Home for 7 weeks

Hello everyone!
I guess you could guess that I've been a little bit busy lately. I haven't found time to update my blog in a while. I just thought I'd tell a little about our little Sophie. We are so amazed at how well she is doing. It is almost like she does not remember being anywhere else. I was so prepared for lots of trouble with bonding issues and attachment disorders. SO FAR, I see no signs of that. She loves her mama and daddy very much. One day I will be her favorite, the next day Lee will be her favorite. (My biological boys did the same thing when they were little.) She treats Jordan and Chase the same way. They realize that and every morning they try to beat each other to get to Sophie first. Chase said, "I want to pick her up from her crib so she will pick me today." She doesn't want me to leave her in the nursery at church. This is good. This is what we want. BUT... offer her a piece of candy and she'll go with anyone.

When we first got home I looked for signs of post institutionalized problems. I wanted to blame every little tantrum on the fact that she was an orphan. Everytime she grabbed something from another child, I blamed it on being an orphan. But, I've sat back and watched other children about her same age. You know, she doesn't act that bad. I've seen her at her worst and it is not any different than other children her age. I know she learned how to survive in the orphanage, and she didn't really have anyone to teach her how she should behave. I know she developed some bad habits there, but they are getting so much better.

Food is starting to become an issue with Sophie. At first, she loved all this new American food. But now she is becoming more picky. I can barely get her to eat any meat at all. Plus, everywhere we go, someone is giving her candy. She thinks that everyone who comes in our house is bringing her candy. I guess I wouldn't eat those old mashed potatoes either if I knew I could hold out for a Snickers bar. Every night at dinner has become a little of a struggle. So we're asking everyone to stop giving her candy and cookies all of the time. We will give her these goodies after she has had her meals. I do try to keep food out for her so that she knows that there will always be food for her. She loves fruit, so I have that out for her to see. (She pokes her fingers in all of my bananas!) I've cleaned out my candy drawer, so she isn't tempted with that. One trick I have found is that swaddling her like a baby and feeding her in my lap does get her to eat more. She really likes to be swaddled. I guess that goes back to what the experts tell me about taking her back to a newborn and bringing her forward. (Just thought I'd tell that for any other adopting mothers.)
Sophie is starting to talk a little more every day. She repeats anything you tell her and then out of the blue, she will come up and say something that I didn't know she knew. She doesn't say the ends of some words, but I think that will come. For instance, instead of saying, "bite, please" she says, "bi pee".

Sophie is almost potty trained. YEAH! I haven't changed a dirty diaper in about 4 weeks. YEAH! She still wets her pull ups, but that is ok with me. It makes going to Wal-Mart easier.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, the girl loves to shop! It took her about 10 seconds to figure out that if you want something, throw it in the back of the buggy (shopping cart for anyone outside of Alabama). She loves tags. When we go through the clothes, she will say, "Oh boy, tags!" Then she tries to rip them off of the clothes. If she ever gets one, she will hold it all the way through the store. She doesn't want anything else then. She is easy to please. You'd think I'd keep a tag or two in my purse, huh? Might save me some money.

When we first met Sophie, I wrote back to my boys and told them that they were going to love Sophie because she wasn't a girly-girl. She didn't like dolls, and she acted like a little Tom-boy. I was wrong! She is very girly. Now that she knows what to do with them, she LOVES her dolls. They are all named La La. She kisses them, feeds them, and tells them, "no, no". Sophie also loves jewelry, shoes, and pretty dresses. She loves to get dressed up and look in the mirror. She'll say, "Oh, how pretty!" when she gets dressed up and has bows in her hair. She puts on her make-up (lotion) when I do, and she likes for me to paint her toe nails when she sits on the comode. I paint one time, the next I take it off. And she loves to dance! I guess that is the cutest thing she does. I don't care where we are, if she hears music, she'll dance. She will try to imitate anything that Chase or Jordan does. She makes the cutest expressions with her face and she can shake her fanny better than any cheerleader I know! Oh, and I've taught her a couple of cheerleader stunts and she even tries to do the motions to cheers. Lee says I'm determined to make a cheerleader out of her. Well, I bet she's going to be too short for basketball!

SHE IS SO ADORABLE! Whenever we are out, people always come up and comment on how beautiful my little girl is. It's fun to watch people make over her. Then when I tell them, "This is my new daughter, I've just adopted her from Ukraine." They all just go on and on about her. Some people say that they can't believe she's adopted because she looks so much like me or my boys. I guess you can tell that I'm having a ball with my little girl.

I know I should tell everyone the "issues" we are facing as an adopted family. But right now, if there are any issues, they are so minor and insignificant, that they are hardly worth mentioning. I don't see anything in Sophie that I've not seen in my boys or other kids her age. I'm sure things will come up in the future, but we'll face it then. I guess I think about what my dad says all of the time. Kids just need love more than anything else. Just love her and you can take care of all of the other stuff that comes up. You know, I've read lots of adoption manuals over the past year, and I think dad says it better than any of them.

Home for a month

Hello everyone! We've been home a month already. Time has absolutely flown by. I've bought these real cute adoption announcements, but they are laying on my dining room table. I haven't mailed the first one. It takes a while addressing all those envelopes. I've been real busy trying to get my thank you notes out. I think I'll get them all mailed out on Tuesday.

I just thought I'd tell everyone the latest about Sophie. If you saw her at church today, you saw her at her worst! She was terrible! It's my fault though. Saturday, we took her to the park to ride the merry-go-round, train, and play on the playground. Then we went to Nana Becky's house to watch the Auburn game. So... she did not take a nap at all and went to bed late. I really paid for that today. Whew! She acted like she did on the ride home from the airport.

Sophie is really doing fantastic! She is as much at home as Jordan or Chase. She clings on to me or Lee whenever we are with people other than grandparents. I think this is a good sign. Many times, adopted children will go to anyone without any reservations. So we are glad she is a little clingy. I can't leave her in the nursery during Sunday School. She's only stayed with my parents while I've run Jordan or Chase to the doctor. She does fine when she stays with them, but she's never actually seen me leave. She's been asleep when I've left her. Anyway, I'm a little glad she won't just go to anybody. You may be very special to us, but to Sophie, you may just be another stranger wanting to hold her.

Sophie is behaving a little better each day. She still acts worse whenever we are in public. I think she thinks she can get away with more if she is in front of other people. Smart girl! She almost quit biting. Yesterday, she chomped down on Chase's pinky. We were shopping in Sam's warehouse. You could hear Chase scream all over the store. I would have too, though. I know that hurt. Usually, she doesn't bite anymore. I think she reverts back to some of her old behavior when she gets really tired.

She is learning more words everyday. She says: "mama, oh! daddy, kitty cat, dog, jordan, chase, sorry, i love lu, roll tide, war eagle, hot, cold, bite, tank you, no (not nyet) yeah, come on, pease, MINE!, night,night, bye-bye, hello, hi darlin, nana, papa, lessie.... It is amazing watching her. Just think about how her world has changed in the past month. I wonder what goes through her mind sometimes.

She went to Eli's birthday party today. She had a ball with all of the big kids and their ride on toys. I see a Barbie jeep in her future! She has gotten so used to opening presents, today she helped Eli with his presents. I guess the correct way to say it is that she helped herself with Eli's presents. Sometimes you can just see the fight that she's always had to have in her. How do you teach her that she has to share? That is hard to do! She is used to fighting to keep what she has, so it is completely unnatural for her to give something away.

Jordan and Chase have really been amazing. They love their little sister. I hear Chase say, "I love you, Sophie" about a thousand times a day. He really gets down on her level to play with her. He'll push her on a swing for hours if she wants him to. Jordan loves her too. He tries to ride her on his back all of the time. She just eats up the attention.

Well, my eyes are crossing, because I'm so sleepy. Jordan and Chase are going to set up a lemonade stand at the entrance to our neighborhood to help Katrina vicims tomorrow. We are going to take whatever money they raise to the Red Cross. So, if you are driving down highway 72 and you see a lemonade stand, stop and by a drink. I guess I had better go to sleep.

I'll post new pictures of Sophie before long.
Have a great day.
Shannan

This is Anna... This is the little girl who was a little mom to all of the children in the orphanage. She gave me HER candy to give to Sophie so that Sophie would come to us. I would have brought her home in a heart beat. I'd go back for her! 

Sophie says, "Forget the toys, I'll take the box!" 

Chase, Sophie, and Jordan relaxing in the floor 

Sophie's loves to swing, and swing, and swing...! 

Sophie loves her new little dog. She thinks all Americans have little white dogs. Well, all her neighbors do, anyway. 

Chase and Sophie finding a creature to squash! 

Sophie's Celebration

Lee and I are so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful church! We have been shown God's love through so many of our friends there. Sunday night, they really amazed us with the most wonderful "Sophie's Celebration" party for her. They couldn't just do a shower or little get together. They instead had a potluck dinner and invited the whole community! I'm not real sure how many people were there. It seemed like about one hundred or so. I know there were people from Rogersville First Baptist Church, Anderson Baptist Church, and Rogersville United Methodist Church. A whole group of WONDERFUL youth from Anderson came.

After reading my blog, they decided to do the whole party around sunflowers. It was so beautiful. They had beautiful arrangements of sunflowers, and around tables they had little sunflower cutouts with Sophie's picture in the middle. They had a huge cake made with a picture of a sunflower with Sophie's face imposed in the middle. That was just too sweet to eat! Every table had a small arrangement with sunflowers on it. You could tell that they really worked so hard on this celebration.
I think everyone in our church must have brought food to eat. There were long rows of food. We had dressing, chicken, potatoes, caseroles galore, and deserts everywhere. There was more food than we could possibly eat.

Sophie, Chase, and Jordan all received gifts from so many sweet people. It was so thoughtful of everyone to not only give Sophie gifts, but Jordan and Chase too! We received clothes, toys, books, Bibles, music CD's, DVD's, figurines, nightlights, money, gift cards.... Jordan and Chase have already spent their gift cards. They were so excited.

We were asked to speak about our adoption at this celebration. (I bet they were sorry for that!) I think we talked about an hour and a half, maybe more. We just had so much to say. So much has happened during this past month or so. God has touched our lives in ways we could have never imagined. I wanted to tell everyone what God had done for us. I wanted them to know that our faith had grown so much because of the prayers from our church and community. I wanted to thank them for holding us up to God in prayer when I didn't feel like I could pray anymore. I also wanted to tell about the sunflower in our life. God took something as simple as a sunflower and spoke to our hearts through it. He gave us the peace that we needed to see our adoption through exactly when we needed it the most. He provided for every need that we had, even before we knew we needed it.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to share this adoption with my church friends and family. We would have had unmeasureable joy if we had quietly left the country and came home with a little girl. Our joy was multiplied a thousand times for every person who has taken the time to read our blog, send us a message, pray for us, share in our excitement, and help us celebrate in so many ways. These are all blessings that I never expected!

I know if I start calling names I will leave someone probably rather important out. So I won't do that. I just want to say "THANK YOU" to all of you who have been a part of our adoption. Just one little prayer said was enough. One prayer made you a part of bringing a little girl home to us. Thank you all for your prayers, for the gifts, for the Celebration, and for your friendship and love.

Shannan

P.S. I probably won't post too much from here on out. I will try to post maybe once a week or so. We've been a little crazy around here, so I'm just now getting into a routine. I've got some pictures coming. I can really see a totally different little girl from what I brought home from Ukraine.

Please pray for those in the Gulf Coast area. I know you are!