She is officially ours!

Morning came bright and early today as Rodney and I got up at 5:30 to have time to get ready, get Emma ready, have breakfast, and get to the White Swan by 8:30. Emma slept all night long, and started waking up around 7 this morning. We tried a bottle again, but she wouldn’t even try it. We hit the breakfast bar at the hotel, and tried to give Emma some congee, watermelon, and bananas, but she didn’t want any of it, either. She played with little pieces of watermelon, but wouldn’t eat any. Off we went back to the Civil Affairs office to meet with the notary and finalize the Chinese portion of the adoption. Everything else that needs done is a requirement for the US government. Once again, everyone was quite for the most part except our Emma Lee. Everyone met with two officials separately, so it took quite a while to finish everything. Our big success of the morning was that Emma finally took a bottle! She probably had 7-8 ounces, then proceeded to fall asleep.
When we left the Civil Affairs office, they took most of us to the Carrefour, a French chain like a super Walmart. This place is unbelievable! First of all, it was at least 95 degrees in there and just miserable! From street level, you go down an escalator to enter the building. Instead of starting on ground level and going up, like a mall, you start one level down, and go down 2 more levels to get to the groceries. It is like shopping in a cave! Did I say it was HOTTTTTTT????? We needed to look for a bottle like the orphanage used, diapers, formula, water, and coffee for Rodney (he didn’t listen when I suggested packing Folders singles). Oh, I forgot to tell you the coolest part – you get your shopping cart, and then have to go down levels, so how does that work? Instead of an escalator with stairs, it is a flat surface and you push your cart right onto it! The wheels are magnetized or something so they don’t move while you are on it. It was Very Cool! When we finished shopping, we caught a taxi back to our hotel. Of course, it goes without saying that Emma Lee cried the whole time!

When we got back to the hotel, we thought she might take a nap, but she only catnapped for a few minutes. We put her on a blanket on the floor with some toys to play for a while. Boy, did we see some personality from her! In just a couple of minutes, she took of crawling halfway across the room!!! She hadn’t done more that just wiggle and roll over yesterday! She almost tried pulling herself up against the wall, but she didn’t quite make it. She played, laughed, and talked for a good hour and a half before she got fussy. We tried a bottle, made the same as the one she ate this morning, and she made the most terrible face! She drank about 3 ounces of water, then drifted off to sleep for another half-hour cat nap and she is again playing on the floor.

It is so amazing to see her personality come out. Rodney is stacking cups, and Emma will knock them over and just laugh! She loves plastic. Her favorite thing has been a ziplock baggie with tissues in it! She loves banging things together and noises, too.

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So far, the trip has been great, but we are looking forward to coming home!