Avery's emerging personality

This is our third night of having Avery, and I cannot believe what a difference already!  The first day she arrived, I think she was in survival mode and just shut down. She did not say anything and did not move very much at all.  The first night, she slept by my side, and she was completely still all night.  When she woke in the morning, I think she looked around and saw that I was still there and thought, "maybe this lady is alright.  I better stick to her in this scary time when everything is new."  From that moment, she screamed every time I put her down or when Ginny or Anya held her when I needed to do something.  When I would pick her back up, she instantly stopped crying. This is a huge first step in attachment, as she has identified me as her safe, number 1 person.  And I was sure to hold her all day and be the one to take care of all of her needs to reinforce that connection.  As she slowly began to relax, she started pulling out all of her tricks.  The first day, I laid her on her tummy, and she fell flat down as if she had no muscles.  The second day-she was crawling all over the place.  The first day, I tried putting her in a standing position, and her legs became instant jelly.  The second day, she was cruising around the couch. The first day, she would not drink anything.  The second day, she sucked down her bottle and yelled for me.  The first day, she would not speak, the second day she was imitating Anya and babbling and laughing up a storm.  The first night, she did not move in bed.  The second night-she was crawling all over me and trying to use me as support for walking around the bed.  She was up playing for three hours in the night!   I found it so interesting that the trauma she was experiencing by coming here was so intense that everything shut down, even while she was sleeping.  Then once she decided I was okay, her little spirit was free to emerge.  And what a lively little girl she is!  She was in an orphanage sponsored by a United States charity called Half the Sky.  Today we got a translated "baby book" for her which documented all of her milestones and included little stories about her.  The journal described her as a "robber of other babies' toys," and when she was being fed by her nannies, she would chase all the other babies away who came near her.  This is a child who made her needs known early on and fought to get attention.  These are skills she will continue to hone once she meets Ginny and Hailey at home!  All joking aside, though, as I read that journal and realized she hit each of her milestones right on target (crawling at 7 months, pulling herself up to standing at 8 months, cruising at 9 months, etc.) I was overwhelmed with appreciation for Half the Sky and their interventions for these children in the orphanage.  Avery's experience is extremely atypical, and we feel so fortunate.

Here she is delighted to walk around the furniture