Happy 2nd Gotcha Day, Emma!

(Pretend this was posted on Aug 24, like it was supposed to have been!!)


Wow.. it was two years ago that we were all sitting around a large table in a conference room inside the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute in Beijing, China. We were there with the four other families in our travel group, all anxious to meet our babies who were so close to us now. The officials from the orphanage were busy scurying around.. counting money, collecting our documents, preparing more documents for us to sign, while our guide was trying to keep the room in order.. nervous, anxious parents and anxious officials!! After the last family had handed in their paperwork, had their money counted (yep, all $2400 yuan) and sat down, our guide Liu told us to "just wait" and the babies would be here soon. The last few minutes were the hardest of our lives since we had waited 18 months already, and now our kids were in the same building as us and we had to wait some more!! Finally.. after what could have only been the LONGEST 10 minutes of our lives, we heard some people coming down the hall... and squeaks. And all of a sudden emerged a nanny with a baby all dressed in pink, and I just knew it was her, our Emma. Everyone started talking.. in Chinese & English, mom's were crying, and we were all trying to get the camcorders rolling and camera's ready. Then we heard "Xi Yun Na"... the name of our baby. I think my mom was a bit bewildered, and I was busting at the seams yelling, "Mom.. go get her." My poor mom was just standing there in utter amazement, unsure of what to do next. So she walked over, and the nanny came near us holding sweet Na Na. She just looked at us, and then at her nanny.. sorta like "Oh no.. you are NOT going to be handing me over to THESE people!!" And, well she was handed to us. We were told she was a shy child, so we were expecting her to cry. And cry she did. (Well, more like scream!) But, when I think about it from her point of view, she had a lot of reasons to cry! She'd never seen us before, and probably had never seen anyone that looked like us before. My mom was a basket case crying.. shoving a baby doll in her face.. crying more.. excited.. ya know all of those emotions moms have! I had the video camera shoved in her face.. saying "Hi Emma!!!!!!!" and we were all saying "She's so beautiful!!" So.. she did have reason to cry!! After a few minutes, her nanny came back and handed her some candy, which Emma gladly excepted and started munching on. The next hour is sort of a blur of what happened next...

But in the past two years she has been home, Emma Grace YunNa has transformed from a tiny 18 pound baby whose legs were covered in mosquito bites, to a beautiful, sweet, independent, fierce, strong willed 3 1/2 year old. Everyone who knows Emma knows how adorable she is. Ya just can't get past her adorableness!! Even though we got her at 18 months, and missed her first steps, first birthday, and first word, we have witnessed a ton of firsts in her two years being with us.
The first time she sat on grass (she screamed!)
her first Christmas
her first time opening presents
Her second birthday, but first time with a cake
Her first "I Love You"
Her first prayer
Her first time climbing out of the crib
Her first time holding a baby chick at the farm
Her first time in the pool
Her first time at Disney World
Her first time tubing on the lake.. which she loved
Her first time on a jet ski.. screaming "Go faster!"
Her first time hugging Esther
Her first time saying "I Love You Esther"
Her first time licking the spoon from the cookies we made
Her first time going down the big slide into the pool
Her first time seeing Cinderella at Disney World

So, I could go on and on about all of the firsts we have experienced with her. They outweigh the first things we missed, but we have a lifetime of firsts left. Emma is an incredible little girl, and I look forward to all she is going to accomplish with her life. She's so strong willed and independent.. I can't wait to see what a difference she can make in the world. =)

Right now, she's too young to understand the significance of this day. To her, it was just another day, but kinda special because it was all about her. We took Elena to her math class, and then stopped by the grocery store to pick out her cake. Emma picked out (of course) a pink, strawberry cake and then we got some icing too. When I dropped her off at school, she was a little upset that she couldn't take her cake to school with her, but I promised that when she got home, we would make her cake. So once she got home.. she was all about business.. "When we make my cake??" =) We talk to her all the time about how she came to us from China, and I asked her a few times what day it was today, and she would reply.. "it's my birthday!!" Whenever you bring up China, she always talks about her "China blankie," the blanket I brought her home from China when we brought Esther home. =) Probably by next year she'll start to understand more of what Gotcha Day is really about, but for now we're enjoying the time while she's young.

So for her 2nd Gotcha Day we celebrated by a cake.. which is another first.. the first time she helped me bake a cake!


Mixin' up the cake mix.

Lickin the cake mix off the batters

Another first.. for Esther

Then they really got down to business by licking all the mix out of the bowl!!

Watching the oven to check on my cake...

Now we ice it

Then we stack them together and add more icing! (And take a picture)

The finished project.. (Hey, I'm no artist!)

I just love the expression on Esther's face

Sisters Forever

Emmie and her cake