Trip to China
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Monday, September 1, 2008 SOPHIE MEI DAY! “Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr. Our lives changed forever and definitely for the better this morning at 9:00 a.m. when a very kind, smiley orphanage worker walked into a conference room at the Civil Affairs Office in Hangzhou, China and stood little Sophie Mei at my feet. The orphanage staff had entered the room quickly and a bit unexpectedly. We had the camera and camcorder ready but the actual moment happened so fast. Rebecca, our guide, laughed and told me to pick her up. Sophie came easily to me and comfortably rested her cheek against mine. She never cried (I did, just couldn’t help it). She went to Ian equally well. Within minutes, she smiled and she seemed happy. She loved the little finger puppets and a small pink bear that Grandma Cathy had given us to bring for her. She held on to them, one in each hand and wouldn’t let go. We have since learned that she is a little bit flirtatious and blinks those big, brown eyes as fast as she can to win a quick smile from others. We saw a glimpse of this before we even left the Civil Affairs Office this morning. We were the only family receiving our baby today, but the room was full of people. There was a notary present, two women from the Civil Affairs Bureau, the director and assistant director of the Yiwu orphanage, as well as, the woman who carried Sophie into the conference room. We were told that this woman was not Sophie’s nanny at the orphanage, but Sophie seemed to know her quite well and kept a close eye on her while we were holding her in those first few minutes. These people busied themselves with paperwork for the adoption and would interrupt us for an occasional brief signature, a red inked thumbprint from us or a footprint from Sophie. The assistant director then presented us with some priceless keepsakes for our daughter. They gave us several original photos that were taken shortly after Sophie’s surgery. One was the photograph that was used for Sophie’s newspaper “finding ad”. We also received a photocopy of the newspaper page that contained Sophie’s “finding ad”. We will ask Rebecca to translate the ad for us. They returned the disposable cameras I had sent which had been filled with pictures of our daughter in the orphanage over the last few months. Lastly, we were presented with a little red thread bracelet with a jade charm dangling from it, as well as, a small silver bracelet. We were told that Sophie was wearing both of these when she was found at the gate of the orphanage. It seems likely that her birthmother placed them on her wrist… We have spoken to our guide, Rebecca (who has lived her entire life in this area of China ), about the information we have been given regarding the circumstances surrounding Sophie’s arrival at Yiwu. Rebecca seems to think that it is likely Sophie’s birthparents are farmers and did not have the insurance or ability to provide medically for her. We can only speculate and will never know for sure, but it does certainly seem to be a plausible possibly. I only pray she knows how much we love this little girl. We then walked to a nearby Kodak store for a family picture that is necessary to finalize the adoption tomorrow. It was hot, humid and very, very sweaty. At this point, I didn’t really care how horrid the picture was of me. I was just so happy to have Sophie and was anxious to go back to our hotel room. In our room, Sophie comfortably snuggled into me and eagerly drank an entire bottle. She easily maintained eye contact with me and smiled several times. She fell asleep in my arms and slept for 3 hours. After Sophie’s bath late this afternoon, we took her for a walk around West Lake . She walked a good part of it, and we carried her the rest of the time. We saw the local people gathering to watch a dancing water show on the lake and decided to join in as well. We were quite relieved when the show finally began as I was beginning to believe that WE were the show. I have never had so many people stop, stare, point and try to communicate with us in Chinese. At one point, we had people all around us. They were all friendly and genuinely interested, but we are definitely not accustomed to so much attention. The REAL show, by the way, was fun and worth the wait. It did seem a little strange though to be watching a dancing water show synchronized to Elvis Presley in China : ) We have so enjoyed receiving all the emails sent to us and reading the messages left in our guest book the past few days! If you are following along, we would LOVE for you to write a little note in our guestbook. This will be such a special keepsake for our daughter someday. “I asked God for a miracle and he gave me you.” ~author unknown Sophie has smiled more times than I can count today, leans in for hugs and kisses, laughed for Ian (oh, that hamburger toe and hotdog leg works every time, doesn’t it?) reaches her hand out for us to hold it and even planted a sweet, little kiss right on my lips! She is absolutely precious! I know it seems too good to be true. It just really, really is. We have been so blessed…

The Gift of Life
I didn’t give you the gift of life
But in my heart I know,
The love I feel is deep and real
As if it had been so.
For us to have each other
Is like a dream come true.
No, I didn’t give you the gift of life;
Life gave me the gift of you.
~author unknown

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