At Last

Well we have come a long way baby. We are home with Sophie!! She is doing well. First I will give you the down low on hte trip home. We left Vietnam on Sat after finishing some shopping, and going to a Water Puppet show on Friday night. It was incredible. We walked fromt he lake to our hotle and commenced packing.

Saturday we flew from Hanoi to Taipei and then from Taipei to LAX. We got lucky and the bassinett and bulkhead were avaliable afterall and it was a God send as Sophie slept alot in the bassinett. Then we got to LA where the fun begins. I thinkthe entire country of the Phillipins deboarded just before us and all had immigrant visas to process and the only line open for doing this had two men working in it. We had a 2 and half hour layover and spent two hours of that in immigration. So we got our bags and went through customs then jogged as well as you can with 3 bags, 4 carryons, and a baby strapped to you to terminal 1 (5 terminals away) to geton our flight. We rechecked our bags just to find out that there were not two seats together. Sophie is starving, and we get to security they catch us in the random screen. I had to take Sophie out of the bjorn and they took the bottle of water I was going to make her bottle with. We geton the plane two seconds before the door closes and ask the flight attnedants to help us find a seat together. Finally a nice gentleman helped us out. We sat down for the flight ans Sophie is licking and sucking my face becsue she is so hungry and we just did not have time to do the bottle thing before the flight and now we had no water. So of course at take off she starts screaming like a banchee on a red eye flight. This lady in front of us turns around and says you might want to try a bottle or a passy. Duh, but Sophie will not take a passy and we no longer had any water to mix a bottle. So I told Sophie to scream louder!!! Finally the flight attendant is able to get us some water and that calmed the angery bear and she slept most of that flight.

We were recieved at the airport by my parents, Chris, mom and my sister Missy andher Husband and three children. We had breakfast together at the Cracker Barrel and were glad to be in out of the 40 degree temps which shocked both us and Sophie on arrival. It was a wonderful homecoming.

The church had decorated our house with pink ribbons and they hung a welcome home sign done by the children after we got home. My neice Molly also made us a beautiful welcome home sign that she brought to the airport. We also brought Nancy home with us for a few days to get readjusted.

Now we are home and Chris has Ho Chi Minh's revenge so he may go to the doctor before Sophie. We are doign well. Sophie slept on a normal (that is NC time schedule the first night), but has been adjusting the last two nights to NC time. But she is doing well and is trying her best to adjust and be the happy baby she is. She is just so wonderful and I love having her in our home and in her room. Which my mother finished while we were away and it is so beautiful. I cried when I first saw it. Sophie usually pulls at the bumper pads at night and we often find her on her side hugging them in the morning. She loves the birght red which is stimulating to her when she is awake. She has switched formulas without problem. We mixed half and half the first day and I have to tell you it did not smell good and she did not tale it well. So the next day we just used the formula we were goignto put her on by itself and she seems to be doing well.

As for motherhood. I love it. I really don't mind the fact that I sleep four hours at a time and sometimes four hours total. I love feeding her and holding her and cuddlign her. My favorite time is when you just get her to sleep and she lays so soft and gantly agianst you falling into you and sleeping so peacefully. I also love the time when she wakes up for the seond time. I say it is her second wake up becasue she usually wakes around 4 for a bottle then she wakes up around 6 and this seond wake up is wonderful she is looking for Chris and I and then when she finds us she gives a big morning smile. Then she plays for a while but is still in that sweet cuddly mood not quite awake yet. I know alot of people have different bonding experiences with their children and Sophie has taken her time to get used to us and be a cuddle bug, but she has and I have felt in love with her from day one. I wake up wanting to check on her and go to sleep wanting to check on her. She is so absolutely amazing. She has her own liitle personality and can give a good stink eye when she is not happy with me or her father. She has changed so much just since we first meet. Her head controlis great now, she can turn to her stomach, she can propr herself into sitting for about 1 minute before toppling over, she is growing hair.... I could go on and on. It seems that she does new things everyday and it is like watching a flower unfold in slow motion. I am going to cherish this time off work and cannot wait to see what the next how many ever years have in store for us.

So for now I will leave it at that. We are continually amazed by her and hope to be amazed for the rest of our lives by her.

Love From NC
Summer