GOTCHA DAY!!!

Okay, here are the photo's!!! The drive to Taichung was very uneventful and in fact we had to waste time at the rest stop because we were about an hour ahead of schedule!!! Mr. Yeh picked us up a little bit earlier than originally planned because he thought there would be traffic on the highway due to the rainy weather, but there was absolutely no traffic!!!

So we arrived at TWCA (the Taiwan Agency/Facilitator) and met with Samantha for a few moments. We then drove over to the foster mom's house and this is when we were told that Emily had been living with the same foster mom that Brady had!!! We were SO SO happy to hear this!!! Not only is it a link for Brady and Emily, but we think Brady has turned out just wonderful (so far LOL) so we figured she must know what she's doing!!! (as an aside, all of the kids I know that have stayed with Ms Liao seem to have the least amount of transitional "issues" and most, if not all of them are very good sleepers and eaters!!) We were "warned" that Emily is shy and that she would probably cry!!! Alan and I both greeted Ms. Liao with a hug!!! We went into her house and Emily was on the floor playing as she had just finished her bottle and was getting ready to take a nap. We knelt down and talked to her and then I just went in for the scoop!!! She didn't cry at all either!!! In fact she is mostly quiet, unless she is crying, and that only happens when we're doing something wrong!! LOL. At 6 1/2 months old she is sitting up, rolling over, and FAST, pulling herself up to sit and pulling herself up to a STAND!!!! YIKES!!!! Ms. Liao said she was also walking along her couches!!! So much for me thinking I'd have at least a month of "easy baby parenting"!!! LOL She is a busy little girl that's for sure!!!

Okay, so after we left Ms. Liao's house we went back to TWCA to meet with the birth mom and her sister!! Wow, was that emotional!!! I won't tell the whole story of what happened and I won't post any pictures, but I'll give a glimpse as to what happened. We exchanged gifts and talked a little bit. Emily's mom was looking through the Virginia book we gave her and she came to a picture of snow and asked if it was snowing now. We explained that we usually don't get snow until January and/or February. We told her that we do plan to come back to Taiwan someday with both kids and she said she would be open to meeting us at that time, which is totally fine with us. We talked a lot about Brady too and that Emily would have a big brother. Of course the most important thing we got was all of the pictures!! Oh and her mom made us a CD of pictures that includes the pregnancy and sonogram pictures!!

Once we were finished visiting with them we headed downstairs to sign paperwork and then we headed back to Taipei, but first we stopped by Emily's birth city and were able to take a picture of the hospital she was born in!!!

We got back to the hotel a bit later than we thought so Emily was a bit behind on her schedule so last night was a bit trying. After a couple of hours we finally got her settled down enough to fall asleep and once she was asleep she did great!!! All in all, it was a great day!!!

Emily was playing when we got there. Apparently she loves this Patrick balloon, so Ms. Liao gave it to us!! LOL

the "handoff"

Our first picture with Emily!!! (funny, this is about the exact same pose as our first picture with Brady!!)

she likes to be held up in the air!

Mommy and Emily at the baby store!

Daddy and Emily in the car!!