Qingyuan City in the province of Guandong, China. We will be flying to China on March 6, 2008 and flying to the province on Monday March 9th to meet her for the first time. To say that we are thrilled is an understatement. We are busy getting all our paperwork in order as well as decorating and getting Sarah's room ready. This has been a three year journey for us that has had many ups and downs along the way. The last three years have been an exercise in patience and now we have had to change speeds now that everything is progressing so quickly. There are many days that we look at her picture and can't believe this beautiful little girl will be ours in just a matter of a couple of weeks. We are going to try and keep this updated so everyone can follow along on this incredible trip.