All is well with the new addition!

Emmy is doing really well. We had a GREAT night with her last night - perfect sleeping, waking only to eat, which is great news for sleepy mom and dad. Hayes is really looking forward to bringing her home today. We're looking forward to learning what "normal" is for our new family of four!

Here are a few pictures from the first 48 hours of Emmy's life.





Hayes is (clearly) so excited to be the BIG SISTER!
Hayes LOVES sunglasses right now and was so excited to receive a gift from Megan and Marla that included matching sunglasses for her and Emmy. She couldn't wait to get them out and on both of them!

Emerson Hampton Welch

We are thrilled to announce that our second daughter arrived today, April 28, 2010. Emerson "Emmy" Hampton Welch was born at 9.15am and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. She is, of course (as any good parent will claim), perfect! She is doing really well.

I'm still waiting for the impact of two daughters to hit Hank. :) He hasn't thought ahead to two proms, two weddings, etc. :)

Hayes absolutely loves Emmy already (as you can tell by the cheesy smile in the picture below). We hope that they will always be friends and love each other.

A New Chapter...

Given that the last post on here was when Hayes (who is now 26 months old) was 9 months old, it is clear that we've taken a bit of time from the blog.  We are resurrecting the blog to share some exciting news - - - we are moving...to China!

Hank has been offered a position with his company in China so we will be moving at the beginning of September.  We're so excited for all the experiences this move will provide.  We visited in December to look around and check things out and Hayes LOVED it.  Since returning she says very often, "I wanna go to China."  She claims to dream of China every night and often makes imaginary phone calls to China.  She's learned to say, "I love you" in Mandarin, too.  

Hank and I have a Chinese tutor and are doing our best to learn this very complicated language.  We're moving to a "smaller" city called Suzhou (population around 6 million).  It's about 60 miles west of Shanghai and other than in the expat community there isn't much English spoken so we've got to get on the ball and get the hang of the language!

Our next little one is due to arrive in just 20 days so she will be about 4 months old when we move.  I will become a full-time mommy to our two little girls and I'm so excited for the opportunity to share their days with them.  The girls and I will return home twice a year for 3 -4 weeks at a time (probably in June and December) so we'll have time to catch up with everyone.  Hank will come home with us in December.  

We're so excited about this new chapter in our lives and hope that some of you might come visit us in China!