FFFF Challenge #29: Gotcha Clothes

This week's FFFF challenge is a comparison of the girls in their Gotcha Day clothes the day we got them, and now today.

Emma has been home for 2 years, 8 months. She came to us a scared, timid, 18 pound-18 month old. Today, she is a 4 year old rambunctious spitfire.




Getting the clothes out was fun for Emma. She has no memory of "Gotcha Day", but it was a big deal to her since these were her "clothes from China when she was a baby." (That's what she calls them!) Recently, she's starting to talk about the fact that she's from China. Last week, a woman with her young baby came over to talk to us and Emma commented on how pretty the baby was. She then told the woman, "I was a baby in China, but then Mommy, Daddy & Sera came to get me." Then she asked if the woman's baby had come from China too. It was cute to see her start to piece it all together.

Amazingly, the outfit still fits her!! Just barely though!


She was so excited to put it on, and once she did, those memories of her at 18 months started to flood my mind! The last time she wore that outfit was the day we received her in Beijing, China. And the last person to put that outfit on her was the nanny who deeply cared for Emma, as we could tell by the way they both cried on Gotcha Day.

She's grown sooo much in the past 2 years!! Emma was fascinated by the squeaky shoes she had on Gotcha Day, and those also just barely feet. She kept running around the house squeaking away. (Esther kept stamping her shoes to see if they would squeak!)

Our dear Esther has probably changed the most in the 13 months she has been home. When we first met Esther, she was happy and very inquisitive. We could tell the orphanage had done a very good job of preparing her for us. One the bus ride to the hotel, she just stared out the window.. again, very inquisitive and didn't say a word. Once we got to the hotel room, I moved a bit too quickly and went to take her shoes off and that's when she lost it!! She cried for two hours and kept pointing at the door. It was so sad. I felt helpless since there was nothing I could do. We left the room and walked around the hotel and that calmed her down. Then once she saw her friend Delaney again, she was happy. As long as she and Delaney were together, she was happy. But when they weren't together.. she was either sad or mad. That's how it was the next few days, and the next few weeks. She finally started coming out of her shell once she felt secure. And now.. she's just lovely. She's very helpful, extremely smart and funny. She is however, easily offended and sensitive when it comes to her feelings being hurt. (Example: If Ian calls her a bad girl, or she gets in trouble.. she looses it) But she's come a long way and has a wonderful personality. She's really funny and makes us all laugh.



When I got the Gotcha Day outfit out for Esther, it was different because she remembered it. She immediately recognized the clothing and kept saying, "Hey those are my China clothes!" I pulled them out of the ziploc bag and they still smelled like the White Swan Hotel! The pants Esther had on were much too big on Gotcha Day, but they fit a little better now! She was also wearing beaded bracelets and hair scrunchies.. but I could only find one scrunchie.. the other is missing somewhere in the house. (And I feel bad about that!) When I first took Esther's clothes off, I noticed she had a huge pair of underwear on over a diaper! That underwear is still really big and she thought it was funny that she was wearing them!




The girls have changed so much since their Gotcha Days!!
Thanks Donna for another great photo challenge.