Hi! We are Michele (41) and Chuck Kuhns (40) from the Albany, New York area, which is the state capital and just south of the Adirondack mountains. We’ve been married 10 years (in August). We currently don’t have any pets as we had to send our beloved meow-ser of 18 years to heaven in Feb 2005 and aren’t ready to jump into that arena (cleaning litter boxes) again yet. I’m a Controller for a construction company and also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of a non-profit organization, The Cinderella Project of the Capital Region. My organization collects donations of nearly new prom dresses and accessories and provide them free of charge to girls in our area that can’t afford to purchase a gown for the prom. DH is an Operations Mgr for a fire alarm company and an Assistant Fire Chief (Volunteer). Although we have 13 nieces and nephews so far (ages 2 1/2 - 23), this will be our first child. We've been working hard on our many house projects including relandscaping the whole yard so that the majority of the big project will be done before we bead to China.

Girl, Boy, Twins requested? Girl (Either requested but expect a girl)

Age requested? 0 – 12 months

Child/Children’s names? Undecided, we have a list which keeps getting new ideas added and some removed. Of course, we each have our favorite. Thankfully we have a lot of time to figure this out and come to an agreement.

Nursery theme and colors? Theme – unsure (waiting to see the new patterns that come out soon), paint color – pale yellow. Probably will be something with flowers, butterflies, etc in the brighter pastel shades.

Likes and Dislikes? Like: Classic country and French country, nothing “trendy” country. We don’t care for really heavily themed rooms, we prefer to do a mix of similar styled things. Simpler & relaxed is our room feel. We are fine with Pooh and classic Disney characters, just don’t care for the Holly Hobby, Hello Kitty and those types of characters. We'd prefer that our child never know who Barney is but we love all the Sesame Street characters. Elmo rocks but I'm also sentimental to Grover. Dr Suess is a classic in any child's life as well as Peter Rabbit. As you can figure out below, I love to bake although DH has no will power, so I have to limit the amount of baking so he doesn't go overboard. We spend a lot of time with fire department activities (whether planned events or unplanned events when we trying to do something else) so we don't get into boating, camping or other stuff like that. We do enjoy going on scenic train rides when we are traveling. We like to do short weekend trips to check out some of the great places within driving distance like the Maine coast, Mystic, Baltimore, etc. We've been to Disney in Florida many times so we are true kids at heart.

Hobbies/Collections? Me: Cake decorator (15 years), counted cross stitch, gardening, reading, making Ukrainain eggs. I collect decorative eggs of all types. And, of course, my non-profit is a hobby/2nd job/major passion. DH’s love is model trains (O gauge) and photography and, of course, the fire department (the other wife).

Favorite fragrance or scent? Chanel #5, Halston, the smell of the sea and of food with lots of garlic. Revision: I'm pretty allergic to many perfumes or what I call imitation flower scents like rose or lavendar scented candles or other stuff like that. Just going into a perfume shop sets the sinus's into stuffed-up mode. I love and really enjoy (no sinus trouble) the fruity and spicy scents like apples, pears, cranberries (both regular and spiced). Not to hot on vanilla scented stuff but I love anything flavored with the it.

Favorite foods? Blueberries #1, strawberries #2 and also tied with lobster, crab legs and shrimp! DH sticks to favorites of tacos, hamburgers and fries! And...I forgot to add DH's favorite food of all: Cheesecake (practically any old flavor will do for him)!

Favorite books or authors? Nora Roberts. I’ve read a bunch of them, but there are many more that I haven’t gotten to yet. Mostly her trilogies are my favorite and I still have to get to the "Key of.." set, the "Born in.." set, the "Night" set, and the "Irish.." set. There are a few others on her list but I'm not sure which ones I have already read. DH only reads his fire department, photography and model train magazines. I have a wish list on Amazon.com to start our baby's library. Watch out because I've got quite a lot of choices on there. I fell in love with practically everything I looked at. Good luck choosing from such a large list!

Favorite movies? I don’t really have a “favorite”. DH loves to watch practically any movie over and over and over and over….. Need I say more!

Favorite music? Country (Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Reba, Diamond Rio, Toby Keith, Keith Urban, Fiath Hill etc) and Jimmy Buffet. Hello fellow Parrot Heads! Plus: we like some jazz but don't like the rapp or heavy metal stuff.

Favorite color or colors? Periwinkle and French Blue for me. DH really doesn’t have a favorite or so he says. He isn't too good at picking out stuff in colors other than tan, white, black or navy blue (all the fire dept shirts) so he leaves that up to me.

Registered at a store? Not yet, too painful to think about at this early stage. We will end up at Babies-R-Us eventually. We will be starting one soon. We will advise you when we've got something on it.

Favorite clothing item for a child? Those cute little summer dresses with the matching ruffled panties and sunsuits. I also love the cotton bonnets with the big brims for sun protection. Practically any color or character is fine with us.

Anything else you would like to share with your secret pal? Although we are very anxious about the long wait ahead, we are looking forward to bringing our precious little girl home and becoming a family…and introducing her to my huge extended family. Many prayers and wishes to you for a faster referral receipt and save travel to your China jewel. I'm already feeling a "sisterhood" with my unknown pal and I'm looking forward to creating a picture of her in my mind based on the wonderful things that she will pick out for us. Since I've always been the one to buy the baby things for others, it will be a nice treat to receive some things this time. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for making this time so much more special and precious. You are truly an angel to us. P.S. We will also get a picture of us added to this very soon.