"Ya Ya" Has Arrived!

It has been quite a morning here!

Let me start by saying I am technologically inept and cannot seem to post photos to the blog for some reason, so for now the pics are all up on facebook. I WILL figure this out soon,though, and get some pics up here.

Isabel's group from Luoyang was the first group to arrive to the registration office, and she was all smiles as we watched her walk in from the van with her ayi.

She continued to be smiley as the ayi pointed us out to her and we smiled and waved. I offered her a lollipop which she happily grabbed, but did not want me to open it for her. She continued to look over her shoulder to make sure her ayi was still nearby as Tom and I talked to her and attempted to coax her a little closer. The minute I made a move to touch her or pick her up, however, the wailing began. Oh. My. Word. She has healthy lungs, to be sure. And stamina. She may have triathlons or marathons in her future becuase it was a work out just watching her scream for about 30-45 minutes straight. No amount of food offered, words in Chinese or English, smiles, or touching made a lick of difference. So we waited. I pulled out the photo album we had mailed to her awhile ago with photos of our family, and began to turn the pages and point people out.

Slowly, so she could hear me, the wails stopped and became whimpers. Then stopped altogether. Then she began to even answer me when I would ask her "who is this?" in Chinese when pointing to photos of the kids and Tom and me. She began to relax in Tom's lap. She began to look around the room with curiosity at all the families and Chinese children.

Then it happened. The smile. I don't remember now even what it was that made her smile. But once they started, they stayed. She has been smiling and talking ever since.

She answers my questions in Mandarin and seems to understand everything I'm saying. She laughs when I say somthing silly (for instance, as I was asking her what her favorite foods were and I threw in a silly question "do you like to eat shoes?" at first she smiled and said "yes" but when I said "really? You eat shoes?" she looked at me and laughed.)

She has a pretty nasty case of tooth decay...I think the dentist will be our friend for awhile when we get home. She came with very little--they returned the photo album and the disposable cameras I had sent, but she was only wearing her clothes and a pair of slippers. No coat, no shoes. Wow. They ayis answered all of my supplemental questions for which I was thankful.


I cannot wait to skype Jared, Anna, and Lilly tonight (morning their time zone) and let her see her siblings!


So it begins. A new little life, being grafted into ours. Praise the Lord, Glory to God.