And Life Begins Again....

It's hard to believe we've been home for 2 days now. We gratefully touched down at Dulles on Friday evening, one hour ahead of schedule. About a dozen family and friends were there to warmly greet us; it was salve for our souls. Sophie took it all in stride as she does w/ most things. She is very laid back and flexible; she fits so beautifully into our family.

We stopped at Burger King on the way home and inhaled a REAL burger...it never tasted so good! We were thrilled to watch Sophie explore the house for the first time; she acted like she was in a castle. Upon entering her room and opening her closet, she incredulously looked at me and pointed to herself, saying, "Sophie's???" With happy tears, I replied, " Yep, this is Sophie's room." How long I've waited to say that to my sweet gal. She slept by herself in her own bed from 11:30pm- 6am. I saw her light on and heard her sniffle, wondering if she was catching a cold, but then heard her softly crying. We quickly scooped her up and tucked her b/w us in the water bed and she fell asleep for another half hour.

She's never been able to play in the grass so the next morning, after awaking and re-exploring the house, she attempted and LOVED the trampoline! She was hesitant to step in the grass and run; b/c Beijing is a huge city, any grass stepping is strictly prohibited. But after seeing Jie Jie and Ge Ge run, she took off!

Sunday brought church; we wondered if we should take her, but decided if it was overwhelming we'd just leave. She asked to wear her purple traditional Chinese dress and I acquiesced. We were enthusiastically greeted  by our church family and worshiped  as a family. She participated and sat through the whole service like a little lady. She remembered many friends who greeted her at the airport and quickly played w/ them.

Our fourth year anniversary church picnic was after the service. We changed clothes and decided to go for awhile and see how she did! Amazingly, she ate and then went to play w/ new friends till 6pm. I stayed very close by and watched her make new friends, eat ice cream and jump in the moon bounce. She was definitely a celebrity and "Queen Bee" for the day. Her determination is admirable. She watched her friend Summer master the monkey bars and decided to try....after about half hour of help, a little less help, and falling many times, she was able to cross halfway on her own.

She still doesn't cry when she gets hurt. She fell pretty hard on her hiney/back from the bars, but laughed, got up and tried again. If she cuts herself, she sits alone and nurses her wounds. We're going through lots of Dora Bandaids as I offer my mommy care and kisses. It's so weird for me to see this and it's eventually where I want her to be; when my kids were little, I'd say, "If you aren't bleeding, you're fine. Go play." But she's not had anyone care if she's been hurt before, so we're back tracking somewhat in this particular area.

We left the park and she was asleep by the time we buckled her in the car seat. She awoke his morning at 4:30am and we had breakfast at 5 after some snuggle time. She's loving Nittany who will kiss her sweet lips; yucky to me, but a big step for her! I did some "school" w/ her at 6am~ an alphabet puzzle. She can repeat the letters, sing the ABC song, but after the letter D, she's lost. It gave me a good starting point!

She wasn't happy to see Baba leave for work at 6am; he reassured her that he'd be back later today. We'll probably meet him at Costco for groceries around 12pm!

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Grateful for each of you~ Shari

Fresh Grace

Mostly pics to share from the Emperor's Summer Palace in Beijing last week, but wanted you all to know that Sophie is having much better days as she learns to trust me.

 Tonight she finally figured out that I'm a "back scratchy" specialist, so at bed time, she pulled off her jammie shirt and asked me to scratch her back. Of course, I did so willingly...and she fell fast alseep! Sweet!!!

She even let me carry her and she held my hand willingly as we walked  in Guangzhou city, today!! (That's another post, entirely!)  

God's grace is sufficient and evident in Guangzhou!!!

We've resorted to her asking for practically everything (food, drink, TV, activities); I think she was overwhelmed w/ too many choices. In her orphanage, she had no choice about anything. This technique has helped her overall willingness to obey. 

It's amazing how much English she understands and is willing to speak. Today, I taught her all the major parts of her body and she easily repeated them.

The Summer Palace pics are from Beijing, but hadn't gotten posted yet; although, Todd may have posted some on Face Book earlier today.

Tomorrow is the official swearing in ceremony for Sophie Rose Xueqin Bentzel to become an American citizen. Thursday we have red couch pictures and Friday we fly home.

We can't wait to see all of you and we think she do fine if you all want to come to the airport on Friday night. Currently, our flight is to arrive at Dulles 7:45pm. We'll try to keep Paul Wilson and The Thompson's abreast of any changes.

We're all feeling better today!

Thanks for your continued prayers for the last leg of this journey till we arrive home on American soil....boy, I can't wait to come HOME!!!

Love you all, Shari for our party of five!

Today is Tuesday; we've just been into Guangzhou city; it's quite a difference from the peaceful feel of where we are staying. Illegal tiger claws, snakes, geese, and many other exotic animals were on the menu...hanging ready for sale....very interesting smells permeated the environment as we walked the very crowded, narrow streets. They didn't want us taking pics, esp of the tiger claws; the vendors almost took our cameras, but one of the guys in our group got a good shot...we'll be sharing it w/ each other.

We're headed to the pool this afternoon; it's still hot and humid. Shiyan, our guide, did consulate paperwork for us and so far, everything is going smoothly...no cliches! Tomorrow, we have our official swearing in!


Todd and I are on the mend, but Shane is still a little under the weather, but all better than yesterday. We stayed close to the hotel and didn't go to the art museum tour. There was also a dinner cruise last night; we thought our tummys wouldn't appreciate the motion of the river, so we declined and ate a Lucy's again. I had a grilled cheese and fries that settled easily in my tummy.

Off to enjoy the pool. Sophie LOVES the pool, but has NO concept of drowning, running on wet pavement or jumping by herself into the deep water. We are are on guard 24/7..no fear!!! Enjoy the pics.

Greetings from Guangzhou

Ellie in the White Swan Lobby

Hi from Guangzhou!

I finally have some free time to blog~ yeah!

We arrived in Guangzhou on Friday during typhoon~ many families were rerouted and had to land in another province due to weather conditions. Our flight was surprisingly smooth~ PTL!

Some funny anecdotes I want to recall before I forget:

There is a dear little 2 year old boy on our travel group who Sophie knows. She helps and plays w/ him when we're altogether. The other day our Chinese guide overheard Sophie say to him in Chinese, "Wow! You're eating a lot; you ate a lot at the orphanage, too. Your belly's getting as big a a bull." LOL

Walking in the rain in Guangzhou

Our last night in Beijing was spent w/ Ellie, Shane and I venturing alone to the Pearl Market. Shane was a master bargainer. Ellie wanted to buy a t-shirt and the lady wanted to sell her one for 240 RMB...just for reference, I bought a strand of pearls and a pearl ring for 120RMB. Shane stepped in to rescue his sister and the lady became enraged,  swung her calculator w/ a pen attached and smacked him in the eye brow! We all had a good laugh, and Shane had a goose egg! One the way home, Shane led so well as he hailed us a cab, denied 3 of them who wanted to charge us 60 RMB ( 16 normally) to get back to the Marriott! After finally getting a taxi that would use his meter, we headed home~ only for our driver to begin making 3 wrong turns to a wrong hotel. Shane, in his calm and collected manner, stopped the taxi and said we would walk. We could see the Marriott dome and walked 4 blocks amid horrid traffic to finally get "home." 

Fascinated...

Sophie is warming up to me daily! She has a fascination w/ our chests~ she was in hysterics when she tried on my bra. Three Chinese little girls approached Todd in the hotel lobby and were all over him. They reached for his massive pecs, hysterically giggled in Chinese and tried to lift his shirt to see if he was a woman!!! The Chinese moms rescued Todd from a potentially embarrassing situation.

Last night we purchased Chinese dresses for Sophie and have "red couch" pics on Thursday. She chose dark purple and looks beautiful in it! We got sizes 8-16 for her to have in the future~ all for about 3$ per dress!

Sophie's first airplane ride to Guangzhou
 

As I said earlier, she is warming up to me every day. I say, "Mommy loves Sophie." She giggles and says,," Sophie boo yaw Mama." ( Sophie doesn't love Mama.) It's become a cute game! I just keep offering help and allow her to lead how much affection is given. I continue to kiss her; she giggles and wipes off my kisses. Last night she did invited me into her bed to look at her photo album. She fell asleep w/ me caressing her beautiful face. It was a little slice of heaven as I've watched from afar for 2 weeks!

Enjoying Starbucks

The area where we are in Guangzhou is wonderful~ much smaller, more quaint and much hotter ( humidity is 100%).  There are lovely little shops, a Starbucks (our caramel fraps were GREAT... Sophie had her first mango passion fruit smoothie) and beautiful European architecture everywhere. We love Lucy's, a local Western restaurant that caters to adoptive families. We've had fettuccine alfredo, wonderful stir fry veggies, beef and fresh basil and great burgers/fries. Tonight we're eating authentic Chinese on the island.

Please continue to pray that Sophie will learn to obey me; she runs away from me in public~ a very busy hotel, the crowded streets...I don't make a battle out of most things, but her safety is paramount.

Hope you enjoy the photos.