Free Day

 Today has been my favorite day so far in China. We had nothing to do today but just be together and get to know Emily a little bit better. We went on a few long walks, which was so nice! I don't know what happened, but we woke up to blue skies today! We haven't seen anything but smog since we arrived in Henan, and today the sky was blue! The air temp was cool, and being outside was just lovely!

 We found the most beautiful park just down the road from our hotel. I think we will spend a lot of time there. It was big and so super beautiful. Em slept most of the time.

 Our hotel is really nice. Really really nice. There men in coat tails at every door just waiting to open it for you. This is the lobby. The flowers are so pretty!

 Something in Emily changed today. I don't know what it is, but her eyes came alive today. Big eyes! When we were matched with her, we knew she had developmental delay, or delayed mobility. We didn't know exactly what to expect with that. She spent the last five months in a charity, with a lot of one on one help. We hadn't received any updates on her, and I was praying so much that she would at least be sitting up when we got her. When they handed her over to me two days ago, she was dead weight. She was exactly like a newborn. She couldn't hold her head, nothing. It scared me to death. Her eyes were empty, she flopped everywhere, and she only wanted to lay down. I seriously wondered if she was even in there. Where was that powerful spirit that I had felt. She came around a little bit after we got into our room. She started making eye contact, smiling and even laughing, but most of the time, her eyes were vacant. Yesterday was rough for her physically. She doesn't like having to be upright. It's hard for her. She really has no muscle tone at all. But she was upright the entire day. We ran non-stop.

Today, those eyes were bright! She held her head up all day, by herself. She rolled all over the bed and back. She sat up straight in the stroller, and held herself there for several minutes at a time, and she used her arms to play with a balloon. I can't believe the difference two days has made. This spicy Henan girl is going to be just fine. She's got some coping mechanisms that have kept her going for her whole life, and little by little those are turning into trust, and her will is getting stronger by the hour it seems like. She is going to shine!

Emily LOVES Gary! Many of the kids here will have nothing to do with their new mothers. They only want the Dad. I am so lucky that she likes me too, but she LOVES her Da! She looks for him, kisses his face about off, rolls over to him every chance she can, and stares into his eyes. He was feeding her and looking into her eyes and when he looked away, she would pull her head back until he came back to her, then she would give him the biggest smile, and keep drinking. When I'm feeding her, every time Gary would talk, she would look for him and smile so big. 

Today was great. This girl is making such progress every day, physically and emotionally. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much! We prayed and prayed that she would know we were coming for her, and that she would be prepared, and it could not have worked out any better! We are so very much in love with this girl. There is no question in my mind that she always was meant to be our daughter. I am so thankful that we listened, and that we came for her.