Sophie's Stories

Love MY Weekend!

2009-11-09T09:12:00.003-05:00

This weekend went by waaaayy too fast. Saturday was incredible. Last year we took Sophie with us....to see Santa. This year we went by ourselves. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I Love Christmas. Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, cooking in the kitchen, family and friends, decorating to the "T". (William hates Bing btw, but he puts up with it for me.) I love it ALL. And now to have Sophie with us, it's just completes us. There's so much I want to teach her. I want her to know where the "Christmas spirit" is found. Not under a tree or in a stocking, but in family and friends. Jesus Christ is the one and only reason for the season. And without Him, what are we celebrating? And with Him....oh the joy that is found. I'm sooo looking forward to our trip this year. Hoping to make lots of memories. I'm sure we will.....
Back to Saturday, after finishing our Christmas List, we had a nice dinner and then went to see The Christmas Carol in 3D. I was sooo disappointed. However, since we had not been to the Theater since we were DATING, the experience was AweSOMe!!! I'm ready to go back to see like an action movie of something. It was so cool. Plus being in the back of the cinema with my dear husband did bring back some memories...maybe we'll get a chance to go again before another decade passes.....

China Adopt Talk

2009-11-03T12:35:00.001-05:00

Check out all the beautiful babies at China Adopt Talk. Thing One and Thing Two are way cute!

A Little Fall Fun!

2009-11-01T12:05:00.001-05:00

One hand it the pumpkin and it was all over.... Sophie had to have a spoon! Afterwards we cooked her seeds. She really liked that.

Getting ready to go out for the evening.

Last stop before going home to try to wash all that glitter off!

I WON!!!!

2009-10-30T12:27:00.003-04:00

How cool...never won anything before. I entered a few giveaways last week and to my surprise I won a $100 gift certificate to Invites BY Jen from the Etsy Wedding Team. She's VERY talented and the invitations are beautiful and personal. I believe we have a few years yet before Little Miss can use it. Know anyone getting married?

Give Aways!!

2009-10-23T12:47:00.003-04:00

Lot's of cool giveaways this month!There are a few at http://etsygiveaways.blogspot.com And check out Celebrating Everyday Life for their handmade dress giveaway.

Little Miss Independence

2009-10-14T21:28:00.004-04:00

Let me help you with that bowl moma.

Would you like some more tea?

I can do it.

Today's Pics

2009-10-07T19:06:00.000-04:00

A Catch Up Post.

2009-10-06T13:49:00.005-04:00

Fall is such a busy time of year. There's festivals and fairs to be attended. Pumpkin patches to be visited, and wonderful, glorious cool evenings to enjoy! Our daughter has kept us very busy this fall. (good busy) She helped mommy plant the rye grass this year and get the front porch decorated. She loves being my little helper and even reminds me to tell her thank you after she's handed me something. I'm ready to see what she'll think about getting all that gook out of the pumpkin. She's growing leaps and bounds. WAAAAY to fast! But watching her say a word for the first time, learn a new trick, or just see something that tickles her, man it's an amazing thing. She pretty much grabs your hand now and leads you where she wants, tells me to sit, move, or come on. The "lov u's" are just the best thing ever and I can't get enough of that smile. It really does light up a room. I am just sooo grateful. She's doing great in the toddler bed. That is such a blessing. She cried out twice last night but didn't get up, went right back to sleep. What a big girl she's becoming......(sigh)

Another Milestone

2009-09-23T12:04:00.002-04:00

For the past week Sophie has not been sleeping all night. At first, I thought it was those teeth that were waking her up and it just evolved into some bad sleeping habits. When she woke up, I would give her some Tylenol and put her in the bed with US. She would lay there wide awake tossing and turning. After a couple of hours of that I'd take her back to her room where she would either play in her crib for a while or cry herself to sleep. A few nights ago I decided something had to change, so instead of putting her in the bed with us, I put a mattress on her floor and laid by her crib. This seemed to work alot better. Well, last night after William took her to bed, she started crying. So he decided to leave the door OPEN to her room wondering if maybe that would help. She seemed to have fallen asleep. (this is about 9ish) We were in the living room watching one of those movies that just made you mad. And about 10ish we started hearing a "bump,bump". Real quite like, every couple of minutes. Earlier we heard a "THUMP", but thats normal in my house at night. I mean, usually Razz is getting his bed ready upstairs or something...no big deal. And the bumps, we just tossed that up to Sampson wagging his tail in his sleep. Then all of the sudden I see William JUMP out of his chair like he had seen a ghost....a very small one! Yep, that's right Sophie has now crawled out of the crib! Funny thing is she was standing in the hall with blanky in hand for like ten minutes...when William got up she didn't move..I think knew she was suppose to be in bed but just couldn't figure out how to get back in there! Oh...I LOVE being a parent!

A Day at the Fair!

2009-09-20T08:24:00.001-04:00

Qian Jiang Jian!

2009-09-18T21:13:00.003-04:00

ONE YEAR LATER.........

Celebrating this past week.....

2009-09-18T20:21:00.003-04:00

Sophie just loved the circus. The first picture was taken before it started. She was taking it all in, wondering what in the world we were doing. The first act were dogs and that just set the mood for the entire evening..clapping, laughing, jumping, pointing. SHE was a thrill a minute. Can't wait to see her reaction at a "real" circus. This was one of those small traveling ones, but I'd take her again in a heartbeat....we might be seeing one at the fair tomorrow.

The next day she enjoyed making her cake, and later that evening eating it. Thursday we had our last placement visit with Mrs. Susan. Everything went great. I sure wish we had her in the beginning. She just makes you feel at ease r from the time she enters your door. Tomorrow...pending William feeling better, we are hoping to go to the fair in VA. Different kinda fair for me. They've got lawn mower racing, rooster crowing contest, puppet shows, a small circus, bull riding...man I could go on and on....sure hope we make it.......

Conference Room

2009-09-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's so hard to believe a year has already passed. We have had sooo many "firsts" in this last year, so much to celebrate. But September will always be special to me. For me it was the first time ever on a plane, first time out of the country, first time getting air sick......first time being a mother!
I was so nervous. There were so many "what if's" running through my mind. I mean come on ....after THREE years of waiting for this precious child. It was finally happening. As we were anxiously sitting in that big ol' conference room waiting for that angelic face to peak through the door I can remember thinking do I have everything, bottle, thermos, gifts, envelopes, toy....will she be crying and scared or quite and shut down. You see I had done alot of reading in those looong three years and of course the worse case scenario's stick in your mind. As we are trying to listen to our guide Marie instruct us on how to fix their bottles...her cell phone rings. "Some of the babies are here." Here, really, where! The next thirty minutes felt like hours! I can vividly remember Alyzabeth An coming through the door. The look on her mommy and daddy's face was indescribable joy....I can still see them giving AA that adorable doll. Next a few more start to trickle in, oh wow the emotions in that room were just overwhelming. Finally, there she was! Her group trying to get into the crowded door way, while I was fighting my urge to go grab her. Thank goodness for the awesome families we traveled with, for by that time I was not even thinking about our first moments being captured on tape, I just wanted her in my arms. Then I heard it "Qian Jiang Jian's parents!" Music to my ears. My nervousness faded as this beautifully happy little soul was placed in my arms. Her personality shining through. My heart's ache was finally healed. She completed us! Some of the happiest tears ever were shed in that room that day.
This month as I relic those days over and over. I am so thankful to those wonderful families we traveled with. As we stood there in that conference room with these people we had just met. We made connects that day will last a lifetime. With everyone going through their own little moments, it was still not hard to get a smile or a knock on the door. (that coke was sooo good) I miss you all sooo much. The experience of a lifetime!

Redirecting

2009-09-08T09:54:00.003-04:00

Humm...how do I start. I've been seeking the Lord's will. I have to be obedient. Still, so I can hear. Is that my will or yours?
Small things....today, out of a bookshelf full of books, my daughter hands me a book, already turned to the page she wants me to read.....Chapter One page 17... FOR THE PARENTS WHO CHOOSE A CHILD. I began to read, tears filled my eyes. This was not a book about adoption, but yet she hands me this book turned to the only page that addresses it. This is NOT the first of many small things as of late. I would like to have more children...so is this Him or me. It's been almost a year since I held my precious daughter for the first time. She is everything I could have ever asked for. So is He telling me that I have another child out there? Or is it me? I guess time and prayer will answer that question.

Wonderful Weekend

2009-09-07T14:14:00.002-04:00

This weekend started off....lets just say with alot. Sophie spent Friday evening with her Uncle Vernon, which whom she has totally wrapped. He introduced her to her first battery operated bike...don't have any pictures yet, but she got the hang of it really quick from what I hear. (do we have a future motocross pro on our hands)Then after only 3 hours of sleep, it was time to get up for our yard sale. So I get up at 5am and NO water!!! Our pump burnt up and we have one of those systems where our central heat and air runs off water....no wonder it was so hot in the house that night. Anyway Mr. Termite was there in a flash, he is just awesome! And a new pump and tank is in our future. Back to the yard sale....good turn out, spent more than I made, well worth it. Sophie is sporting just one of our many finds that morning. (thank you Penny!)Got home around 1:00, jumped in the pool for a couple of hours. That evening we attended Brandon's fourth birthday party. Sophie had a ball. Sunday was church in the morning, with a relaxing afternoon. And today....home cleaning, watched Miracle of 34th Street, and just enjoying the day. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-26T21:17:00.001-04:00

Memories...Old and New

2009-08-20T14:24:00.002-04:00

"Watermelon smiling on the vine.
It's summertime and watermelon time.
It's red in the middle and green on the top.
Makes your tongue go flip-a-de flop
Watermelon smiling on the vine."

"Watermelon smiling on the vine.
It's summertime and watermelon time.
It's green on the top and red in the middle.
Just as sweet as a tune on a fiddle.
Watermelon smiling on the vine."

I can still hear my grandaddy singing this song....and soooo many others. Most of my memories of him when I was a child had a little tune in them. Even sitting at the kitchen table for lunch, he'd sing a quick, funny little something just to make me laugh. I have a cassette tape of us singing together and it's just priceless. These are the types of memories I want Sophie to have. Simple afternoons, fun little tunes. Just days filled with whatever her little imagination comes up with. Thank you Gradaddy....miss you.

Sophie's Stories

2009-08-14T09:14:00.010-04:00

I'm about to attempt to tell a story that unbeknown to me started Sept 16, 2008 and unfolded before my eyes August 11, 2009. There are many sides to this story. Today I will focus on mine, giving insight to some others. Where to start....Just days after receiving our referral, I was on the ball and send out my first care package to our daughter. In it was a disposable camera. We had the film developed in China and of course looked at them just as soon as our guide brought them back to us. But it was when we got home that I REALLY looked at them. It seemed that most of them were taken in the same place, same time, just snapping to use up the film. However in one of those shots, standing beside Sophie was this adorable little two year old. It deeply sadden me. Thinking that this child would never get a chance to have a family of her own. I remember telling my mom that I would go back and get this child in a heartbeat! For the past 11 months I have often though of this little girl.....Fast forward to last Monday....I received a email from Savannah's mom telling me about this women and her little girl Jazmyn Rose.
"Last week I got an amazing e-mail from a very nice lady named ___MRS.K___ who had accidentally came across Savannah's web page (the first one we had, through adoption voyages). She was blown away at finding out her daughter's gottcha day was on the day same as ours, in the same city of Chongqing, and her daughter was from the same orphanage. She gave me her daughter's web site and I just broke into tears and was stunned, I grabbed my orphanage photos and told Brian I thought the little girl I had been praying for was this Lady's daughter. I e-mailed her attaching a pic of the little girl sitting on steps with Savannah and she instantly e-mailed back in tears saying yes, yes this was her daughter Jazmyne."
Jazmyn would help take care of and play with some of the smaller children. Her mother is trying to locate these babies for varies reasons. One being that her agency did not allow her to send a camera to China therefore she is hoping to get precious pictures of her daughter before she came home. Another reason is to reach out to the Qian Jiang Babies that her daughter loved and cared for. (This little girl has an awsome story.) There have been so many families to come forward with pictures of her daughter that she wanted to try to give back too! She has pictures of some of the Qian Jiang babies just as they were getting out of the van. Their FIRST few minutes on the streets of Chongqing, right before they would meet their new families. So she has been trying to find these families. SOOOO, on Tuesday, August the 11th, two mothers who never met, we able to give each other a very precious gift.....Pictures of their little girls! Thank you so much Melinda for forwarding that to me. Pictures are just priceless!

The Call...Sophie DAY!

2009-08-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

One year ago today....for me this day will be forever burned into my memory. This is the day my dream became a reality. After all that time of dreaming of my daughter, in no way could I have EVER imagined this glorious child. That morning we knew that we would receive our call that day. (our agency makes calls a day later than most)We had no idea what TIME it would be. Finally that afternoon the phone rings and at that time what sounded like the most beautiful voice in the world says..."It's a girl!" Then came the details...name, birthday, weight, her love of music, it was to say the least, surreal. Next she says..."I have send you an email with her picture!" Folks...that was the longest afternoon of my life! The first time I saw my daughter, I wanted my husband to be with me! So the wait began...again! But he did come home early. I was ready too. Ya know, you never really know what your reaction will be. When we sat down at that table and downloaded that picture, I just knew the first thing I'd do was cry, but I didn't. (that came about five minutes later) I was in SHOCK. Is this for real! I had been addicted to RQ and seeing referrals every month for the past year. It was like, ok is she really mine. Man,,,what an awesome day that was. And I know most don't celebrate referral day, but after three looong years of waiting, today, at Conner Lane, it's Sophie Day! And to all my travel buddies...Happy One Year Referral Day!

Pictures!

2009-08-02T18:08:00.003-04:00

Moma's little helper! Sophie just loves helping me fix dessert. And believe it or not this is her first time eating corn ON the cobb. Normally I cut it off for her. Then of course I had to put in her chill down mode picture. This is a normal evening at home. She usually chills out on the couch for about thirty minutes (around 7:30) before going to bed. Couldn't ya just squeeze those cheeks!

Getting Back to Normal

2009-08-01T21:52:00.004-04:00

Things have calmed down alot around here. It's been really nice. I thought this weekend was suppose to be a total wash out, so I planed to stay in....do some much needed cleaning and also cook a big meal. And that's pretty much what I did even though the sun did come out and I could hear the pool calling me...I stayed in. I rather enjoyed it too. It was therapeutic! William and the boys went crabbin'. (good thing I cooked) Sophie and I had the house to our selves!
Sophie is doing some major teething right now. Poor thing. She's cutting six teeth. How long does it take for those bad boys to come in! Two started coming in a couple of weeks ago and they are still not all the way through. She's been really good though. A little cranky and clingy, but who can blame her.
Oh and her new word right now..."com'on!" and she has the hand motion down pat too.
And the whole watch what you do thing....I take one dog to work with us and this week, I got a little busy in the office with a customer while Razz decides to gulp down some water. As I turn to see shoe strings hanging down each side of his mouth, here comes Sophie to the rescue. She saw mommy was busy and ran into the kitchen, grabbed his slobber rag and began to wipe his mouth. It was too cute. She sure does keep her eye on mommy during the day!
Next week looks rather calm too. Our only appointments are at the salon!

A Grateful Heart

2009-07-23T11:57:00.004-04:00

So the last week has been quite a ride. Coming off of what I think was strep throat, having an upper endoscopy last Thursday, waking up to my Chloe girl with this huge tongue Friday morning, and this past Tuesday we took Sophie to the Duke Eye Center. Man.....I'm ready to get some kind of normal routine in my day! I'm so glad I know my God is in control, I'd be a basket case by know.

The Endoscopy went well, looks like I need to relax a little, change my eating habits some, and take some protonics for a few months and that's that.

Chloe, oh my! Poor girl, her tongue was three times the norm. She had gotten a thorn in the end of the tongue and it became infected. (Imagine us gettin' a splinter in our finger.) Well my vet was out of town and of course I have his number memorized, so I'm trying to find somewhere to take her, her mouth is trembling, Sophie's not happy because her normal morning routine has been interrupted and I go blank. WHAT do you call an animal doctor!?! Seriously, I'm looking in the yellow pages under PHYSICIANS! Finally I call William to give my brain a jump.......DUH. A VETERINARIAN! Well now it's Friday and with my vet gone, the other locals are overbooked. I finally get one to work her in, thinking to myself, she's in pain, but in no way is this life threatening.....wrong! I get a call at 10:30 am telling me the situation described above with an added.."this is very serious, her mouth is rotten!" Followed with a "if her tongue is rotten, she will not be able to eat or drink." My heart dropped. NOT Chloe. She is moma's first. And you can just imagine how the rest of the weekend went. Smiles were hard to come by and food was tolerated. After our visit with her Saturday morning I still found no reassurance in the vet's voice. But Sunday proved to be a new day. My Lord's Day! And Chloe's swelling had gone down significantly and she was drinking on her own! The Lord had answered my prayers and our first baby girl is doing great. She's still on antibiotics and I will take her next week for a check up.

Tuesday ended up being a great day too! We got to the Center an hour early...wanted to make sure we could find it and they were awesome! Sophie did such a good job, only crying when they dilated her eyes and who could blame her. By the end of the day we were ecstatic to hear that Sophie's vision was fine. And what we had been seeing.....she would grow out of. Thank you Lord for hearing our hearts. I love You with all of mine.

Week Overview

2009-07-10T12:10:00.004-04:00

I cannot believe this week is already over. Even though we had nothing major planned, it just flew by. Sunday it was raining and cloudy so we just chilled in the house. Monday was cleaning day. Tuesday, in the pool. Wednesday we both had doc. appointments in Greenville. Mine follows up with an endoscopy next Thursday...yuk! And we are waiting for Duke to call us for an appointment to see Sophie. She has one eye that wants to turn in and "they" are having trouble determining if it is just the folds in that eye (very possible) or if something else is going on. Soooooo, we are going to the best of the best to make mommy feel better:) Now let's see... Thursday we went to the aquarium and the beach with Aunt Christy and Levi....by far my favorite day. Christy is sooo easy going and I just loved watching those two kiddo's! Now today I decided to come back in cause I'll be taking off so much for doc appointments and then on the 20th:) We are just so excited. Sophie and I will be going to Top Sail Beach to spend the day with the Decker's. They are one of the wonderful families that we traveled to China with. Savannah and Sophie were crib mates! I just love summer!

Our Fourth of July

2009-07-04T22:16:00.003-04:00

We really enjoyed the festivities this year. Last night we when to the River Center and watched the fireworks. They were really good. We were very impressed. Sophie however, did not agree. Maybe next year she'll be more into it. We also got to meet our blogger friend, Allisyn. That was nice. I hope we are able to continue to meet up some outside of the blogging world!
Today we relaxed with friends and family by the pool, grilled some chicken, and shot off some fireworks of our own. Hope everyone had a awesome Fourth of July!

CCAI Guide's

2009-06-30T13:28:00.004-04:00

So when we were in China although we were only in Beijing a short amount of time, I must admit Helen and "Mr. Money" left a huge impression on us. Helen did everything possible to make us comfortable and help us in anyway. Our first day there, we arrived before all the other families, but only by a couple of hours, so we hung out with Helen at the airport. The other flights were a little late, so by the time we got to the hotel I just could not think....I didn't want to think. So figuring out how to set up the Internet or even make an international call was simply not doable at that time for me. So what happened....my daddy calls Helen on her cell in the middle of the night..."Where's my Daughter?!" he says. Helen, having an overprotective mother herself was very helpful to my dad and came to see me first thing in the morning to tell me to call my daddy. So any way that was our first 24hrs in China and Helen's smile and awesome personality made it great! I promised her I would email after we got home....well 10 months later and I finally did it! It was great to hear from her too. I hope she'll still be doing it in about five years from now.