More on Gotcha Day

*I got some pictures into this post (yay!) Expect several blog update throughout today!

Gotcha day yesterday went better than we could ever have expected. Kids react in every way imaginable when meeting their adoptive parents for the first time. Some cry for hours and want nothing to do with their new parents, strangers to them. Others don't eat for days as they mourn the loss of their old life, some kids will go to one parent but want nothing to do with the other. We went in expecting the worst, and hoping for something slightly better. I was also prepared for Emerson feeling sick and having a fever on top of everything else.

Because of her chicken pox, Emerson was brought to our hotel room with the orphanage staff and Catherine, our agency staff, instead of us going to another place with many other families (50 other families, to be exact) to meet her. She clung to her primary caregiver at first, and cried for about a minute when she left before climbing into Brandon's arms. Literally about a minute after she started crying, she was all smiles, calling us Mama and Baba.

She was wearing a new-looking dress and some brown sandals that I have seen her wear in pictures before, looking so pretty and spotted! She seems to be on the tail end of the chicken pox, with very few healed spots on her face, and only a few new blisters on her hands and feet. The spots on her body are close to being healed.

She dove into the little bag of goodies we had prepared for her, and took a particular liking to a red monster book of Aidan's that we had thrown into the suitcase at the last minute.

After the orphanage staff had left, Catherine loaded us into a cab and took us to see the "western doctor" to have her chicken pox looked at. 100 of our US dollars later we left the clinic, anti-viral medication in hand, learning that Miss Emerson would be contagious for another 5 days, if no new spots appeared (so far, so good).

This little girl is chock full of personality! Yesterday she was very outgoing, smiling, holding hands with Brandon and me, feeding us Cheerios, climbing into our laps. She chatters non-stop (in Mandarin) and at times gets frustrated when she is trying to tell us something specific. Can't say that I blame her. She has had a couple of little tantrums, but nothing major so far. She is repeating certain words that we say, such as Dane, Aidan, Harper, and Bible, but I don't think she's associating the words with actual people or things right now, just learning the new sounds. Her favorite foods that we've noticed are noodles and rice, and oreos without the cream. She peeled the cream off and put it in my mouth, then ate the dry oreos. She has tried just about everything we have put in front of her to eat, but spits it right out if she doesn't care for it.

She likes to change her shoes, and when she takes them off, lines them up in a line with our shoes. She likes things a certain way, in a certain place, and she's very good at cleaning up her messes. Emerson is fully potty trained, and looked at me like I was insane when I tried to put her in a pull-up last night. She didn't wear one, and as we learned this morning, didn't need one! Yay!

Catherine from our adoption agency is on staff here in Guangzhou (that's where we are, and where we'll be until we come home) is the only local staff here who has already had the chicken pox, so we have our own personal guide this week to our various appointments.

Everything is going great here with Miss Emerson, we are loving getting to know her better, and can't wait to introduce her proud siblings, who we miss like crazy!