Gotch Day +4 Cruising Right Along - April 14 - Photos Added

Apologies for the long interval between posts. Internet service in Changsha is less then stable, and Yahoo mail is totally unstable (so I have not been able to check my mail account at all).

Emily is doing outstandingly! Over the last few days she has just blossomed into a happy frolicking little girl. I just love seeing her big little grin and that little tongue poking out when she is blissing out. With the limited internet here, you will all just have to wait on photos though. But let me just say she is even cuter then her dossier photo and now sports a full head of hair.

Each day with Emily is new learning for her and for us. She initially bonded with Nancy, and so I stayed back a bit as she habitually did not like strangers at the orphanage. Nancy quickly bonded on the more supportive level with feeding, diapers, nurturing, etc. On day 2 she was more responsive to me and less hesitant so I was able to begin to engage her with play toys and lots of play time. By the end of day 3 she was equally bonded with us both and in some ways even stronger to me then to Nancy. We taught her to put her hands up when she wanted to be picked up and held from her crib (she's a quick study on new things by the way). And she now interacts with us on all levels, and I am happy to say she is not hesitant of strangers at all any more and will grin and flirt with people both in our group and complete strangers in the hotel or on the street.

Emily particularly loves being loaded into her Ergo carrier on Nancy and taking off for outdoors. She coos and giggles as soon as she sees Nancy put on the carrier.

Developmental progress is excellent with Emily. We think she suffered vs some of the other kids in the orphanage because she tended to exhibit shyness and fussiness. However, one very interesting event is that she literally was averse to sitting on day 1, yet by breakfast today, she could sit with little or no assistance at all on the seating couches in the cafe. Very quick progress with just patience, coaching and preping by us. She continues to be very fussy about new experiences and her first reaction is to cry and reject. However after we have done something with her 2-3 times, she begins to settle down and quickly adapt. She adores human attention and will soak up all Nancy and I have to offer, and then some :)

One thing Emily arrived with is a strong set of self-nurturing skills. She is very capable of going to sleep within minutes of hitting the crib and has a whole little talking ritual to herself she goes through in the process. She will do this same thing if rocked gently in Nancy's arms to relax her before setting her in the crib. Sleeps soundly, and generally through the night with no fuss.

The last milestone for her this week was to do the all important poop. We elected to assist her with this last night and our adoption facilitator Chris kindly administered a proven and effective little suppository ointment tube for us (as he has done for countless babies over the years). Worked like a charm too. She did two nice poops within a half and hour and then settled into a nice nights sleep. We are including some honey in her milk/cereal formulas now to encourage continued regularity.

So many other things to share about Emily, but that can wait til a later time. We just wanted all our friends and family at home to know she is doing well, as are we.

Today we receive her final adoption certificate and her passport. Yay!! Later tonight we all head to Guongzho for the last leg of our adoption Journey - the all important US Consulate meeting for her immigrant visa.

More to come later from Guongzho.