Sophie's Dedication

Here are a few picture we were able to take before church started:

For those who like symmetry: 

2 girls, 2 boys,2 parents!

Oh, wait, here's Josh coming from the Youth room!

Matt was busy getting ready for worship as he was the worship leader that day.

And of course Ryan is away at school.

Sisters times 3!

Diane (Deb's sister) and her girls!

At our church we parents dedicate ourselves to loving our children like Jesus loves us and 

 teaching them about God and Jesus. 

We did a "run through" in the foyer so she would get the feel of it. We realize that she can't understand all we are saying. 

Once Sophie got on stage, she first started pretending to bite my arm while Pastor Brett was talking...

then making funny faces,

then making noises with her tongue...

She had a captive audience. They were starting to laugh so she stepped it up!

By the time I got to talk to her  (telling her how thankful to God we are that He brought her to our family and gave her a wonderful foster grandma to love and care for her for 6 years.), 

she was really getting squirrel-y!

Here Baba is telling Sophie that we will always love and care for her and teach her about Jesus and pray that someday she will love Jesus and serve Him. 

 And she is smiling and shaking her head no through the whole thing! 

Notice the boys laughing at her and Katie seems to 

have that "oh, boy are you in trouble" look about her!

Love the weather! Love the park!

Meeting Papa!

Sophie was excited that Grandma and Papa were coming back from Florida!

She loved meeting Papa and playing with him!

We still need to meet Shawn's parents and sister's family, and

 my brothers' and sister's families and extended family!

Baba's Birthday!

Shawn may forever be Baba! It's what he gets called more than Daddy right now. 

Sophie calls him that. (Baba means Dad in Mandarin.) So it makes sense that she calls him that. 

Katie calls him that to be like Sophie. (unless she "slips" which happens)

I (Deb) calls him that. (After calling him that for 2 weeks in China, it just comes out!)

Here are a few pics and stories from his birthday:

(Thanks for the pictures Matt!)

So I have a habit of using whatever box I can find for odd shaped things to fit in! Sophie thought it was a hoot that we were wrapping his new universal remote control in an empty cookie box! As he was opening it she was saying, "Con TV" (watch TV) and pretending to hold the remote and push the buttons!

THEN she really thought it was funny when we cut up 2 pages of construction paper hearts and put it in the box as confetti! The youngest ones all helped me do this! They were so excited for him to open it!

Shawn is laughing at her with her "pretend remote!

NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHAWN!

Shots! (a catch-up blog)

Showing off her strawberry "pombe" (frozen yogurt) that she got for being so brave and not crying while letting 2 nurses give her 3 shots in each leg. Yes, SIX shots in one day. Poor baby. She was amazing, especially considering she screamed after the one flu shot she got and then made 2 of us hold her down while taking blood to do a titer to see if she was immune to anything. (only chicken pox, which she is probably immune to because she had them!) 

My brave little girl!

Bike riding!

This girl loves to ride her bike! 

She loves to be outside. 

This picture was taken a while ago, it's been so nice lately we have been in shorts everyday.

 LOVE it!

Yesterday I took Sophie and Katie on a ride around "the lake" in the next subdivision, then we went to the trail and then the next subdivision! They probably rode 4 miles! We stopped at a friend's house and she burst out in tears. I had no idea why. Later I realized (from her charades) that she wanted to go to the park! We had ridden to the neighborhood park the day before. Here she was riding and riding probably wondering when we would ever make it to that park! 

Yesterday at the park she learned how to "pump" on the swing. She is getting it! She continues to amaze us in so many ways. 

We are SO BLESSED!

Maybe next post I will find some pics of Ryan dancing with her. I know I have lots of video...maybe I can  figure out how to post those! Priceless! She had so much fun with him!

Tears

Sophie has had some more tears and sadness. She misses her Jiangxi Nai Nai. :(

And we are glad.

That may sound strange. But imagine your 6 year old daughter living with you. for. 6. years.

And them some people meet your child at a hotel and try to be really kind and loving to this little girl that they are going to adopt. And she never misses you. That is what sometimes happens in adoption. These poor kids have no one to miss. They have no relationship with any special person who's cared for them and loved them.

We are glad. SO glad that Sophie was obviously loved for 6 years by her Jiangxi Nai Nai and that she misses her enough to cry and be sad. And that she lets us hold her and cry with her. And she tells us why she is crying (that she misses Jiangxi Nai Nai).

So we will keep holding her and crying with her. And laughing and singing and playing. That is what happens the most. The crying is only a few minutes, not even every day. But we are thankful for it!

And in June when my new friend Julie goes to Heng Feng SWI in Jiangxi, China on a mission trip THIS JUNE, you can bet that we will send Jiangxi Nai Nai pictures and a letter from us and Sophie! And maybe we'll get a  little letter back from Jiangxi Nai Nai.

Thank you, God.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACK!!

Today Zack is 9!! What a handsome boy! He has done so well making Sophie feel welcome. He has really stepped up and matured the past year. I am so proud of him!

He came downstairs this morning as I was sitting in the recliner with Sophie teaching her the "Happy Birthday" song!

For breakfast he picked pancakes. No surprise there! He loves anything with syrup!

Sophie didn't want pancakes. In fact she didn't even like the SMELL of Zack's pancakes and picked CHOW MEIN noodles for breakfast. (We didn't like the smell of her "breakfast"!! Chow Mein noodles with soy sauce is not a breakfast smell to us! But in China they don't seem to have different meals for breakfast! They eat noodles and vegetables for breakfast too.)

Cutie with her noodles and soy sauce! 

New Pictures

So I (Shawn) came home the other day after work where I was quickly escorted downstairs for a "meal"! :) Sophie had set the table with play food and wanted me to come and play with her. The fact is she wanted me, Deb, and Katie to play with her, but Mom was busy cooking real dinner. So instead, Sophie invited "other" guests, yeah, you guessed it from the picture, babies. Needless to say, we had our hands full feeding the babies and eating our "dinner". It was a good time. Katie and Deb did eventually join for a bit and we shared a lot of fun and laughter

Daddy and Sophie eating "dinner" with the babies

Mommy and Katie joined us for some eats

The influence of the big brothers has Sophie shooting hoops! This girl loves to be outside, even enduring some of the recent high winds we have had here.

Sophie shooting hoops with Jake

This journey of adoption has been incredible. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of how God has blessed us so. I think back on the night before we had to make a decision about Sophie's referral. I sat on the bed looking at the Wikipedia page about her special need and I was overwhelmed. God asked me to close that page and look at her picture. I am so glad that he directed me to the girl I was thinking of adopting and not her condition, because she is awesome, amazing, and wonderful (I told her so today).

We are blessed.

Chinglish! and learning English

I borrowed this from Sonja! This is what we currently speak!
"Go sheza your hands." (Go wash your hands.)
"Look, a faygee" or "Con a faygee" (Look, an airplane!)
"Xie xie, Dad" (thank you, Dad) Dad, not BABBA!

Sophie's language acquisition is amazing! I decided to write down all the words she USES (says) today. I thought it was about 20, with an understanding of about 10 or more additional words or phrases that she understands, but we found out that she USES over 40 words and it's up to 50 if you include all of our names! Here is the current list:
Uh-oh
Eat
Please
More
Yes
Stop
Go
Let's go
Good job (she said this to Zack in her first days home after teaching him how to use chopsticks! Yes, we've said it to her a time or 2!!)
Good girl
Naughty
Yeah
Bye Bye
Hello
Good morning
Good night
Clean up (and the girl CAN! She knows how and does it!!)
Sorry
Excuse me
This one
All done
Sun
Moon
Star
Napkin
Cup
Spoon
Fork
Chips
Banana
Ice Cream
Yogurt
Soup
Juice
Water
Soy sauce
Hot
Cold
Teeth
Toes
Hand
Doctor
Buckle (seatbelt)
Ball
Ok
Beautiful (knows it in sign language too!)
I love you  (one of my favorites!)

I was standing in the kitchen writing this list while the kids were having smoothies. Sophie understood what we were doing and started saying words she knows!! Then she said "chocoleet" and I didn't get it. I thought it sounded like chocolate, but I had no idea she knew that word. To prove it to me, she hopped down, trotted over to the frig and pointed to the chocolate syrup that we put on our ice cream! Ok, she also knows chocolate! That's Momma's girl!!

She calls these people by name: Momma, Babba/Dad, Matt, Ryan, Josh, Jake, Zack, Katie, Emily

Sitting here listening to her reminds me that she also knows numbers 1-10! That's 10 more words!!

Funny, she doesn't say "no" yet in English!!! She DOES say "no", but using  a form of Mandarin: She says "booyow" which means "I don't want it." or something like that! And it is usually said with a wave of her hand out like a stop sign while she cries out, "booyow, booyow, booyow"!!

In addition to all these she SAYS, she can understand these:
wait
get dressed
brush teeth
wash hands
outside
bike
scooter
get shoes on
get your coat on
go get in the van
time for dinner


One night she was trying to say "napkin" and it was so far from " napkin" I thought she was telling me the Mandarin word for napkin. Thankfully someone noticed and pointed out that she was trying to say napkin! Good think she is patient with us!


She just continues to amaze us! She has taught us many Mandarin words, but let's just say the rate of my vocabulary is not keeping up with hers!

I will try to post some PICTURES again soon!

God is at the library!

While the boys and Katie would love to be read to for hours, Sophie wouldn't even sit for a minute and look at a book with me. Sad face.

This just will not do! 

So our fist trip to the library was 2 days after we returned home! She had a great time playing with the toys, but wasn't interested in looking at books. So I picked out the books. 

I was able to get her to sit for a couple of books. She didn't like it one bit at first, but I insisted. 

Then we had to return the next Monday to the library because Zack had to get a book he had put on hold.  As I tried to interest Sophie in picking out books I prayed, asking God to  help me in picking out books that I could "read" to her with the few Mandarin words I know, or tell a story with the pictures...something to get her interested in sitting with me and a book! She buzzed by a shelf randomly pulling off 5 books. Or so it seemed! She did actually ask me for a "tutsa" (bunny) book and what "happened" to be sitting right on the shelf in front of me? Face up, not shelved like it should have been: Peter Rabbit! Perfect. A story with a lesson, too, about being a good bunny and not a naughty bunny!! :) She knows these words: good and naughty!

But the best book that we brought home has been the one that has 2 words: Banana, and please...it is about 2 monkeys. 

One monkey with a banana.

The other monkey WANTS the banana!

The monkey yells, screams and throws a fit to get the banana and then says "please?" The first monkey gives him the banana and then he's sad because he no longer has a banana! The other monkey finally SHARES the banana and they are both happy! 

How perfect is THAT! I read it to her and she got it and laughed! Then last night Daddy and I acted it out with a paper banana! She LOVED it! Today she cut out her own paper banana and got Zack to act out the book with her, then did it again with Baba when he got home! It's priceless! I hope to get her drama debut on video and post it!