Thing 2

She may be small, but don't let her size fool you- she'll kick your butt!! She's cute and funny, loud and noisy, bossy, obedient and oh so very independent. (She's also quite a little flirt!!)

That is my Emma Grace YunNa- or commonly referred to as Twin #2, Thing 2, Emmie, Em or Emzee. (She also responds to 'buthead' and 'little brat'...nicknames given by her big brother- but not endorsed by anyone else!) Emma came to us via Beijing, China in August of 2004 at 18 months old. Our little Valentines Day girl had been born on February 14, 2003, and found the next day, having been abandoned by her birth parents. Why? Well, we won't ever know the circumstances, but we can pretty much guess that it was because she, like so many other little girls in China, was abandoned because she is a girl. There's a lot of reasons to explain this -I won't go into all the details- but she was abandoned by her parents, and sent to an orphanage at five days old.

About the same time all of this was happening, our family decided to adopt a baby girl from China. Through God's amazing grace, we were picked to be her family and on June 10, 2004, we saw her picture for the first time. She was 15 months old and living in the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute. The orphanage gave her the name Xi, Yun Na. Xi, is her last name and was the name given to all of the little girls who came to the orphanage in 2003. Yun means cloud, and Na means slender or graceful. On August 18, 2004, my parents and I headed to Beijing, China to bring her home. We met her on August 24, 2004. I don't normally believe in love at first sight, but it was definitely a case of this when I saw her for the first time. She, however, didn't agree and screamed for the first 1/2 hour, but after we shared our food with her, she thought we were okay. After that, she never looked back and took on her new life with open arms.

Em's been home for a year and a half now and is a constant ray of sunshine. She's a busy little girl.. and never sits still.. but she is so funny and every day is a new adventure for us. She's such a blessing to our family and it seems like she has always been here!

Having her home, made us want to adopt another little girl from China.. and that's where Twin #2, comes in. (Although she is #1, because she's older!)