Some Photo Love & Silk Factory

Per request...I mean demand, here are some photos of the lovable little girl.  Most of the demand has come from my 3 nieces in Indy, but others have asked for more photos too!  The above photo is from breakfast.

That is the biggest smile I've seen her give yet.  And thankfully she is starting to give us more and more.  How can you not love that smiley face!  Her personality is really starting to show!

Emi does walk but she doesn't really do it on her own.  She prefers to take Daddy's finger and walk with him.  She does not like to take my Mom's finger and walk with her.  So it is definitely very good that she is bonding with Lane.  As a matter of fact he left the room to use the bathroom and she began to cry.  She does not like him out of her sight.  We'll see how that goes when he has to head back to work in 2 weeks.  

Playing on the floor with her shoe.  The sandals that I sent with Lane based on the measurements we were given of her foot are too big.  So she's been wearing the squeaky shoes that she wore when she was placed with Lane.  In GZ they plan on buying her some more shoes since they're much cheaper there.  And how could they not come back with squeaky shoes? 

They ended up going to the Yue.Lu Academy one of the major seats of learning from ancient times in China.  The academy was founded in the early 900's making it over 1000 yrs old (you can goo.gle it to find out more info).  Officials who administered to the empire/emperor were all trained here.  The Hunan University system is connected through the Yue.Lu Academy.

After that Lane and the other family from our agency made a request to be taken to the silk factory.  If I remember correctly Hunan Province has one of only 3 silk factories in the entire country.  Lane said that Hunan specializes in silk embroidery that features animals, especially tigers and lions.  In the photo below you will see one of tigers.  It is stunning.  I can only imagine how much more stunning it was in person.  I don't remember if Lane said that the one in the photo or another one almost identical to it has a retail value of about $100K (US dollars).  He said the embroidery took 2 1/2 yrs to make and the tiger fur looks real.  Not only that, the stitching of the eyes is so intricate that anywhere you move, it looks like the tiger is watching you and following you.  Pretty neat if you ask me!!

Lane bought a few embroidery pieces at the factory.  One that we will give Emi as a gift when she's older.  Maybe Sweet 16 or HS graduation.  There were others that he bought that we will have framed and hang in her room.  Everything is absolutely stunning.

Oh and about the silk factory...Lane said they never would've found it on their own if they tried.  The entrance was a non-descriptive door at the corner of the building.  Thankfully their wonderful guide took them.

Tomorrow is sit around and wait for passport (and any other paperwork before they catch their 8 pm flight) day.  We did get a copy of her finding ad that was in the local paper.  There were also a few other things, but this morning my brain was still in selective information processing mode, so I don't remember what they were.

To wrap this up I will leave you with an Emi funny.  At dinner they were all sitting at the table and Emi started shaking her head back and forth.  Lane showed me via webcam that it is the same gesture children make when they're shaking their head "no".  Anyhow, they started shaking their heads the same way and so she started shaking her head like she was head banging to heavy metal.  Well, she ended up head banging herself right into the table.  I asked Lane if she cried and he said no.  She just kind of looked around and then went on like it was no big deal.  But I can so picture her doing that.  I got a really great laugh out of that.  

Probably won't post again for a few days until they get to GZ.  Saturday is medical exam day.  Will probably post after that.

Oh and for my FB peeps that also follow my blog, I posted a note about something that I want to keep out of public view so if your interested head to my profile.

Peace.