Married just over a year ago, the couple, Chinese immigrants who live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, had planned their life down to the last detail. Their marital bed is big enough to accommodate the children they hoped to have ("so no one rolls off the bed," Ms. Mei says). They had talked about having a girl next year, the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, so that she would be soft and pure. The following year, the Year of the Dragon, they hoped for a boy, so that he would be strong and daring.