A Letter to Sophie~

While living in China, Sophie was one of the lucky babies to be placed in foster care thru her orphanage. After her stay in the hospital for her heart surgery, she was taken back to the orphanage to the special care room, where she was prior to the surgery. The nannies in the special care room said that Sophie was so healthy after her surgery, and only needed to stay there for 2 weeks before being placed with her foster family.

In January 2014, after the Chinese government sent our Letter of Confirmation ( where Sophie and our family were officially locked together ), we sent Sophie and her foster family a care package. We had to send the package to her orphanage in Xiamen, who then sent it on to her foster family. Per Chinese government regulations, we are not allowed to be in contact directly with the foster family. In any case, one of the gifts I sent to her foster mom was a pretty picture frame. I was a little surprised when this same picture frame was sent back with Sophie on her Gotcha Day. Her foster mom put a recent picture of Sophie in the frame, prior to us uniting, which I thought was really sweet and would be a great memory for Sophie to have.

Fast forward 2 months from Gotcha Day to today...  I was switching out the above picture for a more recent one of Sophie in her red Chinese dress.  As I was taking out the older picture, I saw a hand written letter to Sophie on the back of the generic picture frame insert page.  I got chills immediately! I had prayed that Sophie's foster mom would send her a little letter when she was united with us- something that Sophie would later treasure...and sure enough, she did!  I think she hid the letter as she did due to the fact that we are not supposed to have contact with each other...this is only my guess.

So, now, I am on the hunt to get this letter translated for Sophie...I am over the moon excited that Sophie has this letter!

She's an Oreo Kinda Girl!

Who's that kid with the Oreo cookie...

I know that many of you understand Sophie's love of Oreos in just the short time since we have been home ;)  She loves single stuffed, double stuffed, mega stuffed ( my personal favorite! ), as well as chocolate stuffed Oreos.  She's really not picky...

After dinner, when she has an Oreo for dessert, she takes the top off and scrapes her teeth on the bottom cookie to get off all the scrumptious filling.  She's a pro!  When done with the filling, she's done with the cookie. And that's that. She will look at me, put up her little finger and say, " One more! " Awe, that cute face and adorable smile~ how can I not give her  just one more?!  I give in. Every.Single.Time!

So, because her love for Oreos is so strong, I needed to document, for her to see later in life! I love them, too, girl! Rock on with those O-R-E-O's!

Now this is pure happiness....

Sophie Loves Her Babies!

Long before we knew Sophie, we knew we were "having" a little girl. We were not sure when, or how old she would be, but having a girl was a for sure thing.  So, Mimi bought Sophie a pram baby doll stroller and an Asian Corolle doll.  Sophie was lucky enough to receive another Asian Corolle doll from a sweet friend of ours, so now she has twins!

Well, since Sophie has been home, she has been loving these gifts ;)  She puts little blankets on her babies, feeds them their bottles and walks them all around the house. When she feeds them, see makes the sucking noise, and the baby's bottle often ends up in her mouth, as well!  It is just so darn adorable to watch her play...I love it. And I love that her babies are Asian!

Playtime is a Little Different~

Having two boys until now, our playtime has been monster jam trucks and super heros, squirt gun fights and Beyblades, fishing in the pool and TMNT.  Sophie has "softened" things a bit around this house!  Now, we are playing, in addition to all the above, tea parties and pretending to bake cookies, princesses and pushing babies in the stroller.  Both are great, but I have to say...being a girly girl, the later is awesome ;)

We feel so lucky to have this little girl in our lives.  She has brought so many smiles and so much love into our family. She gives hugs and kisses. She can be sassy with the boys.  She is just the best. Love her to the moon and back...

Starbucks With My Girl~

Today, after Sophie and I dropped the boys off at school, we ran a few errands and ended up at one of my favorite places....Starbucks!  Sophie has come to know this place all too well.  I got my usual...Venti Skinny Caramel Macchiato, hot. Sophie got her usual, grande water.  She thinks this is her coffee.  Whatever works! She reads her books and drinks her coffee, I read my emails and facebook.  It's our little date!

 

Playing Doctor~

This past week Sophie and I went to see the cardiologist at Children's Hospital.  There were 2 tests that were needed- an EKG and an ECHO.  The EKG did not happen and the ECHO barely happened.  She screamed the entire time, moving around so much. She does not like doctors, and she does not like medical equipment touching her. At all. Poor thing. She was so scared that it was going to hurt her.

After the attempts at the testing, we met with Sophie's new cardiologist.  She was so good with Sophie. She was calm and went at Sophie's pace.  She was excellent at explaining and showing diagrams. The one thing she asked of us, in preparation for the next visit and repeat of the same tests, is that we play doctor at home. She asked us to use the stethoscope on Sophie and to practice being quiet while doing so. She even gave me some EKG stickers to put on Sophie's belly, so this is not so scary later when we have the next EKG.

So today, we played doctor. Me and Sophie. She put the stethoscope around my neck and the other end on her heart..she knew.  When I was listening to her heart, I looked at her and said, "shhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Sophie got it. Every time thereafter, she would put her cute little finger up to her lips and say, "shhhhhhhhh." From that point on, we were quite when we listened to her heart. Yay!  Next we will work on the EKG stickers. Baby steps.

Busy, Busy!

When we were waiting for all the paperwork to be taken care of to eventually be issued our Travel Approval, we were lucky to get 2 additional sets of pictures of Sophie. So we had pictures from her referral paperwork in September, then an update in December and March.  I remember our Case Manager, Tiffany, saying, " Sophie is really shy and quiet. She is probably much more open and comfortable at home, like one of my girls. " Well, she hit the nail on the head!  Sophie is one busy little girl, just like any other one and a half year old ;) She goes from playing picnic to Beyblades to riding in her car to reading books to going down the Step 2 roller coaster in our yard to playing in the sand and going on wagon rides. In the waiting period, I was kind of looking forward to a chill little girl, after having to crazy little boys running around....but now, I would not change it for a thing!

Pre- Gotcha Day~

 Post- Gotcha Day~

It's Summertime!

Summertime here in Phoenix means swimming at least once a day, riding bikes, playing with friends and in the sand box, and many trips to DQ!  Although we are still not playing with many new friends, we are working on getting used to the pool. A MUST in Phoenix ;)

Sophie did not take a bath in the tub until the 1st week we were home. With that being said, we are taking baby steps to loving the pool.  She started out just playing right outside the pool, then on the first step. Now, she "jumps" in off the side, with me holding her hands, and lets me get her wet up to about her waist. She likes when I bend over and let her splash the water with her hand and she is getting comfortable with the fountains...progress is being made! I think by July/August, she will let us hold her in the water.

So, with all this pool time, she needs a few cute suits, right?!