Happier Every Day!

We are truly making progress on a daily basis now. We are starting to see Sophie’s sweet little personality come out more and more each day. As I said before, she’s quite affectionate, which is likely part of the reason for her deep grieving, but now that she’s starting to show us that side of her, she’s quickly becoming pretty irresistible. ;) Seriously, the way the nudges her little head into my neck to snuggle, and the way she likes both hands wrapped tightly around me at times, or even the way she reaches up to rub my face, play with my hair, or just look at me. Precious!!

So, enough of the mushy stuff for now. :) Yesterday, we went to the U.S. Consulate for our oath taking ceremony. This was the last step before getting her Visa issued. Yay!! It went okay because we saved her bottle for the bus ride to the Consulate. She did pretty well waiting. The only tricky part while we were actually there was listening for them to call you. Although we were at the U.S. Consulate, the ones doing our paperwork were Chinese, and they were calling us by our children’s Chinese name. Yikes! Some of them were really hard to understand. Let’s just say that Charlie Brown’s teacher comes to mind. We were praying that would not be our window. It wasn’t. :) That’s good because we needed a break before that bus ride back. Remember, she drank her bottle on the way there. Yeah. That means she screamed on the back. All the way back. The whole 40 minute trip. Screamed. :( And, we have a 20 something hour plane trip coming up.

Today, our whole group met for the famous “Red Couch” pictures. For those of you unfamiliar with the China adoption community, this is a big deal – everyone does it. Everyone who adopts a child from China, must stay at least part of their trip in Guangzhou. Since Sophie is from Guangdong Province, we ended up here for our entire trip, but everyone must come through here. Most people stay at the White Swan hotel. Even those that stay at other hotels usually at least visit the White Swan for these famous red couch pictures. Well, since Sophie has still not sat anywhere other than my lap or David’s since we got her, of course, she was having no part of sitting on that couch. That is why you will see me in every picture. Believe me, I’m not a camera hog. :)

One more full day before we get on an airplane!! Yay!! That’s also scary, too. Please pray for her and for us for our trip home. It’s going to be a long one. :)

One more happy before I go! As I was typing this, David is sitting with Sophie in the other room. He just told me she took her first bite of solid food all on her own!! Yay! Guess what it was? Chocolate! An M and M, actually. :) And, just in case you’re wondering, YES, we had tried chocolate before, lots of times, and cookies, and yogurt, and watermelon, and everything yummy we could think of. She refused it all. But, not this time!! We’re getting there! Every day is better and better. Thank you so much for praying for her!!

Most of the children in our group. Not exactly "picture perfect," but close. :)

~Families and All~

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

2 Cor. 9:15