Blessed Bliss: Finally, An Update!

Jesus loves me this I know!

Our little celebrity loves to wear sunglasses b/c she always gets such a huge reaction from people!

Josh and Courtney (at Monterey Bay) are an INCREDIBLE brother and sister to their Mei Mei

Sophie enjoys watering flowers and does it with such finesse, just like her great-grandpa "Charlie"

At 20 months, our Sweet Pea has an amazing personality that likes to play games, do tricks to astound her audiences, and has adorable facial expressions that say, "Go ahead, tickle me if you can catch me!"

Don't 'cha just love the little drool that comes out her mouth when she's concentrating?

Priceless!

Wow, it has been 2 months since I last updated my blog. Sorry about that. Summer has been so much fun for all of us filled with Mommy and Me swim lessons, 2 days a week of speech therapy, playing with fake food and plastic dishes (her new favorite pasttime), discovering The Wiggles on TV, learning new sounds and having a blast with each other. We all totally enjoy being with Sophie, so much so that Josh and Courtney sometimes fight over who gets Sophie. I read a Beth Moore Bible Study the other day that defined "Asher" a name given to a child as "blessed bliss". That defines our life with Sophie. She never stops amazing us with her incredible cuteness and personality.

Here are the Top Ten Things She Does to Amaze Us:

1. Hides her hand in her sleeve and then suddenly POPS it out like she's doing a disappearing hand trick with full-on facial expression that says, "TA DUH, can you believe it?"

2. Imitates our words and phrases with intonations in her own "Sophie-speak" and can say "Mama", "more", "apple", and "amen"consistently

3. She continues to increase her sign language vocabulary with about 70 words,

4. Sophie can make animal sounds of cows, ducks, horses, dogs, cats, sheep, & chickens,

5. Loves to dance along with the Wiggles and does the hand motions to "Taba Naba",

6. Likes to hide in a big carseat box and spontaneously play peekaboo around corners and doors,

7. uses her brother's laptop like she knows what she's doing-typing with both hands on the home row keys, using one finger to manipulate the built in mouse pad, and pressing buttons,

8. loves to do big people chores like feeding the dog, washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, and holding the dustpan to pick up dirt from the floor,

9. go outside with Daddy (Papa) to say goodnight to the moon, stars, birds, crickets, and grass,

10. give real pinched lip kisses and hugs to those she loves!!!

Hey, here's a great book for adoptive families recommended by Laurie Loudenback (China Travel Buddy): God Found Us You by Lisa Todd Bergren. It's one of those books that makes you cry. It's great for assuring your adopted child that " God knew you, and knew me, and knew when we'd fit perfectly together," in our forever family.

Blessings,

paula

Wordless Wednesday

It's Been Six Months Since we Traveled to China

It's amazing to see this picture of Sophie 6 months ago. She has grown so much, 4 pounds and 2 inches to be exact, and has soooo much more hair. Here she is adorned in a pink traditional silk outfit purchased on Shamien Island.

Our little Chinese Sweet Pea waiting to travel home to her new life in America.

June 8th is the 6 month anniversary of traveling to China, so I thought I'd commemorate the occasion by sharing some pictures and memories from that trip. It's funny how we all instantly bonded and felt like family upon meeting each other. We were stuck in a big bus traveling all around Beijing in 19 degree weather with a wind chill that made it seem like sub-zero temperatures. We all had a great story that brought us to adopting from China. The one other commonality was that we all had a strong belief in God, his perfect timing, and generous provision. We spent the first weekend together in Beijing, then some of us separated and went off to different provinces to pick up our new children. But then we reconvened in Guangzhou to show off our sweet little children. We had been through so much together in such a short time. I hope that we'll always stay in touch and that we'll commit to getting together regularly for reunions.

The Gammariello's

We're loving being a family of five!

This is the entire traveling group posing on the staircase at the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou. Our wonderful tour guides, Maggie and Rosa took this picture.

Our travel group was so much fun. We swapped stories, antibiotics, baby clothes, diaper, formula, and snacks. Eating together as a group was always a pleasure. We saw some pretty "interesting" food choices and even tried a few new things.

All the moms with their newly adopted children

America's newest soon-to-be citizens!

Eating was always a big event for our group. We loved the breakfasts with a great variety of American and Asian foods. Imagine eating Udon soup for breakfast along with plain rice congee, lox and bagels, and french toast!

The Loudenbacks and Woodruffs enjoy the fantastic buffet breakfast in the restaurant that rotates 360 degrees every hour.

The Downing's

Ronnie, Sandy, Mitchell, and Qing Shuang are enjoying being a new family. Courtney and Josh loved hanging out with Mitchell! They loved playing Chinese hacky sac in the hotel hallways and making fun of translations gone wrong.

The Gager's

Karl, Jenn, and Karleigh Mei can't wait to take Karleigh home to meet their other kids. Karl showed us cool tricks and made it something to look forward to at meal time!

The Evan's

Chet, Ann, and Matthew begin their new forever family. We got to share a nice dinner with them and watch "foobers (food-boogers- a term made up at the Gammariello family dinner table)" come out of our cleft affected children's noses.

The Loudenback's and Mr. Jordan

Laurie and Aaron (Scott is taking the photo) pose with the famous "Jordan" the Christian store owner on Shamian Island known by all the AWAA families. Laurie showed us that Jordan had the best deals on squeaky shoes in all of Guangzhou. Her advice on stocking up squeaky shoes for all growth stages was priceless.

The Woodruff's

Dave, Amy and Abby are excited to be in the Olympic Birds' Nest. This was before they met their newest addition, Elisabeth.

The Bythewoods'

and finally, Jim, Rebecca, and daughters-Jennifer and Kimberly go sight-seeing together in Guangzhou.

The Jacobs' and Gammariello's

We traveled to Jiangyin City, Jiangsu with another couple from Ontario, Canada, Lee and Leslie Jacobs. Our daughters, Lyla and Sophie, slept in adjoining cribs for the first year of their lives. Here we are posing in front of the Children's Social Welfare Institute in Jiangyin City after a wonderful tour of the orphanage. We were welcomed like old friends and treated to a lunch fit for royalty. There was a sense of love and caring very apparent from the moment we entered the glass doors of this modern, clean orphanage.

The Jacobs'

We were blessed to be able to travel in Sophie's province with another couple. Lee and Les were such nice people whom we enjoyed eating breakfast with every morning. We loved their Canadian "accents." eh?

The memories of our trip to China are too numerous to include here, but we know we will never forget those two weeks spent halfway across the world.

i <3 mei mei

Courtney posted these pictures of her mei mei. Can you tell that Sophie is her favorite subject to photograph? She sorted through 400 pictures of Sophie taken over the last 2 weeks and finally chose these 12. Enjoy her artistic creativity! Note: The pictures with Courtney in them were either taken by Josh or me.

modeling her sparkly shoes in front of the couch.

is it possible to go up a slide?

Courtney's favorite from that sunny day at the park. :)

Crazy driver at the Santa Barbara Zoo...

Do I look cool or goofy?

They were trying to take cover from the bird poop!

One of her favorite animals at the zoo is the giraffe (look carefully in the background).

Goofing around with her brother, cousins Elizabeth and Mike at the park by Nonie's house.

Her Godmother and cousin, Analise, just adores Sophie as much as Josh!

And there's Chloe, waiting for any little morsel of string cheese dropped by Sophie.
Sophie has so much fun at the park with her Mei Mei!

18 Months Old

Here's what Sophie can do at 18 months:

use her feet to push a ride on toy,

give a high five followed by a "pound it" fist and "exploding" fingers,

use a shovel to fill a bucket with sand and dump it out,

pull a toy dog by a string,

put trash in the trashcan,

pretend to talk on the telephone,

climb a chair,

go up and down steps safely,

do all the hand motions for pat-a-cake, wheels on the bus, & eensy weensy spider,

use about 55 words in sign language,

stack 9 blocks,

pretend to feed a doll,

pretend to eat a picture of a cupcake in a book,

hold her pencil with the correct grip,

give puckered lip kisses,

give an occasional hug,

smash a bug on the sidewalk,

rock on a rocking horse,

run,

use a spoon and fork,

can point to her ears, eyes, nose, ears, teeth, head, neck, toes, knees, hands, & bellybutton,

can make the sheep(baaaa) , dog (hhhhhh), and cow (mmmmm) sounds,

and even helps Mama do chores.

The Many Faces of a Sweet Pea

The look of joy to be in her mommie's arms after a bath...

The look of a beauty queen modeling her sister's baptismal dress...-

The look of uncertainty being so close to a lit candle celebrating her 18 month birthday...

The look of merriment as she drives her favorite ice cream truck from her grandma...

The look of total elation as she mimics the expressions and gestures of her big sister Courtney...

The look of amazement with herself after she pulls along a toy dog by a string for the first time...

The look of contentment as she takes a rest on her favorite step...

and finally, the look of regret, as she figures out that she spilt her milk again for the 100th time!

Made in China by God

The flamingo stance

Can't you just hear her squeal in delight?

Our little precious girl may have been made in China, but we know our God created her just for us. She's oozing with personality, cheerfulness, and enthusiasm. Today you would've thought she was Edison inventing the lightbulb as she figured out how to pull a little toy dog along with a string! I especially love how she stands like a flamingo, with one foot on top of the other. She is an absolute delight from her head to her toes.