Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Ding Ding! Round 3!!

Yesterday, Sophie had surgery inserting her 3rd round of expanders.
We originally thought she was going to get 4 expanders this time,
but much to our surprise, Dr. Bauer opted for 3 instead. 
We are so thankful!


 Sophie was such a brave, big girl during pre-op.
She colored and played with the walkie-talkies that the great
nursing staff at Highland Park Hospital gave to her.
We also played a few computer games and took some silly
pictures with Daddy's iPad.

After Sophie received her dose of Happy Juice,
we headed to the holding area to wait to talk to
Dr. Bauer before Sophie and her babies headed off to surgery.
(Sophie's babies got some expanders too!)


Seeing smiles like this before each surgery is so reassuring.

Everyone had to wear the Smiley Face hat

including Daddy.  He's so silly!

After a couple of hours, the surgery was done, and
the great Dr. Bauer came out tell us how well Sophie
had done. Soon after, we were able to go
sit with her in post-op until she was awake and
ready to go to a room.


This is what we found we went to see her!  She was
sleeping so peacefully with her babies along side her.

We made it back to the hotel around 6:30 and quickly got settled
back in for the night.  Sophie was in good spirits and even
gave us a few smiles, which was very encouraging considering she
had just come out of surgery.  She ate a couple of bites of noodles
(one of her  faves), had some juice and quickly retired to the
bed to catch some cartoons before going to sleep.  We had an okay
night, but that is to be expected.  We anticipate much improvement
in the next few days.

She is one tough cookie and such a blessing to us!

Thank you all for your many prayers!


Monday, April 23, 2012

Hoppy Easter!

Easter 2012 was a blast!

We were able to participate in so much
more now that Sophie is 3!


We had an Easter egg hunt at church,


dyed Easter eggs with LouLou (a.k.a. Emily) and Amy,


and hunted Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny left
all over our house.  The weather was perfect, so we
were able to blow bubbles and play outside
the WHOLE afternoon!

There probably was WAY too much candy
consumption in one day, but hey, your only 3
once, right?  We made the most of it!

And it was a ton of fun for all of us!

Sunday, April 08, 2012

The Greatest Show on Earth



As part of Sophie's Gotcha Day celebration, we
bought tickets to the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  We
had a great time, and the kids were AMAZED!
I even think Mack liked it a little too!

Guess Who Can Count to 100!


Our big girl can!  Yea, Sophie!!


Happy Gotcha Day, Sophie!

On March 29, we celebrated our 2 year Gotcha Day
anniversary with Sophie.  I don't know where the time has
gone, but in two very short years,

Sophie has gone from this very quiet and confused
little girl whose world was turned upside down


to this vibrant, smart, beautiful, big girl who is
so full of personality and imagination.


She is a ray of sunshine in our lives, and we can't
imagine our lives without her.


Happy Gotcha Day, Sophie!  We love you sooooo much!

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Easter Parade


We have had such a great time this Easter! 

We made an Easter bonnet for the K-3 Easter Parade,

and then got to watch as each precious one parade around the classroom


Sophie had such a good time waving to all of the K-4 students


and friends and family, as she and the others made their way to their seats.


The class then sang several traditional Easter songs for us.


We heard "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", "Little Bunny Foo Foo",
"3 Little Ducks", and "Baby Bumblebee".


I charged my video camera (or so I thought), but when I got ready to use it,
it would work.  Figures, right?  Well, thanks to the old handy dandy iPhone,
we were able to record it anyway.  The sound drops out in one place, but if you have time
and want to listen to the whole thing, be patient, the sound does come back before the end.

We hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!

P.S.  Sophie made the front page of the Monroe Journal in her Easter bonnet,
along with friends Molly and John Hunter!

Monday, April 02, 2012

Chinese New Year 2012


For the first time, we were able to participate in the Chinese New Year parade in Fairhope.  We have attended the parade several times and dreamed of what it would feel like to be able to walk down the street with all of the other adoptive families.  That day finally arrived for us, and we had a great time!  Sophie loved throwing the candy and yelling "Happy New Year" to all of the parade goers.  Our dream has once again come true!