Our First Christmas Card with Sophie

Merry Christmas!

Thank you to Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jackie at Aaron White Photography for doing such a great job!

Santa Came to School!

On December 15, Sophie had her Christmas party at school. Earlier in the month they painted the cutest t-shirts. They all wore them to the party.

Sophie sporting her Christmas shirt

When I went to get Sophie one day, I asked the teachers if Santa was coming to the party. When they told me that he was, I immediately began telling them of Sophie's terrible run in with Santa at a shopping center. They assured me that they would not push Sophie to sit in Santa's lap if she was afraid, but we were all hopeful that she would want to sit in Santa's lap after seeing all of her friends do it. Well, the day of the party arrived, and when I picked Sophie up that afternoon, I asked her if she saw Santa and if she sat in his lap. She told me that she did, but truthfully, I thought it was a likely story. Boy was I shocked to find the picture below in Sophie's bag of goodies from the party!

Our very first picture with Santa

Sophie's First Christmas Parade

On December 9th, we went to Jackson to go to the city's Christmas parade with family. We missed the local one because Sophie and I went out of town. It was quite a chilly night, which really made it seem much more like Christmas than we are accustomed to. We sat in my uncle's truck, where it was nice and warm, while we waited on the parade to arrive. Sophie loved catching beads and candy and waiving at everyone as they passed by. Thank you to Aunt Bot and Uncle Mac for having us over for the parade and dinner! We had a great time!

Special Little Girls

(L-R: The Gallahues, Sophie, and the Whitneys)

When we first started the international adoption process, we were assigned to a travel group by our adoption agency, based on the date that our paperwork was logged-in in China. This meant that when the time came, we would all go to China together to get our babies. As it turns out, things did not go quite as we thought, and all of us traveled at different times, even years apart, for some of us. Early this month, Sophie and I traveled to Fairhope to the annual gift market that our original adoption agency has, and we were able to see two of the families that were in our travel group. It was great to finally see our children together, and I hope that we will all continue to stay in touch, although our daily lives are much, much busier now.

One of Sophie's Favorites

When Sophie wants to do something, EVERYONE participates!

IAC and the Birmingham Zoo

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Sophie had a checkup appointment at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham, so we decided to spend the weekend before there to get some shopping done. On Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we decided to take a trip to the zoo. We had such a good time. Sophie was a little afraid of the chickens running loose, but what child would not be afraid of that! Sophie also rode a carousel for the first time. Sunday night, we met our friends, Mike, Rhonda, and Hannah Grace, for dinner. We enjoyed spending time with them and watching our girls play together. They are both SO precious!

Sophie's appointment at the IAC went great! She's still on target with development and is currently having no problems. She is getting so big and gaining weight. We will go back again in 6 months. Wow! That means she's been home with us almost a year now! Where has the time gone?