Thursday, August 23, 2007

It is hard to believe we have been almost two weeks now. The trip home was long but relatively uneventful. Sofie and Sam did very well considering the length of the trip. Tim and I were both exhausted by the time we arrived in Providence! We arrived about 9:30pm and we were greeted by our family and members of our church family. What a great welcome home for Sofie.

Sofie has been doing well since we arrived home. She is crawling everywhere and can pull herself to standing now! She is not very steady once she is up but she is so proud of herself once she does it. Her personality has really blossomed since we have been home. She has a great laugh and loves to be tickled. She has a stubborn streak, so of course she is the perfect fit for this family. We are working on eating food; she loves her bottles but not baby food. We have been trying table food and she is doing a bit better, we will just keep working with her.

Sam is doing well and is such a great big brother. He is very helpful with Sofie and really very caring and nurturing towards her. He loves to carry her around, which of course makes me nervous but he does a great job. He will be starting school next week- I will miss him when he is gone all day and I know Sofie will too. She lights up when he plays and interacts with her.

We are settling in as a family of four, went apple and peach picking this weekend and we had such a good time. Sofie had her first ride in a swing and she loved it. She loved the nectarines we picked too. We are getting used to having a baby again, always have to have a bag of stuff to just go out for a couple of hours.

We are so thankful and amazed that we have been given this precious child to love and raise. The wait was so long that at times it seemed like we would never finish the journey. But, like others who have already adopted have said- we have the child that was meant to be with us and we would not have it any other way.

We look forward to this weekend when we will have a family party so everyone can meet Sofie and belatedly celebrate Sam’s 7th birthday.

We are eternally grateful to our friends and family who have supported us on this journey and to the People’s Republic of China for giving us this amazing child. We look forward to the day that we return to China with Sofie.